Charlie
I rush out of Hudson’s place like it’s on fire. Playing it cool has never been easy to me and having the man of my dreams bolt out of bed after the greatest sex of my life—yes, even topping the first time we were together—is downright painful. Luckily, no one notices me as I walk of shame my way next door. I fight the tears that want to spill because I knew this is exactly how it would be when he warned me at the concert. This is genuinely something I’m just going to have to get over. Call it lesson three and move on.
I take the rejection head-on and channel it into a song, writing it all down to never feel it again, then take a deep breath when I’m done and decide I’m done with all of it. No more feeling anything toward Hudson. We work together, and then he’s gone, end of story. With every word of this song, I lay a brick around my heart until its firmly built, and sarcasm will be my shield—that I can do easily.
The next morning I head down to the studio early, just to be there before anyone else. I start working and I’m happy to see Marcus’ smiling face less than an hour later.
“Hey, good morning. Hard at it already, I see. How many do we have on paper so far?”
“Good morning. About thirteen if everyone likes this one I’m working on. Hudson did most of it so I’m sure it’ll be a winner.”
“Good. And how is it working with him? Sorry I haven’t asked before; I just assume you’d tell me if you hated the guy.”
I swallow hard, knowing my best friend is sure to see a lie, and simply answer, “Good. He’s very talented and we’ve worked well together. We’re almost done with everything as a matter of fact.”
“That’s great to hear. I liked that band you sent me, so if you want to find more on them, I would be down to move forward.”
“Yeah, I’ll do some searching today and see if I can get ahold of them,” I say, excited for another project. He hands me a coffee from the bar beside me, and we chat a bit more on the songs we already have for Headspace. By the time the band comes down, I feel okay about seeing Hudson again. He looks at me with a nervous smile so I throw him a wink, setting the tone for the day. They bang out a lot of music in just a few hours, and I order lunch. We all eat cheeseburgers and fries and talk about the most random things possible. The boys are telling raunchy jokes and I can’t help myself.
“What’s the difference between hungry and horny?”
The room goes quiet with no response, probably surprised I have a joke to contribute but I go on.
“Where you stick the cucumber.”
The room erupts in laughter as all eyes turn on me. Bandit literally rolls onto the floor, being super dramatic, and I notice Hudson staring at me and trying but failing to stifle his surprised laughter. This gives me an obscene amount of pleasure, and I grin proudly, bunch my wrapper into a ball, and shoot it across the room, nailing it in the waste basket. This earns me more whoops and hollers, but I casually pick up my notebook and get comfortable on the table.
“Who knew the Disney princess had such a dirty mind on her.” Bandit starts what’s sure to be a conversation all about my so-called innocence. I’m used to it and pretend I’m not listening.
“She is full of surprises.” That one comes from Hudson and still I don’t turn.
“Oh, trust me, she is no Disney princess; my girl Charlie might not cuss, but she has a raunchy sense of humor,” Marcus says still laughing.
Nick soon jumps in with a joke of his own.
“A man goes to a ten-dollar sex worker and contracts crabs. When he goes back to complain, the sex worker laughs and says, what did you expect for ten dollars? Lobster?”
We all laugh, and more jokes are said, but I pull out my headphones and focus on this new band. Wallflower is their name, and it’s a hippie girl group that sings beautiful indie rock. I listen to everything they have to offer on YouTube and find them on Facebook, then send them an official invite to the studio and add them all as friends.
The boys play again for a couple hours, and then Hudson meets me in the record room to finish up a song we’re almost through with.
Conversation is light and easy, and we don’t bring up last night at all.
It feels like old times again, just friends, aside from the pulling attraction coming from us both. His looks linger and on several occasions I find him staring at my boobs. I pretend I don’t notice and ignore the way my nipples harden. The rest of the night goes the same. I can tell he’s got stuff on his mind too so it’s easy to talk about anything else.