Ezra woke up in a sweat. He had one of his nightmares. He got up and walked to the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of water and drinking it all down as fast as he opened it. He hated the memories he carried from boarding school. The professors there, and the atrocities that he had been put through, still haunted his dreams. And even worse; his father believed that he was over exaggerating what happened, basically blowing him off and telling him to man up after he finally built up the courage to tell him about it all. He leaned against the cool counter top and took a deep breath. When his nerves finally calmed, he looked at his phone and saw he missed several calls from Dimitri and one from Holly. Holly was a leggy blonde and ex-playmate of the year that he met at a party his father threw a few years back. She was now an assistant to one of the biggest producers in Los Angeles and she had been hounding him to be on a reality dating show, "The Billionaire Batchelor." The idea of the show made him want to vomit. Needless to say, it was a dead end for her and he didn't appreciate her relentless pursuit of him. It had been like that for years. He was known as a consummate bachelor, a jerk, a snob, you name it. All because he didn't date. He didn't have women on his arm and he didn't attend all the fake ass parties and events he was expected to. He preferred it that way and so did his father. "He would love her." He thought to himself about the girl from Carefree. Lily. Billie. His father would like her so much. She was gorgeous, intelligent and low key. She was low maintenance and kind. So kind. He shook his head. He desired her so and yet knew she wasn't from his world. She was different. And she had a past. He could have any woman, any woman in the world, why would he want this woman?
"Because she is real." He thought to himself. He didn't understand the power she had over him but he knew one thing, he had to see her again.
+++++++++++++++++++++
"Ewwwww! Augghhhhhh!!" Raquel screeched as she flung her hands in the air and around her head. "There are so many bugs!" She yelled as she danced around.
Billie stifled a laugh. Gabe looked at her and then at Billie, obviously disgusted with both of the girls and at the fact that his plan wasn't working as he intended it to.
"Play another song, Gabe-babe." Grace said, smiling and pulling at his curls. Again, Billie stifled a giggle.
"Yeah, Gabe-babe. Play us a medley." Billie said. Abby chuckled and Tommy laughed.
Gabe rolled his eyes and began to strum his guitar, playing "Let it Be" by the Beatles. Raquel was obviously drunk and not very good at it. She began singing loudly along with him, causing him to stop singing all together and the rest of them to cringe.
When she finished the song, she loudly proclaimed, "I have to pee!"
"Let's go, bitch." Grace said, offering her her hand and leading her into the shrubby area behind them.
"Gabe, man. I think they need to either go to sleep or go the fuck home." Ricky said. He had a reason to say it, but they all agreed with him.
Gabe nodded. "My car is blocked in back here. Lily, can you drive them back to town? I'll ride along." Gabe said. Billie had only had a couple of beers and it was early. There was still time to come back and enjoy the campground. But she didn't want two drunk and loud girls screaming in her car and who knows what else for 40 minutes back to town. Especially since it was all just to start drama with her in the first place.
"Really?" She asked.
"Please." Gabe said, pleadingly.
"Yeah, please Lily. Pretty please with sugar and two drunk morons on top." Tommy said.
"Alright. But I'm not happy about it." Billie said as she stood up and got her things.
The girls came back and Raquel was angry because she peed on her shoes.
"Come on. We are going back to town." Gabe said.
"Why? I thought we were partying!" Grace said, throwing her arms up.
"No. We have to leave. Campground is kicking us out." Gabe said.
"Bummer." Raquel said. They followed Gabe and Billie to her car and got in.
The drive wasn't as bad as Billie thought it would be. Both Raquel and Grace had fallen asleep in the backseat less than 10 minutes after leaving.
Gabe was quiet. Billie turned on the radio and flipped through some channels. "Wild Horses" began to play and Gabe reached up to turn the volume up. She looked over at him and smiled. "One of my favorites, too." She said.
He nodded and sang along to it, "I watched you suffer, A dull aching pain. Now you've decided
To show me the same. No sweeping exit
Or offstage lines. Could make me feel bitter
Or treat you unkind... "
They both sang the chorus as they pulled into Gabe's driveway.
Billie put the Jeep in park. She could feel his eyes on her and she looked in the rear view mirror, then at him. He was looking at her, making it obvious that he wanted to look at her.
"Good luck waking them and getting them out of the car." She said.
He looked at her a little longer and then broke his gaze, looking in the back seat.
"They can't drive. Can you help me get them in my house?" He asked.
"Sure." Billie said. Gabe pushed lightly on Raquel's shoulder and she stirred.
"Where are we?" She asked.
"My place." He whispered.
"Ooooooh I was hoping so." She said, smiling.
He shook his head and helped her out of the car. Grace was a little bit more challenging to get out of the car. "Grace." Billie said. "Grace." She said a little bit louder. "Grace!" She yelled, inches from her face. Grace opened her eyes, startled.
"Hey." She said.
"Time to get out of the car." Billie said. They managed to get them both inside and to his couch and loveseat.
"Get them a blanket." Billie said. "Go you have a couple of trash cans or buckets? Just in case they get sick." Billie asked.
"Good idea." Gabe said. Billie was no stranger to this kind of thing. Her college days were filled with parties and nights where these things were needed.
After they passed back out, Billie walked out to her car with Gabe following.
"Do you trust them here?" She asked.
"They aren't capable of doing anything but snoring right now. And I imagine embarrassment will take over once they wake up. I left them a note." He said. He looked at her and smiled.
"Thank you for helping me with them." He said. "Although I didn't deserve it." He looked down and shook his head.
"Not a problem. And why do you say that?" Billie asked. He moved closer to her. He tucked his long hair behind his ear and looked into her eyes.
"Because I invited them to make you jealous." He said.
Billie felt herself blush. "How adult of you." She said, laughing.
"I know, I know. But you brought that supermodel dude around and it made me feel, well, really off. I guess I didn't realize how much I like you, until then. And I, I don't know. I guess I wanted to see if you maybe felt the same. And you, well, you seemed pretty unaffected by them." He said, looking defeated.
"Gabe, if you're going to attempt to make me jealous, you're going to have to bring women around with higher IQs than kumquats." She said.
"They aren't stupid, they are just really depressed." He said, laughing.
"They are the reason cliff notes were invented." She said. He let out a big belly laugh.
"You're right. You're right." He said. He stopped laughing and looked at her again. His brown eyes glowing from the reflection of the street light. He leaned in and kissed her, to her surprise. Caught up in the moment, she kissed him back. He was attractive. Sexy in a bad boy, rock n roll kind of way. She felt his hands move along her waist and pull her to him. She slowly pulled away and put her hands to her mouth.
"Sorry. I was a little caught up in the moment." He said. "No. That's a lie. I'm not sorry. Not at all." He said, smiling and looking into her eyes.
"Yeah. That was, unexpected." She said. Her face felt flushed and she turned away and walked to the driver's side door and opened it, getting in.
"We should get back." She said.
"Yeah." He said back, walking to the car and getting in.