Page 34 of My Rock Star Neighbor
He winks, and I can’t help but smile back.Then he raises one eyebrow, doing his mock imitation of a dashing duke from when he caught me reading a regency romance on the fire escape last summer.
“Are you trying to make me laugh?”I ask.
“Yes.I love your laugh, and you look especially pretty when you smile,” he says.
Those words hang between us.The air feels weighted and like we’re in our own bubble.He flushes and looks away.He looks like he didn’t mean to say that out loud, and I wonder if he meant them for real.
Because I think he did.
Nicklovesmy laugh and thinks I’m pretty.My smile widens, and I feel like I’ve been lit from within—like I’m one of those lava lamps that is now glowing with bubbles of happiness floating through me.
The cab makes a jerky turn around a corner.
Nick turns his head to look out the back window of our cab.“Are we being followed?I wouldn’t put it past Christina.”
I look out too, but I can’t tell.It’s a bunch of cars, taxis, and black sedans, but nothing identified as a news van.
“Did it bother you to see Christina?”I ask Nick.
“Definitely not,” he says easily and chuckles.“She must hate having to cover me.It’s not that she wants to cover hard-hitting news like you, but she definitely doesn’t want to write a story on an up-and-coming rock star, even if that was her original angle.She wants to be on the red carpet.”
Did Nick find that attractive?
That cold water reality of Christine and how much we differ returns me to my mantra: Don’t fall for Nick.
This is fun and flirty, and I am so,sotempted to give in to these feelings.But Nick is not for me.I’m not going to be seen as a hard-hitting reporter if I’m the known girlfriend of the lead singer of Orchard Folly, especially if Nick makes it big.But that might also be a benefit because they might discount me and give me more information.No.They probably won’t take me seriously and give me an interview to begin with.This is just for three months to help each other out, and then we’ll remain friends and go our separate ways.My shoulders slump.That thought is not cheering me up.How could Christina give up Nick for an article she had the choice to write?They were actually dating.Nick was her boyfriend.If he was my boyfriend— No, we’re just friends.Stick to the facts, Maddie.You’re a journalist.Not a fiction writer.
Chapter ten
Nick
Ileanbackagainstthe wall of the dance studio.A full-length mirror on the front wall reflects my loose-fitting shirt and pants back at me.When Maddie hugged me from behind when I almost told Christina off…it felt like such a boost of support.When Maddie looked up at me yesterday in the cab after I told her she was pretty when she laughed… I wanted to kiss her.I take another swig of water from my water bottle to cool down.
Especially now that I know she’s not interested in dating anyone else.No lost love is waiting in the wings.
This is not good.I need to keep feelings out of this.This is a business deal.I can’t date anyone.Maddie is someone who wants a family and deserves a partner who is there for her full-time, not someone who is traveling and “married to his music,” as Christina so aptly put it.
I can’t believe Christina had to cover my new relationship.But I realized last night that I was over her completely.I like Maddie so much more, even as just a friend, than I ever liked Christina.Christina was attractive at first, and she was driven like me, but she doesn’t have that moral core that Maddie has.I never felt I could fully trust her because of the way she talked about getting stories and how she’d do anything.And I was right in the end.
The photos of Maddie and me in the news articles look like I want to kiss her.Most of them are titled some variation of “Nick’s New Love”, and the reception is about as good as it can be.Sure, a few disgruntled fans question what I see in Maddie, but the majority of the comments are about how happy we both look.“Cara” is quiet.But that only makes me nervous.Is she gone now for good, or is she planning some new approach?She increased her follower count, and I’m hoping she’ll now move on to a new story.That would be too easy, right?
I was being honest in the interview when I said Maddie makes me laugh.Even now, my lips curl up.Maddie mocked me during that interview.I “support her career”—when she’s been yelling at me for a year that she can’t function on limited sleep—and I’m “so emotionally open.”That’s the first time a “girlfriend” has said that.Most of the time, any woman I date gets frustrated:“You’re holding back, Nick.”
Yes, I hold back.Because my relationships aren’t meant to last long term.And we both agree to that up front.I’ve always been honest before starting a relationship.I always say that if I ever make it, I’ll have to travel and be on the road for months, and that’s not a life for a family.But the fact that I say “family” seems to make any woman I date think I’m considering having a family, and then they don’t hear the rest.
It’s why I stopped dating.That, and Christina’s lovely tell-all article about me.I’m surprised one of the reporters didn’t quote her line in the article that “he literally gets up in the middle of the night and starts scribbling on scraps of paper” and ask Maddie if I still do that.Maddie could have definitely added her own stories about how I write at all hours of the night—whenever the muse hits.Dating a wannabe rock star is not all roses.
I finish gulping down my water.MusEn wants two choreographed dance routines, and they’re providing two backup dancers to perform with me while a backtrack plays.I’m in the studio with the choreographer and my dance captain learning the steps.It’s like learning another language.They finish conferring about what to do next and ask me if I’m ready to go again.I nod.It’s cool to see how the choreographer has interpreted my lyrics and the musical score into physical movements.At first, she clearly thought I was hopeless, but she was kind enough to say, “Fake it till you make it.”But now I’ve memorized the first half, and a bit of respect has formed in her eyes.
I will do anything for this break—almost.I haven’t worked this long to mess up now.If they want me to dance, I will dance.
She presses play, and the song starts up again.I tap my foot to the beat, already bouncing with my knees.And we’re off.
Knee up, scoop, two-step,pas de bourrée(which I initially pronounced as parbolle), slide…
We’re in sync.It’s amazing.I grin at her in the mirror, and she gives a thumbs-up.
I mess up again in the second half, going left when I should have gone right.
