The question on Hailey’s face tells me I’m going to have to be more detailed.
Cadence, on the other hand, asks right out, “What? What were they making?”
I feel my eyes lighting up even before I answer. “They were making… a DAISY CHAIN!”
Cadence’s eyes bulge out so far, I feel like I might have to hold out my hands to catch them. “NO. WAY.”
“Wait! What? What’s a daisy chain?” Hailey demands, still confused.
“Just think about it for a moment, honey,” Cadence prompts her, her eyebrows doing a samba on top of her bright eyes.
The moment it finally dawns on Hailey is clear. “HOLY CRAP!!” She laughs so hard, she falls off her seat, her legs flying into the air, boots kicking back and forth in absolute uninhibited laughter.
The boys walk in right at that moment and Hailey struggles to recover from her impersonation of a bug on its back.
“What’s so funny?” Brad asks, smiling at me, and I try not to look away too abruptly.
“Oh, nothing, just some girl talk,” I reply.
“Well, more like boy on boy on boy on boy talk,” Cadence says, raising her eyebrows at Hailey again, who bursts into laughter even louder than before.
“What??” Jez asks, raising his voice to be heard over his boss’s daughter’s cackling.
“It’s nothing, Emily was just telling us of some of her more sordid experiences on the job,” Cadence manages to say before succumbing to the giggles again herself.
I think I catch a look between Jez and Marius, but it’s gone before I can figure out what it was.
“So, what are you guys drinking?” Sebastian asks, pulling Cadence to her feet, before sitting down on her chair and pulling her onto his lap.
“We just finished off a few rounds of shots. You guys ready to catch up?” Hailey asks, finally calming down.
“Er.” Marius shoots another look at Jez that I’m sure I didn’t imagine this time. “I’m not really in the mood for shots.”
The waitress comes over, her notepad ready. “A round of beers then?” Hailey suggests.
“Um, nah. Maybe later. I’m not really in the mood for a drink,” Jez mutters.
“Dude. What’s wrong?” Cadence asks.
“Nothing’s wrong!”
“You just refused alcohol. Twice,” Hailey adds.
Jez narrows his eyes at her, scrunching up his nose. “I’m not an alcoholic!”
Hailey stares at him back, not backing down. “No, you’re just a very social drinker.”
“Well, I’m not today, okay? Give it up,” Jez says, pulling an empty chair from the neighboring table to sit on.
“Okay, fine. What about you, Marius? You wanna take us on?”
“Er, they do iced coffee here, right?” He aims his question on the still-waiting waitress who nods.
“ICED COFFEE?” Cadence yells, her eyebrows in motion again.
“Okay, it’s not funny anymore, guys… what gives?” Hailey asks.
There’s no answer, and each one shirks away from Hailey’s stare when she turns to them.
“Ooohhhh. I know,” Cadence finally speaks up. “They’re scared of Emily.”
“What? Why?”
“They’re scared of what you’re going to write about them,” she explains to me. And of course it all makes sense.
I can’t believe it. “Guys. Seriously?” And I wait for them to deny it.
I turn to Brad, who squirms in his seat. “BRAD!”
He just looks apologetic, but doesn’t even begin to deny it.
“What? I’m not here as a spy, guys, to busybody into the nitty-gritty of your debauched lives!” I shake my head, trying to let it sink in that they see me as an outsider, when the only reason I got this job was because my editor felt I had an in with them. But if all they see me as is a two-bit tabloid reporter, I might as well work for TMZ. It hurt. More than I would’ve expected it to. I feel a prickle behind my eyes and blink furiously trying to get rid of it.
Brad notices, and he moves his chair closer to me. “It’s just… look, we haven’t had the best experience with paps, okay?”
“I’m not a pap,” I say, shocked that I even have to explain that.
“Whatever. Reporters, journalists. It’s been hardly a few months since…” His voice trails off and his eyes shift to Cadence”
“What?” she asks him.
“You know. The pics… and the video,” he says, lowering his voice, referring to the very well-publicized sex video of Cadence when she was younger.
“Dude. I’m cool with Emily.” She winks at me and reaches over and gives my shoulder a little pat.
I smile at her appreciatively. What an amazing woman.
“But… well, we’re… not,” Jez says, frankly.
Wow.
“It’s just…” Marius starts, trying to find a way to explain.
“No. I get it.” And I guess I do.
The group is quiet. Possibly the only time I’ve ever heard such quiet when the guys have been together.
I scan their faces, these faces I first met before they even needed to shave. It hurts, but I know where they’re coming from. But the person they’re afraid of, it’s not me, not my style, and it’s never been my intention to air any dirty laundry or plaster their secrets across the front page.
And as much as they are feeling awkward about admitting their distrust, the hurt is tenfold for me. I thought that our past had meant something. It might’ve taken them a few days to warm to me, but that they would. Breaking the ice was what I expected, not them waiting for me to break their trust.
But I knew what I had to do.
I hadn’t gotten this far in my career without learning a thing or two on how to get the most tight-lipped creatures on earth to open up to me.
I had the advantage of four years of high school with these guys, and there’s something they can never refuse.
I stand up, pulling my jacket off, and drape it over Brad’s shoulder.
“Hold my beer. I’m going up for some karaoke.”