“Oh,” I said sheepishly. “Sorry.”
I slipped out from underneath his arm and rounded the car to the passenger side. I opened the door, sat, and put on my seatbelt. I stared out the window, chewing my thumbnail and cursing myself for tying up my hair. The red blush I felt coming hit me with a vengeance and there was nowhere to hide. Stupid blood.
Thomas
Good God, January was a beautiful woman. When she came down the stairs, all fresh, no makeup, hair damp and down her back, I thought I was going to keel over at how feminine and natural she looked, but when I came outside and saw that she’d braided her hair like she was ready for a red carpet event in the five minutes I’d been away from her, I was definitely floored. Or, "concreted" depending how you looked at it.
I blundered around like an idiot at my own feet staring at her incredible face. I’d given her fifteen minutes—not actually thinking she’d only take the fifteen minutes. Weren’t women supposed to take twice as long as the time limit given them? She was supposed to take longer, and then I was supposed to give her shit for it. After all that, she was supposed to put me in my place. That’s how it was supposed to work. She made me feel like an idiot in so many ways. Particularly in this moment because we were going to be hella early and it was all because I put a ridiculous time limit on this gorgeous girl just because I felt like being an ass. And I was.
I got in the car and belted myself in. I glanced January’s direction and noticed her neck was a flaming red. All I could do was smile like an imbecile at that knowledge. She was flushed and I’d deciphered that she only became beet red for one of two reasons. One, she was flustered because she was embarrassed or, two, she was flustered because she was attracted to whomever she was talking to. My smug ass was sure this flush was the latter because, well, I was attracted to her in the previous moment, but that didn’t make me feel as pissed off as I’d been when it had happened before. No, it made me excited and hopeful, therefore making me pissed off at myself for not being pissed off. I’m an idiot.
I started the car and put it in drive before jetting off onto the cobblestone road and taking a left on Beresford. We were at the port in less than fifteen minutes. Luckily, there were cars lined up to board the ferry, which essentially looked like an overgrown speedboat, if I was being honest. That made me slightly nervous, but apparently the Dublin Swift would take us to Holyhead in North Wales in less than two hours and that would work out perfectly for time as we could be in London by five in the evening, leaving us just enough time to rest and go out that night. There were three bands the label wanted us to look at.
“Couple of things,” I said, breaking the silence. January jumped. I cleared my throat. “Sorry. Anyway, um, we should be in London by this evening. There’re three bands there Seven wants us to look at and I know of two for sure that I have been wanting to see since meeting them both in New York when I was with The Ivories.”
She turned her alluring head my direction and I bit my lip to keep myself from rushing across the tiny space and kissing off her face. “Five bands in one night!”
“Yeah, I know it’s the pits, but they don’t like paying our bills if it doesn’t prove worth it, catch me? This is a hard job, January. It doesn’t pay shit. You get no job assurance, no perks, no sleep. When you do get to sleep, it’s in some shady places sometimes, but it’s worth it for most of us because we get paid to listen to music. You think you can hang?”
She furrowed her brows at me. “Anything you dish my way, I can take. Trust me. I’m a big girl.”
Good thing the car was in drive or I would have lifted her into my lap at that last comment. “I’m sure you can,” I said, not able to help myself.
“What?” she said, whipping her head back around.
“Nothing, I mean, we don’t have to stay for all the songs in their sets, you know. We can get a feel for them and if we don’t like it, we can move on.”
“Oh, okay, that’s cool.”
As the line to board our car inched closer to the ship, I noticed January’s hand twisting in circles. She kept worrying her lip and pinching her brows. Her breathing got deeper and she actually started to worry me.
“You okay?” I asked, concerned.
“What?” she asked, turning my way again, her lips pursed.
“You okay?” I said, laughing. “You look ready to jump ship and we haven’t boarded yet. You afraid to sail?”
“Uh, something like that,” she said, fretting at her hands.
“It’s okay. I’m not going to lie to you, it’s a bit of a rocky ride but it’s completely safe.” A small squeak sounded from her side of the car. “January?” I asked.
But she couldn’t answer me because we were asked to follow the line ahead of us to board. I obeyed the guy’s gesture up the ramp and parked behind the long line of cars. January and I both got out and after I locked the car doors, we headed up the steel grate stairs into an elaborate lobby, similar to something you’d see on a cruise ship but much smaller in size.
I pointed to a lounge area where a few people were already mingling about and we sat. January plopped her purse on her lap and started sifting through its contents, lazily at first but grew more frantic as time passed.
“January?” I asked but she didn’t answer. “January,” I said a bit louder but still no response. “January!” I practically yelled.
She looked up at me and her eyes were wide and distraught. “My medicine,” she said as if I’d understand.
“Your medicine,” I repeated.
“Yes, my medicine. I - I need it and it’s not here. I must have packed it in the duffel.” She stood up, right as the captain was making his announcement we were leaving port.
“You can’t go down there, January. All the doors to the cars will be locked. It’s too dangerous.”
She seemed to become overwrought at that news and I felt like my heart was going to pound out of my chest. Oh my God, what if these pills are a matter of life and death.
“Come on,” I said, grabbing her hand in mine. Instead of the usual warmth I’d felt before, they were ice cold. As we walked, I couldn’t stop myself from warming them between my own. “What,” I said, before taking a deep breath, bracing myself for news she had some crazy heart condition or something. “What are the pills for?” I tried to ask breezily.