Love's Back Pocket (13 page)

Chapter 25

“I’ve always wanted to do this,” Holly murmured as a faint blush touched the tips of her cheeks. She had a large bowl of popcorn in her arms and other snacks were scattered on the coffee table. She quickly walked around the couch and took a seat next to Tanya so her back was leaning against the couch.

“Me too.” Tanya reached into the bowl and grabbed a fistful of popcorn before managing to stuff it all into her mouth. As Holly watched her friend, her mouth dropped open, and before she could help herself, laughter started erupting past her lips. “I’m glad you talked me into staying with you instead of going to the concert.”

“Well, I figure you and Mitch need
some
time apart,” Holly teased, a small smile on her face as she playfully nudged her friend. “You guys have been spending so much time together. Aren’t you afraid that this whole infatuation thing is going to wear off as quickly as it began?”

“I don’t think it’s just infatuation,” Tanya murmured, and now it was her time to blush. Holly said nothing, yet her brown eyes all but burned on Tanya’s sharp profile. Holly slowly arched a brow, hoping her friend would elaborate, but the dark blush that continued to dominate her face seemed to say it all. “I think I’m in love with him,” Tanya told her friend, before grabbing the remote.

“Are you sure?” Tilting her head to the side, Holly frowned slightly. “I mean, how are you certain?”

“Love is probably the most uncertain thing in the world,” Tanya said, running shaky fingers through her brown tresses, “but when you’re in love, it’s probably the one thing you’re certain of in the whole relationship.” Holly looked at her friend with doubt clearly written in her brown orbs, and her lips were pursed in a straight line. “I know it’s hard for you to understand,” Tanya said, immediately noticing and recognizing the look on Holly’s face, “but trust me on this one, okay, Holl?”

“But don’t you think it’s too fast?” What Tanya was telling her went against everything she knew, but at the same time, Tanya would never lie about something as serious as love.

“I think …” Tanya began, raising her eyes up to the ceiling, trying to find the correct words to say. “I think that it depends on the person. Textbooks and wise men each have different versions of the emotion, but I don’t think either of them is wrong. I also think it depends on your belief system as well. You know me; I believe in love at first sight, so I can probably fall in love faster than someone like you because you don’t necessarily believe you can fall in love so quickly. Nobody’s wrong here, but when I say I love him, I can promise you that what I tell you, I believe is true.”

Holly paused for a moment, letting everything Tanya said sink in. Thought she wanted desperately to argue with her logic, she couldn’t because it wouldn’t be fair to tell someone how they felt and how they didn’t. Holly knew that if someone did that to her, she would be incredibly upset. “All right,” she finally said with a nod. Another question entered her thought process at that moment. “Have you told him?”

“No, not yet.” Tanya shook her head.

“If you’re certain of your feelings, Tanya, then I don’t understand why you can’t share them with him.”

“Remember when I told you nothing is certain unless you know you’re in love?” Tanya asked, and Holly nodded in response. “Well, I may be sure of my feelings for him, but I’m not so sure about his for me.” She quickly changed the subject before Holly could say anything on the matter. “We should probably get started if we want to get through five Disney movies.”

The first movie they watched was
Aladdin
. The two women seemed to know every single word to every single song, and had no qualms with singing aloud. Tanya asked if it was wrong of her to think that Jafar was sexy because ‘let’s face it, that voice could do wonders in the bedroom, if you know what I’m saying’. Holly smacked her in the face with a pillow, which caused a pillow fight up until the carpet ride came on, where Tanya teased Holly of being a closeted hopeless romantic. The young woman tried to brush it off, but to no avail. Tanya continued to poke her until Holly finally admitted that she was one.

The second movie was
Mulan
, one of Holly’s favorites. Again, the two women seemed to know every word to every song, and continued to fill the empty tour bus with their singing. Holly actually invited Victor to their Disney
night, but as she expected, he refused, giving the women some kind of excuse. That didn’t deter them, however, and as they watched the movie, they all but forgot his rejection.

It was when they started
Beauty and the Beast
that Tommy and Mitch made their appearance. Almost immediately, Mitch walked over and took a seat on the couch behind Tanya before placing a chaste kiss on her cheek.

“This is what you leave me for?” Tommy asked Holly, following in Mitch’s footsteps and taking a seat on the couch. “A cartoon that you own on DVD and can watch any time over and over?”

“Shhh!” Holly exclaimed, smacking Tommy’s shin but keeping her eyes focused on the screen. “This is the best part! This is the song where they realize they’re falling in love with each other.”

Once the song was over, the women sighed almost simultaneously, causing both men to glance over at each other, sharing an unreadable look.

“So,” Tommy said, cocking his head and casting his eyes downwards so he could take in some of Holly’s face, “you’re a pretty logical person, Holl. I never took you for a Disney
fan.”

“Just because I’m smart doesn’t mean I don’t like Disney
movies,” Holly replied, tilting her head so she could get a better view of Tommy. “If I am being completely honest, there are times when I would like nothing more than to believe that heroes really existed, and always came just in time to save princesses. I would like to believe that carpets can fly, bad boys can be reformed, and animals can talk. I would like to believe that two people who are destined to be together are capable of finding each other the moment they need each other the most.” She paused, catching her breath. “But it goes against everything I know.”

“Who’s your favorite princess?” Tommy asked, giving her a lazy smile. Her cheeks had turned red from the obvious passion she was feeling

“I really like Mulan, even though she’s not a princess,” Holly said after a moment of thinking. “And I really like Pocahontas.”

“The two most logical princesses,” Tommy muttered with a grin. “What a surprise.”

“I just admire that they know they shouldn’t fall in love,” Holly murmured, pink touching her cheeks once again, “but they can’t help it. Beyond all reason, love still consumes them.” She smiled at the notion. “I like them because I figure if I ever fall in love, that’s how it’s going to happen.” She glanced over at friend. “What about you, Tanya?”

“Me?” Tanya asked, and she thought for a moment. “Hmm. Probably Belle from
Beauty and the Beast
. What can I say? I’ve always had a thing for bad boys.”

“I prefer Jasmine, if I’m being honest,” Mitch put in as he wrapped his arms around Tanya’s shoulders from behind. “The outfits she wore always knocked me off my feet. And I like that she didn’t have to wear a dress. It was kind of sexy.”

“I liked Alice from
Alice in Wonderland
,” Tommy added.

Holly craned her head to look him in the eyes. “You know Alice isn’t a princess, right?” she asked as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“The great thing about Alice,” Tommy murmured, leaning forward so his face came a mere two inches away from Holly’s, “is that she can be whatever she wants due to her massive imagination.”

Holly opened her mouth to argue with him, but prominently shut it and turned back around. Though Alice wasn’t exactly a princess, she could certainly imagine she was one. For the first time in a while, Holly realized Tommy had said something substantial, and smiled at it.

“Plus, she’s blonde,” he pointed out, throwing a look at Mitch. “I’ve always had a thing for blondes.”

Until, of course, he opened his mouth to add to his declaration.

Chapter 26

It was an early morning in late July, and Holly wasn’t asleep. Her eyes were focused on the ceiling, but her mind was focused on something else entirely. How long had she been on the road with
The Futurists
now? Nearly two months, she figured after a moment. And last she heard, they were currently heading to Florida. They would be staying in a lovely hotel just adjacent to Disney World, and Holly was adamant to go to the park. Ever since she was a kid and had been to Disneyland hundreds of times, she wanted to see what the bigger park was like. Bigger didn’t exactly mean better, she had always thought. It would be hard to top Disneyland, especially since she had lived in California her whole life.

In fact, she was doing just fine where she was. She was one of the top students in her class with excellent grades, proud professors, and on the road to the fast track. Before Tommy had crashed into her life, she had been accepted to do her thousand hours at a prestigious psychology firm in Beverly Hills, but somehow, he had managed to talk her out of it, and instead, accompany him on the road in order to take of his psychologist needs elsewhere. That was it, she realized. That was the moment when he started to burrow underneath her skin. Holly was a rational person, and it was hard to talk her out of something when she had her mind focused on something completely different. But there came Tommy, and in a manner of minutes, she had agreed to tour with him for the summer.

“How did he do that?” she murmured to herself, staring up at the ceiling hopelessly.

As the days passed and she got to know the man—whether it was through their interesting-to-say-the-least sessions or just hanging out with him in general—she felt herself start to develop feelings for him. She liked the way his eyes lit up when he smiled, and the tone of his voice in general. She liked the way clothes looked on his body, and the way he looked in the rain. She liked the way he shamelessly flirted with her, and the way he was starting to take her seriously. She liked the way his lips moved when he spoke, and the way his eyes followed her whenever she walked into a room.

She liked him. A lot. And because of that, she was scared.

Holly had tried to focus on other things that did not involve Tommy whatsoever. She thought about every other band and crew member she had sessions with. She thought of Tanya and Mitch, and their heated relationship. She even tried to think of Brendan, of the feelings he had sparked deep inside her during school, which seemed like ages ago. But it didn’t seem to matter. Something inside of her had changed, and that was what scared her. Her feelings for Brendon didn’t even compare to what she was currently feeling for Tommy, and she had admitted thoroughly that she had liked Brendan in
that
way.

So did this mean that she liked Tommy in a deeper way? Was that even possible?

‘Anything is possible, Holl,’ Tanya would say in that slight sing-song voice of hers.

But her liking Tommy Nye in such a way? Holly didn’t think it was possible. She wasn’t stupid, of course. She knew the appeal of charming, older men who happened to be spontaneous rock stars, but she never expected for herself to fall for him. Especially not Tommy Nye. The man knew exactly what buttons to push to aggravate her in such a way that if she didn’t find some way to let out her steam, she would probably sock him. Not that it would matter, of course. The guy was incredibly built. But that wasn’t the point.

“Okay, Holly,” she said, her eyes still on the ceiling as though she would find all of the answers she was looking for on it in some way, “you’re a psychologist. Actually, you
want
to be a psychologist, but that’s beside the point.” She frowned, realizing that she was babbling to herself now, and shook her head, in order to relieve herself of such a habit, if only temporarily. “Why would I fall for somebody who is completely wrong for me?”

Because
, a voice said in a tone that revealed the answer was the most obvious thing in the world,
the person we think is completely wrong for us, usually matches up better than we originally expect.

Holly furrowed her brow at the response, but didn’t immediately refute it. Tommy Nye was definitely unlike anyone she had ever met before, but she wasn’t sure if this was good or bad. He pointed out different things in a blunt manner, not taking her feelings into consideration in the least, but whenever she went to complain about it to Tanya, her friend would always roll her brown eyes and mention how Holly did the exact same thing. Tommy enraged Holly to the point of unexplainable anger, but it brought a passion out in her she didn’t think she could ever feel. His eyes gave off sparks that sizzled when they looked at her, and every time she noticed this, she had to swallow and turn away because sometimes, it was too much for her to handle. Such intensity was something she had never experienced before, and that scared her as well.

He scared her. Tommy Nye scared her.

That’s not a bad thing
, the same voice murmured knowingly. Holly was sure if the voice had a face, a light smirk would be touching its lips at that moment.
There are moments when we have to face our fears. Sometimes, things don’t go our way, and sometimes they do, but no matter what, everything works out the way it’s supposed to.

Holly pursed her lips together as she ran shaky fingers through her tresses. She didn’t get very far, given that she was currently lying down, but the act itself always seemed to calm her down a bit.

“But I don’t
want
to like Tommy Nye,” she whispered to no one in particular. Her voice was sad, and maybe even slightly hopeless. She felt lost, alone, and unsure … feelings Holly hadn’t felt since the death of her parents. “Because I’m sure Tommy Nye does not like me in that way.”

And that was what probably scared Holly the most. Though she wouldn’t, at this point, admit out loud just how much she truly liked Tommy Nye, she knew that she did. Very much, in fact. But she highly doubted that he could return such feelings for her. He admitted it to her before—he was always out looking for number one. And after learning about Delilah, she doubted he would ever warm up to the possibility of a serious,
monogamous
relationship in the near-future. Plus, why would he want to? He seemed quite content with the prospect of groupies keen on satisfying every carnal need he had, not some girlfriend who he had not only to make love to, but to talk to, to cherish, and most of all, to love. Groupies were easier.

So yes, Holly liked Tommy. But it was doubtful he returned such affections.

--

“Holly, you have been staring up at the hotel ceiling for the past forty-five minutes,” Tanya commented, sighing with frustration through her nose. “You do know we’re all supposed to be getting ready soon anyway.”

Holly frowned, cocking her head in Tanya’s direction so she could look at her friend. “Ready for what?” she asked, her voice tired due to the lack of sleep she had gotten last night.

“Weren’t you even paying attention when we were on the couch and Tommy made an announcement?” Tanya asked, her patience wearing thin.

“It’s kind of hard to pay attention when you’re sleeping,” Holly snapped, getting annoyed with Tanya’s frustration. She paused for a moment, feeling slightly guilty for snapping at her friend. “I had a rough night last night, okay? I’ve just … I’ve just had a lot on my mind recently.”

Tanya glanced over at Holly. “Do you want to talk about it?” she asked her friend softly.

Holly shook her head. “No,” she murmured in response. “I’m okay. I figured everything out. But anyway, thank you. What did Tommy announce, though? What should I be getting ready for?”

Tanya smiled at her friend, happy to be the one to tell her. “In honor of you nearly being finished with your one thousand hours, Tommy is taking everyone to a fancy dinner to celebrate,” she said, her dark eyes twinkling with obvious happiness. “Apparently, he knows this great restaurant here in Florida, and we’re supposed to be ready in—” She cut herself off to glance down at her watch. “Shit. We have twenty minutes to get ready. That’s just not enough time. Come on, Holly! We gotta get ready!”

“All right, all right,” Holly grumbled, throwing her legs off the bed and standing. “It’s a good thing I happen to be starving …”