Page 33 of Fake Rocks
She was sitting cross-legged on the sofa as I had been, an unlit cigarette in one hand. She was dressed slightly more respectably now in a pair of skin-tight patterned leggings, a t-shirt with a deep V at the front, which almost revealed her bra, and an embroidered denim jacket. Her feet were clad in a pair of glittery Converse.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to keep you waiting.” I shoved my boxers and washing kit into my bag.
“I’m joking. But I do need a fag, so…”
I grabbed my own jacket, picked up the key card and we went downstairs.
The moment we left the hotel, Saff lit up, smoke spiralling around her. It was chilly, and few people were out and about in Manchester on Saturday morning. If anything, there were probably more people ending their night rather than starting their day. The location of the hotel wasn’t lost on me. In the heart of the city’s gay village, I imagined Jonas had probably stayed there on more than a number of occasions.
We strolled alongside the canal, checking out the bars and clubs until we stumbled across a van selling bacon baps and sausage sandwiches.
Saff’s eyes lit up. “Fuck getting a proper breakfast, this will do.” She dropped the remains of her cigarette on the ground and snuffed it out with her heel.
I laughed. At least I could offer to pay for breakfast without my meagre bank balance wincing. We ordered two with the works and more coffee. If I drank much more, I wondered if I’d ever get to sleep again. We found a bench to sit on and devoured the baps in record time.
“Oh, God, this coffee is amazing. Hey, are you guys open tomorrow?” she shouted at the people in the van.
“Sorry, love, not on a Sunday.”
Her face dropped.
“I guess you’ll have to make do with hotel coffee in the morning.” I took the empty wrapper and napkin from her and deposited them in the nearest bin.
“Ugh. Not a chance. I’d rather wait until we got to the station.” Hearing a notification, Saff pulled her phone from her bag. She rolled her eyes. “Jonas is checking up on us. Making sure we arrived okay and we’ve got the tickets for tonight. It’s like I’ve never been away before. Seriously, he knows about the trouble we had on our last tour. Darren lost the hotel bookings schedule and we didn’t know where we were meant to be staying. I don’t think Jonas trusts me after that.”
It was funny to think of Saff on tour with her band. I’d read about famous groups touring and I doubted TheSB would have had the same luxurious bus with all the trimmings as some of the biggest rock icons of our time. Probably more a man with a van and lots of stops in motorway service stations.
“I think maybe Jonas doesn’t trust you anyway,” I said slowly. I wasn’t sure how she was going to react to what I was going to say next.
“What do you mean?” Her eyes narrowed.
“Well, would I be sitting here with you right now if he did? Wouldn’t you be here with, oh, I don’t know, someone like Troy Carson?”
Saff let out a hard breath. “You’re probably right. He wouldn’t have suggested this pretend relationship thing if he did trust me.” Her shoulders sagged and she seemed deflated.
“Sorry you got stuck with me.”
She turned to me, her chocolate brown eyes studying mine. “There are worse people I could have been stuck with. Jonas could have found me one of his gay friends and we could have covered for each other.” Saff reached for my hand and ran her thumb across my knuckles. “I’m not sorry at all. And it’s you that’s stuck with me. You probably have a queue of beautiful girls waiting to go out with you.”
I stared at her hand in mine. Her skin was soft and her light touches sent my senses into overdrive.
“Ha ha, as if,” I bluffed. I hadn’t had a serious girlfriend in over two years. A few dates here and there, something which lasted around six months, but no-one special. No-one that affected me quite as much as Saff Barnes did.
I wondered how long we’d have to keep the relationship going until Jonas deemed Saff was redeemed and ready to return to her normal behaviour.
As she continued to caress my knuckles, I hoped it was going to be a very, very long time.
19
Saff
We spent the day puttering around the city, chatting, shopping, stopping for drinks and generally behaving like any other normal couple in the first flushes of a new relationship.
Whoa there, where did that come from?
I was getting ready for the evening, having had a lovely relaxing bath in the enormous tub and maybe a glass of wine or two. Tris had offered to go down to the bar to let me have the room for a while so I could pamper myself. He really had been like the perfect boyfriend. It had been a long time since anyone had treated me so well. Sure, I played the bad girl who didn’t care about being with someone and managed to flirt my way into trouble a lot of the time. Which is how I’d ended up here, really. Was it possible Jonas had, inadvertently, found me a guy I wanted to be with on a long-term basis?
Of course, I had no idea if Tris felt the same way or if he simply saw me as a meal ticket. After all, the deal Jonas proposed had been pretty sweet. But in the time we’d spent together, he’d appeared genuine. Unless he was an excellent actor.
