Sunday in New York

That Night...7pm

I was sitting on the edge of my bed unpacking my suitcase and talking on the phone with Amelia.

"I can't believe you're in a whole other state with this guy!" She grinned.

I rolled my eyes. "Big deal Amelia, this is for work."

"Are you two sharing a room?"

"Well, no. We're sharing a suite, it had two bedrooms on each end."

"Lucky girl." She giggled.

I began whispering, "But you know what? He's eerily perceptive, like he picks up on my emotions and can tell what I'm feeling. It's kind of unnerving."

"Well if you said he's a womanizer then he'd have to know how women feel, right?" She replied.

I sighed. "Yeah probably. Anyway, I gotta go, he and I gotta plan out tomorrow."

"Alright, have fun..." She giggled, hanging up.

Tossing down my phone I checked myself in the mirror, nervous to go out into the living room, but I swallowed my fear and left my room. He was sitting in one of the chairs in the living room but when he saw me he quickly stood up.

"Hey, Avery I'm sorry about that plane thing. It takes a lot of self-control to be around you sometimes." He softly smiled.

I lightly laughed and shook my head, "You know what, let's just forget about it. It's happens a lot, don't worry about it."

He laughed. "Okay. Well, I'm starved, are you hungry?"

"Famished." I smiled.

"Perfect. Let's order chinese food." He picked up the phone to call the front desk.

I laughed and sat down on the love seat. "We're like, in the food capital of America and you want chinese food?"

He chuckled and nodded, holding the phone to his ear. "We'll be New Orleanians tomorrow, or cajuns, or rednecks, or creoles."

I just laughed.

He asked the front desk where the best chinese restaurant was and got their number. He called them soon after and while still on the line he asked me what I wanted.

"Anything but shrimp and mushrooms. I'm allergic to mushrooms."

After he got off the phone, he said the food will be brought over shortly.

I chuckled and looked him up and down. "I've never seen you in normal clothes before."

He started to laugh and made a face. "What do you mean?"

"Well you're always wearing suits, every time I see you you're in a suit." I grinned.

He looked down at the snug white t-shirt and the dark wash jeans that he wore and smiled. "Is casual better?"

I shook my head, "No, I think they're equally pleasing to the eye, I'm just saying I've never seen you dress so..."

"Casual." He smirked.

"Yes." I smiled.

"Ah, well since we are making observations. I've never seen you in a dress or skirt." He chuckled, getting up and going to the fridge, taking out two Heineken's and taking off the caps. He came back and sat next to me, handing me a beer.

"I never wear skirts or dresses because I prefer to wear them when I go out, which is in the evening. And also, I don't want the geeks in accounting to be checking me out." I smiled.

He shrugged a shoulder and smiled, "Okay, good answer. Did you pack a dress?"

I smiled.

"Perfect. You can wear it when we go out one of these nights."

"Go out? Where?" I furrowed my brow.

"Avery, we're in New Orleans. It's close to Halloween, this is the state to be in when it's Halloween. And, we need to go to Bourbon Street. You can't just come to New Orleans without going to Bourbon Street."

The phone rang and he quickly answered it. "Hello...oh yeah for sure...yup, send 'em on up...thanks."

"The food is here?" I asked.

He nodded, taking the t.v remote and turning it on. "Hey look, Glee is on."

I slowly turned and looked at him, wide-eyed and surprised. "You watch Glee?"

He blushed and looked down. "Yes, yes I do."

"That's so awesome!" I laughed, "Hudson hates it, but thankfully he works late on Thursdays, so I can watch it as loud as I want."

The door was knocked at and he got up to answer it. He came back with the food, resuming his seat next to me and we began eating and watching Glee. As we watched, we still talked.

"So now that you've survived your first plane ride, where would you like to go next?" He asked.

"Oh that's easy, Tokyo. Or Paris, or London. But first, Tokyo." I smiled.

"I lived in Tokyo for year, I loved it."

"Really? That's amazing, what made you live over there?" I asked.

"Well, I had just graduated from Columbia University and I decided that I wanted to take a year off before starting my career, so I decided that I'd go somewhere I've never been and I chose Tokyo and lived there and wrote there. I would've stayed longer, but see I had submitted my writings to the National Geographic sub-magazine, The Traveler, and they liked my writing so much I guess, I was offered an internship."

"You worked for them?"

He nodded, "Yeah, just for a year, they offered a full-time position but I felt that my writing could be put to better use and that was when I approached Jann."

"Wow, that's crazy, you turned down the magazine I've always dreamt of writing for." I chuckled, sipping at my beer.

"I just felt that Rolling Stone was where I needed to be." He smiled.

I was quiet for a moment, smiling at him struck by how free-spirited he was. And maybe it was too obvious to pick up on, but perhaps this was why he was a thirty-six year old who woo'ed women, had relationships with no strings attached, travelled whenever he liked and could leave without anything holding him back. He was living every young adult's dream. Is this where success comes from? Do you need to have a soul like his to succeed? To take life by the reins and have it become the life you want?

I smiled faintly and flushed, realizing that I was staring at him for longer than a moment. "Sorry, that's just really...fascinating."

He smiled.

"Can I ask you a personal question?" I asked, rubbing the back of my neck, hesitating whether or not I should ask it.

"I thought you were asking me personal questions?" He chuckled.

I cocked my head to the side and smiled.

"You mean personal personal." He nodded.

"Yes."

"Sure, I am not afraid of being honest." He shrugged his shoulders and resumed eating.

"Now, I can back this up with an amazing quote by Fitzgerald himself; 'we all have souls of different ages'."

He smiled and waited for me to continue.

"And I fully agree that age is just a number. But just out of mere curiosity, why haven't you settled down yet?" I asked, feeling my heart race just a little faster than normal. I looked down and took a mouthful of food.

He looked past me, probably thinking about it. "Hmm, I don't like the word yet. It seems to imply that sooner or later I'll have to "settle down", but I'm sure that's not what you meant. You're asking why haven't I settled down by now."

I nodded, chasing my food down with a drink of beer.

He inhaled. "I haven't settle down because up until now, I've never felt the need to. As cliché as it sounds, I've never found the one."

"If you ever found her, what would this woman be like?" I shyly inquired.

Again he thought for a moment, so I turned my attention to the television screen and tried to watch the show.

"She would be someone that I would willingly give up this lifestyle for. She would be everything I'd ever need and ever want in another person." He murmured.

"So, a game-changer in a way." I said rhetorically.

He nodded with a faint smirk. "But that would some extraordinary woman. I don't even know if she exists."

I softly smiled. "Who needs women when you're in a hotel in New Orleans drinking beer, eating chinese food, and watching Glee?" We both started to laugh.

A couple hours later after we had finished dinner and watched television for a bit, we were planning out our schedule for tomorrow; the first day of the Voodoo Experience.

I pulled out a list from my notebook. "Okay, so Jann has scheduled me to do ten interviews for the next three days; My Chemical Romance, The Black Keys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jack White, Skrillex, Neil Young, AWOLNATION, Mumford & Sons, Metallica, and Dev...this is so scary!"

"Why is it scary?" He chuckled, taking out his camera and all its lenses from his bag.

"Because. In case you haven't noticed Christian, these bands aren't just some local grungy teen hipster band from New York, these guys are the top dogs of the music industry. I have to interview Neil Young!"

"Alright, alright. Easy now, don't give yourself a heart attack." He laughed, holding up his hand to calm me down. I took in deep breaths and tried to relax.

"You don't think I'm nervous? I have to take pictures of them." He grinned, being sarcastic. I rolled my eyes at him and pulled my legs onto the couch, crossing them as I looked down and began going over my prepared questions. I rested an elbow on my knee and sighed, overwhelmed by tomorrow's schedule.

"Avery." He said.

"Yeah?" I replied, still reading.

"Look up."

"What?" I looked up and he snapped a picture of me. I was blushed but was also flustered. "What're you doing?" I laughed.

"Who needs pictures of cocky, uptight rockstars. Taking pictures of you is more fun." He chuckled, continuing to take pictures of me.

"Oh c'mon Christian, you're wasting film."

"No I'm not. It's going to good use." He smiled.

I giggled and tried to push the camera away and hide my face. He went up on his knees and began crawling toward me, still taking pictures, when all of a sudden his knee slipped off the sofa. He grabbed me to try and stop himself from falling but ended up pulling me off the couch with him.

I laughed as I was now lying on top of him after we thudded to the floor. He was grinning and laughing, staring up at me. "I guess that's a sign I should listen to you when you tell me to stop."

"I think so." I chuckled, looking down at him. For a quick moment we shared that gaze again, just like on the plane. He raised his hand up and gently stroked the side of my forehead with his thumb. "What's this scar from?" He asked, intrigued by one of my many scars.

Quickly I became self-conscious and got up, sitting back on the couch, moving my hair to hide the scar that Eric had left me with.

He sat up and soon joined me on the couch. "Is that too personal?"

"Kind of." I half-smiled, nodding.

"I'm sorry, it's just I have no filter whatsoever when it comes to things I say or do. I just do things without considering them first." He smiled.

"So in other words, you're rude?" I chuckled.

He rolled his eyes and smiled, "Yes, that's one way of putting it."

"Ah, well I don't consider this being rude. It's just something very personal that I'd like to keep private."

"I understand completely."

"You usually do." I murmured.

He gazed up at me again but I knew I couldn't handle looking into his eyes again, so I began straightening up my papers. "Well, I'm gonna get some sleep now. We've got a busy day tomorrow." I stood up and hugged the papers close to me.

"Okay, have a good sleep." He politely smiled.

"You too, goodnight." I nodded, scuttling out of the room.

"Goodnight." I heard him softly say.

My heart was racing by the time I had closed the door of my room. I leaned against it and clutched the papers close to my chest, unsure of why I felt this way. How could I feel this way? It's Christian; womanizer at large. He probably makes every woman feel this way. It's a natural effect. Well I'm not gonna let him work his magic on me. Even if it takes every ounce of strength in my body to resist him, then that's just fine...