by Shaw, Robin
“Fuck! I’ve got my dang snot on you. How nasty,” she said with self-recrimination.
“Oh, hush. Think you’re done throwing up?”
Brianna pulled away from me and hurled again. I went to fill the cup with more water because I knew she was really dehydrated.
When she was done and on her feet again, she hung her head low and gasped for air. I handed her another cup of water and she eagerly drank it. Scrunching up her nose, she said, “I reek.”
“But you’ve got most of the alcohol out of your system.”
“Gavin’s gonna be so disappointed in me,” she said in a low tone. “And I can’t sleep without washing this stink off me, but…I…”
I nodded and set up the bath for her while she undressed and then she wrapped a towel around herself.
Once I helped her into the tub and she was settled, I hung up her towel for her and gave her a washcloth.
“What matters is that you sober up more, get something in your stomach, and sleep this night off. Shit happens.”
I heard her scrubbing herself vigorously. “I hope my lady bits didn’t scare you.”
I smirked at her.
“I see my own lady bits every day. Catching a glimpse of yours is nothing new.”
***
Chase
“How’s she doing?” I asked Beth as I poured the soup into a small bowl. The pieces of baked chicken I cooked in from the dinner Gavin had made yesterday had come in handy. I wanted his sister to have the freshest ingredients possible. Gavin didn’t like not being in control of a situation and I couldn’t blame him for being anxious, but it was too crazy at La Floridita for him to cut out early.
“She’s in bed now. I think her stomach can handle this portion,” Beth replied. “How many times did Gavin call you?”
“Enough that I had to tell him I’ll call or text him, not the other way around.” I shook my head. “And you know he cursed me out. I almost overcooked the soup!”
Faint laugh lines fanned the edges of her eyes. It was as if we were back to where we’d started when her gaze fell on me. “I’ll come down when she falls out.”
Beth scurried away and I watched the way her hips swayed until she was out of my view. She’d taken over the situation with complete composure and hadn’t turned up her nose at Bri. It made me like Beth a lot more, and a part of me wished that I’d put off talking to her later so that Beth could’ve kept an eye on Bri for the entire night, but this was unlike Bri. I’d seen her have two alcoholic beverages at a maximum when we’d been out together.
There were three knocks on the door. “It’s Pierce.”
I let him in and he walked straight into the kitchen and opened the fridge to pour some ice tea into his empty water bottle. “You don’t know me anymore?”
We both stood directly across from each other. “My cell was off. I was gonna talk to you tomorrow, but I’d heard that you already knew what happened and moved out.”
He bobbed his head. “The only place Dad and I should interact is at the Paloma.” He raised his shoulders. “Nancy and Joel filled me in on the details.” He let out a heavy sigh. “Beth is feeling a little insecure over what she thinks took place.”
“I think Beth may be seeing your sister for who she really is.”
Pierce sipped some of his iced tea and gritted his jaw. “If enough people tell Beth the same thing enough times, how is she not gonna listen? When Dad told me that you’d left after our meeting, I left. He didn’t wanna have a discussion.”
“I didn’t know how’d you take it. I really thought Cassidy had stopped.”
“I know what she’s like. Trust. And my dad had said if you want your job back, you’ve got it. It’s criminal to mess with a man’s livelihood like he did with you because he thought you and Cassidy hooked up.”
“Thanks, but no thanks, Pierce.”
Pierce knitted his eyes. “You sure?”
“I am.”
“So we’ve squashed this?”
I nodded and Pierce walked over to me and tapped me on the shoulder. “Don’t be a stranger now.” As he had one foot out of the door, Beth came in with a bowl in her hand, set it on the table, ran over to Pierce, and hugged him.
“Hey, Noodles.” Pierce pulled her away and held her by her arms. “What are you doing here?”
“Bri drank a little too much and got sick,” she responded.
Pierce’s face became serious. “Is she okay?”
“She’s fine,” Beth said and gave him a half-smirk. “But she’s still hungry and her stomach hasn’t rejected the soup, so that’s a good thing.”
I put the flame on low, took the cover off of the pot, and stirred the soup.
“Damn, that smells good, Chase.”
I nodded. “Nancy gave me her recipe.”
“I’d have a bowl myself but Mona’s been expecting me.”
Beth crossed her arms. “And when do I get the honor of meeting her?”
“Whenever she comes to our side of town,” Pierce told her.
Beth brought her hand to her hip and she looked so sexy doing it, but if I thought about it too much, I’d be sporting an erection, and that was very inappropriate. Beth would think I was truly deviant. And I didn’t know if Pierce would try to kick my ass or rag on me forever about it. Or both.
“How’s her body temperature?” I asked her.
“Back to normal.”
I turned off the stove and poured some steaming soup into the bowl. Beth took it from me. I texted Gavin an update.
When I raised my head, Beth and Pierce peered at me expectantly. “Let Bri know that Gavin said he’s not mad at her,” I told Beth.
***
It was almost four in the morning when I parked in front to the Pruitts’ house. Beth had tried to keep up a conversation with me, but she had fallen asleep on the way over here. She looked so peaceful that I let her rest. I wanted her to stay in my guestroom. I would’ve slept on the floor, but she wanted to go to the Pruitts’.
When Gavin had come down the stairs after seeing that Bri was in a no man’s land deep sleep, he’d hugged Beth so many times, I thought he was gonna kiss her too. And while I understood how grateful he was, I held myself back from stepping in between them.
Beth stirred and turned her head toward me. I brushed a strand of hair away from her face. She wet her lips and swallowed.
“Sorry.” She wiped her eyes. “You were saying something?” she asked me, her voice sleepy, huskier than last night. I supposed that was how her voice was when she woke up in the morning. Would I ever know what it was like to wake up with her in the morning? I’d never had that experience because right after sex, I’d left the girl—or the girls, now that I recalled.
“I was just saying that it was cool for you to stay and not have Pierce drive you here before he went to Mona’s. Bri didn’t want me with her.” I gave a short laugh at the memory; Bri had covered herself with her comforter when she’d realized I’d been standing by the door.
“No, she didn’t.” Beth smirked.
I opened my glove compartment and took an envelope from it.
“What’s the envelope for?”
“Tickets for the Tainted Virtue concert.”
“Oh, Chase, I—”
I put my hand on hers and found her skin to be a little cool for my liking. She was still in my hoodie but she needed to be in her room, under the covers of her bed. “I listened to everything you said last night. Take Bri with you to the concert. She likes them too.”
“But you planned for us to go. It’s not right. Take someone else with you. She and I will do something else.”
“Beth, you don’t want me to take another chick to a Tainted Virtue concert, or any other place.” She started looking at my hand over hers. “They won’t be in Florida after tomorrow and this might be the only chance Bri has to see them perform. She can forget about last night for a few hours.”
I drew my hand back and slipped the envelope beneath her fin
gers. Beth bobbed her head. I reached over and pressed my lips to the bridge of her nose. When she shifted in her seat, I lowered my mouth to hers for a second. And then I withdrew. She gripped my hand back.
Her lips twisted into a wry grin. “I’ll make sure it’s an alcohol-free night for us.”
Once Beth was safely inside in the Pruitts’ home, my car filled with the real vanilla and honey scent that belonged to her. I licked my lips and still tasted her sweet, natural flavor on my lips.
Chapter 9
Bethany
“You lucky bitch!” Mariska cried.
“Hey! It was only two days ago that Chase told me he’d take me to a Tainted Virtue concert, and then the thing with and him Cassidy blew up in my face.”
“You said that you think he’s being on the up-and-up with you. Don’t lie so I don’t talk to him,” Jake told me.
“I am not,” I assured him. “I tried to talk to Cassidy this morning, but she left, and hasn’t responded to my messages. Something is not adding up, and it’s her. Practically everyone has said that she’s shady.”
“Well.” Mariska sighed. “I hope your cousin is wrong, because if Chase is the guy I saw on Facebook, then you’ve made a major upgrade from Gregory!”
I laughed and Jake made a sound. “Uh, how shallow!” he scoffed. “But go with your instincts on this one, Beth. And have fun with Brianna at the concert. Maybe when we visit you, I can meet this Brianna.”
“Uh, no, Jake. You’re not gonna mess up Beth’s new friendship.”
“I was just making a suggestion.”
“You can make your existence known with someone else,” I told him in warning. “The last thing Brianna needs is you sniffing around. ”
“Jeez!” He huffed. “You two paint a very unfavorable picture of me.”
“Hey, you do a good job of that all on your own,” Mariska remarked with mirth. “If you don’t like the way the picture looks, paint a new one.”
We heard Jake heave in a breath and chuckle. “Nah, no time in the near future,” he told her. “See if you can get Sage’s signature for me.”
“I’ll see what I can do, Jake.”
“Cool. I may drop by later,” he told Mariska.
“Okay. But be warned Pete’s got a friend coming over tonight and they may ask you to play with them.”
“Not a problem for me. At least Pete wouldn’t mind me meeting his friend,” he said innocently.
“It’s not the same and you know it,” I said.
“But now that Pete likes me, it won’t hurt me if his friend does too,” he laughed. “Oh, and, uh, ask Mariska to tell you about her date with Tom.”
“Bastard,” she called out.
Roaring, he hung up and I took the phone off of speaker and sat on the sofa.
“I forgot that you had a date with Tom yesterday.”
“Too bad I can’t forget,” Mariska quipped.
“Give me the juicy deets.”
“Such apt words!” Mariska remarked. “Everything began fine. Tom picked me up on time. My parents were very happy when they saw him. And you know how difficult they can be. We went to dinner and he ate with his mouth open the entire time.”
“No!”
“Oh, yes. I remember the sound too, ‘chomp, chomp, chomp,’ and I ignored it as best as I could. When we finished dinner and got to the movie part, I was relieved. I thought we could breeze through the night, and we did. Those two hours and forty minutes were the highlight of our date. We sat next to each other. He had his arm around me. But when he had taken me home, he asked me for a kiss, and I thought, ‘What the heck, I haven’t been kissed in months.’ I just hoped he still didn’t have a ton of food particles in his mouth. And when we kissed, he slobbered all over me. He bit my tongue, and I swear, Beth, he wanted to suck my chin!”
I stifled my laughter. “I thought Tom would’ve had some finesse. And some dinner etiquette.”
“Yeah, it was a real juicy kiss. Tom noticed that I didn’t relish the kiss like he did. He’d asked me to show him how I like to be kissed. So I’d shown him. I mean, when do guys show a willingness to improve their kissing?”
“Did he learn?”
“Unfortunately, no. I wish that Tom and I’d kept it completely platonic. I just don’t see him the same. We have the same hours at Luigi’s. And he’s so sweet.”
“Did you tell him that there won’t be any second dates?”
“Oh, yes!” She sighed. “On a brighter note, someone wants to say hello.”
“Hello,” Pete greeted me excitedly.
“Hi, Pete. How’re you?”
“Good. Are you good?”
“Yes, I am.”
“That’s what Mariska tells me. I asked her,” Pete told me as if I didn’t know.
“I asked her about you too. Are you enjoying your summer program?”
“Uh huh. I made a tie for first place in the spelling bee contest!”
“That calls for a treat. Tell Mariska I said so. And tell Mrs. Muldoon that I said hello when you see her.”
“You’ve made his week,” Mariska said as she got back on the phone. “Take some photos of them if you can.”
***
The silver print-out tickets Chase had purchased enabled Brianna to have valet parking. The elevators took us to the theater on the fifth floor of the Double Dulce club. Triangle lights surrounded the border of the room; shimmery black curtains covered the spacious stage.
“This is sweet!” Brianna said. We scanned the rest of the space together and saw employees setting up, checking the mics and instruments.
While I liked that Brianna was here with me, I wished that Chase were here too. This wasn’t a concert in an arena. This felt more personal than an arena would. Each member came out from the entrance we’d used as the curtains opened. Ari and Renner came down the left aisle, while Sage and Austin walked down the right aisle.
I pulled Brianna back down to her seat. I had stopped myself from leaping out of my seat before I reached for her. When they were all on stage, Sage went in front of the mic, made a signal, and only a few lights from each corner of the wall and the ceiling stayed on. We could still see them, but it had a calming effect on the crowd.
“Thanks for coming. This means the world to us.” Her makeup was more neutral tonight and she looked absolutely perfect. The top of her dress was strapless and fitted on her bust, but was loose from the waist to the highest part of her thighs. I’d rarely seen her in a dress on television, online, or in any of their photos. I couldn’t tell what color Renner’s eyes were tonight because he had so much eyeliner and gray and black eye shadow on. “I’d told the boys tonight that I was starting this show, sing something close to my heart. This song is a reminder that when your love, even in your friendships feels stagnant, and if indeed it is, you may just need to remember that love is not just a feeling. If the love inside you doesn’t translate into congruent actions, ‘A Little Rewind’ could be in order. ‘A Little Rewind’ can get you to where you need to be before the love is lost for good.”
Austin and Ari stood on either side of Sage and sang along with her for the climb portion of her song, while Renner’s plucks on his guitar was powerfully tempered by Austin’s zeal on his. Tears brimmed my eyes. A torn expression started on Sage’s face. I felt the power of being so close to Tainted Virtue, of having emotions poured into the crowd and recycled back into them. I’d remembered how Cindy used to rest her head on my lap when we’d said that we’d be there for each other forever, no matter what. And I missed her deeply right now because she was my mom, my first love, my first heartache, and someone I knew I wanted to return to me. She was with a married man, and even though it still angered me, it made me feel me desperate for her. Desperate for her not to forget that I hadn’t forgotten how much she loved me. Deep down in my heart, I knew that she’d like Chase, maybe even be a little envious of how great he was to me. I didn’t have to do anything I didn’t want to with Chase to make him interested i
n me, like she’d said I’d have to do to be with a guy. It was not only the fact that I wanted Chase to be nothing like the guys Cindy had dated. I was really beginning to believe that he was his own person.
Four songs later, Brianna and I had jumped from our seats and danced in the aisle like some of the other fans. As it occurred to me that I was moving as if no one was around me, I flicked my eyes and saw that other people were dancing without a care in the world. Couples near us were lost in each other through Ari and Austin’s sultry voices. Ari teased that some babies would be made tonight, but I couldn’t help but think that it was true.
Usually, I was the last in line for almost everything. I could enter the department store first, or be blocks ahead of people and end up at the end of the line, but now I pushed through a bunch of people who shoved me and even tried to trip Brianna and I. I didn’t care if I pissed some people off, like I had other times in my life. This was my first concert and Chase had obviously spent a lot of money so that I could see my favorite band. He’d been so selfless in letting Brianna take his place tonight. We were far from the end of the line. Ari, Austin, and Renner granted some girls a kiss on the check, and of course one had to roughly pull the back of Ari’s head and try to kiss him on the lips, but one of the guards intervened at the right moment. Smirking, Ari had made a gesture like he hadn’t wanted to stop her, but the guys stopped giving kisses to fans on the sides of their faces afterwards, which had resulted in some disgruntled females. Ari knew that he was gorgeous and made no attempt at acting modest about it.
***
Brianna and I got to meet every member of Tainted Virtue. We’d gotten their signatures. She might never wash her shoes or that shirt again. She and I were only able to get one photo taken with them. Afterwards, we’d been whisked away by their guards.
“Austin actually let me touch his head!” Brianna’s green eyes shone. “I was kidding when I asked him.”
