“Hey,” said Tommy. “I’m going to go downstairs and bring the car around.”
The driveway to the house split in two directions so they could have parked up on the circular driveway as it bent around to the front door or veer off and park below, outside the garage. Marissa and Cara waited by the bar while the arguing continued, and Jay was told in no uncertain terms to leave. Like the peacock he was, he strutted around and refused to go.
“What do you know?” asked Marissa dryly. “See his feathers ruffle? This is the first time I’ve seen Jay not like the attention he’s getting.”
Tommy returned, out of breath. “The car won’t start,” he said.
“We’ll just stay here,” said Marissa calmly. “They’re tossing Jay out anyway so things will calm down.”
“We can’t,” he said tensely. “David and I have to be in San Jose tomorrow.”
“So do I,” said Cara.
David approached as two roadies came over to help Barney deal with the Jay situation. “Hey,” he said, clearly flustered. “You leaving?”
“Trying to, but the car won’t start,” said Tommy very clearly unhappy.
David flashed a full bright smile, it was the first real smile that Cara saw from him all evening. “What a surprise,” he teased gently. “Listen, come on. I brought the family car. Let’s get out of here. You can stay at my place, and I’ll drive us down to the studio tomorrow.”
“I gotta fix my car,” insisted Tom.
“More importantly, you’ve got to record an album,” said David. “I’ll have your heap of metal towed over to my mechanic. He’ll have it ready for you by the time we get back from San Jose. If not, you can borrow one of my rides.”
Cara knew Tommy was a proud man. The frown on his face showed his unhappiness to need help, but there weren’t many options. He turned to look at her.
“Are you okay with the new plan?” he asked.
She wasn’t crazy about not sleeping in her own bed, but it was already late, and the drive home was a long one. She felt oddly comfortable about the idea of sleeping at David’s house. The fact he said he brought the family car made him a family man which both assured her and made her heart sink. She was a little bummed he had a wife waiting for him.
She looked toward Tommy’s car. “Sure, that seems the best way to go.”
Tommy and David led the way to an elevator that took them down to the garage. As the doors closed, silence surrounded them. They had officially left the party.
“I’m glad that’s over,” David gasped. He turned to Car
a and smiled. “You don’t know who half those people were, do you?”
“No,” she confessed softly.
“Refreshing,” he said as his eyes wandered over her face.
The elevator landed and let them off in Barney’s garage. They had to cross the garage and climb stairs that would open up to the front of the house because David parked in the circular drive.
“Why did we just do that when we could have walked out the front?” asked Cara.
“Avoiding the crowd,” he smiled.
The three of them worked in tandem like they had done this before. They scurried to a smoky silver Mercedes sedan. When David said family car, Cara envisioned a minivan. Tommy and Marissa took the back seat, and she rode shotgun.
Her dress was super short. It was the perfect length when she was standing, but sitting was a different situation. She looked at the hem barely covering her lady bits and her face turned beet red because it looked like she had nothing on under the dress.
David silently teased her, gawking and then looking away, putting up his hand to shield him from the view, before dropping his hand and bugging his eyes out.
“Stop,” she chuckled.
Given what she read about him on the internet, he probably saw more skin than she was showing on an average Tuesday night. She eventually let go of her self-consciousness, but it took a while.
He drove very smoothly and slowly down the semi-circle drive lined with carefully manicured shrubs. David slammed on the breaks because like something out of a horror story, Jay popped out and leaped into the middle of the drive.