The Boys in the Band (Reverse Harem)

Chapter 22: Jude, Sully and Tommy

It was a stifling, late August day. The temperature was in the 90s, and the humidity made the air feel nearly unbreathable. The loft was buttoned up tight, every window closed, the three AC units going full blast to keep the huge space cool. Their bedrooms had smaller window units as well, but everyone was out in the main space, enjoying the feeling of freedom, not to mention the larger units were less noisy and less damp than the smaller ones in their rooms.

Momoko sat in the big easy chair, looking at her laptop, scrolling through her law school applications. She had told no one about her amazing LSAT score. It would just bring up questions she didn't want to answer and topics she didn't want to discuss. A 180 was a perfect score, so a 178 meant that she'd only missed a couple of questions.

Wow.

It meant she could definitely apply to Yale. And Harvard. And Stanford. And she'd probably get into at least one, if not all three, even with her theater degree. And it also meant her days as lead singer of Peppermint Silk were numbered, because in about a year she'd be moving into a dorm somewhere as a first year law student.

Shit.

She'd told her family in Japan about her score; she'd had no choice. They knew when the scores came out, they'd been waiting to hear from her. Now her father was pushing her to apply somewhere Early Decision, which would mean she'd know in the next few months where she was going to go. Which would make her lie to the guys an even bigger, longer, one.

She resolutely put all thoughts of the LSAT and law school out of her head and closed her laptop. She looked around. Sullivan was over in the rehearsal space, working on something with his guitar, headphones on, eyes closed in concentration. Jude was looking at something out in the street, holding the curtain aside. For some reason, he had his denim shorts on, but not all the way zipped or buttoned, and they hung almost indecently low on his hips, showing his abs and V-line. Tommy was reading a book on the sofa, legs up, book resting on his tummy.

Poor Dane was out on what he called "a duty date," one of those outings arranged for him by his family a couple times a year where he took a Chinese girl out to lunch in the hopes that it would lead to something. The girls were usually very nice, and it seemed to do no good at all for Dane to tell his father, grandmother, and anyone who would listen that he was seeing someone, or that he didn't like blind dates, or that he was usually too tongue-tied to do more than gasp out a few sentences in Mandarin when he was with her.

"What was that then, love?" Jude turned to Momoko, releasing the curtain.

"Mm?"

"You just let out the most terrible sounding sigh, like you had the weight of the entire universe on your lovely shoulders." Jude came to her, sitting on the arm of the chair, leaning a hip into her shoulder and slipping an arm around her. This put his bare tummy right next to her face, with his very sexy V-line right at eye level, all the way down to where it disappeared into his shorts.

Momoko shrugged, smiling up at him. "I don't know, just feeing a bit blue, I suppose. Maybe because I'm getting older?" she joked. "You know, turning twenty-three and everything? Or I would say I'm ovulating, except I'm on the pill, so you know, I don't ovulate."

Jude chuckled, stroking her shoulder gently. "Can I do anything for you?" he asked.

In response, Momoko reached up, putting her hand on the back of his head. She pulled it down so she could kiss him, gently at first, then with more energy, opening his mouth with her tongue, pulling him to sit next to her in the chair.

Jude lifted her shirt to feel the smooth flesh of her midriff, sliding his hand around her waist to pull her closer.

Tommy saw their movement over the top of his book and laid it down to see what they were doing. The sight of Jude and Momoko making out in the chair was way more interesting than what he was reading, that was for sure.