Fools Like Us

Chapter One: Trust A Try

I looked over at Dave, who was sitting next to me on the couch, his head leaned back in the plush of the couch, the light of the television playing across the planes of his face. I sighed, picking at a stray thread on the hem of my shirt.

“You’re staring.” He said, without turning his head. “And sighing.” I could hear the smile in his voice.

“I know.” I admitted, pulling the thread a little further out of the hem of the shirt and winding it around my finger. “I have news.”

“Oh God,” He said, turning off the tv and turning to look at me. “You’re pregnant.”

I rolled my eyes, trying not to laugh. “No.”

He relaxed into the couch again, pulling one leg up onto the couch and propping his head on his hand. “So what’s up?” He asked. “And really, you should know better than to start a conversation like that.”

I smiled. “I booked a tour.” I told him.

“Hey! That’s great news! Tyler was talking about how that was the next step for you, right?” He asked, squeezing my knee. Tyler was my manager and now that my record was finished, the next logical step was to tour with a headliner and gain more exposure. I’d been doing lots of radio and talk shows spots to promote my single, but touring was the next step. “Who are you touring with?”

“It’s Pink, actually. I couldn’t be happier. This is exactly what I wanted.” I told him, shaking my head, still sort of unable to wrap my head around that things were working out so great. After struggling, playing any and every gig I could land in LA and going nowhere, I had gotten signed by Atlantic records and now my song was being played across radio stations around the world and I was going to get to play real shows in real arenas to thousands of fans. It was incredible.

“That’s amazing!” He exclaimed. “Why don’t you look like you think this is amazing? Isn’t this what you wanted?”

“It is.” I insisted. “It’s just…it’s a European tour. And it’s five months long.” I pulled the thread out of my shirt.

“Oh.” Dave replied, and I looked up. Dave and I had met through friends and sort of just hit it off. We’d been spending a lot of time together , and I had high hopes that he was going to be the real thing. As stupid as it sounded, I hadn’t felt this way about a boy in a long time, if ever. Dave made me relax just by being around him. He made everything seem fun, even when we were just hanging out watching a movie, like we were now. He was sort of wonderful. “When do you leave?”

“In a month or so.” I answered, watching his face closely. “We have to plan my part of the show and get everything choreographed and everything, so it’ll be a busy month, but…yeah.” I laughed nervously. “And I need to get a passport.”

“Well, Europe. I mean, that’s awesome.” He replied.

This was why I had been afraid to say anything. Things had been going so well with Dave. And it hadn’t been long, we had only met maybe two months ago. We weren’t even technically exclusive, but I didn’t want it to end. I wanted to be with him. I wanted the stupid exclusivity and the title of being his girlfriend.

“That’s really awesome for you. You’re going to have a blast.” He looked down at his knees. “You’ll have to keep in touch. Take lots of pictures to show me when you get back.”

There it was. He wanted to pause whatever this was for the five months while I was gone. I looked over at his face, the sharp cheekbones, the slight wave to his dark hair, and his beautiful mouth. There was no way that I could ask him to wait, and why would he?

“Yeah,” I said, forcing cheerfulness into my voice. “I will for sure.” I glanced down at my watch. “I actually need to get going, meeting with the tour production team.” I lied.

“Oh,” he said slowly, “Okay.”

I let my honey colored hair swing in front of my face as I reached for my purse and shoved my feet back into my heels. “I guess I’ll see you around.” I said, straightening up.

He stood from the couch. “Karoline…” He said slowly, sighing and shoving hands into his pockets.

I smiled, pulling him in for a one armed hug. “I’ll talk to you soon.” I said, not wanting to hash out goodbye.

I pulled the door to his apartment closed after me, not looking back to see the look on his face. Was he still standing there, barefoot with his hands in his pockets, watching me go? Or was he already turned away, ready to close the door on whatever we had together.

I ignored the elevator and headed for the stairs. Dave lives in the sixteenth floor of his exclusive apartment complex and I got my daily exercise by taking the stairs every time. He thought I was ridiculous, but we laughed about it every time. My hand tightened around the stairwell as I paused at the landing. Well, we used to laugh about it. I shook my head, starting down the next flight. I should have known better than to get involved with a Hollywood boy.

I heard the clatter of feet somewhere on the steps above and sighed, shoving a lock of hair behind my ears. A surprising amount of young Hollywood lived in this building and I wasn’t in the mood to socialize or play nice.

“Karoline!”

I paused on my step, turning to look above. Dave was on the flight of stairs above me, sticking his head over the railing. “Wait for a minute.”

I barely had time to think as he came hurrying down the stairs behind me, stopping a stair or so above me. “Wow, you weren’t kidding, this is an exercise.” He said, catching his breath.

My lips twitched in a smile as I searched his face. Had I forgotten something upstairs and that was why he was chasing after me? Or…

“Listen,” He said, coming down one more step so that he was directly above me. “at the risk of sounding totally ridiculous, don’t leave like this.” He paused, raking his hand through his short dark hair. “I know this sounds crazy, and the normal thing to do would be to let you go, keep in touch while you’re on your tour, and wait until you’re back to some kind of normal schedule to figure out what this is between us. But…I don’t want normal. I don’t want to do that. I want to be with you.”

My eyes widened. “Dave…”

“Just hear me out, okay? I should have said this to you a month ago. You’re different than a lot of girls that I’ve met. I haven’t felt this way about someone in a long time. Whatever this is between us, this chemistry, isn’t going to go away while you’re gone. I don’t want to wait and see if you come back from this tour with feelings for me still. I want you, now.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying I want this, I want you. It’s crazy, but I want to be in a relationship with you. People make these kind of things work, right? You’ll get breaks that you can come see me and I’ll come visit you whenever I can. We can skype.” He joked, a small smile crossing his face. “I don’t want this to end just because you’re leaving.”

“You want this.” I repeated. “You want a relationship.”

He nodded, watching my face. “If you want the same thing, that is.” He said slowly.

I smiled, reaching out to grip the hem of his shirt in my hands. “I want the same thing.”
He whooped, making me laugh, and cradled my face in his hands, brushing his mouth across mine. I leaned into him, my hands pressing against the hardness of his stomach.

“Tell me you made up having a meeting to go to, and you can come back upstairs with me.” He said, breaking apart from me only long enough to ask.

“I made it up.” I admitted, smiling into his mouth.

He groaned, tugging me up the stairs after him. “Good answer.”