Page 49 of Composed at Randy's
“I’m not tired yet.”
“Aren’t you?” Kai gives me a pointed look and I realize I’d just said that mid-yawn.
The excitement and exhaustion of the past few days catch up to me, and suddenly I'm yawning hard enough to expel my soul.
“As soon as you’re asleep, I’ll take care of everything, Wren,” Kai promises.
“Come on, man, let's get you into bed.” Marty hauls me to my feet and starts to usher me to my room. It's a lot cleaner than I left it. Actually, the entire apartment is cleaner than I left it. I bet Kai panic-cleaned the entire place while he was trying to find me.
It’s a very him thing to do.
I'm out and dead to the world the moment my head touches my pillow. My dreams are filled with fishnets, strawberry blonde hair, freckles, and Bael’s majestic crow tattoo.
When I wake up, I know I've been asleep for a long time because I feel amazing. Gwen was right. All I needed was enough rest and food, and now I’m as good as new.
I catapult myself out of my bed, race into my living room and see that Kai and Marty are still there, but Shelly is long gone. They’re both wearing different clothes than before, and Kai looks fresh out of the shower, hair slicked back and still damp.
Wow. I slept a really long time.
Kai is making bacon and eggs, and Marty is being his weird-ass self by watching TV while sitting upside down on my comfiest chair, head hanging over the edge of the seat, legs flopped over the backrest. The kimono he’s wearing is falling down, but he’s wearing leggings so I’m not seeing the full Marty show, thank god.
“Bacon!” I cry happily as I race towards the kitchen and slam into Kai. I hang onto his waist until he gives me the sweet, sweet breakfast goods. Once I get my loot, he’s dead to me, and I scurry away to snarf down some of the best bacon in the world.
“Hey, have you two ever been to Randy's?” I ask around a mouthful of bacon dipped in maple syrup. “The food there is pretty good, and it's as gay as the day is long.”
Marty perks his head up and twists his body like a stretchy yoga cat until he's sitting up and looking at me. “You have my interest.”
“This place is so very you, Marty. It’s the kind of place where if Elvis was gay and still alive, that’s where you’d find him hiding out from fame and fortune.” In fact, I’ll bet that’s exactly who Randy is. No fucking wonder Shay and Mel keep arguing about who Randy is. If heisElvis, I doubt Mel has had sex with him. Dude has got to be ancient at this point. His dick would probably fall right off at the first thrust.
Marty's up and out of the chair in a single, fluid motion. “Tell me everything.” I knew he’d be into that diner.
Did I mention that Marty moonlights as an exotic dancer? My bestie is jacked and bendy as hell. By day, he teaches art at our old school, and for funsies, he gets his slut on for a ridiculous amount of money.
I love him so much.
I regale him and Kai with the CliffsNotes version of my adventure, and they are both equal parts amused and alarmed until I end it with, “They're all wonderful people and I'm afraid that none of them will ever speak to me again because I ditched them.”
Marty gives me a hug and says, “Don't worry, man. Kai and I have your back. If you have a hard time finding your words, we'll help you out.”
“I think you did an amazing job taking care of yourself, Wren,” Kai says. When I snort, he adds, “I'm not talking about when you were at the apartment alone. You did a shit job at that, but none of us expect you to be good at long-term self-care. That's what you have us for. I'm talking about how well you didfor yourself alone and with strangers. You allowed them to take care of you when you needed it, and you left the situation when you realized it wasn't working out for you.”
“But itcouldwork out for me. With you guys still in the mix, I mean.” I need to make that perfectly clear. “Bael and his band are wonderful people. I can't wait for you to meet them. Speaking of which, were you able to contact Harvey, Kai?”
“I was, actually. In fact?—"
Marty cuts off Kai mid-sentence and grabs my arm. “Your guy’s name is Bael? Are you kidding me? Are you trying to say that you spent the past few days hanging out with Baelfire?”
I nod. “Have you heard of them before?”
“Have I heard of them? Have you been living under a rock? Never mind; forget I said that. Of course you have. Wren, Baelfire is one of the hottest bands out there right now. Everyone wants a piece of them, and you're saying that you're dating the lead singer?”
“Kinda? I mean, I might not be anymore now that I've ditched him. He's probably pretty pissed at me right now, which is why I need Kai to find him so that I can talk to him.”
“Harvey and I had a nice long talk,” Kai says, finally managing to break back into the conversation. “Bael definitely knows how to find you now.”
Wow. That makes me far more nervous than I thought it would. But it's good. Bael can find me and I can find him. I only hope to God we can work this out.
“I'd like to circle back around to how Wren managed to bag the notoriously single and sexiest man in the music industry right now. You're introducing me to him ASAP unless you don't want me to sneak you candy for Halloween when Kai isn't looking.”
