Our Song (14 page)

Chapter 21

The next day, I sat in the waiting room at the gynecologist’s office. Spin or Sin Radio was on, and they were playing “Don’t Speak” by No Doubt. Across the room from where I was sitting, brightly colored tropical fish were swimming around in their tank.

It was kind of funny. Every gynecologist’s office I’d ever been to had a fish tank. Maybe gynecologists just really liked fish, but I was convinced that they put them in there for another reason—to serve as a reminder to all the single ladies who’d recently just been dumped or who hadn’t had sex in
for
-freaking-
ever
that there were plenty of fish in the sea.

See, the thing is…I knew that. I knew there were lots of fish in the sea and that, when it came down to it, I could probably have any of them that I wanted. The problem was that I didn’t want just
any
old bass or guppy. I wanted the one fish I couldn’t have. I wanted
Colton
.

I never thought I’d actually ever admit that, not even to myself. But I just couldn’t deny it anymore. I had so much fun with him, even when we were doing absolutely nothing but bickering. He drove me completely insane, but he got my heart pounding in all the right ways. Everything about spending time with him made me feel alive, for the first time since Jake.

Not that it mattered how I felt about him, because I knew the feeling wasn’t mutual. Sure, we may have had our first sober kiss, but it didn’t actually
mean
anything. As far as he was concerned, I was just another girl who he’d had a drunken one night stand with—a one night stand that couldn’t turn into
two
one night stands, because I’d puked on his shoes. I had a feeling that once we were done with this whole songwriting thing, he would be done with
me
, too.   

Sighing, I glanced away from the tank and down at the magazines that were piled neatly on a table. I picked up
Cosmopolitan
. My own face stared back at me and I frowned.

My skin looked pasty white against the awful shade of red they’d painted my lips with, and my boobs looked
way
bigger than they actually were in the white dress they’d made me squeeze into. It was totally false advertisement, but whatever. I knew I shouldn’t complain; I was lucky they’d even
wanted
to do a monthly feature on me, considering.

“Viola Pierce?” A nurse with chin-length dark brown hair and glasses who appeared to be in her mid-twenties and who I’d never dealt with before peered into the waiting room. When she saw me, she gasped. “You
are
Viola Pierce, the singer! I mean, we have celebrities come in and out of here all the time, but I still thought there might’ve been another Viola Pierce who lived in Los Angeles. Can I have your autograph? I’m, like, your biggest fan
ever
!”

“Only if you promise not to tell anyone my real height,” I joked. “I usually tell everyone I’m an inch taller than I really am.”

“Your secret’s safe with me,” she promised with a giggle.

Just as I rose to my feet, I heard the DJ say over the radio. “Yo, here’s a fresh new track for you. This is the new one by Viola Pierce and Colton King. It’s going to be on Viola’s new album, which is set to be released this September. The song’s called ‘Blowin’ Up My Phone.’”

I froze in my tracks, just as I heard Colton’s voice begin to sing over the radio speakers.

“How funny! You’re here and it’s time for your appointment, and your song is
on the radio
, too! Isn’t that ironic?” the nurse asked, acting like this was the craziest thing to have ever happened.

“Yeah, it is pretty ironic, I guess, considering we didn’t even release that song yet,” I said with a sigh.

She stared at me with a confused deer-in-headlights look. “Really?”

“Yeah, it must’ve gotten leaked somehow.” At that moment, I felt my cell phone vibrate a bunch of times from inside my purse. Pulling it out, I glanced down at my caller ID. New text messages from Mads, Nat, and Colton.

I didn’t even need to open my texts to know they were all messaging me about the song getting leaked. Deciding that it could wait, I shoved my phone back inside my purse and followed the nurse.

*

One autograph, an awkward Q&A about why I felt the need to be tested for STDs and pregnancy, and a pelvic exam later, I was good to go.  

As I stepped out of the office, I finally pulled my cell phone out and read through my text messages. Mads had written:
Blowin’ Up My Phone got dropped. This wasn’t supposed to happen yet. How did this happen?!

I rolled my eyes. Leave it to Mads to freak over something like this. I mean, yeah, it really sucked that the song had gotten leaked before we’d wanted it to be released, but it wasn’t like there was anything anyone could do about it at this point. It was a little too late. The song had probably already gone viral.

Deciding not to answer her, I deleted her message from my phone. The last thing I needed to deal with was additional stress from her right now.

The next text, from Nat, read:
OMG I love the new song, Vi! This might be your best yet!

Smiling, I texted back:
Thanks girl.

I realized that I’d subconsciously saved the best text message for last and opened up Colton’s and read the words he’d written on the screen.

I need to talk to you. Can you come over? 125 Sunshine Lane.

At that moment, I reached the limo. Eddie was standing outside waiting for me. He opened the door to me.

As I climbed inside, I told him, “I need you to take me to Colton’s house.”

He nodded. “You got it.”

Hitting ‘Reply’ to Colton, I texted back:
I’ll be at your place soon.

As I sunk back into my seat, I wondered why he wanted to talk to me in person. A gut feeling told me that it must’ve had to do with the kiss.

*

Colton King’s house was just as impressive as one would’ve expected. It was a Spanish-style home with a well landscaped property.

When I rang the doorbell, he flung the front door open right away. He looked hot as ever in a white t-shirt that showed off his muscles and a pair of jeans. “Come in.”

He led me into the living room, and I’m not going to lie. I barely even noticed what the interior of his house looked like, because my gaze was fixated on his ass the entire time.

When we reached the living, Colton plopped down onto one of the leather sofas. He motioned for me to sit down next to him.

Sitting down, I glanced over at him. I was positive that I knew what was coming: he was going to tell me that he regretted kissing me. He would probably tell me that there was already someone else and that what had happened between us had been a mistake that couldn’t be repeated in the future. As usual, it was just too good to be true.  

“The reason I invited you here is because there’s something I wanted to ask you in person,” Colton said, staring down at me from behind his blue eyes.

I sucked in my breath. “What is it?”

“Do you want to go to my sister Kylie’s twenty-first birthday party with me?”

My eyes widened. That was definitely
not
what I’d been expecting him to say, not at all. “I guess that all depends. Are you asking me to go as your
date
?”

He hesitated for a few moments. “Will my answer to that question determine if you’ll go with me or not?”

“Maybe.” I shrugged, trying to play it off coolly. “So,
is
it?”

“Only if you want it to be.”

I shook my head. “I
don’t
want it to be.”

“Okay, then, it won’t be.” He shrugged.

“I don’t want it to be a date, because you’re going to have to work a little harder than that if you want to go out with me,” I told him matter-of-factly.

He glanced over at me, his light eyes gleaming with amusement. “Well, you don’t sound like you have high expectations for a first date or anything.”

“Me? Never.”

“Uh huh,” he replied.

Pft. If he only
knew
how low my first date standards actually were. Jake had taken me to this hamburger joint with a two and a half star rating. He’d claimed it was because it was a quiet place, but I seriously doubted that it would’ve been good enough for a first date with Miss Victoria’s Secret Model. He’d probably taken her to some fancy French restaurant for their first date.

Well, I hoped he’d choked on his escargot.

“Anyway, the party’s on Saturday night.”

“
This
Saturday?” I gaped at him. “As in two days from now?”

“Yeah.” He nodded.

“Way to ask me last minute,” I muttered.

“I just found out about it myself,” he replied.

Of course, I couldn’t help but wonder if he was lying. Maybe he’d been planning to take
Tessa
, but she’d cancelled on him or something. Maybe I was just his last resort.  

“Do you already have other plans?” Colton eyed me curiously.

“No, I’m free.” That was the truth, but I was silently panicking. Two days barely gave me any time to get my shit in order. I needed to figure out what to wear. I also needed to schedule an appointment with my stylist, Lauren, because my dark roots were way too noticeable and my eyebrows could really use a good waxing.

I didn’t know what sort of media attention Colton sister’s twenty-first birthday bash would draw—if
any
—but I wasn’t going to risk it. I needed to look my best, just in case. The last thing I needed was for Perez Hilton to post pictures of me looking like a hot mess for the entire world to see.

“Good. It’s going to be fun. Though I should probably warn you, my family can be pretty intense sometimes,” Colton warned me.

“That’s okay. As long as they’re not quiet. Quiet people sort of freak me out,” I admitted.

He laughed. “Believe me, they’re anything
but
quiet.”

“Good.” At that moment, my cell phone began to ring with an incoming call. I groaned. “It’s probably Mads.”

When I pulled my phone out of my purse, I glanced down at the caller ID. It was Jimmy Jones.

My heart pounded. He never called me. If he needed to get in touch with me, he either sent me an email asking
me
to call
him
, or he set up a meeting.

With trembling hands, I pressed the ‘Talk’ button. “Hello?”

“Viola, it’s me, Jimmy,” he barked into the phone.

“Hey, Jimmy.” I swallowed hard, nervous to hear what he had to say next. Colton glanced over at me sharply, a curious look in his blue eyes.

“I wanted to get in touch with you and Colton, so I’m going to call him on three-way,” he explained.

“Actually, that won’t be necessary. He’s here with me right now,” I explained, hitting the Speaker phone button. “You’re on speaker.”

“Hey, King,” Jimmy said, his voice vibrating through the speaker.

“What’s up?” Colton asked.

“I’m sure you both know by now that your song’s been leaked. Well, it’s gone viral, that’s what’s up. According to my sources, it’s becoming the number one requested song at every major radio station. People are loving it.”

“Wow,” I murmured. I wasn’t sure why it surprised me. I mean, I
knew
the song was pretty awesome, but I didn’t expect everyone to have this sort of reaction.

“I want you two to come out and celebrate its success,” Jimmy went on. “You two busy Saturday night?”

“Actually, we are,” Colton replied. “It’s my sister’s twenty-first birthday party. Viola’s going as my date.”

There was a pause on the other end of the line. “Okay, then. How about Sunday night?”

“I’m free Sunday,” I said.

“Yeah, me, too,” Colton agreed.

“Very well, then. Sunday night, it is. I’ll arrange for a car to come back you both up around nine o’clock.”

“Okay, cool,” Colton said.

“See you then,” I chimed in.

“Bye, guys.”

Once we hung up the phone, I exhaled sharply. “You always seem so calm when you talk to him. I don’t really get it. The man makes me nervous as hell.”

He shrugged. “Everyone puts him on this pedestal, but he’s just a person.” He paused and then added, “Not that you
shouldn’t
be nervous when talking to him.”

“What do you mean?” I narrowed my eyes at him.

“The one thing I’ve learned about Jimmy Jones is that you need to watch what you say around him. Otherwise, your words may get twisted.” His blue eyes clouded over with a dark look, but it quickly passed. “So, what movie did you want to watch?”