The Winner Takes It All (Love in L.A. Book 3) (5 page)

Annie:
What happened? What’d she say?

Katie:
Apparently she was in on the whole thing. They’re swingers. He finds beautiful young women that they’re both attracted to, tells them he’s separated from his wife, then takes them to a wonderful dinner, then brings them back to his lair to share with his wife.

Annie:
That’s so sleazy! What’d you do?

Katie:
Well you know me… I’m an open-minded person, and they were both very attractive and very persuasive, but I don’t appreciate being lied to. I politely declined and left immediately.

Annie:
Good for you. What a jerk! Alex is here with me, btw, and he says, “You go, girl!”

Katie:
Oh cool, tell Alex I said hi. Yeah, on to bigger and better things.

Annie:
You’ll find someone soon.

Katie:
Maybe… I’m beginning to think maybe I’m just not meant to be with someone right now.

Annie:
Just have fun for now. Love will find you when you least expect it.

Katie:
Lol. You only sound so zen because you already found your Prince Charming.

Annie:
I know, but I want you to find yours, too!

Katie:
Then my life can be as perfect as yours.

Annie:
Ha! My life is so far from perfect.

Katie:
You met the man of your dreams, you’re heading to New York to compete in the finals for a brand new talent competition, Andrea just shot you on the beach with Casey—I’d say your life is looking pretty spectacular lately.

Annie:
Yeah, I met the man of my dreams who immediately went on tour with a gorgeous pop star who wants in his pants, I’m in over my head with this talent competition, going against people who are already veterans in this business, and so what about the photo shoot? It was just for fun.

Katie:
Um, Annie. There was someone from LA Life at that party, and I heard him tell Andrea he was very interested in seeing her pictures from your shoot.

Annie blinked at her phone. What the hell? She hadn’t heard anything like that from Andrea. She showed her phone to Alex again, who glanced up briefly from the game of Candy Crush he was engrossed in. He gave her a thumbs up and then went back to his game.

Annie:
What??? Are you serious?

Katie:
As a heart attack. So I wouldn’t be surprised if you heard from him sometime in the near future.

Annie:
Holy crap, that would be awesome!

Katie:
So like I said, your life is looking pretty perfect right now.

Annie:
Okay, I’m gonna have to agree now… it’s feeling pretty perfect. :)

Katie:
And you deserve it, lady. I know my time will come.

Annie:
Well it’s not like shit ain’t happenin’ for you, too!

Katie:
I know. Who has time for a man, really?

Annie:
I’ll keep my eyes peeled for you in New York.

Katie:
Because I have time for a long distance relationship?

Annie:
Lol, good point… but you could see him when you go to NYC for work.

Katie:
This is true. Okay, commence with thy matchmaking.

Annie:
Squee! I’m going to find the perfect guy for you. Just wait and see.

Katie:
I can’t wait.

As she packed the last of her toiletries into her suitcase, Annie sighed and looked around her bedroom. The closet was half-empty and her vanity table clear for once. She had packed for several weeks, but she could end up coming back home after only one. It just depended on how well she did in the finals when she got to New York.

Her parents were on their way to pick her up to take her to the airport. Casey was getting into JFK only twenty minutes before her and said he would wait for her flight to arrive so they could share a car to the hotel. She had to pinch herself several times to remind herself that all of this was really happening. When her parents dropped her off at the airport, they took turns hugging her tightly and wishing her the best. Her mom told her to “break a fingernail”, to which she gave her a confused look.

“It’s break a leg, mom.”

“I know that’s the saying, but it sounds so horrible. Better to just break a fingernail.”

Annie just shook her head at her mother and laughed. She was going to miss her mom’s cute flubs with English slang.

“In favor of sticking to common traditions, I’ll keep it to ‘break a leg’, sweetie,” her father said as he hugged her and kissed her forehead. “I’m proud of you, Annie. Don’t forget that.”

“Call when you land and let us know you arrived safely,” her mom instructed as Annie nodded and waved at them before turning to enter the terminal.

“I will, thanks again for the ride,” she called before heading to the ticket counter to check her luggage.

Getting through security was a breeze for once, and she was soon sitting at the gate with an hour to kill, popping her iPod earbuds in and cranking up a mix of her favorite top forty tunes. Closing her eyes, she leaned her head back against the wall and started to drift. A moment later, someone was nudging their foot against hers, making her eyes fly open. She looked up to see a familiar face grinning down at her.

“Hey, girl. Remember me?” a petite, exotic looking girl who appeared to be in her early twenties asked her with a bright smile.

“Hey! Keri, right?” Annie asked, recognizing the girl she’d stood in line with at the auditions for
The Next American Superstar
.

“Yep, good memory! Annie, right?”

“Yep, good memory for you, too.”

“Haha, thanks. And this is my friend, Erin. We go to the same karaoke bar. Bumped into each other one night while we were both out celebrating our birthdays, and we’ve been karaoke buddies ever since! I had no idea she even auditioned until we were talking about it while we were out for a karaoke night recently, and we found out that not only did we both audition, but we both made it to the finals!”

“Oh that’s awesome!” Annie exclaimed. “Great to meet you, Erin,” she said as she offered her hand to the pretty girl who was towering over Keri with a friendly smile on her face. Do you guys wanna sit here?” she asked, waving to the two empty seats next to her.

Keri nodded as she put her stuff down on the seat next to Annie. “Sure, I’m going to grab some coffee, but I’ll be right back. Do you guys mind watching my bags?”

“Not at all. Would you mind grabbing me a cup as well?”

“Sure thing. You want cream and sugar?”

“Sugar in the Raw and vanilla creamer if they have it. If not, regular is fine.”

“Cool, I’ll be back in a minute.” Annie handed some money to Keri before she turned to go, then turned and smiled at Erin.

“So are you excited? Nervous? Both?”

Erin laughed and nodded as she sat down. “Definitely both. You?”

“Yup, same. This is my first time going to New York, too.”

“Oh yeah? It’s pretty cool. I just went for the first time last year, like the weekend before Thanksgiving.”

“Nice! What did you go for? Vacation? Visit family?”

“My family lives in Hawaii. I went to see a boy,” Erin admitted, looking a little embarrassed.

“Oh really?” Annie smiled warmly at her. “Long distance relationship?”

“Well, I was willing to give it a shot, but him, not so much.”

“Aww, that sucks. How did you meet him?”

“I was home visiting my family in Hawaii and I posted an ad on Craigslist.”

Annie started laughing at hearing this. “Haha, I love that I’m not the only one crazy enough to post on Craigslist.”

“Oh, you’ve tried it as well? How’s your luck been?”

Thinking back to the first night she met Gabe, Annie smiled wistfully and shook her head. “Not the best, but I’ve definitely met some interesting men.”

“Yeah, same here. The guy I met in Hawaii seemed like a keeper. We had so much in common right away. I’m a huge gamer nerd, and he is as well. Not to mention he’s a total hottie.”

“How’d it go down?”

“He responded to my ad and sent me a couple of pictures. I almost didn’t respond, because one of the pictures he sent was of him pretty much naked. Like he was standing in front of a bathroom mirror doing a profile shot, only holding a towel in front of his junk.”

Annie snickered. “Yeah, I’ve gotten my share of those types of pics. So you responded anyway and?”

“Yeah, I mean, I normally wouldn’t respond to someone who sent a picture like that… but he’s pretty damn fine, so I couldn’t resist.”

“Nice. Did you guys go out to dinner?”

“No, he said he had to work kind of late, so he asked if I wanted to see a movie with him. But he lived in Waikiki and didn’t have a car, so I had to drive my rental all the way from the house I was staying at on North Shore to pick him up. It took me almost an hour to get there. He couldn’t believe how far away I was. I told him I was staying on the other side of the island, but turned out he’d only moved there from Brooklyn a couple months prior for work, and he’d pretty much stuck to his immediate area, so he had no idea how long it took to get around the island.”

“Brooklyn? Damn, he’s a long ways from home.”

“Yeah, he said transferred to Hawaii for the warmer climate, but once he got there, he hated it.”

“What the hell? Who hates Hawaii?”

“I know… that should have been my first red flag for him. Anyways, when I finally arrived and he got in my car—oh my God, girl. He smelled so good.” Erin’s eyes closed briefly for a moment as a dreamy smile crept onto her face.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, and he looked amazing. I was so nervous, but at the same time, I felt so comfortable around him. We went to see this action hero spoof, and we laughed and joked around and had a great time together. Like everything seemed so perfect. We didn’t hold hands during the movie, but he would do that thing where he’d lean into me during certain parts of the movie and laugh. The chemistry was so electric. I didn’t want the night to end.”

“Aww, that sounds great! So what happened after that?” Annie was on the edge of her seat, listening to her new friend. She was thoroughly enjoying getting to hear stories from someone who seemed to be as equally adventurous as she was herself.

“Are you sure I’m not boring you?” Erin asked skeptically.

“Of course not! I love hearing stories like these. Keep going.”

Beaming a smile at Annie, Erin nodded. “Okay, if you’re sure… so we decided to go pick up some wine from a convenience store to take back to his place. He suggested we have a drink and watch some
League of Legends
games.”

“Oh, I think I’ve heard of that game. It’s like
World of Warcraft
, isn’t it?”

“Kind of. Just as addicting anyway. I hadn’t played the game before at that point, but I didn’t really care what we did together. I just knew I didn’t want to leave him, yet. I mean, I was already heading back to California the next evening, so that was my only chance to spend time with him before going back home. But when we got to the store, they told us that they weren’t allowed to sell us any alcohol, because it was already fifteen minutes past midnight.”

“They have a curfew on alcohol in Hawaii?”

“Yep, apparently they aren’t allowed to sell alcohol after midnight. I mean, if you go to a bar, you can still get a drink a little later than that, but you can’t go to a store and buy alcohol after midnight.”

“That blows. So what’d you do after that?”

“Yeah, I could have used a drink right then, too. I was still so nervous. But we just laughed about it and headed back to his place anyway. We cuddled up on his bed and watched a little bit of a
League of Legends
game, but then he took pity on me and found all these funny videos to show me. Oh my God, we laughed so much! My mouth hurt from smiling, and he would slide his hand up my leg and squeeze my ass a little every now and then. It was so sexy.”

“Nice, nice. So did you seal the deal?” Erin blushed bright red and shook her head. “Sorry, you probably don’t want to tell a complete stranger that,” Annie said apologetically, but Erin just laughed.

“Oh no, it’s fine. I’m pretty much an open book. But no, we didn’t ‘seal the deal’, or not technically anyway. I was kind of on my period…”

“Oh no,” Annie groaned. “That sucks so bad.”

“I know, and honestly, I would’ve been down to do it anyway. I mean, he slid my hand over his crotch, and I was very pleasantly surprised by what I found, so I was totally bummed that I was on the rag. But after I went down on him, he tried to reciprocate, and I had to tell him. All he said in response to that was, ‘How do you feel about anal?’, so that was the end of that!”