Juilliard or Else (23 page)

Once we were inside and the cab pulled away from the curb, I glanced back at Tucker, expecting him to be standing there and watching the taxi leave, but he wasn't; he was gone.

I pulled my phone out of the gold clutch that Rachel had all night and checked it. I wasn't too surprised to see that I had twenty-three missed calls from Carol; there were no voicemails, just calls over and over again. I was not prepared to find her car at the curb of our building as our cab made its way back into the city and came to a stop out front.

Michael immediately rushed over to hold open the door for us as we climbed out of the cab.

"Miss Abigail?"

"Yes?"

"Your mother would like a word with you," Michael said to me while pointing over my shoulder. To be honest, I was not going to walk my happy butt over to her car just to have her scream at me.

"You can tell her to call me."

I passed Michael to join Jade and Rachel at the elevator and my phone started going off. I hit ignore twice as we rode the elevator up to our apartment. I was too happy to have spent the wonderful time with Tucker last night; I wasn't going to have her ruin my happy time.

Carol called my phone twice more as I stripped out of my clothes and turned on the shower. The ringtone echoed into the bathroom as I scrubbed my skin so hard, it was starting to sting from the hot water and soap. The more it rang, the harder I scrubbed my skin raw. It wasn't fair that she was doing this to me. I knew what she was going to say to me. She would hound me with all the stupid questions as to why I left my dad's dinner and didn't turn back when she called my name.

I soaped up my hair and washed my scalp, trying to get rid of the annoying ringtone in my ears. I stood under the spraying hot water until my phone finally stopped ringing, but another one started. I jerked my head out of the line of water to listen more carefully.

Yep, Tucker!

My insides squealed at his rock and roll ringtone. As I opened the shower door, my body was smacked with nothing but cold chilling air. I didn't even bother to look for a towel as I ran into my room and dived into my bed naked just to answer a freaking phone call from my hot crush.

I smiled as I hit the talk button. "Hello?"

"Hey, baby girl," Tucker's voice warmed my cold body as I wiggled into my white comforter.

"Hi." I could tell my voice purred at him through the receiver.

He chuckled and probably noticed, too. "What are you doing?"

Cold water dripped down my back from my hair and streaked down my sides, giving me the worst chills. I almost felt too embarrassed to answer him about me showering, but I really wanted to know his reaction.

"I was showering." My face flamed up as the words came out. I heard Tucker groan and shift in what sounded like a leather chair.

"Was showering?" he softly asked me.

"I was in the shower when I heard your ringtone." I giggled.

"So, you're like…" he cleared his voice, "in a towel?"

Oh. My. Goodness.

Did I tell him yes? Did I tell him no? A part of me was saying, "Yes, tell him you're covered up." But the other part wanted to play along with him. I wanted to tell him no to hear his reaction. I went for the plunge.

Taking a deep breath through my nose, I said, "No, not in a towel." I slammed my eyes shut so tight, thinking they would burst and my tiny veins and my eyes would bleed out.

"Gabs," Tucker growled so deep. My chills gave me stomach jitters as my head dropped on my arm, too embarrassed to say anything to him.

Even though I spent the night in Tucker's arms on another tiny couch, I wanted to be near him.

Tucker cleared his voice some more before he started speaking, "I was wondering if I could come over later and take you out to dinner. Then maybe, we could watch a movie?"

My heart leaped with joy. "Like a date?" I was trying really hard not to screech it out like a love struck teenager. I couldn't help it if I did, though. I was excited that he even wanted to see me again. My smile was starting to hurt my cheeks and my lip was going numb from chewing on it so hard.

"Yes, a date."

I started nodding my head as if Tucker were here watching me. "I would love to."

He let a rush of air, "Great. I'll pick you up at fiveish?"

I looked at my clock to see that it was twelve thirty. I had a good five hours to get myself ready. I knew that for my first date, Rachel would be more than willing to help me get ready.

"Sounds good."

"See ya, Gabs."

I hung up the phone without saying good-bye and dropped my head back down. Forgetting that I was still naked and on my stomach, I couldn't get the image of Tucker out of my head: his blue eyes, that one deep dimple, his hot hands as they roamed on my body. Gah, and his kisses, I couldn't even describe the most wonderful feelings I felt when his tongue would seductively stroke mine. Yes, he was the first guy I'd kissed, but it was amazing. All my crazy thoughts of him made my mind dizzy; I shut my eyes and quickly fell asleep.

SMACK!

"AAAAHHHH!" I screamed and grabbed my naked butt that was burning with hot flames. I quickly flipped over on my back.

SMACK!

"AAAAHHHH!" My hands came around to my front and cupped my exposed breasts, then listened to Jade and Rachel laugh their stupid heads off from their ruthless smacks on my naked body. I grabbed one end of my comforter and rolled myself up in it very tight.

"Dude, did you just carpet roll in your blanket?" Jade snickered at me through her laughing breaths. I was able to get my hand loose enough to give her the finger at the top of my blanket.

"Gabs," Rachel burst out as best as she could, stuttering as she tried to get her words out. "We just wanted to come tell you that…that…that Tucker is here and waiting for you in the living room."

Oh crap.

I sprang from my bed and planted my feet on the floor. Surprisingly, I didn't fall on my butt as I untangled my body from my comforter and rushed to our shared bathroom. Ugh, my hair. It wasn't cooperating with the brush since I fell asleep with it wet with Tucker on my mind. I went right to work on the rats nest, but finally accepted defeat and just pulled it back into the bun Jade hated at the base of my neck. Not having any time to mess with the makeup, I decided on a little mascara and some of Rachel's pink lip gloss, and then raced back into my room to find an outfit.

Once I was dressed, I stopped; I didn't know if I should dress casually or dressy. But knowing Tucker, I went with casual. After pairing black skinny jeans with a gray sweater, I also pulled on my black knee-length boots.

My heels clicked on the hardwood floor. Rachel smiled at my appearance, Jade rolled her eyes, and Tucker's back was facing me. He slowly turned and met my gaze, his side smile showing his deep dimple. He fully turned and my face dropped: he was wearing a black dress jacket and a black button down shirt with a silver tie. He dressed up. He even had his usually messy hair slicked back and away from his eyes. He looked down to my toes and back up; I'm sure he was taking in my casual outfit.

"Ah, shit," he quietly said, then loosened his tie at the knot.

Jade smacked him on the shoulder. "That a boy, Tuck; you looked like shit anyway."

I giggled and Tucker tossed his tie at me, hitting me in the face. I put it on just as a joke, but that didn't stop Tucker from taking my hand and pulling me to the front door and out the apartment. We stood waiting for the elevator and Tucker placed his hand on my lower back to usher me inside. The heat from his hand was still hot through my jacket and I shuddered.

"You cold?"

I shook my head. My body felt the complete opposite. I was warm, too warm. I wanted his arms around my waist, his lips on my skin, and his body pressed against mine. The thoughts entered my mind at a sudden rush, I wanted more. Tucker knew how to kiss and I wanted more. I peeked over at him and he looked down at me; I bit my bottom lip and stared back.

"Gabs." He stepped closer to me and I turned my body to face him. One of his hands rested on my hip, and his other hand moved up to tug on his tie that was still around my neck. I pushed up on my toes and our lips met. That instant shock happened as our lips molded together as our tongues caressed in a long lasting kiss that I felt all the way to my toes. The electricity that I looked forward to every time Tucker was near my body – that feeling was happening right now, and I loved every minute of it.

Tucker broke the magical kiss that was racing through my hot veins. "Mmm…You taste pretty good," he growled against my mouth and I instantly melted all over again. I couldn't help myself as I pushed up against his body to kiss him one more time. I really didn't care if anyone else got on the elevator with us. I just didn't want to stop kissing him.

The cab stopped out front of a fancy restaurant that I had been to multiple times with my dad and Carol. Actually, it was Carol's favorite French restaurant.

Tucker stopped us from walking into the restaurant, taking my hand in his. "I wanted to take you somewhere special." he mumbled out, looking at our intertwined fingers.

"Hey, it's the thought that counts, right?" He met my eyes and nodded.

"Yeah, but you're probably used to things like this, though?" He was right; I was. We came here about every other weekend. The staff even knew Carol's favorite table and said hi to us by name.

I pressed up close to him. "Let's go get a hotdog and coke. We'll sit somewhere. That would mean more to me than a fancy restaurant."

Bringing our hands up and he pecked my knuckles. "Are you just saying that, Gabs?"

"No. That would make me happier." I smiled.

We walked to a vendor just down the street and sat on the steps of the New York Public Library. I loved the library; I just loved to sit down to read a classic book by Jane Austen. But it had been so long since I even picked up a book. Our hands still locked onto one another as we ate the hotdogs and sipped on our drinks in silence.

"Tell me more about yourself," I asked when I was done eating.

"Not much left to tell," he said, taking another bite of his remaining hotdog.

I nudged his shoulder with mine. "Come on, tell me something."

"Um." Tucker sat there and thought about it. "I really don't have much."

"Let's start easy then." I brushed bread crumbs off my jeans. "What's your favorite color?"

Tucker tossed his head back and laughed, "Really, that's what you want to ask me? I thought you would dig deeper than that."

"I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable. I just thought it was a start, and then we can move up or something." I felt stupid for asking that silly first grader question, but I couldn't think of anything.

"Black," he answered.

"Black?"

He nodded.

"Why?" I asked.

"Black has so many levels of color."

"But it's black, just black."

"You would think that, but I see it differently. When I sketch, I use pencil. You would think pencil has one color, but it doesn't. You can smooth it out, shade it, push lightly, and push hard so you have different shades. Black isn't like that. When I tattoo, black is the hardest color to work with, you gotta get it right or you're doomed."

Wow.
I really didn't think about it like that.

"I just really enjoy drawing, always have. Becoming a tattoo artist is awesome. I already have some promising clients."

"That's great, Tucker." I took another sip of my drink and stretched out my legs. My butt was going numb from sitting on the cement steps.

"Do you want to come back to my place?" Tucker eyed me with a smirk. "Or we can go to yours," I threw in, mostly because I didn't want to force him to come to mine, but wanted to give him an option that we could go to his place instead.

"No, I don't want to go to my place. My neighborhood is dangerous; I've told you that, Gabs. You can never go there."

I peeked up at him under my lashes. "Even if you're with me?"

"
Especially
if you're with me." He took my hand and turned it over to place a small kiss on my wrist.