THE BIG DEAL: PART 12
I sort of ruined that whole "on a roll" thing.
This is for you Dev fans.
Will you still love us when we are the next Twilight?
Cherry threw on a light pink cardigan with a black bow detail and matching black piping and walked down to the lobby. She felt her guts doing somersaults and wished she could ask one of the hotel employees standing out front chatting on their break if she could bum a cigarette. She had been doing very well avoiding all temptation when it came to her old vices, but the recent rollercoaster ride her life had taken was making it harder than she’d like. She dug in the bottom of her bag for a sucker. She hoped perhaps it would get her mind off both her nicotine craving and how unsure she was of this “friendly” coffee date with Dev.
It was almost two in the morning, but that didn’t seem to make any difference to the tall figure slinking toward the glass doors in front of her. Dev was still wearing his sunglasses and his brown hair was slightly more tussled than it had been earlier.
“Damn it. I woke him up. That or…eww,” she thought, trying to shake the images of Dev having a bed-in with the female fans they had met earlier that evening, to whom he had told his elaborate peace treaty fabrication.
As he opened both of the glass double-doors to let himself in, a chill ran up Cherry’s spine and she shivered from head to toe. She hoped with every ounce of her being it was merely because of the cool gust of air that followed behind him.
“You’re a mess, Cherry Bomb, but it’s truly endearing on you. How about that coffee?” Dev bent his arm, silently inviting her to take his elbow. Cherry rolled her eyes. Dev shrugged and smirked and put his hands back in his jacket pockets where they seemed most at home.
Cherry and Dev climbed in the back of the cab waiting outside the hotel. Less than ten minutes later, Dev was paying the cabbie in front of a small, dark coffeehouse that Cherry had never seen before. She stared at the poorly lit sign on the front of the building and tried to squint her eyes enough to see through the slightly parted purple blinds that covered the windows. She thought to herself that this was a place that seemed more like Haze’s taste than Dev’s, but decided to be open-minded. Dev placed a hand on the small of her back and opened the door with the other, ushering her in. The dark atmosphere reminded her of the small club where she met Sweet. Dev picked a table in the back corner and they sat down in silence.
Cherry looked around the room trying to take it all in. There were people who mostly looked like modern Beats seated at black or purple tables around the room. Each table had a large glowing candle in the middle. Cherry was surprised at the number of lights she saw on the ceiling because the room was barely lit at all. The glow of the bulbs was hushed by large, frosted, purple glass globes, like hands covering whispering lips. Her eyes fell to the opposite corner of the room. There was an extremely small stage where perched on a stool was a beautiful girl in her twenties with brown waves of hair falling onto her perfect face while she played and sang her perfect folk song. She figured this establishment thought itself far too cool to play music that wasn’t live. She listened intently to the girl. Generally she did not think much of girls with their acoustic guitars showing up at open-mic nights and trying to sing about something they wanted so badly to pretend was important. She found their mediocre voices irritating and their carefully planned hippie ensembles a joke. Especially after living with Olivia this long, she knew the difference between dressing bohemian because you were and trying too hard. This girl, however, Cherry felt was honest. She didn’t think she grew up in a commune like her band mate, but everything about her screamed honesty. Her voice was honest. Her clothes were honest. Cherry could not help but wish she could be as brave and intoxicating as she was. She decided a girl like this was someone she could see Sweet spending his time with earnestly. She would be someone he wanted as more than a fling, and could never be one of the boys. She found her thoughts turning to Dev and this place. She was beginning to realize this place suited him perfectly. In fact, she felt confident that this was one of his usual spots. She thought he probably knew the girl. He had probably been with her himself. She began to think the same thoughts about Dev and the beautiful singer that she had about the girl and Sweet.
Dev reached across the tiny table and put his hand on her shoulder to bring her back to life. “Cherry? Do you know what you want?”
She realized there was a tiny waif dressed in black with sleek black hair chatting with Dev and waiting to take their orders.
“What? Oh! Sorry. I was just uh…listening to the house entertainment.”
“She’s amazing right? Plays here almost every night. Even if she had something else to do, she’s in popular demand. This place was nothing before she showed up. Just ask Dev about her! What can I get you?”
“Peppermint tea, please.” she said with a catch in her throat. She didn’t like the sound of just ask Dev.
“And for you, Dev?”
“The usual, Kitty Kat.” he gave a large smile and his response confirmed her suspicion that this was one of his haunts. As soon as the waitress was gone he looked back over at Cherry, “The whites of your eyes match the color of your hair, Mon Cherie. I pride myself on being somewhat heartless, but you’re tugging at heartstrings I’ve denied having for years.”
Cherry dismissed the questions in her mind and apologized genuinely. She knew it must not be easy for Dev to have to play this role. She was sure he was content with his lifestyle the way it was and now, unintentionally, she had sucked him into being the person to pick her up when she crumbled to the ground. She was certain he was used to looking out for no one but Dev.
“Don’t fret, Cherry. Just…” he paused and took off his sunglasses. Cherry wondered if in a room this dark, he could see at all with them on. His face was once again human. She wasn’t sure she could take seeing this rare sight this many times in one night. “Just tell me what I can do for you.”
“Nothing, Dev. You’ve gone above and beyond your duties as my fake lover.” She quickly changed the subject, “The usual, eh? You come here often?” she wanted to know everything, but at the same time avoided asking Dev about her.
“I try to come every time we’re in town. I found this place about three years ago when we played the venue you guys played tonight.”
Cherry waited for Dev to make some snide remark about the Multicolored Band. Despite their so-called relationship, he didn’t seem to avoid taking jabs at the band thanks to his hatred for its leader. None came. Instead the waitress she knew only as “Kitty Kat” returned to the table.
“One peppermint tea and one white chocolate latte. You next?” she asked gesturing toward the stage with her head.
Dev swallowed his sip of latte and shook his head. “No, no. You know I’m much too cool and well-known for coffeehouses,” he chuckled.
This was perhaps the first time Cherry had seen Dev talk about himself as a popular, ultra-hip musician in a sarcastic, joking manner. She could not help but smile, but hid it behind her large cup of peppermint tea.
“We’ll see about that, now, won’t we?” Kitty Kat teased
“Now you best watch yourself and tend to your other customers, Katy.” he laughed while he spoke once more with the same comfort and familiarity as before. This was all a side of Dev Cherry had never really expected to exist except for in her head.
Katy walked back to the tiny kitchen at the back of the coffeehouse. Cherry was beginning to feel very glad that she had called Dev and accepted to come on this adventure with him. She was even gladder that he had called her and that she was getting to see him in a completely different light, albeit a dim one. Unfortunately, Cherry could not shake the burning questions in her mind. How well did he know this attractive singer? What else was there to know? She wasn’t even sure she wanted to know.
Before she had the chance to work up the courage, the music stopped and the coffeehouse occupants began to clap. Cherry noticed that Dev went about drinking his latte as if he was oblivious to the musician’s existence.
“Wow, guys. You’re an amazing audience. I’m going to take a short break, mes amies, but I will return after I’ve had my caffeine fix and eaten a basket of muffin tops.” She winked and laughed and put her guitar on the stand beside the microphone.
Cherry couldn’t help but pick up on how charming the girl was and the fact that, like Dev, she chose to throw a bit of French into her normal vocabulary, although her accent was much more convincing than his. She began to worry that Dev knew this girl very well.
Katy greeted the beautiful singer at the bottom of the stage with what was surely her usual. Just as the singer had described, Katy had brought to her an indecipherable warm beverage and muffin tops, only slightly fewer than the girl had exaggerated. She was attractive and funny, at least from what Cherry could tell from across the room. She was greeted by many of her fans and coffeehouse patrons. Though it was obvious she was trying to escape to find a place to sit with her drink in one hand and a small plate of muffin tops in her other, she stood politely by and thanked her admirers, nodding her head in gratitude.
What happened next left Cherry baffled. In all of the time they had been there, Dev had not looked at the stage once, nor even acknowledge the girl when she and Katy had spoken of her earlier on, but as if he had eyes in the back of his head, and without giving any warning, he got up from his chair and turned toward the crowd in one fluid movement. Cherry watched in awe and confusion as he walked through the group of the girl’s supporters and they parted like the sea. He took the plate from the girl’s hand and put his arm around her, much like he had done with Cherry when they arrived, and ushered her to the table. He put her plate in front of where he had been sitting and grabbed a chair for himself from the table next to theirs. Cherry’s face was flushed. She had not expected this at all. Dev grabbed one of the pretty girl’s muffin tops from her plate and sat in his chair which he had placed backwards against the table.
“I don’t underthand thith whole muppin top crathe. I feel like I’m being cheated haff my muppin.” he mused, mouth full, chewing and staring at the half-eaten snack in his hand.
The girl laughed and beamed in a genuine manner. She sipped her drink and took a bite from one of the remaining muffins, “Je vous ai manqué, mon amour!” Again, her French accent was much more convincing than Dev’s ever was. Cherry was not really fluent in anything but English and whatever it was that Haze and Olivia spoke, which certainly wasn’t, but she was pretty sure what the girl said to Dev made her uncomfortable. Even the most naive of souls knew amour meant love. But the language barrier made Cherry feel like the two of them were speaking in their own special language that only they could understand and that she was no longer in the room.
“I missed you too. It’s been longer than I would have liked.”
“Will you play with me tonight?” she asked in her soft, attractive voice. Cherry was certain there was some innuendo behind that question.
“You know how I feel about that.”
“Let me flaunt you, show you off. What good are you to me if I can’t use your name for my benefit, Dev Pierpont?”
He laughed sweetly, “I’m not going to let you wear me down this time, Lucy.”
Cherry was sure that statement must also be dripping with innuendo. She was sick of being ignored but she didn’t know what to do. Just as she was about to get up and find the bathroom, Lucy flicked Dev in the arm.
“Why haven’t you introduced us!” she turned to Cherry, “Forgive me… and him. We got so caught up in our reunion that we forgot our manners! You really need no introduction though; I’d recognize Miss Cherry Magic anywhere.”
Cherry was somewhat flabbergasted and flattered that the beautiful one-named girl knew who she was. Despite the few minutes of being ignored, Lucy was perfectly charming and polite. She began to wonder what exactly she saw in Dev. Cherry struggled for words but was saved when Lucy spoke again.
“It’s late, and too quiet. I need to play my last set before the sun comes up. I need sleep. I have another gig this afternoon. Come on my little Devil, you’re joining me.” Lucy stood up taking a bite of muffin and pushing the plate towards Cherry, “You should eat these, they’re amazing.”
“Look, Lucy, I already told you and Katy I wasn’t going to do this,” Dev protested shaking his head.
“And I bet I can guess what Katy told you,” Lucy retorted raising her eyebrows.
Dev looked at Cherry somewhat flirtatiously which made her more uncomfortable considering the beautiful singer he obviously knew very well was still with them. Cherry shrugged. Dev’s flirty face turned into one of his famous devilish smirks and he cocked one eyebrow as he rose to his feet.
“This won’t take long.”
Beautiful Lucy’s face beamed and she seemed even more attractive. She grabbed Dev by the hand and nearly dragged him to the stage. She took her place in front of the mic and the crowd began to cheer.
“I know a few of you were here last time that this handsome devil took the stage with me, but for those of you who weren’t this is a very rare treat. Let’s hear it for Clockwork and my very own Dev Pierpont!”
The crowd became even louder and Cherry’s stomach sank. Her Dev Pierpont? She didn’t like how the night was going. Dev played the guitar and Lucy sang. During the second song, Dev began to harmonize. Cherry snapped out of her depression when she realized she had never really listened to Dev play or sing before. She had seen Clockwork several times, but she was always under the influence of Sweet and the music was usually loud and inaudible and drowned out by the insults coming from Sweet’s mouth. Dev was a different person on stage. He was a different person with Lucy. They complemented each other in a way she knew she couldn’t. She and Dev were like oil and water, but until now she thought that that had been the perfect combination as far as they were concerned. Conflict seemed to suit them.
When the music was over Dev hugged Lucy and kissed her cheek and she and Cherry exchanged goodbyes. The two headed outside and flagged down a taxi.
“Well, Cherie, what did you think?”
“I liked it there. And the music was amazing. She was amazing. You both were. You two seem to get along very well. You must really like her.” Cherry replied with a note of sadness in her voice.
Dev put his hand on Cherry’s hand which was resting on her knee. “I’m sort of obligated to like her. She is my sister after all.”
Author's note: Did you guys guess it BEFORE you got to the end? :)
This is for you Dev fans.
Will you still love us when we are the next Twilight?
Cherry threw on a light pink cardigan with a black bow detail and matching black piping and walked down to the lobby. She felt her guts doing somersaults and wished she could ask one of the hotel employees standing out front chatting on their break if she could bum a cigarette. She had been doing very well avoiding all temptation when it came to her old vices, but the recent rollercoaster ride her life had taken was making it harder than she’d like. She dug in the bottom of her bag for a sucker. She hoped perhaps it would get her mind off both her nicotine craving and how unsure she was of this “friendly” coffee date with Dev.
It was almost two in the morning, but that didn’t seem to make any difference to the tall figure slinking toward the glass doors in front of her. Dev was still wearing his sunglasses and his brown hair was slightly more tussled than it had been earlier.
“Damn it. I woke him up. That or…eww,” she thought, trying to shake the images of Dev having a bed-in with the female fans they had met earlier that evening, to whom he had told his elaborate peace treaty fabrication.
As he opened both of the glass double-doors to let himself in, a chill ran up Cherry’s spine and she shivered from head to toe. She hoped with every ounce of her being it was merely because of the cool gust of air that followed behind him.
“You’re a mess, Cherry Bomb, but it’s truly endearing on you. How about that coffee?” Dev bent his arm, silently inviting her to take his elbow. Cherry rolled her eyes. Dev shrugged and smirked and put his hands back in his jacket pockets where they seemed most at home.
Cherry and Dev climbed in the back of the cab waiting outside the hotel. Less than ten minutes later, Dev was paying the cabbie in front of a small, dark coffeehouse that Cherry had never seen before. She stared at the poorly lit sign on the front of the building and tried to squint her eyes enough to see through the slightly parted purple blinds that covered the windows. She thought to herself that this was a place that seemed more like Haze’s taste than Dev’s, but decided to be open-minded. Dev placed a hand on the small of her back and opened the door with the other, ushering her in. The dark atmosphere reminded her of the small club where she met Sweet. Dev picked a table in the back corner and they sat down in silence.
Cherry looked around the room trying to take it all in. There were people who mostly looked like modern Beats seated at black or purple tables around the room. Each table had a large glowing candle in the middle. Cherry was surprised at the number of lights she saw on the ceiling because the room was barely lit at all. The glow of the bulbs was hushed by large, frosted, purple glass globes, like hands covering whispering lips. Her eyes fell to the opposite corner of the room. There was an extremely small stage where perched on a stool was a beautiful girl in her twenties with brown waves of hair falling onto her perfect face while she played and sang her perfect folk song. She figured this establishment thought itself far too cool to play music that wasn’t live. She listened intently to the girl. Generally she did not think much of girls with their acoustic guitars showing up at open-mic nights and trying to sing about something they wanted so badly to pretend was important. She found their mediocre voices irritating and their carefully planned hippie ensembles a joke. Especially after living with Olivia this long, she knew the difference between dressing bohemian because you were and trying too hard. This girl, however, Cherry felt was honest. She didn’t think she grew up in a commune like her band mate, but everything about her screamed honesty. Her voice was honest. Her clothes were honest. Cherry could not help but wish she could be as brave and intoxicating as she was. She decided a girl like this was someone she could see Sweet spending his time with earnestly. She would be someone he wanted as more than a fling, and could never be one of the boys. She found her thoughts turning to Dev and this place. She was beginning to realize this place suited him perfectly. In fact, she felt confident that this was one of his usual spots. She thought he probably knew the girl. He had probably been with her himself. She began to think the same thoughts about Dev and the beautiful singer that she had about the girl and Sweet.
Dev reached across the tiny table and put his hand on her shoulder to bring her back to life. “Cherry? Do you know what you want?”
She realized there was a tiny waif dressed in black with sleek black hair chatting with Dev and waiting to take their orders.
“What? Oh! Sorry. I was just uh…listening to the house entertainment.”
“She’s amazing right? Plays here almost every night. Even if she had something else to do, she’s in popular demand. This place was nothing before she showed up. Just ask Dev about her! What can I get you?”
“Peppermint tea, please.” she said with a catch in her throat. She didn’t like the sound of just ask Dev.
“And for you, Dev?”
“The usual, Kitty Kat.” he gave a large smile and his response confirmed her suspicion that this was one of his haunts. As soon as the waitress was gone he looked back over at Cherry, “The whites of your eyes match the color of your hair, Mon Cherie. I pride myself on being somewhat heartless, but you’re tugging at heartstrings I’ve denied having for years.”
Cherry dismissed the questions in her mind and apologized genuinely. She knew it must not be easy for Dev to have to play this role. She was sure he was content with his lifestyle the way it was and now, unintentionally, she had sucked him into being the person to pick her up when she crumbled to the ground. She was certain he was used to looking out for no one but Dev.
“Don’t fret, Cherry. Just…” he paused and took off his sunglasses. Cherry wondered if in a room this dark, he could see at all with them on. His face was once again human. She wasn’t sure she could take seeing this rare sight this many times in one night. “Just tell me what I can do for you.”
“Nothing, Dev. You’ve gone above and beyond your duties as my fake lover.” She quickly changed the subject, “The usual, eh? You come here often?” she wanted to know everything, but at the same time avoided asking Dev about her.
“I try to come every time we’re in town. I found this place about three years ago when we played the venue you guys played tonight.”
Cherry waited for Dev to make some snide remark about the Multicolored Band. Despite their so-called relationship, he didn’t seem to avoid taking jabs at the band thanks to his hatred for its leader. None came. Instead the waitress she knew only as “Kitty Kat” returned to the table.
“One peppermint tea and one white chocolate latte. You next?” she asked gesturing toward the stage with her head.
Dev swallowed his sip of latte and shook his head. “No, no. You know I’m much too cool and well-known for coffeehouses,” he chuckled.
This was perhaps the first time Cherry had seen Dev talk about himself as a popular, ultra-hip musician in a sarcastic, joking manner. She could not help but smile, but hid it behind her large cup of peppermint tea.
“We’ll see about that, now, won’t we?” Kitty Kat teased
“Now you best watch yourself and tend to your other customers, Katy.” he laughed while he spoke once more with the same comfort and familiarity as before. This was all a side of Dev Cherry had never really expected to exist except for in her head.
Katy walked back to the tiny kitchen at the back of the coffeehouse. Cherry was beginning to feel very glad that she had called Dev and accepted to come on this adventure with him. She was even gladder that he had called her and that she was getting to see him in a completely different light, albeit a dim one. Unfortunately, Cherry could not shake the burning questions in her mind. How well did he know this attractive singer? What else was there to know? She wasn’t even sure she wanted to know.
Before she had the chance to work up the courage, the music stopped and the coffeehouse occupants began to clap. Cherry noticed that Dev went about drinking his latte as if he was oblivious to the musician’s existence.
“Wow, guys. You’re an amazing audience. I’m going to take a short break, mes amies, but I will return after I’ve had my caffeine fix and eaten a basket of muffin tops.” She winked and laughed and put her guitar on the stand beside the microphone.
Cherry couldn’t help but pick up on how charming the girl was and the fact that, like Dev, she chose to throw a bit of French into her normal vocabulary, although her accent was much more convincing than his. She began to worry that Dev knew this girl very well.
Katy greeted the beautiful singer at the bottom of the stage with what was surely her usual. Just as the singer had described, Katy had brought to her an indecipherable warm beverage and muffin tops, only slightly fewer than the girl had exaggerated. She was attractive and funny, at least from what Cherry could tell from across the room. She was greeted by many of her fans and coffeehouse patrons. Though it was obvious she was trying to escape to find a place to sit with her drink in one hand and a small plate of muffin tops in her other, she stood politely by and thanked her admirers, nodding her head in gratitude.
What happened next left Cherry baffled. In all of the time they had been there, Dev had not looked at the stage once, nor even acknowledge the girl when she and Katy had spoken of her earlier on, but as if he had eyes in the back of his head, and without giving any warning, he got up from his chair and turned toward the crowd in one fluid movement. Cherry watched in awe and confusion as he walked through the group of the girl’s supporters and they parted like the sea. He took the plate from the girl’s hand and put his arm around her, much like he had done with Cherry when they arrived, and ushered her to the table. He put her plate in front of where he had been sitting and grabbed a chair for himself from the table next to theirs. Cherry’s face was flushed. She had not expected this at all. Dev grabbed one of the pretty girl’s muffin tops from her plate and sat in his chair which he had placed backwards against the table.
“I don’t underthand thith whole muppin top crathe. I feel like I’m being cheated haff my muppin.” he mused, mouth full, chewing and staring at the half-eaten snack in his hand.
The girl laughed and beamed in a genuine manner. She sipped her drink and took a bite from one of the remaining muffins, “Je vous ai manqué, mon amour!” Again, her French accent was much more convincing than Dev’s ever was. Cherry was not really fluent in anything but English and whatever it was that Haze and Olivia spoke, which certainly wasn’t, but she was pretty sure what the girl said to Dev made her uncomfortable. Even the most naive of souls knew amour meant love. But the language barrier made Cherry feel like the two of them were speaking in their own special language that only they could understand and that she was no longer in the room.
“I missed you too. It’s been longer than I would have liked.”
“Will you play with me tonight?” she asked in her soft, attractive voice. Cherry was certain there was some innuendo behind that question.
“You know how I feel about that.”
“Let me flaunt you, show you off. What good are you to me if I can’t use your name for my benefit, Dev Pierpont?”
He laughed sweetly, “I’m not going to let you wear me down this time, Lucy.”
Cherry was sure that statement must also be dripping with innuendo. She was sick of being ignored but she didn’t know what to do. Just as she was about to get up and find the bathroom, Lucy flicked Dev in the arm.
“Why haven’t you introduced us!” she turned to Cherry, “Forgive me… and him. We got so caught up in our reunion that we forgot our manners! You really need no introduction though; I’d recognize Miss Cherry Magic anywhere.”
Cherry was somewhat flabbergasted and flattered that the beautiful one-named girl knew who she was. Despite the few minutes of being ignored, Lucy was perfectly charming and polite. She began to wonder what exactly she saw in Dev. Cherry struggled for words but was saved when Lucy spoke again.
“It’s late, and too quiet. I need to play my last set before the sun comes up. I need sleep. I have another gig this afternoon. Come on my little Devil, you’re joining me.” Lucy stood up taking a bite of muffin and pushing the plate towards Cherry, “You should eat these, they’re amazing.”
“Look, Lucy, I already told you and Katy I wasn’t going to do this,” Dev protested shaking his head.
“And I bet I can guess what Katy told you,” Lucy retorted raising her eyebrows.
Dev looked at Cherry somewhat flirtatiously which made her more uncomfortable considering the beautiful singer he obviously knew very well was still with them. Cherry shrugged. Dev’s flirty face turned into one of his famous devilish smirks and he cocked one eyebrow as he rose to his feet.
“This won’t take long.”
Beautiful Lucy’s face beamed and she seemed even more attractive. She grabbed Dev by the hand and nearly dragged him to the stage. She took her place in front of the mic and the crowd began to cheer.
“I know a few of you were here last time that this handsome devil took the stage with me, but for those of you who weren’t this is a very rare treat. Let’s hear it for Clockwork and my very own Dev Pierpont!”
The crowd became even louder and Cherry’s stomach sank. Her Dev Pierpont? She didn’t like how the night was going. Dev played the guitar and Lucy sang. During the second song, Dev began to harmonize. Cherry snapped out of her depression when she realized she had never really listened to Dev play or sing before. She had seen Clockwork several times, but she was always under the influence of Sweet and the music was usually loud and inaudible and drowned out by the insults coming from Sweet’s mouth. Dev was a different person on stage. He was a different person with Lucy. They complemented each other in a way she knew she couldn’t. She and Dev were like oil and water, but until now she thought that that had been the perfect combination as far as they were concerned. Conflict seemed to suit them.
When the music was over Dev hugged Lucy and kissed her cheek and she and Cherry exchanged goodbyes. The two headed outside and flagged down a taxi.
“Well, Cherie, what did you think?”
“I liked it there. And the music was amazing. She was amazing. You both were. You two seem to get along very well. You must really like her.” Cherry replied with a note of sadness in her voice.
Dev put his hand on Cherry’s hand which was resting on her knee. “I’m sort of obligated to like her. She is my sister after all.”
Author's note: Did you guys guess it BEFORE you got to the end? :)