A Dream for Two Read Online Free Page B

Saturday.
     
    “He’s just a pain,” Elise shrugged. “I just wish he hadn’t been so rude to me.”
     
    “I like his style, treat them mean, keep them keen,” Gloria gave her friend a cheeky wink.
     
    “I’m not keen,” Elise insisted. “And he’s just mean.”
     
    “So you’re not going to the next open mic night?”
     
    “No, I’m going,” Elise nodded as she cut up her waffle which had been drowned in maple syrup.
     
    Gloria arched an eyebrow in judgment.
     
    “I’m going because it’s good for me!” Elise clarified. “It’s a chance for me to perform my music to a live audience. Plus I might get spotted by someone important!”
     
    “Someone like Dylan?” Gloria teased.
     
    “No,” Elise could feel her cheeks reddening. “Someone like a talent scout, or a music producer.”
     
    “New York is full of open mic nights, you know,” Gloria mused. “You could just try your hand somewhere else, somewhere Dylan-free.”
     
    Elise chewed on a mouthful of sweet waffle and realized that her friend was right. She could go somewhere else but she didn’t want to. As much as she hated to admit it, she was hoping she’d get to see Dylan again. Or at least see him perform again. When he played she felt the marrow in her bones melt. He was so effortlessly sexy, so cool, calm and serene yet he also seemed impossibly powerful. He was such a heady mix of extremes. Each time Elise banished him from her thoughts he popped up again, more brooding and mysterious than the time before.
     
    He’d yet to return to Deena’s Diner. Elise felt her heart sink each morning he didn’t show. Was he avoiding her? She hoped not. But then he had only been rude to her. He was arrogant and pigheaded and if he didn’t show up at the diner again he’d be doing her a favor.
     
    “Oh, you got it bad!” Gloria pointed her fork across the table at Elise. 
     
    “Huh?”
     
    “You keep getting that dreamy look all girls get when they meet their Prince Charming.”
     
    “Please,” Elise tried to sound dismissive. “Dylan is no Prince Charming.”
     
    “Then wipe that dreamy look off your face!”
     
    Elise rolled her eyes and tried to avoid admitting that she couldn’t wipe the look off her face any more than she could wipe Dylan out of her mind. It was as if he’d set up roost within her thoughts as he was constantly there, taunting her, mocking her. She feared that if she didn’t stop thinking about Dylan Cornish soon she’d go crazy!
     

***
     
    Elise barely slept the night before the next open mic night. She kept going over her set in her mind and she kept rehearsing what she’d say to Dylan if she saw him. It drove her crazy the way he kept saying she was just a waitress. He was in the same situation as her, why wasn’t he being more supportive of a fellow struggling musician?
     
    With her guitar on her back Elise headed back to Eagle’s Bar. This time when she entered the clipboard guy quickly approached her before she’d had chance to place her heavy case down.
     
    “Are you playing tonight?” he asked her a little too eagerly.
     
    “Yeah,” Elise replied politely.
     
    “Great, because you killed it last time,” he smiled. “Good for you.” He handed her the clipboard and she neatly wrote down her name. Her heart almost stopped when she spotted the name messily scrawled before it:
     
    Dylan Cornish.
     
    “It should be a good turnout tonight,” clipboard guy declared before heading off to jot down more names.
     
    “It’s always a good turnout when I’m here.” Elise didn’t need to turn around to see who had spoken but she did anyway. Dylan had sat down on a nearby table, his legs propped up on a chair, leaning back casually as though he owned the place. In his hand he held a glass of what appeared to be neat vodka.
     
    “You’re so modest,” Elise told him sourly. She picked up her case and prepared to move when Dylan promptly lowered his feet and kicked the now