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Damian Apollo was one attractive man, but that wasn’t necessarily why I fell in love with him the first time 'round.
But before I could think about our old relationship, another chorus dropped, and the entire crowd went wild, bringing me back to the present.
I was enjoying myself so much at the concert that I didn’t even realize that Damian was already in his last song.
“Alright, Phoenix, you have been an absolutely amazing crowd! Thirty songs and you all sang along to every single one!” Damian hyped up the crowd after a two-hour show. I never even felt the time pass by, and the fact that it actually was thirty songs was astounding to me. I was too in the moment, and he never lost my attention once.
“Do you have it in you for one more?” Damian asked, and the crowd cheered even louder than before. Even after an energetic set, his fans still had the lungs to be so loud. Damian smirked on stage as the instrumentation played immediately after his cue, and he went on to perform his final song.
Jolting me was an event assistant tapping me on the back. “Holy—!” I yelped, putting my hands up in defense.
The event assistant quickly apologized, “Sorry!”
I took a breath to calm down, realizing it was a familiar crew member. “No, it’s alright. I’m sorry, too,” I replied. “What is it? Do you need something?”
“You’re asked to be in the car ASAP, ma’am,” he said, beckoning me to come with him before I could respond. In the far distance, I could spot an SUV behind the stage. It was weird seeing a vehicle inside a stadium, but I was still quick to follow the event assistant.
As I opened the car door, Damian was wrapping up his show. “Thank you, Phoenix! You have been amazing! I love you all!”
I couldn’t see him because I was already behind the stage, but what I could see were a number of staff and security scrambling around to make a clear and straight path to the car.
“Please get in the car, Miss Thalia,” the event assistant said, and he didn’t need to tell me twice when I saw Damian sprinting toward us. He had an expression of exhilaration on his face that would be forever marked in my mind. I simply sat back in my seat and tried not to think about it.
The door on the other side opened rather aggressively, and Damian’s expression morphed into surprise when he saw me inside. But all I could notice was how he threw his entire body into the vehicle before realizing I was there.
“Watch out—!” Damian shouted, but it was too late. His damp and sweaty body made contact with mine rather forcefully, but thankfully, he managed to buffer himself by holding a firm grip on the leather seats.
With so much sweat, I expected him to not smell good. It was beyond unfair that, somehow, he still smelled amazing. My traitorous body took notice as I inhaled, feeling the heat and dampness from his skin.
The car started moving, and Damian was laughing, but didn’t bother moving from practically on top of me. Slowly, his head slid down from my stomach to my lap, and I had no idea what to do. He ran a hand through his glistening hair and shot me a sheepish look.
“Enjoying ourselves, are we?” I asked, a lightness in my voice that I certainly didn’t feel. Everything about this moment felt the opposite of light.
“That was crazy.” He shot me one last toothy grin. God, he was handsome before, but he was definitely more attractive right now. He was in his zone, he had a lot of fun, and all of that joy was showing on his annoyingly perfect face. Without another second passing, however, Damian quickly sat up and my body cried out at the loss. “Alright, Hector, would you mind telling our new friend what’s usually next after a show?” Damian instructed the big and burly man in the passenger seat.
“Hello, Ms. Thalia, I am Hector, Mr. Apollo’s head bodyguard.” His unbelievably deep voice almost vibrated the entire vehicle, and it admittedly caught me off guard. “I believe this is your first show with us, yes? After each one, we will always have to rush out of the venue to avoid the oncoming traffic jam and to avoid any risk of an overly-zealous fan overstepping their boundaries.”
“Boundaries?” I asked, confused and a bit dumbfounded at the seriousness of the situation.
“You know, unruly fans, stalkers… and that’s not even the worst of it,” Damian elaborated, looking out into the Phoenix night sky.
Hector cleared his throat. “Being well-known invites a lot of risks, and we are thankful that you were quick to adapt to our protocol. This will be our course of action per each and every show. Please take note.”
The mirrored barrier between Hector and our back area slowly rose, and Damian and I were alone.
I was still somewhat perplexed by what Hector said. “But those fans loved you. You couldn’t stick around for a couple more minutes for some autographs or something?” I asked. I knew it wasn’t in my place, but I just couldn’t understand why Damian would want to be as far away from his fans as possible. “They spent all that money, and all that time wanting to see you, and you just bolted away?”
Damian then let out a soft chuckle. “Oh, Thalia…” he whispered, looking at me directly now. “I wish I could live inside your ideal world, but you havenoidea what I go through every show.”
I had no response, so we sat there in silence for the rest of the drive to the hotel.
We were staying in a completely modern upscale hotel, but I couldn’t stop to look at anything because we were herded toward the elevator by security guards. One of the assistants led Damian to a separate elevator. Probably heading to the penthouse.
The same event assistant who led me to the vehicle earlier showed me to the elevator opposite Damian’s, and before our doors could close, we shared a blank look.
The room wasn’t remarkable. It was nice, of course, but it was exactly what I was expecting and that wasn’t really what was bothering me, anyway.
I groaned as I threw myself on the king-size bed. I didn’t particularly disagree with what Damian and Hector were saying or doing. I just felt like, as usual, Damian didn’t bother tohearme. I refused to let a misunderstanding cause a rift in the otherwise delicate truce we seemed to have lately.
