Riana's Cavatina (Sonata of Love Book 2) Page 15

  I tapped my nose in agreement as I smiled. I slid further down into my chair and scrolled through my phone. “Stop rereading that email.” Lexi said without turning her face to me.

  “How did—I mean, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  Lexi’s lips curled as she pushed her curls back. “I know you’re rereading that email from Ally. You’re going to be fine in that meeting, honey. It’s not like these people are new to you.”

  Of course Ally wasn’t “new” to me, she’d been my agent for about a year and a half at that point. But the meeting that would take place in only five days with her was an introduction to a whole new area. “Well, she’s not new but this whole idea of going national, possibly through the sale of my book to a big six publisher, is quite new, thank you. So yeah, kind of freaking out.”

  “Okay, valid point. But let’s not worry about it right now. Let’s get Sam, get the hell out of this airport and downtown for some pizza and wine, huh?”

  “No way to argue against that plan.” I laughed. “It’s still a shame she wasn’t able to come any earlier, you know, for my birthday and all. But I guess we’re no strangers to celebrating outside of actual dates.”

  A few people trickled down into baggage claim, then more, until it was clear it was a full flight coming down. I glanced up at the screen to see if, by some miracle, it was Sam’s flight. I let out a pitiful groan when I realized it was a flight from Pittsburgh, and not one from St. Louis.

  “I think you have a fan.” Lexi whispered as she leaned in closer to me.

  I had a hard time grappling with the notion of “fans” but Lexi was right; two young women stood by the luggage corral, attempting to be nonchalant as they watched me. I smiled and giggled lightly. “Should I wave?”

  “Sam’s flight is in!” Lexi’s exclamation stopped me short of any engagement with the young women who may or may not have been fans; I chose to believe they weren’t. I was still too uneasy with the idea of being recognized. They obviously mistook me for some obscure actress or something.

  I grabbed my bag and hastened to a wall mounted monitor. “Finally!” I traced my finger along the screen. “Alright, coming in Gate E2A, baggage claim three.”

  Thursday May 25

  “Come on, we have to go. We always go. It’s bad luck to break tradition you know.” Sam had a point—bad luck was something I certainly did not want to have at that point, not with the meeting just barely fourteen hours away. I spun my vertical labret between my teeth and tongue and sighed.

  I gathered my notes together and gave them a quick tap against the table to even the edges. “Alright.”

  Sam’s grin broke as she giggled. “Ooh, I hope they have cheesecake left! They have the best damn cheesecake.”

  “But only a quick trip!” I called to her as she disappeared into my front entryway for her shoes. “I still have a lot to do before tomorrow’s meeting.”

  “Oh Ri, you worry too much.” Lexi said as she passed behind me and reached over to close my folder. “We’ll just grab a coffee or two, some sweet snacks and chat for a bit. Unwinding might actually be beneficial for your meeting.”

  “I’m perfectly unwound.” I grumbled as I reluctantly stood from my desk and followed Lexi.

  The Thinking Cup Coffee Bar was our all-time favorite café in Chicago. It was truly a bit of an insider’s secret refuge within the endless tourist spots downtown. I discovered it shortly after I purchased my condo. I did much of my writing there, the unobtrusive atmosphere cultivated an ability for me to dissolve into the pages before me; either on my laptop or my notebook. A lot of the students from the Art Institute of Chicago also hung out there, and when I took breaks from writing I often found myself in engaging conversation I was sure I wouldn’t find in a local Starbucks. Once I introduced Lexi and Sam to my secret spot it became tradition that we spend as much time there as possible. We had been busy the past four days; each day had been so packed with planned activities and professional engagements we had yet to find time to go to our special café, until that night.

  I worried about it being the night before such an important meeting, but my logical side argued that it wasn’t like we were going clubbing or bar hopping the night before—it was a coffee shop. We wouldn’t be out all night, and I’d have plenty of time to settle down and get enough sleep. No one ever got a hangover from coffee.

  Driving anywhere in Chicago is essentially pointless given the lack of parking. So, whenever possible, we walked to our destinations—one of the many bonuses to living in the heart of downtown. Just as we got to the lobby of my building Sam groaned painfully. “Ugh, I forgot my phone.”

  “Sam, sometimes I swear you’d forget your head if it weren’t attached.” I laughed as I pulled my keys from my purse. “Go on up, we’ll wait here for you.”

  “Lexi!”

  I snickered as I heard one of the evening concierges call out. He was a young man, quite cute actually, and hopelessly adored Lexi. She smiled lightly and rolled her eyes before she turned towards the front desk.

  “Hey Jaxon.” She said politely.

  “I haven’t seen you around much, everything been okay?”

  “Oh yeah, of course. As you know, Riana has been out of town quite a bit as of late, so there’s not really any reason to come by.”

  The small expression of rejection was almost painful to see. But Lexi had been nothing but nice to Jaxon, and polite while assertive in her decision to decline any offers of dates with him. His pressing of the issue started to bug me, to be honest.

  Just as he started to go into pleading his case—again—to Lexi the elevator dinged to announce Sam’s arrival back to the lobby. “Sorry, Jaxon, we gotta go.” I said as I grabbed Lexi’s arm and pulled her to meet Sam.

  “That boy is really starting to annoy me.” I growled. “Like, seriously, I’m starting to wonder if he at all knows who I am and what I do for a living. Does he really think that pressing a consent issue, if even only for a date, is a good idea in front of me? And with my best friend to boot?”

  Lexi leaned in and kissed my cheek. “Again, Ri my dear, you worry too much. I can handle Jaxon. I mean, he’s cute and all, who knows maybe he’ll eventually convince me to give him a shot.”

  Sam giggled as she threaded her arm with mine. “Sure, Lexi. And I’ll start requesting that Riana let me get up in front of her audiences and put on a juggling unicycle act.”

  I snorted as I laughed loudly enough to echo off the ornate walls of the lobby. “Wow, that was incredibly specific, Sam.”

  “And never going to happen.” Sam agreed.

  “Dating just isn’t my thing.” Lexi shrugged.

  I glanced at her and frowned slightly. It had been a newer development for Lexi, her apparent distaste for dating. She didn’t like to talk about it, but I knew it had more to do with Josh than she was willing to admit. Lexi dated Josh shortly after grad school. I watched from the outside as this narcissistic, insecure, and emotionally inept guy groomed and then successfully broke down one of the strongest women I knew. I battled my own guilt as I was sure that I would have been able to prevent it had I not been in Arizona so much, and then caught up in endless public relation endeavors. It didn’t last too long thanks to her close knit family. They broke up more than six months ago but Lexi hadn’t dated anyone since. She seemed to have a very real fear of having another man destroy her in such a way, even if she hadn’t yet found the words to say so.

  Sam, Lexi, and I chatted happily as we made our way along the crowded sidewalks. We stopped and peeked at store displays and sang along with a young group of guys singing acapella Motown—my specialty, even if I was a mildly horrible singer.

  The bell above the door at The Thinking Cup discreetly announced our arrival.

  “Riana!” Devon called from behind the counter. He was my absolute favorite barista. He was only early twenties, and delightfully embracing of his femininity. Society would have called him a fairy or a flamer; I calle
d him my friend. “Ooh! And Sam and Lexi! An unexpected, and welcome, surprise.” He approached and kissed each of us on both our cheeks.

  He went back to behind the counter and started our drinks. “The usual I assume?” He asked with a wink.

  “You know it.” I said.

  “Devon, you hiding any cheesecake back there?” Sam asked with a hopeful grin.

  “Girl, you know I am. I always hide one or two for after work, but I’ll share just this once.” Devon teased. “I’ll bring it all out to you. I believe your favorite spot is open.”

  I glanced towards the back of the café and sure enough, our favorite spot was empty. It was the setup closest to the fireplace; a dangerously comfortable couch and an oversized arm chair, perfect to lose hours at a time reading. Which I did, quite often. Lexi got there first though and made a great show as she claimed the oversized chair for herself. “Oh come on!” I complained lightheartedly, then settled in on the couch next to Sam.

  “Sam, I gotta say, I love your hair like that.” Lexi said.

  Sam reached up and smooth her hair between her fingers. “Thanks. You know me, can’t stay too normal for very long.” The bright red that saturated the tips of her platinum blonde hair was anything but normal.

  “I think Ally would kill me if I did something like that.” I laughed.

  “You’re probably right. We’d hate to ruin your professional image.” Lexi said.

  Sam laughed, “Oh yeah, because that barbell that has been in her lip since y’all were twenty-one is oh so professional. You should totally give your hair some personality.”

  “What?” I laughed. “My hair has plenty of personality.”

  “Mostly after she attempts to style it.” Lexi laughed.

  “Well sure! I mean, we can’t all be naturally blessed with such—interesting—hair.”

  We were relentless when we teased of each other, but it was all done with such love. These women were my world. Our giggling was only paused when Devon brought our coffees and desserts. Time slipped by us unnoticed. The sun dipped lower into the sky and created prisms of color as the rays cut through random crystals that hung in the café windows. Devon bid us farewell around eight, encouraging us to switch to decaf. “You’ll never get to sleep Riana.” I assured him we wouldn’t stay much longer and I’d be plenty rested.

  Business picked up some later in the evening; likely friends meeting up before bar hopping along downtown, or the usual artists looking for a quiet place to work. Pretty typical. We were just thankful that the crowd that knew about The Thinking Cup weren’t rowdy or obnoxious.

  “Is there anything that you aren’t able to speak on?” Sam teased as I told her about some of my guest speaking in local Sociology courses.

  “Probably not.” Lexi laughed.

  “I think it’s an important social discussion to have, that’s all.”

  “Sex appeal is all around them though. I mean, advertising is essentially just sex. Half-naked hot women plastered on billboards, men built like the freaking Rock selling—wait, what are they selling? I’m so distracted.” Sam giggled.

  “Well, I don’t think sex appeal is always in direct correlation with looks.”

  “Even though so many people put them together?” Lexi asked.

  “Right, almost as if we’ve been taught we should only be attracted to quote-unquote good looking people.” I rolled my eyes. I hated social expectations more than anything. “It’s sad, because people stay stuck in that mindset for so long. No one really teaches them to look beyond that, to look for someone that meshes with you in other areas. Maybe people care too much about what other people think. I mean, God forbid you try and explain to shallow people why you’re partnered with a quote-unquote unattractive person.”

  We proceeded to enthusiastically discuss social constructions of beauty, personality traits that could negate physical appeal, and the consequences of the boxes people try so desperately to fit into but never can. I was truly blessed to have two best friends that were just as engaged in these topics as I was. And of course, we could always bring it around to our favorite guys.

  “Just look at Matthew Sullivan.” Lexi said as we discussed how sometimes beautiful people were denied their depth as people simply because they’re good looking. Matt was a great example.

  “How many years did the fans call him ditzy simply because he was good looking?” She posed. Sam and I nodded. We knew exactly what she meant. “He had to fight that, and he shouldn’t have had to, they as quote-unquote loving fans, should have listened to him from the beginning. And Alex, the fans and their inability to let him grow out of the ‘crazy kid’ he was when D.M.A. started. He was fourteen. He’s twenty-four now. The only reason they accepted him growing up was because…well, because he’s hot.”

  She definitely wasn’t wrong in that observation. That man made my heart skip a little beat.

  “Not to mention how much I want to kick them for their judgments on Derek, not listening to him or giving him the props he deserved as a brilliant musician simply because he wasn’t as pretty as Matt, even though I mean, really, the man is sexy in his own right.”

  Lexi always had a soft spot for Derek. Examining the attitudes and treatment of the guys truly highlighted the obnoxious standards society held on people—especially those in the public eye. For the three of us, the judgments on Derek, Matt, and Alex felt personal.

  “And he’s got a great butt.” Sam added. “Like seriously, have you ever just looked at it, gazed upon it for the glorious wonder that it is?”

  I snorted before I laughed. “Pretty sure that’s how Lexi gets into a meditative state—picturing Derek’s butt!”

  “He’s definitely got the best butt of all three of them.” Lexi said.

  “Hmm…that’s a very distinct possibility. But Alex has the best arms.” I licked my lips as I pictured them.

  “Okay, so Derek’s butt, Alex’s arms…If we could combine those with Matthew’s hair and eyes—shit, we’d have the perfect man.”

  “That’s it. Get me a lab coat, we got work to do. We have to genetically create a ‘super hottie’ based off of their best attributes.” The whole idea was so absurd we couldn’t help but get lost in an endless cycle of hysterical laughter.

  “Like Dr. Frankenstein, only better.” I cackled.

  Lexi started to wheeze through her laughter. “Oh it hurts! It hurts!”

  Sam was beyond the point of any return and wiped tears from her eyes as she forced herself to try and take long, deep, calming breaths. I, too, tried to contain it but sometimes any resemblance of control or composure was simply impossible when with these women.

  “Um, excuse me?” Part of me knew that voice and a tingle of an excited warning ran up my spine but I couldn’t quite focus on it.

  Sam, Lexi, and I often seemed to exist in our own confined world—and we hated interruptions. Sam blew off the intrusion with a wave of her hand, “Just a damn minute.” For some reason that set me off into another fit of laughter and I leaned forward thinking maybe if I put my head between my knees I’d be able to catch my breath.

  As my head remained there and my shoulders continued to shake occasionally from an escaped giggle I heard Lexi gasp.

  “What?” Sam asked between a giggle.

  “I don’t…think…Matthew has ever…had someone…tell him…to wait.” Lexi honestly couldn’t stop laughing.

  I slowly raised my head from my knees and grabbed my mug. “Where did that come from?” I asked as I lifted the cup to take a sip. However, as I lifted the cup my eyes finally scanned our surroundings. The shock negated any ability for me to swallow and I’m sure I looked absolutely ridiculous as my coffee was suddenly choked on and sputtered out in front of me.

  No way. Nope. There is no freaking way that they are standing in front of me right now. I tried to will myself to calm down, but I could feel the tingling in my cheeks and new beyond a doubt that my face was flushing. My hands trembled as I placed my cup back on
the table in front of me.

  Sam was still unware of who our intruders were but was quick to react to my social faux pas of creating such a mess of my drink. “Bloody hell!” she yelled out as she continued to laugh. She gathered up as many napkins as possible to assist me in cleaning up. But she wasn’t the only one. Despite my inability to look in the general direction of the guys I was acutely aware that Matthew freaking Sullivan knelt at the table as well with napkins in hand to wipe up after me.

  “Oh yeah, just perfect. Should have known I’d look like an ass in front of D.M.A.” I mumbled. And in that moment, my life took yet another turn.

  * * *

  [A1]Important dates/ages from DL to consider

  Matt married Tabitha and started their family before he was 25

  Took Adonis 6 months to trust Ri and another 6 months to work on riding

  When they all met, Ri had been with Ryan for 4 years

  Alex was 14 when DMA had their first hit, was 24 when they all met

  Alex and Kim were together almost 5 years – since Alex was 19.

  Riana was “an original fan” since she was 16.

  Ri wrote to Matthew “nine years prior” … stopped writing after 3 years. (17-20 or 18-21)

  [A2]Reword?