Between a Rockstar and a Hard Place by Portia MacIntosh Read Free Book Online Page A

were on the fourth floor and
bolted for the door.’
    I
bet he did. Dylan is the kind of man who won’t even wear pink, so getting off
with a man is way out of his comfort zone.
    ‘When
was this?’ I ask.
    ‘A
few minutes before you arrived,’ Lola tells us.
    I
give him/her a hug and then grab Troy by the hand, pulling him up and dragging
him towards the lift.
    ‘That
was a man,’ Troy says when the doors are finally closed.
    ‘Yep,’
I reply.
    ‘That
was so blatantly a man though.’
    ‘Yep.
I could see his Adam’s apple.’
    ‘Nicole,
I could see his penis. He was a man. How did Dylan not know that was a man?’
    ‘Lord
knows,’ I say, laughing to myself. ‘I can’t believe he tried to jump out of the
window. And there wasn’t any champagne in that room, which means he took it.
Which means he is still off his face and things are only going to get worse.’
    The
lift pings and the doors open. The lobby is busy with all of the “festival
people” checking out, but we can’t see Dylan anywhere.
    ‘Roger,’
Troy calls out, spotting him making his way towards the exist. His shift must
be over, but he might have seen Dylan pass through here. ‘Has Dylan been down
here?’
    ‘The
last time I saw him he was with…’ Roger’s voice trails off.
    ‘Yeah,
thanks for the warning,’ Troy says, pushing money into his pocket. ‘Next time
I’d open with the important details if I were you.’
    I
plonk myself down on the sofa behind us. The trail has gone cold and time is
almost up.
    ‘Get
back up,’ Troy insists. ‘We’re not done yet.’
    ‘Unless
you know something that I don’t, we’re so done.’
    ‘Look,
Roger didn’t see him leave. That means he’s still in here somewhere. I doubt he
had time to find another girl – or boy – so he must be in one of the public
areas. One last sweep of the place, what do you say?’
    You’ve
got to admire his enthusiasm, although this is his first Dylan hunt. This kind
of nightmare is a regular occurrence for me, although he’s never proved this
hard to find before.
    ‘Ok.’
I pull myself to my feet with what little energy I have left. ‘One last sweep.’

Chapter Fourteen: Girls will be boys and boys will
be girls
     
    It’s
5:30pm and we haven’t found Dylan. Not only have we not found him, but we’ve no
leads. It really is game over now.
    Finally
defeated, Troy and I get back in the lift to head up to the room I was supposed
to be sharing with Dylan. He might not be on the bus at 6pm, but at the very
least I can make sure his stuff is. I imagine anything we leave in the rooms
Mrs Williamson will have passed on to an exorcist so she can thoroughly cleanse
her hotel of us “festival people”.
    ‘No
one can say you didn’t try, Nicole,’ Troy assures me, but I feel like I’ve let
everyone down. ‘Not only has he had sex with everyone in town – female and male
– but he’s been all over the place and you’ve followed him everywhere. At the
end of the day, you’re just his friend. This isn’t your problem. If I did this,
I wouldn’t expect my friends to have to track me down, that’s what his tour
manager is for.’
    I
think about Claire and how mad she is going to be when she realises Dylan isn’t
on the bus. Dylan is The Burnout’s front-man, sure the charity gig can go on
without him, but what’s a band without a front-man? All music and no lyrics.
    As
we step out of the lift I take the spare keycard that Claire gave my from my
bag.
    ‘I’ll
give you a hand,’ Troy says, following me along the corridor.
    ‘Are
you sure?’ I ask. ‘Don’t you need to go pack your things?’
    ‘My
tour manager can do it, he works for his money.’
    I
look at him and laugh – because if I didn’t laugh, I’d cry – and as I go to
push the door open Troy grabs me and kisses my passionately, ushering me
through the door and into the room with the skill of someone who does this all
the time. As he pushes me back onto the bed I can’t help