Page 3 of Everything Is Yours
“Best you get that heavy breathing and your flushed face under control, Mya. If Lily walked through that door right now, you’d have to do some fancy dancing to convince her that this meeting is above board. You’re a hot mess girl.”
I thought she was adorable to try to save our respective reputations, but as couples go, I thought everyone would have struggled to believe we’d cheat on Lily and Jack with each other.
She glanced at her watch, “Dang, Alfie, it’s 12:45. We only have two hours at the most.”
Inclining my head, I gestured toward one of the leather chairs by the coffee table. Mya placed her purse on the console table by the door. She wandered over to take a seat while I knelt at the bed and swept my hands under the mattress to grab the brochures I’d hidden from Lily.
“Seriously, Alfie? Under the mattress? I thought they only did that stuff in the movies. Don’t ever have an affair will you? We’ll be reading about you being found in someone’s closet, or there will be pictures of you on someone’s balcony or window ledge all over the internet. Couldn’t you be more original in your hiding place?”
I smirked sheepishly because I had no defense. Lily almost caught me talking to the travel agent. She had returned to our room early and I panicked, sliding the brochures under the bed. I’d forgotten they were there until Mya arrived.
“Enough of the smart mouth, Mya, let’s get this plan together.”
Chapter 3 Making Plans
Mya and I worked quickly, arranging flights and accommodation, transport and a few extras we wanted, to make everything special for everyone. We only had three nights because of everyone’s work commitments.
“Alright, check this before I press to confirm the numbers, Alfie. Lily, you, Jack, me, Dave, Emily, Lennon, Cody, Uncle Rick and Emma…is that it?”
“No, you need to add Henry, Jed and the two guys from XrAid’s security team. Better check with Rick, Lennon and Cody in case they have women in tow. Hell, book it now and get an extra two cabins. We can sort the other stuff out later. ”
Punching the tablet again, she glanced up at me and smiled widely, obviously excited.
“Eek, Jack and Lily are going to poop in their pants when they find out what we’re planning.”
Smiling warmly at her youthful choice of words, my mind drifted momentarily to the fact that I was planning a trip for a group of people. During my late teens, I’d been a bit of a loner when I wasn’t with the band. I’d never really felt like I belonged to a big crowd of people before I’d met Lily. But it felt like we were like family. Alright— a pretty dysfunctional family and as much of a family as three groups of wayward rock bands and my Lily’s group of friends could be.
Surrounded by good people, I realized that life was more important than work. They were the family I chose, real people in a world where life got pretty surreal for some of us otherwise. Being in a famous rock band or living with someone who was, wasn’t easy. Everyone we were close to felt the pressure. Plus, if I was an ass, or one of the others was, there was no shortage of scathingly honest remarks from people we trusted when it mattered.
Mya squeezed my arm with excitement and dragged me out of my daydreaming. I chuckled at her enthusiasm and leaned over to hug her.
“I owe you, honey. I’d have been lost trying to arrange this by myself. I’d have had my PA make the arrangements, but I want it to be a complete surprise, and I couldn’t trust that one of the others in the team wouldn’t pick it up and mention it to Lily.”
Standing up, Mya leaned over to grab the red woolen cardigan from the back of the chair. I hadn’t seen her take it off. Pushing her hand into the sleeve she widened her eyes and gave me a small smile again.
“I’d better make myself scarce before Lily comes back.”
As she walked to the door, my cell began to vibrate in my pocket. Fishing it out, I saw it was Rick.
“It’s Rick,” I stated, and swiped the screen to accept his call.
My heart almost stopped when he said he was in the foyer with Lily. They were on their way to the elevators. My alarm that Lily had returned so quickly, and that Mya was still standing in the apartment must have been written on my face.
Mya instantly grabbed my forearm and mouthed, “What’s wrong?”
With only twenty-four hours before our trip, I didn’t want all our efforts to surprise Lily to have been in vain. We’d been working on this for nearly a week; pulling the dates everyone was available and where we were going. I shook my head in astonishment and began dragging Mya toward the door. My mind was in chaos, and I was too short on time to explain what was going on. Once outside the suite, I headed in the direction of the stairs pulling Mya by the hand and hung up on Rick at the same time.
“Lily, Rick, elevator, quick. Stairs, thank you. I’ll call you later.”
With that, I opened the door and pecked her on the cheek. I pushed her through the doorway into the stairwell and slammed the door shut behind her. As I turned, the elevator door opened, and Rick escorted Lily out, which meant I was behind them walking back to the suite.
“Boo!” I shouted from my makeshift hiding place. Lily jumped, and Rick punched me in the stomach.
“Ouch! For fuck’s sake, Rick, can’t you take a joke, dude?” I asked, hunched over with my hand rubbing my stomach to soothe the pain he’d left there.
“Alfie. Damn! You scared the shit out of me sneaking up on us like that,” he said.
Lily piped up in Rick’s defense and stared pointedly at me, “Alfie you should know better than to do something that stupid. We have enough surprises dealing with the fans to last us a lifetime, never mind you jumping out like that. Whatever possessed you to do that?”
