Michelle Mankin: Irresistible Refrain

“Yeah.” He leaned his head to the side as if he was intrigued by me. Well, I sure as hell was intrigued by him. It was really strange. As quickly as I’d taken a dislike to her, I found him to be inexplicably affable.

“Oh, you’re both already here. Good.” Beth, the congenial PR woman for Black Cat, and Mary’s closest confidante as I’d come to realize after only a week around the studio, entered the room and insinuated herself between us. “Mary wants you to work together for a while. She feels that your voices and music sensibilities are compatible.” She handed me some sheet music. “Today she wants you to focus on some covers. Just basic stuff. Dalton will be here after lunch to record, and we’ll go from there. Sound good?”

We both nodded. I turned back to Justin as soon as she was gone. He was looking over my shoulder. Way too close.

“’Roadside,’ huh? Not too bad.”

I took a step away from him. Better get this out of the way. He seemed like a nice guy, but I wasn’t going there. Not with him. Not with anybody else. Not ever again.

Deep inhale .

“Listen, Justin. I’m really looking forward to working with you, but I just need you to know that I’m not interested in anything else, ok?”

He didn’t say anything for a minute. His eyes scanned my face. “Bad breakup?”

I snorted. “Breakup would imply there had been an actual relationship in the first place.” I’d tried for a lighthearted tone, but the ‘feeling sorry for myself tears’ were stinging my eyes. “There’s just a guy that I’m never going to get over, you know?”

“No worries. I promise not to think of you as an entrée if you promise to think of me as a friend.”

I grinned. “I can totally do that.” I’d been so lonely up here in Vancouver. Without the guys, without my brother… I even missed Bridget’s nonstop chatter.

By the end of the second week, Justin and I had already cranked out a half dozen original songs. We were productive in the studio, and enjoyed each other’s company. Like me Justin didn’t seem to be interested in serious relationships. Though I couldn’t help but notice that he had a lot of one-nighters. Anywhere we went women would come on to him and slip him their phone numbers.

We fell into an easy pattern of hanging out together whenever we had free time. Justin was staying at the Sutton also, and I discovered that he felt just as isolated in Vancouver as I did. His sister lived in an apartment near the waterfront, just far enough away to be inconvenient for day to day visiting. Plus she had a busy schedule, thank God. His dad was living on Vancouver Island with his soon to be in-laws.

I shared most of my story with him. We had the common background with substance abuse and appointed ourselves each other’s accountability partners. Since our personalities were a lot alike I wasn’t sure if that was a plus or a minus. We both liked to shop. He was really into men’s fashion. If it hadn’t been for the aforementioned one nighters, I might seriously have wondered which way JJ swung, if you know what I mean.

The only thing I kept from him was the nitty gritty details about Bryan. Those I held tightly to myself. Though the way Justin looked at me, when I got myself tangled up again in the past, when I didn’t want to do anything but sit in my room, and when I just wanted to stare at the wall and remember, made me wonder just how much more he knew about me and Bryan than he let on.

Today, we’d finished up another song and were in the break room at Black Cat, negotiating our afternoon plans. Justin had his hip leaning against the counter in front of me while I stirred creamer into my coffee.

“Mintage Vintage,” I insisted, my voice a little whiny. “We did Armani Exchange yesterday. Speaking of that…” I bit my lip. Maybe I shouldn’t mention it. Justin already gave me a lot of grief about jogging alone. But yesterday at the Exchange, I’d gotten a feeling that someone was watching me. The hair had stood up at the back of my neck and everything.

“What?” Justin prompted.

“Nothing,” I mumbled. What could he do? It was just a feeling after all. I’d never actually seen anyone. It was probably just my imagination.

“You don’t look like it’s nothing.” He suddenly stopped, his face brightening with a huge smile. “Avery.”

I spun around just in time to catch her disapproving frown.

“I thought you were visiting Dad. When did you get back in town?”

“Today.” Avery looked back and forth between the two of us. Her expression was as tight as that stick up her ass. “Can I talk to you for a minute, in private?” she asked her brother.

He nodded, following her out into the hall. Even though I couldn’t make out what they were saying I didn’t need to be a genius to figure out that it was about me. And knowing Miss Perfect, I could imagine that it wasn’t complimentary.

When Justin came back in, he was alone. His expression was as cloudy as Vancouver during a rain.

“Where’d she go?” I asked looking over his shoulder.

“To work on some solo material.” He scrubbed a hand over his face, something I knew he did when irritated.

I quirked a brow. “She thinks I might be a bad influence on you.”

“I told her more like the other way around,” he confirmed. “She’s just being overprotective.”

“Oh.” I put my hand on his arm. “Don’t worry about it. She and I just don’t get along.” I peered up at him through my lashes. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I think your sister’s a stuck up bitch.”

“Hmm,” he murmured in response. “Why do I get the idea that you and Avery are a cat fight just waiting to happen?”

I squinted at my cell. It lay like a cobra on the beige couch beside me, ready to strike. I needed to make the call, but imagining the reception I was likely to receive had me recoiling.

I’d been putting this off for weeks. He would probably hang up on me. And if he didn’t there was likely to be some yelling. It wasn’t going to be easy to atone for past mistakes with him.

A big sigh.

Past time to get it over with.

I selected his number and hit send.

He picked up on the first ring. “Lacey?” His voice was as smooth as it’d ever been but there was a hard edge to it that he’d never used with me before.

Well, at least he wasn’t shouting. Not yet. “How are you?” I swallowed nervously.

“I’m fuckin’ great” A loud sigh on his end. “What do you want?”

Ok, not yelling, but close. I’d better get right to it. “I want to apologize, War. I really messed up with us, with you, and with Bryan.” I stumbled on his name. I never said it out loud anymore. Ever. I pulled on my running shoes and went jogging whenever I found myself even starting to think about him.

What was he doing? Who was he doing it with?

I ran a lot.

War didn’t respond. I could hear him breathing through the phone.

“I’m sorry. That’s all I called to say really. Except for one other thing.” I bit my lip. “Warren, you and Bryan are best friends. You need him. He needs you. You need each other.”

“He put you up to this?”

“No.” My chest burned. “I haven’t seen or heard from him in five weeks.” A short pause. I couldn’t stop myself from asking. “Have you?” My voice squeaked desperately.

“No.” A pause on his side. I could hear music in the background, and a female voice speaking in Spanish.