Starting From Somewhere (Starting From 4)

“Thanks, I think.”

Bobby J set a thumb and forefinger under my chin and grinned. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

I bristled, swatting his hand as I took a step backward. “Well, if you must know—”

“Good morning!” Charlie waltzed into the lobby with his laptop crooked under his arm. “I see you’ve met our new intern. Cody, this is Bobby J. He’s Jealousy’s guitarist. And he’s a bit of a flirt, so beware.”

“Hmm, I remember,” I mumbled, hoping my voice was inaudible.

No such luck.

Charlie’s expressive brows rose a notch as he cast his gaze between us. “Oh. Have you met?”

“Yes. We met briefly at the bar next door,” I replied.

“The Zebra Den? Ew.” Charlie wrinkled his nose in distaste. “To each his own. Oh…wait. Was there hanky-panky involved?”

“Well, you know me, Char,” Bobby J drawled mischievously.

“I do indeed. No details necessary,” he huffed.

“No hanky-panky. It was no big deal,” I lied…’cause meeting this sexy beast of a man still felt like the highlight of my year. Not something I’d admit to either of them. So, I wisely steered the topic away from me and blurted, “He was asking me about my glasses because he needs his eyes checked.”

Bobby J scowled. “Hey.”

“Do you? I love my optometrist. Dr. Canter’s office is near Century City Mall. She’s fabulous. Call her, Bobby J. I’ll text you her number. Give her my name as a referral and ask if she can fit you in right away. Sometimes you end up having to wait weeks to get an appointment. It’s wise to use your connections if you can.” Charlie glanced up when the door opened and waved to the young woman bustling inside. “Bianca, darling! How’s Maisie?”

Charlie set his computer on the reception desk and pulled the clearly distressed brunette into his arms. When I stepped aside to give them privacy, Bobby J followed.

“Thanks for throwing me under the bus,” he chided playfully.

“I’m sorry. I got nervous.”

“No big. This was the internship you mentioned, eh?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

“You knew who I was, didn’t you?”

“Maybe. But I wasn’t stalking you. You came to talk to me at the bar, remember?”

“Yeah, but I might have shown a little caution before I stuck my tongue down your throat. I spent the past week regretting that I didn’t get your phone number before you ran away. And majorly regretting that I didn’t take you up on your offer.”

“What offer?”

He gave a faux-innocent shrug. “To follow you home and fuck your brains out.”

I gaped in dismay. “I did not offer that.”

“Liar,” he teased with a playful wink. “I ’spose that was for the best. Charlie would skin me alive if he thought I was messin’ with you. He might be little, but he’s ferocious.”

“Yeah, I can tell.”

He scowled again. “In fact, do you realize what you just did?”

“No. What did I do?”

“You told him I needed a doctor appointment. He’s not gonna let up until I go. He’ll nag me every damn day. ‘Bobby J, did you call yet? Want me to do it for you?’ Thanks a fuckin’ lot,” he groused playfully, raking his fingers through his hair.

I snickered at his over-the-top grumbling. “I apologize. You made me nervous. I don’t really want him to know I was the one flirting with you.”

He smiled. “You were damn good at it.”

I lowered my head in defeat. “I sucked.”

“Do you suck?” He held up a hand like a stop sign when I fixed him with a piercing stare. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Look, I gotta run. I’m late to practice, and my phone is buzzing in my pocket like a damn vibrator. Where do you sit?”

I pointed in the general direction of the office beyond the lobby. “In the far corner.”

“I’ll come find you sometime. We’ve got ourselves some unfinished business,” he singsonged.

I cleared my throat and tugged at his T-shirt before he had a chance to pull away.

“The answer is yes,” I whispered. “I do suck.”

Bobby J crossed his arms and grinned like a loon. “You’re flirting again. And if you’re not flirting, you’re just plain dirty. I like that too. I’ll see you around, Cody boy.”

I bit back a smile as I watched him walk away.

Okay, that wasn’t so bad. Maybe I hadn’t totally messed up this opportunity after all.

The next few days were a little…odd. Here’s the deal. I was majorly infatuated with a rock and roll man. In a way, I was basically reliving my high school years when unrequited crushes were my evil specialty. The quarterback, the captain of the wrestling team, cheer squad leader…I gravitated toward macho types who’d never reciprocate my feelings.

I wasn’t exactly a troll, but I wasn’t cool. At least not the “popular” version of cool. No one on the planet could ever convince me that Lord of the Rings fandoms, Comic-Con, and Deep Space Nine were lame. They were awesome. But screaming electric guitars and bad boys who lived to make mischief were also kind of awesome. Besides, I didn’t have to exclusively pledge allegiance to my fellow geeks. It was possible to like both, right? Right. And almost everyone agreed that rock and roll was cool. In theory, this internship would give me ample material for the editorial piece I offered to write. But it was also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have a front-row seat to band shenanigans before real life resumed in the fall.