I'll Do Anything to Have Her to Myself

The sun shone through the window early the next morning nearly hitting him directly in the face. He looked around the studio for a minute with blurry, groggy eyes. His glanced down at her and she had evidently shifted in her sleep, her face was buried in his chest, and his sweatshirt was still wrapped around her. He smirked to himself and shut his eyes going back to sleep. When he woke back up a while later, a quick glimpse revealed that she was no longer lying next to him. He sat up and looked around the room in a sleepy daze. When his ears became alert, he heard singing and then laughing and a muffled conversation. He decided to get up to see what it was and found the source to be her and Corey screwing around with an acoustic guitar in the production booth.

“Hey, sleepy head.” She said looking up to see him through the glass.

Still not nearly awake enough to speak, he simply waved and tried to coax a smile. A cup of coffee brought him to life.

“How long you been here?” he directed at Corey.

“little over an hour…”

“shit…what time is it?”

“10:30.” She sniggered. “I woke up just a few minutes before he got here.”

“ Why the hell did you two sleep here?”

“Got to working on some stuff, got real late, we were too tired to drive…” Shawn explained.

“Man, I gotta go home.” She sighed. “Take a shower and go to work.”

“Work?”

“Yeah…….I waitress at a place downtown.”

Corey frowned. He really wanted to see if she wanted to do something today. Just them. She fumbled around looking for her car keys and grabbed her wallet. “Don’t look so sad, Faith.” She hugged him from behind before leaving. “See ya, Shawn.”

The restaurant was slammed that night. Between taking care of the bar and all her tables, Addie was running around that place like a crazy person. At least maybe this would mean she would have some awesome tips. She poured another pitcher of beer for a couple of guys at the bar and took plates of food to a table of 10. Business was finally starting to slow down a little so she could stop and take a breather.

“Addie, you have another table.”

She sighed with aggravation and took a sip from her bottled water. “I’m on break. You can take it.”

Her coworker Amber shook her head, “He specifically asked for you.”

“Fine.” She hid her water back underneath the bartop and grabbed her pen and pad of paper. “What table?”

“12.”

She turned in that general direction and started off. When she was most of the way there, her eyes found the table and saw the person sitting there.

“Hey.” He said flashing a toothy smile.

“What are you doing here?” she asked with a faint but sweet smile.

“I was hungry. Figured I’d get some food.”

“Ok, what do you want?”

“You wanna have dinner with me?”

“I’d love to but I’m kind of in the middle of my shift.”

“Come on……they’ll let you sit down and eat for a minute, won’t they?”

She chuckled, “I don’t get sit down much, period.”

“What time do you get off?”

“I’ve got like an hour left. How about you let me get your food and drinks and can sit here and eat and hangout and when I get off I’ll come sit with you?” She knew he was kind of person that wouldn’t give up on something so she figured a good compromise would appease him.

“Fair enough.” He took a drag off his cigarette.

“So, what do you want to eat?”

“I honestly don’t know.” He said barely even glancing at the menu. “Surprise me with something. Whatever it is that you think is the best thing here.”

“All right. A beer?”

He nodded, “Sam Adams.”

“Ok, I’ll be back.”

She sauntered to the kitchen to turn his order in then back to the bar to get his beer.

“So, who is he?” Amber begged her to say.

“Uhh…..Corey Taylor.”

“You know him?!”

“Well, he and his bandmate Shawn came and saw us play the other night. Their label is looking at us.”

“Their label’s not the only thing looking at you.” Amber said laughing as she watched him stare towards them over Addie’s shoulder.

“Please.” She scoffed. “It’s not like that. We’re just friends.”

“Well, you better take ‘your friend’ his beer…..he looks very thirsty….”

“God. Shut up, Amber. “ She said rolling her eyes upwards and shaking her head. She glided up to this table with beer in hand and popped the cap off before she handed it to him. “There ya go. Your dinner should be up soon.”

“What’d you order me?” he said as the cool beer drifted down his throat.

“It’s a surprise.” She winked and playfully turned to walk away again.

“He’s totally flirting with you…” Amber continued to egg her on.

“Will you please shut up?” She pleaded.

His order was finally up and when she presented him with the massive plate of nachos slathered in beans, meat, cheese, jalapenos, sour cream, etc, he was shocked.

“Sweet jesus.” He muttered as he took the last drink of his beer. “That is the second most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Second?”

“Mmmhmm.” A cocky grin spread across his features and his bright blue eyes sparkling.

Laughing, she put his plate on the table with the second beer she’d brought him. “Hope you like it?”

His fork was up and he was about to dig in when he asked, “How much longer til you’re off?”

“25 minutes. And I promise, I’ll be over here as soon as I am.”

By the time she’d got off and got back to this table with her dinner in a to-go box, he’d nearly cleaned the entire plate.

“Holy shit.” She gasped. “You ate the entire thing yourself?”

“It was fucking delicious.” He said cramming the last couple bites into his mouth.

She tossed her purse down in the booth he was sitting at and sat down. It was finally time for her to eat some dinner. Man, was she starving.

“so, how was it tonight?” he wondered.

“It was allright. Fucking busy as shit.”

“I didn’t impose on you or anything did I?”

She looked at him incredulously, “No, why would you think that?”

“I kind of just came her and made that friend of yours give you my table.” He laughed as peeled the label off of one his beer bottles. “I didn’t even think that you might’ve been too busy.”

“No, not for you.” She smiled then delved back into her plate of grilled chicken and rice.

“I was gonna see if you wanted to have dinner or something tonight.” He confessed but you said you had to work. And it kind of bummed me out.”

“Well, we kind of had dinner together.” She chuckled cutely then changed the subject. “You guys get anything done in the studio?”

“A little bit. I did some more vocals and worked on acoustic version of one of the songs.”

“Wish I could’ve been there instead of here.”

“Yeah, but it looks like you made bank tonight.” He said pointing to her pouch of tips.

“Yeah, I do allright. The drunk guys at the bar are big tippers.” She joked.

“Do you have anywhere to be tonight?”

“Not really……You wanna hang out or something?”

“I was gonna ask you the same thing.” He said pulling his knit cap off his head. “We can go to my place and watch movies or something?”

“I really need to get out of these clothes and get a shower first. That ok?” He sat there staring into space trying to analyze that last sentence in his head. “It won’t take me long. I’ll run to my apartment and do that and meet you at your place.”

“Sounds cool. Lemme see your pen and I’ll write the address down for you.” He took the to bic out of the pouch of cash in front of her, grabbed a napkin, and scribbled the address. “I hope you can read my writing…”

She took a glimpse at it for a second, “Yeah, I got it. I’ll see you in half an hour, tops.”