My Escapade

Jaxin Ramirez smiled at me, and I resisted the urge to melt inside. “Good. So, gorgeous, what’s your name?”

Shit! I totally forgot about a name. If I use Rory, he might recognize me…

“Alison,” I blurted out, and put out a hand. Alison was my middle name.

“Alison…?” he asked, shaking my hand.

“Walker,” I told him, hoping that it wasn’t too close. There were lots of Walkers in the world. Hopefully, he wouldn’t remember my middle name.

Psh. Jaxin Ramirez, actually remember something about me?

Nah.

Jaxin paused, eyebrows scrunched. “Alison Walker…”

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out,” I joked, then mentally kicked myself. Did I seriously just say that?

“Sorry, it just… a friend of mine, from high school,” he said slowly, “her name was Rory Walker. And her middle name was Alison.” He laughed. “How weird.”

Shocked, I laughed, but it sounded fake to the very core—which it was. “Yeah, weird.”

“Say, what’s your middle name?” he asked.

“Emily,” I said, grabbing the first name that came to mind.

“Oh.” Jaxin sighed, then shook his head. “Sorry about that. Took a little trip down memory lane for a second there. Anyways. So, Alison, I don’t suppose you’ve heard of me.”

Play it coy, Ethan had said.

“Maybe, maybe not,” I told him, smiling.

Jaxin laughed. “Alright, then I’ll tell you a little about myself. It may jog your memory.” He winked.

I gave another faux giggle.

“I’m Jaxin Corey Ramirez, just your average, small town boy. I grew up in Warner Robins, Georgia, with a big family and plenty of friends. My closest friends assembled into a band. We had various names as we grew, but we finally settled on ‘The Escapade,’” he said, sounding like he was giving an interview. And I did my research well before my assignment, reading each and every last interview they did. So far, it had been going the same, word for word.

I wondered if just saying his name would be a pick-up line. I could just see it: “Hey. I’m Jaxin Ramirez.”

“OH MY GOD I LOVE YOU!”

I shuddered a little, hoping he didn’t notice.

I checked my phone really fast, noticing we had talked for about ten minutes, and Ethan’s instructions sounded in my head. “Five minutes into the conversation, blow him off.”

Oops.

“And one day, we were playing a super important show up in Atlanta, and—”

“Oh, Em!” I screeched out, waving at Emily. I looked at Jaxin, giving him my best look of apology. “Sorry, but I need to talk to the bride. I’ll see you later, Jaxin.” And with that, I walked off towards Em.

Throughout the rest of the night, I kept tabs on Jaxin. Surprisingly, he didn’t flirt with other girls. Ethan was right—he was feeling down. Well, he looked down, anyways.

Well, what do you know? Rock stars do have souls.

The Escapade had certainly grown up since I had last seen and heard them. They had fully made the transition from boys to men. And their sound had grown up, too. No more rocking out in the garage, oh no, these guys were the real deal. It was weird listening to them, but their music was strangely familiar. It was new, all nice and grown, but had hints of music from the past I recognized.

They played the song “Yellow” by Coldplay for the Bride-and-Groom dance (Emily loved Coldplay), some covers, and some original songs once things started up and running. By the end of the night, I was sweating, my voice was gone, and I felt like a teenager back at my first concert. It had been an All Time Low concert.

I had gone with Jaxin and the rest of The Escapade. Their musical influence drew mostly from alternative bands we had all listened to in high school.

By ten o’clock, only the family and I were left. Emily and Ethan had already left to go pack for their flight off to some tropical paradise for the few days following. I was by the drinks, talking to Diana about meeting up for lunch. Blake, the best man that Di had been chatting up earlier, walked up to Di.

“Sorry babe, gotta go. See ya tomorrow at three,” she said, barely throwing me a glance as she left with her toy for the night.

“Bye.” I rolled my eyes.

Jaxin appeared next to me. Just like Ethan had said he would. “Hey… Alison, right?”

I nodded and smiled.

He smiled. “Well, I just wanted to say, I enjoyed talking to you. You have a really fresh personality—”

I highly doubt it was my personality he was interested in.

“—and I was just wondering if you’d consider talking to me some more?” he asked.

I cocked my head to the side, pretending to think. “Alright. What’s your number?” He, obviously being prepared, handed me a napkin with a number on in. I smiled and made my way to the door.

“Nice meeting you!” he yelled.

I bet it was.