No Way Back (a Taylor Hawkins fan fiction)

Chapter 16 - City of Ghosts

The sound of the shower stirred Gen awake. She heard Taylor singing and smiled, forgetting for a moment the previous night's events. All too quickly they came rushing back. The run-in with Noel, the late night text. She buried her head in the pillows and tried to will them away.

Sergio.

Sergio was one of the two frontmen of massive English band Kasabian. They had met just over 3 years ago at a bar in Chicago. Gen had been in town visiting friends, Kasabian had played The Vic that night. The moment she'd seen him she'd lost her breath. He was stunning. Tall, lanky, a mop of dark hair beneath a large brimmed hat. Hazel eyes rimmed with smudges of black liner leftover from the night's show. Sharp drawn features with a perfectly trimmed beard. He wore a sparkly scarf loosely tied around his neck over a deep-cut worn t-shirt, skinny jeans and pointed boots. He was a modern day dandy and she was instantly intrigued. Their eyes met, then locked from across the room and it was the beginning of the end of her.

"You're up!"
Taylor's voice snapped her back to the present moment. She unburied her head to look at him. He stood in the doorway of the washroom, just a towel around his lean waist, threatening to slip of his hip bones at any moment. He tousled his wet hair with one hand. Normally this sight would entice a frenzy in Gen, but at this moment she couldn't muster up anything, her mind was spinning so fast she felt dizzy.
"You okay, Igg?" He sensed something amiss.

"Yeah, just tired," she said, forcing a smile. "You're partly to blame for that."
He crossed the room quickly, crawling over top of her in the bed, his hair dripping on her bare skin.. She giggled and swatted him away.

"Don't you have somewhere to be?"

"Nowhere that looks as good as you do right now."
Her heart ached. He was so wonderful. Why was her head such a mess? She reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling his face to hers and tried to lose herself in the taste of his lips.
"Don't get me started," he said, pulling away and hopping out of the bed, nearly losing his towel in the process. "You're a temptress and I must resist you!" He dropped the towel, shaking his behind in her direction before pulling on a pair of loose cargo shorts. Gen laughed and buried her head back in the pillows.

"Alright Igg, I'm off to the venue. Have fun getting your shit all done up. I can't wait to see you tonight."

"Wait til you see the dress," she grinned, turning her face to look at him from beyond the mountain of pillows. He winked at her as he grabbed his room key and shoved it in his pocket, throwing a pair of aviators on.

"Wait until you see mine."
With that, he left, leaving Gen alone, wondering what to do until 3pm - when she was starting hair and makeup in Kate and Dave's suite. She considered going back to sleep, but was sure she would find nothing but trouble behind her eyelids. Instead she got up, took a quick shower without washing her hair and slipped into a pair of jeans and Taylor's Jane's Addiction T-shirt, which she had pretty much claimed as her own the minute he'd dropped the girlfriend title on her. She threw her hair up in a messy bun, tossed some sunglasses on her head, flats on her feet and went down to the lobby to seek coffee. She found a seat out in the bustling courtyard and lit a cigarette, her mind instantly wandering back to that first night in Chicago.

He had approached her. Offered to buy her a drink. It was the classic cookie cutter move but somehow seemed new coming from him. His accent killed her, his charm did worse. Her friends were intuitive enough to drop back, entertained by the scene playing out before them. They'd known Gen since high school and were not shocked in the least that she'd find herself in this type of situation. He brushed her knee, she touched his arm, electricity seemed to fill the air around them. Two drinks later she found herself in the back of a dark cab, his hand halfway up her dress, his lips on her throat.