“Ugh.” She groaned. “Yes. I momentarily forgot it alerts the person, but what was I supposed to do? You’re shirtless and I like the look on you.”
Oh, shit. I laughed out loud. I hadn’t even thought about the fact that I didn’t have on a shirt. That was how I slept. Boxer briefs, usually. Sometimes sleep pants. But never a shirt. Which meant she could see where my tattoos ended since my chest and back were untouched as of yet. I’d been working on the sleeves for a long time. So had Van.
“Baby, you can keep all the pictures of me that you want.”
“Grrr.” Was that a growl? “I’m such an idiot. I’m sorry. I won’t show anyone. I was going to crop the message out and make it the pic that comes up when you call.”
“Fine by me.” I brushed my hand over my dick. This was getting ridiculous and I was going to have to jack off while talking to her at this rate. Not yet. Maybe later. “But that means I need a picture of you to set for your number.”
“I’ll have to send you one then because right now I’m in pajamas and my hair is up in a bun and I washed all the makeup off. Not that I wear a ton, but what I wear helps.”
Doubtful. This girl was beautiful no matter what. “Like when we were snapping yesterday?”
“Yes.”
“Send me one of those. You’re fucking cute as hell like that.”
Her breath caught. “Are you serious right now?”
“Fucking serious as I could possibly be.”
“OK, Bonham. I will as soon as we hang up.”
“I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” I told her.
“Goodnight.”
We ended the call, but a minute later, my phone buzzed. Jurnie had sent me a pic of herself, just as she described, but she had a fantastic, tired smile on her face.
Now that… as innocent as it was… was a picture I could use to get my dick to calm the fuck down.
9
Jurnie
I’d gotten up this morning like it was any other day. Not the day after my first date with Bonham. Not the day after the best date I’d had in my life.
Delaney was all over me for details on the date and I’d given them to her last night. I just didn’t tell her whom I’d been with. It was something she’d eventually have to know, but I’d put money on the fact that she did listen to Pushing Daisies and if I were being honest, now so did I. I added them to my Spotify playlist and listened to them as I got ready this morning. And on the drive to work. Mom was on a call anyway and I couldn’t wait to get my car back.
Knowing that Bonham was on the drums made listening extra special.
Alas, I had to work.
This morning had so far been full of me doing grunt work. That was the point of interns, I supposed, but getting other people coffee and making copies wasn’t my favorite thing to do. The spreadsheets were even more boring this morning. If I was going to be an accountant, I thought I was supposed to love spreadsheets and numbers and all of this.
But I didn’t.
Maybe the safe option really wasn’t the option for me. Maybe safe wasn’t cool. I’d made it this far without getting pregnant; there was no reason for me to still be playing this so safe. That was where the trend had come from. Everyone being careful that I didn’t follow in Delaney’s footsteps, but if everyone would’ve opened their eyes, they’d know that Delaney was out there living her life despite one error while I was being so careful trying to make sure I never made a mistake that I was missing out on the thrill of living.
Heavy thoughts for the middle of a radio station’s accounting department.
Still. something I needed to rectify and I was pretty sure Bonham could help me do it. Probably would love to do it. I mean, guys would have sex with anyone, right? He’d sure seemed to like kissing me last night, so I began to wonder if he’d be willing to relieve me of my virginity. If I’d been holding on to it because it was special, that would’ve been one thing. But I wasn’t. I’d never let a boy get that far because I’d been scared.
With Bonham, I wasn’t scared.
“Jurnie,” Graham called into the room, bringing my attention away from my hymen. “Ned and Brian want you again.”
I took a deep breath to taper down my excitement. If they wanted me back, that had to mean I’d done OK the first time. It was different and exciting being in the studio and I’d thought about doing it again more than once. Maybe I’d even hoped they’d call me in.
“Thanks, Graham,” I called out as I scurried to the studio. Right before entering, I did my best to calm down. Then I ran my hands down my skirt to dry them off. Those things were getting damp, but I wasn’t even nervous. Must’ve been excitement.
“Hi, boys,” I said with a wave as I entered the studio, not caring if they were already on the air. Everyone would hear me, but wasn’t that what I was here for?
“Jurnie, join us.” Ned waved me in. This time, I knew just what to do. “For those of you who weren’t listening or don’t remember, two days ago we brought Jurnie, the accounting intern—”
“Yawn,” Brian said, extremely close to the mic.
Ned kept going like nothing had happened. “In to talk like we do with all the interns. But it turned out that she doesn’t know anything about our kind of music. Isn’t that right, Jurnie?”
“Yup, but you played me some and I think I can catch up.”
“She thinks she can catch up.” Brian laughed as he spoke.
Glancing at him was when I saw the two pictures on the table by him. He and I were much closer to each other than to Ned. The studio wasn’t large, but Brian was within arm’s reach when Ned wasn’t.
“We called you in here for a different reason,” Ned kept going. “You said on Wednesday that you didn’t know Pushing Daisies, but that you’d seen Daisy play her violin years ago.”
I leaned forward as if I were in court to play along with whatever bit they were doing. “That is correct, but why doesn’t this sound more like an interrogation?”
“I’m asking the questions.” Ned didn’t raise his voice and his smile was wide. So it was a bit. “If that’s true… Brian, please show her exhibit A and B.” Brian pushed the pictures over to me. “For those of you who can’t see inside the studio, we are showing Jurnie photographs that were sent to us of her and Bonham, a member of Pushing Daisies.”
That was exactly what those pictures were. It was from when we’d met. Actually, it was the moment I’d wrapped my arms around him in the bookstore. The second was of us sitting at the table in the café with our fingers intertwined.
Who would’ve taken these photos anyway? Obviously, someone who knows who Bonham is but I never imagined someone was there lurking.
“But if you don’t know them,” Brian continued, “then can you explain these photos?”
Biting back a smile, I blinked, like I was innocent of all the charges. “Is this all you’ve got?” At least I knew my parents would never be listening to this station and both were working anyway. I wouldn’t have to deal with them on the Bonham topic. They didn’t even know I’d been on air at all.