"Holy shit, it feels so good outside!" Mike shouted and threw his hands up in the air, letting the October air seep through his fingers. He was wearing a black cutoff tee (no surprise) with a green camo jacket over it. His sunglasses were covering his eyes and he had a black beanie covering his shoulder length hair that appeared straightened.

I looked up at him smiling as we walked down Melrose and just window shopped. We were meeting up with his band today to have lunch and then I was going over to his place here in LA, for the time being, to hang out with them. It was my first time actually hanging out with his bandmates. I had met them briefly a few weeks ago, but it was just that: brief.

"I feel like we match today. Just different jackets, hats, and you're wearing boots." He smirked looking down at me and bringing me into his side.

"We are fashion twins right now. Except I look cooler than you." I shot him a wink and wrapped my arms around him in a hug.

"You know," he began as he continued to side hug me. "The guys are pretty excited to hang out with you."

I gave him a strange look and furrowed my eyebrows in confusion, "Why? I only met them that one time for like five minutes."

"Because they said you seem cool. And, they wanna know who I'm spending all of my free time with." He added, shyly. I didn't say anything but instead just smiled at him. He had that way about him.

We walked back to my car from the stores we had popped in and out of and made our way to the little restaurant where we were meeting Vic, Tony, and Jaime at. We had arrived and Mike had said that they were already here.

We walked in, both of us taking off our sunglasses, and Mike had spotted them, since he was 56 feet tall and whatnot. They were sitting at this half table-half booth looking like it fit six people in it. Tony and Vic were sitting on the chairs and Jaime was at the end of the booth. "Hey guys!" Vic shouted with a grin.

I greeted back to them, trying to match the same smile that Vic had. I scooted in beside Jaime and in between him and Mike. "Nice to see you again, Bonnie Monnie Lonnie." Jaime said, rhyming my name with whatever he could making me laugh.

"Nice to see you guys, too." I said before the server came and took mine and Mike's drink order, then giving us all some time to look at the menu. "How's the studio going?" I questioned, trying to seem like I knew a little about what they were doing here and whatnot.

"Great! Thanks for asking," Vic answered. "Mike over here finished tracking drums in one day." He gestured over to Mike and I looked at him smiling.

"That's awesome, Mike. You're such an awesome person." I said to Mike jokingly in an overly cheerful tone, making Jaime laugh.

"But yeah, Jaime is gonna start tracking bass soon, then Tony, then me, then vocals. So, we've got a long way to go." Vic explained as his visual attention was focused on the menu.

I nodded, "I bet it goes by fast, though." The server brought us our drinks and I removed my straw from its white paper wrapper and sticking it in my cup of iced tea.

"It does." Tony said, saying something for the first time since I had sat down. He was really shy and quiet compared to his three bandmates who seemed loud and ecstatic. "But, it's really fun." He gave me a small smile and the other guys ignored his comment, talking about other things. I guess that happened a lot. With a small voice, everyone can talk over you that way.

The guys were intrigued by my career and were asking tons of questions about it. If I've ever worked with someone famous, if I've ever styled somebody that they knew or knew of, things like that.

Afterwards, Mike and I got back in my car to his place. When I was at a red light, I caught him looking over at me with a smirk. "What are you looking at?" I questioned.

"Nothing. I think the guys like you." His smile continued to grow and his gaze still fixed on me.

"Well Mike, if you must know, everyone likes me." I said jokingly making him laugh.

"I'm starting to believe it, Bons. Because I sure like you." He winked at me, then faced forward with his smile still there. I felt my cheeks get a little hot, knowing they were turning a light shade of pink. I smiled, biting down on my bottom lip momentarily.

---

"Guess they aren't here yet." Mike said opening up the front door and walking inside with me following. "I'll show you around then." He said, giving me a small tour of the living room, the kitchen, and then showing me everyone's bedrooms; his was last. He swung open his bedroom door and let me inside first. "This is my little room. It's bare and boring, but since we're renting for a short time, we're not allowed to decorate it all crazy. I'm really only in here to sleep." He explained as I walked around looking at all of his clothes thrown everywhere.

"You're quite messy." I giggled, kicking a pair of his underwear away from my shoe.

He grinned, "I know. Look at my nicely made bed, though." He gleamed with pride at his queen sized bed that was made perfectly. The sheets were white and the only thing colorful about it was the blanket which had a black and grey design on it. I chuckled sitting on it, laying back just like he did to my bed.

"Ooh, comfy." I said as I adjusted myself and got comfortable as I kicked off my boots.

He looked down at me, smiling widely. Mike kicked off his shoes and joined me on his bed. He took the hat off of my head, letting my long hair fall. I ran my hand through my hair, to get rid of hat hair. He brushed my hair behind my ear and said softly, "Bonnie, you're absolutely beautiful." He stared into my eyes, and I was getting lost in his just the same. I felt almost hypnotized by him. And that wasn't like me.

I couldn't let words escape from my mouth, they literally stopped at my throat at a halt. It's not like I knew what to say anyway. He adjusted himself to sit up more and smirked at me like he always seemed to do. I found myself matching his silly grin and fiddling with my fingers. "Mike," I finally got out and he turned his attention to me. "You're pretty beautiful yourself." I shot him a wink and he chuckled, his nose scrunching up in the most adorable way. It sounded like a joke, but I truly did mean that. He really was beautiful.

He bit on his lip, a nervous smile sitting on his mouth, and he met his eyes with mine. He was getting closer to me and I to him. Soon enough, our lips touched for the first time, nerves shooting through my entire body. He backed up and grinned puffing out his chest. "Do you know how long I've been wanting to kiss you?"

"How long?" I tilted my head slightly to look at him.

"It'll sound weird if I say the night I first saw you because I didn't know you. So, I'll say when I saw you again at the coffee shop. And talked to you." He admitted nervously.

I sat up and reached eye level, kissing his cheek. "I'm glad you did." Mike shined his pearly whites at me and brought me into a hug into his chest and kissed my head.

We heard the front door open and close so we decided to go down with the rest of the guys. I had quickly gotten close with Jaime because we made each other laugh. We were all joking around and Mike was playing FIFA with Jaime. Vic was on his laptop because he hated video games. Vic cleared his throat before he spoke, "Oh yeah! Guys, don't forget we have a video shoot in a couple of weeks."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that." Mike muttered, his eyes still glued to the TV screen. None of the guys had looked at Vic, they just kept playing the game.

"Ooh, a video shoot. Sounds fancy." I raised my eyebrows and sipped on the beer I had opened.

Vic grinned, "It's gonna be so fun. I love doing video shoots."

"What are you guys gonna wear?" I questioned, laughing after I asked that because of course that would be the first thing I ask.

Vic laughed, then stopped once his eyes widened. "Oh my god, Bonnie! You should style the video shoot for us!"

My mouth dropped slightly, "Are you serious?"

Jaime paused the game and then hopped across Mike, whom was sitting beside me, to shake my shoulders and shout, "Bonnie! Yes! You have to do it!"

Mike pulled Jaime back from me, fixing his shirt and rubbing his back to calm him down, all while laughing a little. "Yeah Bons, you really should." He smirked cheekily.

"Guys, really? I've never done a video shoot before."

"It's gonna be fuuuuun." Jaime sang, bopping up and down on the couch.

I chewed on my lip while thinking and I nodded, "Okay, I'll do it." I grinned. The guys all gathered around and began shouting their ideas at me. They were fun to hang out with. I really liked them. Mike surrounds himself around great people and I was happy to feel comfortable around them and get to know them.

---

"You and him did what?" Nicole asked, her iced coffee almost spitting out of her mouth.

"We kissed. That's it. Not liked we boned or anything." I rolled my eyes at my best friend. We were sitting on the balcony of her apartment complex, at the glass round table each drinking coffees.

"Who would have thought that this would happen?" She threw her arms up, her tan fringe jacket flailing as she did so. Her blonde hair was blowing in the cool Los Angeles morning air. I shrugged my shoulders and sipped on my hot coffee from a black mug that said "Dr. Feelgood" in teal letters on it. An ode to Motley Crue was typical Nicole. "I introduce you two and now look!"

"You're giving yourself too much credit, Nic." I smirked at her. "Anyway, so what ended up happening is that the guys want me to style their video shoot in a couple of weeks." I continued on with the point of my story.

"Ooh, that sounds incredibly fun." She sneered. "Video shoots seem cool."

"I'm excited. I've never done one." I looked at my phone at my calendar and marked the date of the shoot on it. Three days after that was another one of my dad's big dinners. Another black tie thing, another mandatory event for me to attend. "Ugh, I forgot about that."

"About what?" She asked, looking up from her phone.

"That there's another one of those fancy dinner things for my dad's firm in a couple of weeks. I forgot I marked it on my calendar."

"I'd love to go to those all the time. It seems to fun. And I wanna be fancy livin' for at least an hour or two." She studied her manicured nails closely as she spoke. I feel like her and I should've had switched lives. She yearns for luxury and I don't care for it. I brought her to one of these dinners earlier this year and she flipped. She was so excited, taking champagne from everyone. I remember she was so excited to eat salmon for the first time and Filet Mignon. I couldn't get her to shut up about it for two weeks.

I chuckled at her comments and knew she was imagining her dream life of Cristal and bubble baths. I kept quiet as my thoughts about some things were sweeping over my mind. "Nic, be honest. What do you think of Mike?"

She raised her eyebrows in curiosity and cleared her throat. "I think he's a great guy, honestly. He's different, Bonnie. He's not Steven and isn't five minutes away and always there physically. But at the same time, he's not Steven in the sense that's he's a free spirit. He does what he wants. That's gotten him into some trouble in the past." She paused momentarily. "But all that doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what I think of him, it's what you think of him. So, what do you think of him?"

"I don't know yet. I feel like I don't know everything about him, but it's only been like a few weeks. But so far, I think he's amazing. He's a breath of fresh air."

She grinned, "I can imagine given who you've dated in the past." Nicole rolled her eyes making me laugh.

I thought about that often. About how my mother had always thought that I just needed a successful man to take care of me, despite what career path I chose. I never understood that. I was more independent than some of my family members and I'm younger than them. I was even more independent than my mom was at this age.

Dating Steven felt like an expectation. Like I was expected to date a lawyer and be "happy" and taken care of. Honestly, I was bored. I was bored with his attitude towards me like I was beneath him. I was bored with our conversations. I was bored with our sex. Like, that shit was especially boring.

"Mike's exciting, and I like that." I finally said. It seemed like I said it more to myself than to Nicole.

---

I rolled out of bed two days later, went straight to the bathroom and as I was brushing my teeth, I heard the doorbell buzz. Rolling my eyes, I spit out the toothpaste, rinsed my mouth, then groggily walked down the steps and to my front door to my loft. I looked at my messy hair, the long t-shirt I was wearing with just my underwear on and a pair of fuzzy socks. I hope this isn't something important, I thought. I opened the door and Mike stood there slyly, then he looked at me up and down with a dirty smirk on his face.

"Well, good morning to me." He wiggled his eyebrows and walked in with his hands full. He kissed my lips quickly then walked to my counter. I shut the door and didn't know if I should scream from embarrassment or just wing it. I decided to wing it.

"Good morning. What are you doing here?" I questioned curiously as I followed him to the counter.

"I brought breakfast essentials. Since it's the most important meal of the day." He grinned waving his hand over the pink box filled with some type of pastry and two iced coffees from that cafe we went to last week. "And by the way, I remembered your coffee order from the other day, so it should be right. It looks right." He said, opening the box to reveal donuts.

He sat on a bar stool and I sat beside him after grabbing us two plates that were decorated with black and white designs. I grabbed my iced coffee cup and tried it. "Ah, perfection."

"Yes! I was hoping they wouldn't fuck that up." His smile seemed to light up the entire room. The way his nose scrunched up when he smiled big enough was enough to kill me softly.

"I'm glad that you remembered that breakfast was super important." I looked over at him as I grabbed a sugar donut and placed it on my plate. "And also," I began to say before he picked up his food and took a bite. "I'm glad you're here." I leaned up and kissed his lips, my hand holding the back of his neck.

"Mmm," he mumbled on my lips. "I should bring you breakfast more often. First, you greet me at the door in your undies, now a great kiss? I'm liking this."

I laughed and lightly pushed him, then we began to eat our perfectly baked pastries and drink our perfectly made coffees. Afterwards, he carried me up the stairs and back to my room to lay down on my bed and binge watch something on Netflix until we eventually ignored the shows and just talked about each other. He told me all he possibly could about himself and I was enamored with everything about him. Just yesterday I was saying that I didn't know how I felt about him, but now I know. I know that I really, really like him; everything he is and all he has to offer.

Notes

Oh, look. A update not a month or two apart. ;)

I finally feel like the story is beginning to roll and get somewhere. I know it took forever to get there, but thank you for still trying to stay interested nonetheless.

SO, what do think about this chapter? The chemistry between Mike and Bonnie is getting hothothot. Do you think they may be a good match for each other? And once again, her past fellas have been of prestige and guys her parents loved because of that. Thoughts on how a potential meet-n-greet with her parents further down the line might go because of Mike's appearance and job?

Thank you for reading!

XOXO,
Amber