Page 34 of Tailwhip
I give him another kiss bye. “I like that idea; I will get it setup. Be careful!” Anthony says before heading into the bathroom.
Luckily, Heath only lives a few blocks from my house and from our favorite local coffee shop. Once I get there, of course, they have a line. So, I let him know I will be a bit later since I am waiting in line to get our order placed. Once up to place our orders, I get overly excited about the new pumpkin spice chai tea latte! Obviously, that is what I want; anything pumpkin, I am in, well almost anything. I place the order for my chai and Heath’s vanilla caramel latte with an extra espresso shot.With drinks in hand, I am on my way to his house. Not paying any attention when I open the door, I run right into this girl, somehow not spilling our drinks. “Oh my gosh, are you okay? I am so sorry; I wasn’t paying attention to where I was walking.”
The girl looks down at the sidewalk, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear and very shyly says, “I am okay; you didn’t hurt me. It’s okay; I am fine.”
Once she looks up, although very quickly, I can’t help but feel like I know or have seen her from somewhere. She looks back down and starts walking away, but stops when I start talking to her again. “You look very familiar; do I know you from somewhere? Did we go to school together down in Colorado Springs?”
I notice her hand movements: five repeated taps using her thumb and tapping on the side of her index finger. It’s a nervous tick that kind of makes me a bit uncomfortable for some reason. Finally, she responds. “No, I don’t know you and you don’t know me. You’ve never seen me.”
With that, she turns and walks the opposite way. I assumed she was coming for coffee, but must have changed her mind after our interaction.
Finally getting to Heath’s, he is waiting on his front porch, reading the news when I walk up and take the chair next to him. “Coffee shop is busy this morning. Thank you for getting the drinks!”
Taking a sip of mine and making an “MMM” sound, I say, “Yes, the coffee shop was super busy and then when I was leaving, I wasn’t paying attention and ran right into this girl. Thankfully, I didn’t spill our drinks. I would have been heartbroken!”
Heath takes a sip of his drink. “Ah shit, that is still so hot! You and that tunnel vision is going to get you in trouble one day when you run into the wrong person!”
I furrow my eyebrows at him and just shrug my shoulders. “I guess we will see when that day comes!”
Once inside, we go to the office, which is a little room right off the front entryway. Heath pulls up the information from the publisher regarding the book signings. “So, they think five cities would be a good starting point for book signings, since this will be new for you, and they don’t want to overwhelm you with it.”
I think to myself that five still seems like a lot for a first-time writer, but they would know best. “Okay, so what five cities are we going to hit?” Turning his mac around, so I can see the list. I read them all out loud. “Colorado Springs (obviously!), Chicago, Raleigh, Dallas, and San Francisco.”
I am a bit confused with the city schedule, but I don’t know how this works. Heath can tell I am confused. “It is a weird travel itinerary and places to go, but it will be good and, of course, I will be with you for all the stops. You won’t be on your own.”
After finishing all our business talk, I decide to stay and hang out with Heath for a bit longer. He's one of my best friends, and I always enjoy our talks, even though they can sometimes get heated. I fill him in on Anthony’s Park tour and how I will be going up to Seattle in about a week to spend time with Anthony up there and that he will be coming back with me. “Sounds like you two are getting pretty serious quick–just be careful, Ashlynn. I know he is your one; you feel it in your bones. Sometimes, though, that can blow up when you least expect it to happen.”
I give Heath a look; he usually doesn’t say much to me about my relationships, so this feels odd. “Ashlynn, I am simply speaking from experience. Why do you think in all the years you have known me, I have never been with anyone? My heart and soul are still in pieces from Scarlett.”
I have only heard him talk about Scarlett on a few occasions and I will not open that pandora’s box. “Heath, I promise. I will be careful. Once you meet Anthony, you will see he would never hurt me, at least not intentionally.”
Heading out to go home, I turn to look at Heath. “Do you want to come over for dinner? A couple of the guys are ordering pizza and we are just going to hang out around the firepits and just chill tonight.”
He shakes his head, until I give him a sad face. “Fine, I will come over and meet everyone! Will Neha be there, too?”
“Of course, Neha will be there; Nick is there, too.” With that, I give him a hug and start to head back home, but first I make a quick detour by the coffee shop, just to see if, by chance, the girl is around there. I know I have seen her before, but I can’t place her. Of course, she is not there, though.
TEN! Ten pizzas is how many Nash orders for everyone. These guys better eat them all; I don’t want this left over at my house! Everyone fills their plates up and we head out back to sit and eat around the two fire pits I have. All the team and Nick hit it off instantly with Heath, which makes me so happy!
Heading inside with all the plates for the trash, all ten pizzas are, in fact, gone. Thank goodness. I stand in the dark of my kitchen watching everyone talk, especially Anthony and Heath, like they have known each other for years. That’s when I hear Mateo say, “Dude, Anthony. I thought of the perfect nickname for you and Ashlynn!”
Smiling to myself, I can’t wait to hear this. Anthony looks over, “What would that be, Mateo?”
“The batteries!” Mateo says with the goofiest smile on his face, and everyone else is quiet. “You know because both of their names start with an A, so they are double A, like a battery. It doesn’t work when I have to explain it!”
Walking back out with a blanket for myself and Neha, I look at Mateo, “I got it, Mateo, don’t worry!”
“Thank you, this is why I like Ashlynn! She gets me!”
After Nick, Neha, and Heath all leave for the night, I am sitting around talking to Jax and Nash about the night at the club. They both surprise me by telling me what a douche bag my ex, Ryan, is. “How would you even know what he looks like?” I ask them, very confused by what they are saying.
Nash looks over. “Oh, he was at the club messing with Anthony; we saw him while we were coming to check on the drinks.”
Just then, Anthony plops down next to me. “Yeah, I meant to ask you guys why you carry brass knuckles and a pocketknife everywhere?”
“We don’t always ride in the best parts of towns; I rather have those on us versus nothing.” Jax says this like it should be an obvious thing. Getting up to go to bed, I tell them all where they can find extra blankets and pillows, since they all chose to stay at my house and leave early the following morning.
Once in my room and the door closed, I turn to Anthony. “So, you met Ryan. Why didn’t you tell me you talked to him?”