The Contest Page 4

  Was she for real? He wondered. She had to be pissed. I would be pissed and I’m not even a girl.

  “Well, thank you for being so understanding, but I believe I owe you a hot meal.”

  “I think I am hungry now that you mention it.” She swung her long legs out from under her, reached for her boots and began the intense process of putting them back on.

  She was struggling, it was obvious, so he bent down and offered to help her. He grabbed a boot and began to unzip it. When he glanced up at her, she was looking at him like she had won the lottery and a trip to Disney World all in one. For a minute, he forgot she was a fan who won a contest. The look in her eyes caught him by surprise and he felt his heart skip a beat. He regained his composure and bent down on one knee.

  “We’ze here at the Mor’gan stu’dios offer a full list of amen’ities in’cluding but not limited to shoe-a-shine, shoe re-a-movel and shoe re-a-placement,” he said in his best fake Italian accent.

  She looked shocked and inspired at the same time. She replied with a Scarlet O’Hara voice as she placed her hand over her heart, “Why thank you sir, it is a privilege and an honor to have such kindness bestowed upon little old me.”

  She was kinda funny… She was kinda different… He kinda liked it. He lifted his head in time to see her pull back in surprise. Did she just sniff my hair?

  Chapter 4

  Madi

  “I couldn’t help myself. He was right there,” Madi sighed into the phone.

  “Stop, stop! You’re going to make me pee my pants!” Kendra exclaimed on the other end of the line.

  “Well?” Kendra asked through gasps for air. “How did he smell?”

  Madi flopped on the bed. “Dreamy. Like expensive shampoo and his own personal brand of perfect aroma.”

  “What did he say when he saw you?” Kendra was laughing so hard she could barely get the question out.

  “He just looked at me and smiled. I’m sure he’s been sniffed before. I was mortified, just mortified. It’s all your fault, Ken. Why in the hell did you have to ask me to smell him? It was like it was programmed into my brain and I uncontrollably had to do it.”

  “Oh, man. I’m so sorry,” Kendra said as she laughed away.

  “No you’re not. I hope those Doritos go right to your hips, you bitch!”

  Kendra was still laughing and Madi couldn’t help but laugh too. The whole situation was so embarrassing, but it was so like Madi to get caught.

  “Okay, so what happened then? Did you go to dinner with him? Was it romantic? Public or private? Did he hug you? I wish I could have been a fly on the wall.”

  Madi was thankful she had Kendra to talk to. After her late call to her mother, she was bursting at the seams to tell someone about her day. She loved her mom dearly, but she didn’t want her to think she was acting like a lovesick ten-year-old while she was half way across the U.S. She kept to the basics with her mom and poured every last detail out to Kendra.

  “After he smiled at me, and finished zipping up my boots, which by the way are extremely hard to put back on once you have taken them off, he excused himself to gather his things. I thanked Ang for being so cool with me the whole day. I actually learned a lot and the people he works with are super nice.”

  “Hold on a minute,” Kendra said. Madi could hear a microwave beep and Kendra shuffle around a bit before she returned to the phone.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I made a bag of popcorn,” Kendra said as if it were commonplace. “I feel like I’m watching a movie and I need a snack.”

  “Oh my God, Ken, you’re too much.”

  “I’m seriously going to have to go on a diet after this weekend. I’m so nervous for you that I can’t stop eating. Okay, continue…”

  “Anyway,” Madi said through her smile. “Ang told me that she thought it would be fun if she went with us to eat. I’m pretty sure it was standard so Jake felt no pressure and so I didn’t lick his face or anything. Jake came back into the room, Ang grabbed her bag, and we were off. I sat in the front of his car. It still had that new car smell and I could tell he took care of it. Ang sat in the back seat. I think he could see me shaking because he asked me if I was cold and offered to turn on the heat. It was like 60 degrees which is summer in Chicago, so I told him I was just nervous.”

  “You told him you were nervous?” Kendra said while munching her popcorn. “Why did you admit to that?”

  “I didn’t know what else to say and I figured it was best to just be honest. He smiled and said that he promised he would be a perfect gentleman and wouldn’t even steal anything off my plate. I almost died. How could he be so sweet and charming while making an awkward moment seem perfectly normal?”

  “He’s a professional. He’s used to awkward fan moments.” Kendra said as she munched away.

  “I guess so.” Madi walked toward her window and glanced down to the city below. “Anyway, he asked me what I liked to eat. I told him I was open to anything. He said he might suggest pizza if he didn’t already know that Chicago had way better pizza than LA could ever have. That got us into talking about Chicago and I honestly think he knows more about the city than I do. I asked Ang if she’d ever been and she told me how she usually travels with Jake when he’s on tour. Jake started bragging about her. It was so sweet. He said she was irreplaceable and he needed her more than he cared to admit. She just laughed. It was like she was his mom. It was something.”

  “So, I’m guessing you didn’t find anything wrong with him?” Kendra asked.

  “Well, he is a workaholic. He did completely forget about me, but I can totally understand. I mean, who am I? This is his career. It means everything to him. You have to admire his dedication.”

  “Sounds to me like someone doesn’t want to find a fault with him.”

  “Believe me, I was looking. Seriously, he was so kind to me. That can’t be an act, can it? If it is, I totally fell for it,” Madi said through a yawn. “Although, I am super tired so maybe I’m not thinking clearly.” Madi made her way back to the bed and sat down on the corner, removing her boots.

  “If you think for one second that you are getting off the phone with me before you have answered every one of my questions and spilled every friggin’ detail then you are sadly mistaken!”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” she laughed. “I have been busting to talk to you all day.”

  “Good. Please continue…” munch, munch, munch.

  “Okay, so we decide on Chinese, which I did know is one of his favorites. We pull up to this hole in the wall place and I just looked at him. As if he could read my mind he said, ‘I swear you will love it. It’s the best place in town.’ I felt like an arse so I smiled and told him it sounded great. Once we got inside I saw that the place was super cool. There was a real Chinese dragon hanging from the ceiling and we sat on the floor around this huge table. He stopped in his tracks when they took us toward the floor table, looked down at my skirt, and then asked for a regular table, but I stopped him. I said I wanted the whole experience and that it meant I needed to sit on the floor.” Madi unzipped her skirt and tossed it on the chair.

  “Hold on a sec.” Madi placed her cell on the bed, pulled off her sweater, opened her carry on and put on a t-shirt.

  “What in the hell are you doing?” Madi could hear Kendra yelling through the phone. “I’m fricking dying here.”

  Madi picked up her cell. “Okay, so then I proceeded to tell him I was a college student so the floor was a normal place to eat. He seemed to like that answer and we spent the next twenty minutes talking about where I went to school, my major and what I wanted to do. I told him that I was taking a lot of psychology classes and that I had a bad habit of analyzing people. He asked me if I had figured him out yet. I almost friggin’ died. I studied his face for a moment and put my hand up to my mouth and said, ‘Hmm...’ Then I told him I needed a little more time. He smirked at me. I don’t know if he thought I was stupid or what but it still did s
omething to me.” Madi sighed into the phone.

  Kendra laughed, “He sounds interested to me.”

  “He was being polite. After I told him my goal was to work in human resources he told me his mom is actually in HR. Seriously? What are the chances? When I said that I didn’t know his mom did HR, he looked surprised. People must research the crap out of him. I’m glad that I didn’t know that. I think it made me look like less of a fanatic. Anyway, he ordered a ton of food and we all shared everything. It was so amazing. So amazing.” Madi lay on the bed and placed her arm over her forehead.

  “You mean his chopstick touched food that your chopstick touched? It’s liked you swapped spit. He might as well have kissed you.”

  “No, it was so not like a kiss. Trust me, I would have remembered a kiss. He has amazing lips.”

  “You looked at his lips?” Kendra choked on her surprise.

  “Of course I did. It’s only polite to look at someone when they are talking to you,” she said as rolled onto her stomach and lifted herself onto her forearms.

  “Uh huh, so you stared at his lips wondering what they would feel like on your hot mouth while he explained what his mom did for a living.”

  “Stop… it wasn’t like that. I mean, oh God, you don’t think he saw me looking at his lips do you?” Madi jumped up from the bed in a panic.

  “I was just kidding,” Kendra said through a laugh. “I’m sure you didn’t stare for long. You’re good under pressure. I’m sure he was amazed by you.”

  “I don’t know about that, although there was a moment when the two of us were just talking to each other and I completely forgot about Ang until she chimed in.”

  “Oooh, that’s awesome. Jake Morgan was intently listening to you. Do you know how crazy that is? I mean a day ago he didn’t even know you existed and today he was sitting two feet from you listening to you talk. Do you know how jealous I am? Do you?”

  “It was pretty unreal. Thanks for entering me in the contest. I mean, this has been the best twenty-four hours of my life,” Madi said genuinely.

  “You still have twenty-four to go. How did the night end?”

  “He and Ang took me to the Brook. They even walked me to my room. He carried my bag and everything. They said good night and told me they would pick me up at noon to head back to the studio for lunch there.” Madi picked up her bag and walked toward the bathroom.

  “No hug goodnight?” Kendra asked sadly.

  “No, but it’s fine. He doesn’t know me. I didn’t expect a hug.”

  “But did you want one?”

  “You’re kidding me, right?” Madi sighed at the thought as she stared at herself in the mirror. Was she the same girl as this morning? She could feel herself changing. What was happening to her?

  Jake

  The alarm went off at ten. He hadn’t been up at ten all week. Murphy looked surprised as he rolled out of bed. “I know, Murph, I’m as shocked as you are to be getting up this early, but I made a commitment and I need to stick to it.”

  “The commitment” he was referring to was named Madi Ryan. He was surprised how fast the night went by. Once they had started talking it was as if he’d known her for years rather than hours. She didn’t even seem anxious around him, which was cool, except for that moment in the car when he saw her hands shaking. But she admitted she was nervous. It was refreshing for her to be so honest. Most fans tried to act like they were fine when he could see the beads of sweat on their foreheads. The conversation flowed really well. Ang was a big help. It felt like a chaperoned date. He hadn’t had a mom-like person on a date with him since he was fifteen. Ang kept giving him weird looks the whole evening. He’d have to remember to ask her what that was all about when he saw her today.

  As Jake came back through the door from walking Murphy, he noticed he had left his PlayStation on all night. When he came home, he was too wired to sleep, so he stayed up until 3 a.m. playing Call of Duty. That was a mistake. If he was going to stay up late, he should have been working on the song. It still needed something. Jake thought about the song the entire morning while he showered and got ready to go. The answer was on the tip of his tongue. He just needed to focus.

  The doorbell broke him out of his train of thought. He opened the door to a smiling, wide-awake Angela Tyler.

  “Morning,” she gave him her concerned look. “Did you forget to sleep last night?”

  “How can you be so peppy and wide awake at all hours of the day?” Jake managed to get out as he yawned and flopped down into his chair.

  “I have kids, remember? Moms are ready to go at all hours. It’s what we do.”

  “Well, I’m not a mom and I never will be.”

  “No kidding. Say, while I’ve got you alone I have to ask you. What did you think?”

  “What did I think of what?” Jake said as he slipped a baseball cap on his head and sunk further down in the chair.

  “Of Madi, of course. She’s pretty cute, isn’t she?”

  “She a’-ight,” Jake said with a wave of his hand.

  “Oh come on now, for a minute there last night, I think you forgot I was there. She’s sweet, huh?”

  “The only reason I might have forgotten you were there was because you started to nod off.”

  “I did not nod off! I was watching you the entire time. You like her, just admit it!”

  “She’s fine, Ang. She’s a fan. That’s it. I was being the polite Jake we all know and love.” Jake slipped on his sunglasses as if the room was too bright for him.

  “Do you think you can kid a kidder? I know you better than you know you. That was not just politeness. You actually enjoyed yourself.”

  Jake looked up at Ang through the top of his hat. He took his sunglasses off and rubbed his eyes. “Maybe I had a nice time. She’s a nice girl.”

  “Uh huh… I can see I’m not going to get anywhere with you. Come on, let’s go. We are going to be late to pick up ‘what’s her name’.”

  Jake gave Murphy a swift kiss on the head and grabbed his keys. He hated to admit to Ang or even himself, but there was something kind of special about this girl. He didn’t know why, but deep down inside, he was looking forward to seeing her again.

  Chapter 5

  Madi

  Madi had set her alarm for nine so she had plenty of time to get herself together before she saw Jake again at noon. She had tossed and turned half the night, replaying the events of the day in her mind. She kept thinking about his smile. She shook her head and yelled out loud, “Stop it right now, Madi Ryan. He is a famous musician who is simply doing his job by being kind to you, just another one of his fans. You are not special, you are not his buddy. He is just another guy with a gorgeous set of curly hair, a voice that gives you chills and eyes that see through to your soul. Ugh, what’s wrong with me? I’m sure he has issues. He must have issues. Everyone is dysfunctional in one way or another. What would Adler do? What would Freud say? You need to stop this craziness and just enjoy yourself. You’re in LA. You’re in a luxurious hotel room and you have nothing to fear but fear itself, and… the possibility of a hug before he sends you on your way! Ugh, go take a hot shower. I’m being so stupid. Stop acting the way he expects a fan to act. Be yourself. Treat him the same way you would treat any other man.”

  That was enough. Madi forced herself to get into the shower and let her mind go blank as the hot jets shot all around her giving her a massage. How could she ever be satisfied with a dorm shower again after this? She was ruined for life.

  She put on the big, fluffy, hotel robe and switched on the TV. Her hair was in a pile on top of her head surrounded by a soft hotel towel. She’d have to bring one home for sure. She went over to the coffee maker and began the process of making a cup. Surely some caffeine would help her get her head on straight. She unpacked her bag and tried to decide what to wear. The idea of another skirt made her shiver. She looked at the wedge sandals Kendra had bought for her to wear and then back at her comfy blue Nikes, back to the w
edges, then the Nikes. Her feet seemed to be screaming Nikes to her and she decided that what Kendra didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her. She was, after all, still going to wear the expensive jeans Kendra made her buy. She had to admit, they did fit her like a glove and she was happy at the way they raised her behind up to look like she did a hundred squats a day.

  She stared at her sweatshirt. It was so soft and comfy. It was calling to her. Madi remembered there might be a photo op today and Kendra would never forgive her for looking frumpy in a photo with Jake Morgan. She decided the royal blue blouse actually did look nice with the jeans and it was a perk that it matched her tennis shoes, too. On to her hair, Madi took her time and straightened each strand perfectly. She desperately wanted to put it up in a clip on top of her head, but she knew it probably looked better down. Extra moisturizer? Check. Makeup done the way Kendra showed her? Check. Contacts? Check. Now what? It was only eleven. She had a whole hour to kill before she could see him.