Gamble With Desire

Addison slowly opened her eyes the next morning, blinking a few times. After focusing she saw Alex's peaceful face merely inches from hers, and realized that they were in a cuddling position. She stealthily wriggled out of Alex's loose grasp and got out of bed, looking at the clock - it read 9:32 in bright red numbers. Realizing how hungry she was, she walked over to the big mirror on the wall, tied her hair up into a loose ponytail, and put on her shoes. Addison grabbed the keycard from the night table and quietly exited the room.

She found her way to the lobby where there was a breakfast. It wasn't anything spectacular, so she grabbed a couple muffins and a cup of coffee. Addison headed back to the room and sat down at the small table after retreiving her phone. She was happy to see that Logan hadn't tried contacting her and replied a text to her best friend, Sophie, asking where she was. Addison smirked, remembering that Sophie was a pretty big fan of All Time Low. Hey, Soph, guess who I'm in a hotel room with?

As she took another bite out of her muffin, she heard a grunt coming from the bed. Stifling a giggle, Addison looked up at the bed to see Alex opening his eyes. Rubbing them, he yawned and rolled over.

"Good morning," she said and slid her phone open after it vibrated.

Johnny Depp? Addison laughed and texted, Guess again.

"Hey," Alex said sleepily.

"I grabbed you a muffin, if you're interested," she said. "I wasn't sure about coffee or anything."

"Thanks," he replied, a bit more awake. He hopped out of bed and Addison realized he was only wearing boxers.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly and walked over to his suitcase.

"I've seen more inappropriate things than that," said Addison and chuckled.

Just tell me! texted Sophie.

"Hey Alex, what's your last name?"

"Gaskarth," replied Alex, confused. "Why?"

"Because I'm about to give my friend a heart attack, she loves you guys."

He laughed. "Tell her I say hi."

Alex Gaskarth, he says hi, typed Addison.

After pulling on a shirt and a pair of jeans, Alex joined Addison at the table and picked up the muffin.

"So, you behaved last night," Addison stated.

Alex laughed. "Yeah, I figured I'd miss my penis a lot. It gives me too much joy, ya know?"

Addison laughed as well. "I bet."

Her phone vibrated. No Addison, seriously, who? T_T Addison giggled. "She doesn't believe me."

I'm dead serious, if you don't believe me, fine.

"So I guess today we just have to wait for the airline to call?" asked Addison, putting her phone down.

Alex shrugged, his mouth full of chocolate chip muffin. "Yeah, I guess so."

They didn't have to wait very long; about half an hour later, they each got a call on their cell phones saying that the storm had passed and they could board a flight departing at 1:37.

They didn't see much point in staying in the room any longer, not to mention check-out time was soon, so Addison and Alex decided to take a cab back over to the airport. As they were walking into the airport, Addison gasped.

"I almost forgot, I'm terrible!" she exclaimed.

"Almost forgot what?" Alex asked, stopping and turning around to face her.

"How much was she room?" she asked, digging through her purse to find her wallet.

"Addison, don't be ridiculous," said Alex.

"Alex, just tell me," Addison said exhasperatedly.

"No, really," he persisted. "It's fine; I would have paid the same price whether you were with me or not."

"Well I wouldn't have," she argued. "I would have had to pay if I went somewhere else."

"Consider it to be a gift from me to you," he said and grinned.

"Alexander, stop being so damn gallant and take my money!" commanded Addison.

"Fine," he sighed. "Since I don't feel like arguing anymore, give me twenty."

Addison narrowed her eyes, knowing damn well that the room had cost more than forty dollars, but handed him the money nonetheless.

"See?" she asked. "That wasn't so hard." She had always hated charity; it made her feel too dependant.

Rolling his eyes, Alex continued walking, Addison trailing behind him. After going to the courtesy desk and finding out where they needed to go, the two of them went through security and sat down at their gate.

"So," Alex said stretching his arms, "Tell me about yourself, Addison."

She blinked. "There's not really much to tell," said Addison and shrugged. "I don't lead a very exciting life, unlike yourself, I'm sure," she said with a smile tugging on the corners of her lips.

"Come on," he persisted. "I don't believe that. How'd you wind up in New York?"

"When I was sixteen I started dating a guy who was a musician. After we graduated, he wanted to go to New York for a bit, you know, see if he could make anything happen. I wanted to get out of Baltimore, even if it wasn't permanent. So I went with him and fell in love with it."

"That's cool," said Alex. "Where do you work?"

"By some mysterious force of the universe, I ended up being an editor for AP Magazine."

He raised his eyebrows. "Really? That's awesome!"

Addison laughed. "What about you, how did your band take off?"

"See, I'm actually a hypnoticist," replied Alex. "Quite a skill to have in the music business." They both chuckled, and Alex continued. "Nah. To this day, I actually keep asking myself that same question - we're so lucky," he said almost bashfully. "I dunno, in high school we played around the Baltimore area and started building up some hype, and we toured the east coast every chance we could. Then a few months before graduation, we got signed to Hopeless Records."

"Now that is awesome."

"I must have done something right in this life, anyway," Alex continued. "I mean, I'm just a boy from England."

This took Addison by surprise. "You don't have an accent," she observed.

Alex shook his head. "Nah, it's long gone. I moved here when I was seven." He paused. "Sometimes if I'm with my relatives over there it comes through a little bit, though."

Thinking to herself that Logan would shit twice and fall over if he found out that Addison had met a guy like Alex in her escape, both being musicians persuing the same dream and all, she burst out laughing.

"Do I have something on my face?" Alex asked in a panicked voice, his hands flying to his cheeks.

"No, you don't. I just thought of something ironically funny, that's all."

"Share."

She hesitated, and smiled. "Maybe. It kind of goes in hand with the other thing I may or may not be telling you in the future."

Alex sighed. "You're difficult."

"I prefer to think of it as strong-willed."

They fell silent. "Hey, Alex?"

He looked up.

"Listen, about the way I treated you here last night and on the plane and stuff, I'm really sorry," said Addison. "I just had a lot on my mind and definitely wasn't in a good mood for people; it wasn't you."

"No worries," he said and smiled. "I think everyone has those days."

"Hah," she scoffed. "You don't know the half of it."

"Can't argue there," he said and smiled slightly.

After chatting for a while, their flight finally got called. They boarded the plane and without very much excitement, before either of them knew it, they were in the Baltimore airport.

"Hey, what's your number?" asked Alex as they were waiting at the luggage claim. "We should try to keep in touch, yeah?"

A little surprised, Addison gave Alex her number and her suitcase came into view.

"Well, I guess I've gotta go," she said. "I'm sure my mom's anxious."

"It was cool meeting you, Addison," smiled Alex and pulled her into a friendly hug.

"Same to you," she said.

Walking out of the airport, Addison was wiser than to kid herself. Sure, he seemed like a decent guy and everything, but afterall, he was a band guy. Even if Alex had meant what he said about wanting to stay in touch, how would he possibly have time with his busy schedule? Addison hailed a cab, shaking her head; she was starting to think that she was much, much better off without boys.