Sugar Baby Beautiful(13)

“Stay here.” He rose to his feet, dropping the tablet onto the couch before returning to his bedroom.

“And we’re back to him bossing me around,” I muttered, even though he hadn’t necessarily stopped being bossy in the short twenty-four hours I had known him.

Putting my purse and shoes on the floor, I sat and rested my back against the couch. He came back, holding sheets of paper and a pencil.

“What, are you going to draw me?”

“Not quite,” he said, sitting beside me and handing me the paper. “Do you think you can remember any part of it?”

I stared at the sheet music, my heart beginning to race. Finally, I dropped them and stood. “I need to go.”

“Where do you need to be at 1:00 a.m.?”

“I have to be at work in three hours. I need sleep,” I said as I reached for the door, but he stopped me and leaned against it with his arms crossed.

“Move,” I demanded.

“What godforsaken job requires you to be up at four in the morning?”

“A credit card call center for the east coast, and it’s a decent job.” Godforsaken, my ass. However, he didn’t seem to believe me.

He tilted his head to the side. “How many jobs do you have?”

“As many as I need to.”

“Fine.” He stepped aside. “Just admit you didn’t come up with that music. Nothing annoys me more than liars.”

“I’m not lying,” I snapped.

He shrugged as he went back to the couch. “I get it. You wanted to impress me. You didn’t have to go so far though. Your playing was good enough—”

“Hey, asshole, I’ve already said it once. I’m not lying. So, I’m not lying. And I couldn’t care less if you were impressed or not. Our relationship is over as of this morning anyway. But since you’re so hard-headed, I’ll prove it.” Marching back to the couch, I dropped everything and reached for the sheets and pencil.

Brushing my hair behind my ears, I took a deep breath. I couldn’t believe I was doing this.

I wrote the notes down as I heard them play in my head. Just like when I was younger, the moment I thought about it, it was all I could hear. The music crashed in my mind like waves on a beach. Pressing a hand against one ear, I ignored the pain as I wrote down each note as quickly as I could, moving from one sheet of paper to the next.

“Felicity. Felicity?” He placed his hands on my shoulders, and I jumped. For a split second, I had forgotten he was there. “You’re crying.”

I blinked, and sure enough, there were tears in my eyes. Dropping the pencil, I wiped my face.

“Oh, God! I’m so sorry. I’m fine.” I handed him the sheets. “That’s all I have. I don’t know what comes next. I haven’t played it yet. I have to go.”

I ran as fast as my feet would take me. I ran from him and the music. Hopefully it would be the last time I ever met either of them again.



1:57 a.m.

“Kill me.” I groaned and buried my face in the pillow on the couch.

“Oh, come on. It couldn’t have been that bad.” Cleo sat on the floor next to my feet. “What happened?”

“I cried!” I yelled into the pillow.

“You what?”

Peeking at her, I saw that her red hair was pulled into a bun. “I cried.”

“Oh God, why?” Mark groaned as he lifted my feet and slid in under my legs.

“I keep asking myself that too.” I shifted onto my back and stared up at the ceiling, shaking my head at my own damn stupidity.

“Was it the sex?” Cleo questioned. “Was it so good you cried tears of joy? Or so awful you wished you’d never gotten out of bed this morning?”

“Does that look like the skin of someone who regrets getting out of bed in the morning?” Mark pointed to my chest, and I quickly crossed my arms over my breasts.

“No, I didn’t cry about the sex,” I snapped at her. “And yes, the sex was great. It was passionate, a little dirty, and hella sexy.”

Thinking about it still made me feel hot.

“So, the crying….”

“It was the music,” I whispered. “He asked me to write down my music, and you know me; I became all emotional about it.”

“Seriously? You cried about music? You’re hopeless, and I’m tapping out of this one.” Cleo turned back toward the television.

“So are you going to see him again?” Mark asked.

“No.” But I kind of wanted to, though I didn’t know why. “He’s a good lay, and he’s super hot, along with being rich, but honestly that was it.” I thought, not realizing I’d said it out loud until Mark replied.