“I’m helping you out.”
“No, you’re embarrassing me. Just stop.”
“I don’t understand. Why would you want people to think you’re taken when you’re not?”
Dana looks away. I’ve never been one to pry, but something tells me Dana is trying to keep whatever she has going on, on the downlow.
“You have a boyfriend?” Hendrix asks his ex.
“It doesn’t matter if I do; you sleep with every girl who bats her eyelashes at you.”
Hendrix stands. He looks at each of us before focusing on Dana again. “Is that what you think?”
“It’s what I know,” she mumbles. With those words, Hendrix walks out of the room, slamming the door behind him and leaving us with nothing but an awkward silence.
After a long minute but what feels more like five, Elle tells us that if he doesn’t come back, we can call it a day. I want to raise my hand and ask her at what point do we call it a day? Are we waiting for ten minutes, fifteen? Thirty? A dude really needs some sort of timeline. But I think better of it and decide not to… and no one else bothers to ask her either.
We sit there in silence, no one knowing what to say. When Quinn stands, the rest of us wait to see what he does as if none of us are capable of making our own decisions.
“I’m out,” he says. “It’s too nice out to sit in this room. If any of you want to come to the house and surf, I’ll fire up the grill.” He doesn’t wait for an answer before he walks out. I like the idea of surfing and wonder if Whiskey is up for the drive out to Quinn’s.
Keane asks if I’m ready to leave. Since moving in next to him, we try to carpool as much as possible, and for the most part it works out well. We tell Dana goodbye. Even with Hendrix gone, there’s still tension lingering in the air. They have a lot of unresolved issues and are usually pretty good about keeping them out of band business, except for moments like today.
I follow Keane out of the studio and as we walk down the hall, we’re putting on sunglasses and baseball caps. The minor disguise doesn’t always work because fans hang out in front of the studio, but there are times when we can escape the confines of the building undetected.
Today is one of those days. Keane and I walk down the street toward his car with no one giving us even a second glance. These moments are few and far between and I certainly don’t take them for granted.
On the drive home, I text Whiskey and ask her if she and Evelyn want to go out to Quinn’s.
She agrees and says they’ll be ready to go when I get home.
“Looks like we’re going to Quinn’s,” I tell Keane.
“Do you think Dana will go? I wonder if Quinn texted Hendrix.”
I shake my head, “Nope. I don’t know what’s going on with them.”
“It’s odd. They’re definitely not a couple but Hendrix acts like they are.”
“Jealous?” I suggest. “Although from what I understand, he broke things off with her. He’s acting super possessive of her.”
“Yeah, I don’t know. It’s odd. What I do know though is that she’s been seeing someone.”
“She has?”
“Mhm,” Keane confirms as he changes lanes. “I ran into her at the store out by our place.”
“Doesn’t she live downtown?”
“I thought so. Maybe this guy she’s seeing lives in our area.”
“In the burbs?” I can’t help but laugh. “I thought only parents lived out here.”
Keane shrugs. For the most part we keep to ourselves. Each of us has our own life, which tends to be our escape from the crazy band dynamic.
As he pulls into our subdivision, I send a quick text to Whiskey to let her know we’re about home. Of course, by the time I type it out and send it, Keane is pulling into his driveway. Doesn’t matter though because as soon as I’m out of the car, Evelyn is barreling toward me. Last night she ended up spending the night with Harrison and Katelyn so I didn’t get to see her.
I crouch down just in time for her to launch herself into my arms. “Daddy!” she squeals as I catch her. Holding her tightly in my arms, I spin her in a circle just so I can hear her laugh. While these moments just started with her, I know they won’t last long. She’s growing up far too fast.