Chapter 9.

                                    

                                          
"What are you doing here?" She said crossing her arms and looking away.
"We need to talk. Don't you think?" He said raising an eyebrow.
Ann sighed. "I'll give you a towel. Come on." She said and walked to her bedroom, Joe following her. "Wait here." She said and grabbed a towel from her bathroom.
Joe was looking around the room and he picked up a photo of her mother that was standing on her desk. Ann walked up to him.
"That's my mom." She said smiling at the photo.
"I know. You look alike. You're both beautiful." She sighed and threw the towel at him, trying to ignore what he said. She sat at the end of her bed and brushed her hair. "You've got any oversized T-shirts or jumpers that I could use?" He said pointing at his soaked clothes.
"Yeah, let me check." She got up and rummaged through her closet.
She found an oversized jumper that she once borrowed from a friend and forgot to return it. When she turned around, Joe had already taken off his jacket and T-shirt, now wiping his bare chest with the towel. She was caught by surprise and tried to look away as she walked up to him with the jumper, but took a quick look. His chest was muscular, as were his hands, and his wet curls were dancing on his forehead at his movement. He looked like a Greek god. She couldn't deny the fact that she was attracted to him.
"Like what you see?" He smirked at her and took the jumper from her hands. Ann blushed hard and shook her head, while sitting on the bed.
"Why do you keep doing this?"
"You were the one looking." He said still smirking, brushing the towel through his hair.
"That's not what I mean. You act like nothing happened." Joe sighed and sat down next to her.
"You heard me in the office. I don't care about these stupid rules. They don't get to decide our lives."
"They'll fire me, Joe. You don't seem to care about this fact." Ann looked at him, searching for a little empathy.
"Of course I care about this. Ann, they won't fire you. They can't do that, me and my brothers decide who's in the band. I could fire them first."
"This is so messed up." She hid her head in her hands. "I never knew this could be so complicated."
"Yeah, that's the price you pay. Being famous is a curse. I never got to taste the life of a normal person. How it is to just walk around the city without being stopped every second for a photo. Without these stupid paparazzi following your every step."
"I've always wanted your life. I always wanted to be famous, like you said being stopped for pictures..."
"Well, you will now. After all, you're my new girlfriend." He chuckled referring to the headlines. He even made her smile a little, but it lasted only couple seconds.
"Where do we go from now on, Joe?" She looked him in the eyes, trying to find some answers. But there was no good answers to this question.
"You know where I stand, what I think about it. You have to tell me your side now." He took Ann's hand and squeezed it. "I don't want to loose you."
The feeling of his warm hand on hers gave her butterflies. That man did something to her, that no one else did before. Made her feel the way she's never felt. She wished that this fairytale would last forever. Maybe in another universe. She moved her hand back from his grip.
"I can't, Joe." She said quietly, almost in a whisper. She looked at him and saw his eyes getting glassy. 
"Don't say that." His voice was also very quiet and shaking.