“There’s nothing in my contract about noise,” I told her. “Anything that’s in yours must have been added after I signed on. Which again was years ago.”
She simply rolled her eyes, though. “Well, then I’ll talk to the police about the city noise ordinance. Whatever I have to do,” she insisted.
I stared at her. I couldn’t help but feel vaguely taken aback. This woman had some balls. I couldn’t help but feel admiration that she wasn’t going to put up with my dickhead demeanor.
All the same, I knew that I couldn’t give up. My career was at stake here. My freedom, my future, my release, everything.
Still, there was something about her that drew me in. I found myself wanting to get closer to her. So I did, crossing the gap between us. I leaned in, propping an arm against the door, hemming her in. “Where the hell did you come from, anyway?” I hardened my tone slightly. “Because around here, that’s just not how we do things.”
She stared up at me, her gaze stoic. Somehow, she didn’t seem even the slightest bit intimidated. “Where did I come from?” she echoed. “Out of your worst nightmares.”
I blinked at her and then laughed, shaking my head. I couldn’t help it. She was one of a kind.
Suddenly, the urge to kiss her struck me. The look on her face, though, told me that she would bite my lips off if I tried. I knew that we had accomplished everything that we would here and started to back out the door.
I turned back for one last look at her. Suddenly, with the light catching her in that way, burnishing her hair to a bright copper and making her green eyes look almost ethereal, winning the argument seemed a lot less important.
I stared at her, lost for words for a moment. Before I could gather my wits, she slammed the door shut in my face. I shook my head, but I was grinning as I walked away. My grin widened as she opened the door and shouted one last thing after me: “And the next time you push your way into my apartment like that, I’ll tack on trespassing as well!”
I chuckled.
Things with my new neighbor were certainly going to be interesting. I knew that this feud wouldn’t be enough to take my mind off my worries about the band, but it would at least be a welcome distraction.
4
Leah
I looked around at the group as Piper excused herself to the restroom for a moment. I couldn’t help but feel proud of myself. I might not be friends with most of the women who were scattered in our general vicinity, but I knew all of their names, and I didn’t think that I had offended anyone too badly just yet.
This was the first girls’ night out that I had been invited to with my new coworkers. Piper had invited me, and I took it that this was a weekly ritual. I was hoping that this would end that way for me as well.
I was so relieved that it was Piper who had been tapped to show me the ropes on my first day. She and I had become fast friends, and she had taken her duties beyond the office. She was funny, upbeat, and active, and she had offered to show me around LA as well as find me some friends. She had really taken me under her wing.
This was all still way out of my depth, but I had the feeling that if I stuck around with Piper for long enough, maybe I would start to feel like I belonged here. Eventually.
When she had invited me to this girls’ night, I guess I had expected something a little tamer. Maybe like the opportunity to get to know some of my new coworkers, maybe a karaoke night or pub trivia. Instead, we were at a crowded bar on Sunset Boulevard. The live music hadn’t started yet, but I could already barely hear myself think.
It wasn’t like we didn’t have this kind of thing back home, or some variant of it. This was a Wednesday night, though. Apparently weekdays—and workdays—didn’t seem to matter when you lived in LA. That was going to take some getting used to.
“You’re going to love the band,” one of Piper’s friends said, leaning in toward me so that she could be heard. “They’re really great. We’ve seen them a couple times before, and I think they could really explode.”
One of the other girls laughed and draped her arm around the first girl’s shoulders. “Ignore her. She only says that because she has the hots for the lead singer,” she joked.
“I mean, can you blame me?” the other girl said, rolling her eyes and grinning.
I glanced toward the stage, hoping to catch a glimpse of this attractive singer. There was still no one there, though. I turned back to the group. It didn’t matter, anyway. I wasn’t interested in going home with someone that night. I wasn’t interested in getting involved with rock stars in general.