MADversary (6 page)

He leaned over toward her, and she saw the slack jaw.  He’d already had one beer too many.  “You know, I’m getting tired of answering that question.”

Megan decided to lighten the mood.  “Maybe we should have sent out biographies to everyone before tonight, right?”

He started laughing. 
“Yeah.”
  He nodded.  “But…to answer your question, I’m an assistant high school football coach in
Colorado Springs
and I’m married to a woman I met in college.  We have two kids and the third one is on the way.”

“You teach anything?”

“Yeah…history.”
  She nodded. 
“So what about you, Miss Megan?”

“I’m an assistant librarian here in town.”

His eyes narrowed and then he brought his beer up to his mouth, draining the glass.  “No kids or anything?”

She shook her head. 
“Nope.”

He pulled his lower lip into his mouth and allowed his eyes to drop to her lips…and lower.  Megan started to feel uncomfortable.  “What say you and I blow this joint and I give you the chance to say you sacked the quarterback?”

The bartender placed her new drink on a napkin in front of her and she handed him her money.  Then she turned back to Brad and wondered if she should be flattered or offended.  She chose the latter, assuming that
she wasn’t the first woman he’d hit on tonight.
  “Thanks, but I think I’ll pass.”

He raised his eyebrows but said nothing.  She saw him move his eyes to behind her.  “Oh.  I should have known.”

She wondered what he was talking about until she turned around to see what he was looking at.  Tyler had approached a
nd was on the other side of her, playing the role of knight in shining armor.

Chapter Seven

PART OF MEGAN
was relieved that Tyler had come to “rescue” her
,
but the rest of her felt upset that he couldn’t take a hint.  She looked back over to Brad, ready to tell him he didn’t know what he was talking about.  Before she could speak, though, Tyler started talking.

“Well, if it isn’t the star QB.  How’ve you been, man?”

Brad stood and offered his hand to Tyler, just behind Megan’s back.  “
Great. 
You?
”

“Can’t complain.
  What’ve you been up to?”

“Aw, just raising a family.  You finally got a band going, huh?”

Tyler grinned.  “You listen to
Madversary
?”

“No.  Don’t take it personally.  Never was much into that
headbangin
’ stuff.”

Tyler nodded. 
“To each his own.”
  But Megan knew what he was thinking—the guy must have terrible taste.

“Good
seein
’
ya
,” Brad said and stood, probably ready to start prowling for someone more available.  “Good to see you too, Megan.”

She nodded and smiled.
  As Brad walked away, Megan decided to be polite and turned to look at Tyler, but Tyler was already moving to take Brad’s empty seat.  She turned her head back to face him.  He looked at the bartender.  “Bud, please.”  Then he sat down.  “What about you, Megan?  You
gonna
tell me you don’t listen to metal anymore?”

She grinned. 
“Hell, no.
  I still love it.”

He looked down at his hands, still grinning.  “Have
you
heard my band?”

Oh, he was
gonna
do it.  He was going to make her talk to
him,
make her remember how much easy conversation they’d engaged in when they were younger.  Well, he still had his life and she had hers, and having a conversation didn’t put them back in each other’s
circles
. 
“Of course.
  I have all three CDs too.”

He raised his eyebrows
as his smile spread wider.  “Glad to hear that.”

She took a sip of her drink as the bartender placed the bottle of beer in front of Tyler and collected his money.  “It’s great stuff, Tyler.”

“Thanks.”  He tilted the bottle to his lips and took a swig.  Then he looked back at her. 
“Means a lot coming from you.”

She shrugged,
because
liking
Madversary
was a no brainer.  But she didn’t want the two of them getting too cozy.  “Oh, come on, Tyler.  You have millions of fans and
my
admiration is all you need?”

His jaw slackened but he maintained a steady, cool gaze.  “Is it so hard to believe that I care what you think?”

His words made her feel like maybe she’d been too harsh.  “No.  I guess not.”

“I’m not saying it’s not cool having thousands of fans.
  It’s nice to know people love my music.”

“Well, it shouldn’t be surprising, though.  You’re talented.”

Tyler took another drink from his bottle and then looked at Megan again. 
“So what about you, Meg?
  What have you been up to all these years?”

“Nothing nearly as exciting as you.
  I graduated from
CSU-Pueblo and then came back here.  I got a job as an assistant librarian at the
public
library and have been doing that ever since.”

“Do you like it?”

She hadn’t expected that question.  It took her off guard. 
“Yeah, I do, actually.”

“You know, I’ve always pictured librarians as crusty, gray-haired ladies who have those chains hanging from their eyeglasses, and if you so much as say one word, they’re telling you to be quiet.”

Megan laughed and shook her head.  “Well, that’s the outfit I have to wear to work every day.”

Tyler grinned. 
His voice dropped. 
“
I can’t picture you that way.”  Suddenly, she felt warmth radiating from his body, and everyone around them at the reunion seemed to
just
disappear.
  It even felt quieter.
 
No, Megan, no
.
  She couldn’t let herself fall for him again.  He was here for just a couple of days and gone, and she couldn’t spend the next ten years wondering what could have been.  “
So what all do you do
in your job
?”

“Probably everything you’d imagine
and then some
.  I check books out for people and shelve books that have been checked in.  Once in a while, I cover books and sometimes I work in the Reference section.  But my favorite thing is the book club I started.”

“Yeah?
  What’s that?”

“Well, every Thursday night, a bunch of us get together in a meeting room in the basement of the library.  We read a book and then talk about it
at our meetings
.  I usually either find discussion questions online or make
up
my own.  The bookstore downtown sells us books at a discount, and we read at least a book a month, sometimes two or three
,
depending on the size.”

He nodded. 
“Sounds pretty cool.”
  He finished his beer.  Megan noticed she still hadn’t finished her second drink. 
She probably should have, though, because it might help her relax. 
“What are some of the books you guys read?”

“We read a lot of popular fiction.  We’ve read lots of Stephen King, but
over the last year, we’ve
read
books
by Chuck
Palahnuik
,
Stieg
Larsson, Alice Walker, Richard Ford,
Philip K. Dick,
and Michael Crichton, to name a few.”

“I know a couple of those but, I have to admit, not all.”  He flagged the bartender down and pointed at the empty bottle.  “I hope you don’t think less of me.”

She smiled.  Just the fact that he thought a book club was “cool” was enough to save him from her scorn. 
In fact, he was the first guy in a long time whose eyes didn’t glaze over at the word
librarian
. 
“You kidding? 
Of course not.”
  She took another sip of her drink.
  “I
gotta
tell you, though.  Some of these books are pretty therapeutic.  I mean…you’ve had a bad day, and you pick up a good book and get lost in its pages…all of a sudden, your life doesn’t seem so bad
anymore
.”

Tyler nodded.  “I like that.” 
When the bartender brought Tyler his next drink, he asked Megan, “
Wanna
go find a table somewhere?  It’s crazy up here.”

He was right.  There were lots of people, and they kept interjecting
h
ello
s here and there without actually starting a conversation.  People kept leaning over her
,
nudging
and jostling
her
,
and she was tired of it. 
“Sounds good.”

Of course, Tyler was stopped a lot more than Megan, but Megan hadn’t become a rock star since graduation.
  Megan had forgotten more people than she’d
remembered
from school, and it made her feel like she had Alzheimer’s.  As they made their way through the crowd, she looked around for Lisa and couldn’t see her
or Randy anywhere.  That didn’t mean anything, of course, but she couldn’t even throw a glare her friend’s way.

It took them fifteen minutes to cross the room.  More women tha
t
she
couldn’t recognize
from high school stopped them on their way across the room.  “Tyler?  Love your band.”  “Tyler
Green.  I need a new autograph.”  “Hey, Tyler, we’ll be your groupies.”  And there were lots of giggles.

She was impressed with the smooth way Tyler handled them all, making no promises but keeping them happy just the same.  Watching him work the crowd, she remembered that she and Tyler had been semi-friends before they’d dated a
nd now that
they
were reconnecting, she thought she was okay with it, even if it
was
on a
just
friends
basis.
 
Especially
if it was on a
just
friends
basis…but it had to stay that way.

T
hey found a table out of the way and sat down
.  Megan noticed Tyler made sure his back faced the crowd so there would be less chance of being recognized on the fly.  As he took a drink of his beer
, Megan asked, “So what was the inspiration behind some of your songs?”

He shrugged.  “Oh, most of them…you can’t just tell?”

“I have suspicions.”

“Then you’re probably right.
  There’s not much mystery behind them.
  A lot of
the
songs are just about how I was feeling at the time.  Like
‘Shut Up,’ that’s about an argument all of us in the band were having at the time.  But there are a couple that are just kind of about the whole lifestyle and adjusting to it, and, you know, some fighting songs, and some songs about the current political climate. 
Some about pain.
  Any certain ones you’re curious about?”

“No, not really.
  But I
gotta
say
,
I like the direction your band is going. 
Madversary
sounds a lot more mature than your first band, but it also sounds freer and…I don’t know—it has a raw, edgier sound to it.”

“Thanks, Meg.  I appreciate that.”

She couldn’t stand it anymore.  She had to know, had to just get it out of the way. 
“So…anyone special in your life?”
  Her mind was toying with a weekend tryst.  She didn’t know that she could have Tyler nearby and not touch every last inch of him, but all bets were off if there was a girlfriend in the picture.
  Of course, she was assuming a lot.  He might not give a shit.

He’d been looking at the last inch of liquid in her gla
ss and his eyes stayed there as
he formulated some sort of answer.  He licked his bottom lip and raised his eyes to meet hers.  He shook his head.  “That’s pretty unlikely now.”

Another unexpected response.
  She felt her brows furrow.  “What do you mean?”

He smirked.  “Well…there’s not much chance of
forming any kind of genuine relationship
once
you’re in a
well-known
band.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.
  I wouldn’t have expected it, but it
kinda
sucks.  At first, it was really cool.  Swimming in…”  He cleared his throat and took a swig from his beer.  “Let’s just say it was most guys’ dream.  Women would
literally
just throw themselves at us.  And that was awesome for a while, but then…it
kinda
loses its charm.”