Luck & Intuition

“Turn to the left.”

Pins and needles dangled from the lips of Taylor’s mouth as her eyes were narrowed and her brows knitted together. Her small fingers were hard at work to fix the hem of the dress, occasionally pricking her real-life mannequin.

“Ouch.” Autumn Lowe mumbled while staring at herself in the full length mirror as she stood on top of a small pedestal. She didn’t expect an apology from Taylor as she had pricked her several times before that. “Are you sure you should be kneeling like that? I mean, you are pregnant, Tay.”

Taylor laughed. “I’m not a whale yet, Autumn. It just looks like I have a beer belly. “This caused Autumn to giggle softly. “Lift up your hair so I can fix the seam at the back. Do I want to inquire why this beautiful dress was practically shredded?”

The corners of the one female’s lips curved into a devilish smirk and her eyes rolled as she remembered clearly what happened. “I’ll put it to you this way: there were four 60z of vodka gone, most of the Johnnie Walker as well. There were two bloody gorgeous blokes and myself.” Autumn released her hair as Taylor stepped away with a laughing smile on her lips and her hands placed on her hips. Satisfaction crossed her face like the sun was shining.

“Well, if those two got you out of this dress, I’m sure Joseph will have you naked the moment he sees you.”

“Taylor!” Autumn flushed a deep pink and shook her head.

“What? You look hot. If he doesn’t undress you instantly then he’ll be undressing you with his eyes until he can lay a finger on you.” Autumn just rolled her eyes with a lingering smirk. She stepped down from the pedestal and walked closer to the mirror.

“Whoa!” Kevin’s voice flooded the master bedroom of his home. He set down Ella Mae, seeing as they must have returned from the park, and stared at Autumn with owl eyes. Kevin looked at Taylor and she waved her hand and walked into the walk-in closet. “You look hot.”

“Did that just really happen?” Autry questioned.

“Yes!” Mrs Kevin Jonas walked back out with a pair of sleek black, strappy heels in hand. “It’s this mutual thing Kevin and I have. Anyways, wear these. I wore them for a photo shoot and have never worn them since.”

“Tay, you’ve done so much for me already. I have shoes, lots of them.”

“But those will make you look hotter.” Kevin had moved his way to sit on the edge of the bed with Ella Mae on his lap.

“Kevin, shut up.” Taylor took her pointer and middle finger, along with her thumb and clamped them together symbolizing him to shut up. “You said you’re ‘wife-in-the-room’ comment. Now you only shake or nod your head.”

“But it’s a free country!”

“Not when I’m pregnant and hormonal. Speaking out which... could you go to Burger King and get me a Whopper, two actually, no pickles.”

Kevin’s face dropped. “You couldn’t have called me ten minutes ago when I was in the car?”

Autumn stared at the perfect arguing couple she wanted to be when she finally wanted to settle down in a marriage. They arguments weren’t really arguments; they were love fights, teasing. She felt like she was looking through a window to see her future. The one exception was that it was Joe instead of Kevin standing before her with a tough exterior but a marshmallow interior. Soon enough a smile broke through as they started laughing about God knows that. Autumn thought it must be some type of code that married couples know of once they say their I Do’s. She hadn’t noticed that she was sitting up against the wall with Ella on her lap. Autumn wrapped her arms around her daughter and rested her chin upon the little girl’s head.

“Perhaps one day, Ella, that will be me and...” Autumn trailed off, leaving her words hanging in the air for someone to grab. Kevin kissed Taylor on the cheek and walked out of the room to venture off to the fast food restaurant. The look in Taylor’s eyes was dazzling as she watched her husband exit. She was beyond being in love with Kevin.

He was like her drug.

-&&-

Her brand new Range Rover, courtesy of Joe Jonas, parked in the parking. Autumn was worried when Joe had called her that he had to tell her something very important. She literally raced across Hollywood to get there in the matter of five minutes.

The elevator stopped on the third floor and her Conversed squeaked from the damp weather outside on the tiled flooring. She could hear the beat of a drum banging in a closed off room down the hall, so she pushed opened the door and her ears filled with the sweet sound of that superior male singing voice she heard every night before she slept.

Quickly, the music cut. “What the hell?” Joe spoke into the microphone on the other side of the glass. His eyes stared at Big Rob as he nonchalantly pointed at Autumn in the corner. “Oh!” He smiled, taking off the headphones and walked out of the soundproof room. “I didn’t think that you’d be here so fast.” Joe leaned down only slightly since there height was only separated by three inches, and kissed her forehead.

“You said it was very important. I thought something was wrong, or you were hurt.”

“Well, I’m not hurt. I can assure you that.”

“Then something’s wrong.”

“Um,” Joe bit his lip and shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t think I can make dinner tonight. We are so close to finishing this record and if I go to dinner tonight, it will never be finished.”
“So you’re blowing off our dinner date because you want to finish a record?”

“Yeah.” Joe’s face twisted. “That’s what I just said.”

Autumn licked her lips and shook her head, looking down. “Okay.”

“So we can postpone it, then?”

“Okay.”

Joe smiled brightly and turned to Uncle Josh, Big Rob and some music executives. “See guys, I told you Autumn was the best.” He turned back to his girlfriend. “You’re the best. I’m glad you’re cool with it. I’ll see you at home later.” He re-entered the booth and cued the music to start again.

Autumn breathed out slowly with her eyes closed. She walked over to the mixing table and smiled sweetly at the one executive. “Which one is the button to talk to Joe? I forgot to tell him something.” The man pointed at the big green button. Autumn smirked and pressed the button causing the music to cut again.

“Whoa, okay, did I sound terrible?” Joe blinked.

“No, you sounded like a diva.” Autumn spoke. “Do you know how much effort I have put into tonight’s event, Joseph?” He shook his head. “I booked a table for two at the most prestigious restaurant in Los Angeles, I got Taylor fix my dress that took her nearly three hours, I have to cancel my hair appointment now because you can’t have one simple dinner with me because you want this record to be finished. To me, this sounds like the fight that Nick and Storm had.”

“What are you on about, A?”

“Come on, I know you have your stupid moments. But are you that daft, Joe?”

“Would you look at the time? It’s time for lunch.” Uncle Josh cut in.

“It’s four o’clock.” Joe blinked. “We ate an hour ago.”

“Yes, well.” He laughed nervously. “Don’t be a smartass, Joseph.” Big Rob ‘gently’ escorted the executives out of the room and shut the door behind him.

“Come out of the booth.” Autumn sighed and let go of the button. She ran her fingers through her dark hair as Joe shut the booth door. His face flashed of confused. “I put so much effort into tonight.”

“Why? It’s just dinner.”

“It’s just dinner, next thing you know it’s just my birthday, and then it’s just Ella graduating high school.” Autumn clamped her lips together as she noticed she was getting ahead of herself.

“Autumn, you’re not making any sense.”

“It may just be a dinner for you, but tonight was going to be special for me, special for you. I have this gorgeous dress I was going to wear, and Ella would be with Nick and Storm, and you would be looking as beautiful as ever. And we’d be walking along the shoreline with our shoes in hand laughing about who knows what.”

By the way Joe was staring at Autumn was not a good sign. He was beyond being confused; he couldn’t wrap his head around what nonsense she was saying to him. “I don’t mean to be rude, but what is the point of this speech of yours?”

Autumn dapped away the set of tears from the corner of her eyes. Her emotions were running high and her adrenaline was pumping. She laughed dryly, taking a seat on the leather chair. Her hands dusted off her jeans and she played with her black cardigan sleeves. “The point is that you should have come with a warning sign reading that I may fall in love with you.”

“What?”

She sighed. “Okay, I need to put this in simple terms. I love you; I’ve been in love with you since you first came up to me at work, since Ella’s been attached to you, since you were there for me when Aiden passed, since—“

Autumn’s voice was stopped be Joe’s chapped lips crushed with her. “I know.” He mumbled. “I know.”

“What?” Autumn broke away slightly, seeing his body arching down towards her.

“You didn’t have to say it. I mean, I’m happy that you did. But saying I love you just more then, well, saying it. It’s the actions that the person does to back it up, to prove it.” Joe lifted her chin and kissed her slowly. “Come, we have a date to fulfill.”

“No.” Autumn shook her head. “When you love someone, you want them to be happy no matter what. And this record being finished will make you happy.”

Joe smiled, crouching down in front of Autumn. “You’re more important than a silly record.”