“Does that make us the upper crust tonight?” He smiled when he met me at the back of his car, again holding out his hand to me. I took it, and we walked toward the dock. We didn’t swing arms, like I would have with someone I would not think about tonight, but Eli walked so close I could feel the heat of his body against mine.
“Hardly.” We stopped in the crowd waiting to board. “If we were back in those days, we’d be the performers, and the upper crust would look over their glasses and down their noses at us.”
“Then the upper crust doesn’t know what they’re missing.” Eli let go of my hand and slipped his arm around my waist. He was a little handsy tonight, but I wasn’t complaining. We walked up the ramp to the boat and took our seats. I don’t know if Eli had paid extra to be seated right by the window, but if he did, I appreciated it.
“Damn, you weren’t kidding with that stuff.” Eli shook his head when I ordered Maker’s Mark and Coke. He got a beer. “After that hurricane, I figured you’d be a fruity drink type of girl.”
“No girly crap for me.” I smirked. “I can hold my liquor.” No one ever saw that coming. Everyone just assumed a little thing like me couldn’t drink the hard stuff without puking or passing out. Not that I drank like a frat boy, but it took me a lot longer to get under the table than most of my guy friends, especially Devon. Talent, I guess.
Eli looked amused. “We’ll see about that.”
“Are you trying to get me drunk?” My voice went up an octave.
He raised an eyebrow. “Should I be?”
I wasn’t exactly sure how to answer that. Because I was such an expert on flirting, I did what came naturally. I changed the subject. “Andrew said if they get the single soon enough, they’ll go ahead and confirm those tour dates.” Eli looked a little confused by the switch, but I just kept talking. “There’s only about ten shows, but they’re big. This could be really good.”
“We’ll have the song to him soon. We’re just working on polishing the vocals.” Even an indirect mention of Devon felt like getting zapped by static electricity. “You don’t have to be all business tonight, Abby. Relax.”
I took a page out of Devon’s book and rubbed my teeth against my bottom lip. Eli’s expression softened, and if I’d relaxed at all it was gone now. I glanced over at the buffet line. “Do you want to go get food?”
“I don’t really care about the food.” Eli didn’t take his eyes off of me. “I just want to spend time with you.”
“Okay.” I wrung my hands together in my lap, and smiled up at the waiter when he brought our drinks. The temptation to down it all in one gulp was overwhelming. “Tell me something about you that I don’t know.”
A smile spread over Eli’s face, and his eyes lit up. “I was in the boy scouts until I graduated from high school.”
My jaw dropped. Didn’t expect that. “There goes your bad boy reputation.”
“I had one? Sweet.” He laughed. “Even better, I was an eagle scout, and I was still active in the scouts until I moved.”
I wrinkled my nose. “You’re not going to make me go camping, are you?”
“In a tutu? Not unless it’s at the Holiday Inn.” His suggestion made me tingle all over. “Your turn.”
“I won the science fair in sixth grade.” That was the best I could come up with. “I grew a bunch of mold on a bunch of stuff, and wrote a paper about it.”
“So you’re an evil genius?” Eli leaned in closer. “Tell me more.”
“I’d like to think so.” The bourbon was starting to warm my insides, loosening me up. “And I have a cat named Ziggy, you know, as in—“
“Stardust.” He finished my sentence. I took a sip of my drink and looked away.
“Yeah.” The river was so beautiful. “Are you sure you don’t want any food?”
“Sure, we can go up, the line’s died down.” I stood up, and Eli followed me to the food line. “Get used to catering out on the road.”
I turned back to him. “Is it that bad?”
“It gets tiresome. It’s all we had on The Spotlight.” He piled his plate with gumbo. “But this looks a little better than that.”
I got shrimp, rice, and beans. “I’m sure we’ll all live.”
After the line had cleared at the buffet for dinner service, the band took the stage. Little circles of middle aged women formed on the dance floor, slowly but surely luring their dates out with them. Once we’d finished eating, Eli asked if I wanted to join them. Why not. We swayed, shimmied, and spun until I almost forgot I danced like a total white girl.
“Can we go out on the deck?” Eli asked when the band took a break. His face shined after forty-five minutes on the dance floor.
“Sure.” The heat of the bodies on the dance floor was making me wilt, too.
The boat had entered the gulf now, and the city looked small in the distance. The sun made a show of calling it quits for the day, leaving vibrant pinks and oranges in her wake. A gentle breeze licked my skin. The deck couldn’t have been more beautiful if someone had staged this.
“Are you having fun?” Eli asked, putting his hands on the rail and taking it all in. I stood close enough my tutu was crushed against his legs, taking him all in. He looked so handsome in the soft light, the shadows falling just below his eyes.
“I’m having a great time.” I moved in a little closer, putting my hand over his. “Are all your ideas this good?”
“Maybe.” His smile told me he wasn’t talking about the dinner cruise. “No one in there could take their eyes off of you.”
“Purple hair, a nose ring, and tattoos tend to have that effect.” I moved my hand away shyly. “Even when I’m not wearing a tutu.”
Turning to me, Eli moved in close enough for our legs to touch. “It’s because you’re the most beautiful girl on this boat.”
Before I had a chance to protest, Eli lowered his lips to mine, catching me with my mouth open just enough for him to nip my bottom lip. I jumped back slightly in surprise, not realizing his hands were already on my back to catch me. Once I recovered from my shock, I closed my eyes and mimicked his movements, slow and soft, until my body melted against his and we became one. Fireworks were going off in the distance, or maybe it was just in my brain. Eli paused, pulling away just enough that I opened my eyes and saw a desire I’d never seen before. Feeling shy and brazen at the same time, I took a deep breath. Eli’s tongue moved against the seam of my closed mouth, like a magic code, parting my lips in invitation. He tasted sweeter than I ever imagined.
Just when I thought I couldn’t take any more, we stopped kissing. Eli pressed my head against his chest, and we stayed like that, the wind whipping hair against my face, until the boat docked.
Now that Eli made me realize what I was missing, I felt like I’d been starving all this time.
We stayed in his car in front of the house kissing until my lips hurt to move. Speaking of painful, that’s what it was to pull away from Eli. I just didn’t want to, but I knew I had to. We couldn’t spend forever in this car.
I didn’t invite him upstairs. If he was disappointed, he didn’t let on.
“Tomorrow night.” Eli’s voice was breathy. “Want to come to my place? I’ll make you dinner.”
Another one who liked to cook. It was like I sought them out. “Sounds good.”
One more quick peck and I practically ran up the stairs before I could change my mind.
“What happened?” Mallory raised an eyebrow the next morning. She had the day off, and we walked to the coffee shop together. “You’re glowing. Please tell me it’s Eli.”
“It’s Eli.” I grinned so wide I thought my face my split. My lips still hurt, and my chin was still slightly red from brushing against Eli’s stubble for so long. But it was the best pain ever.
“Oh my God. Tell me everything.” Mallory turned her back to the barista, who grimaced since it was her turn to order and the line went out the door.
“She’ll have a café au lait. I’ll
have a tall coffee with milk and two shots of espresso.” I stood on my tiptoes so I could look over her shoulder and order. “We went out last night.” The rest of my face turned as red as my chin. “On a dinner cruise.”
“I don’t care where you went, what did you do?” This was the most interest Mallory had taken in my social life since she’d remembered how to get to Bourbon Street by herself. Even though she didn’t mean it, her reaction stung. My life was that meaningless, or she was that shallow. I couldn’t figure out which one before I drank this coffee.
“I kissed him.” I sighed. “A lot. And he’s making me dinner tonight.”
Mallory wrapped me in a hug, jumping up and down. I stood stiff and dumbfounded in the tiny coffee shop full of people. “I’m so excited for you.” She pulled away from me and frowned. “That’s it though, right? Just kissing?”
I nodded, feeling like a little kid who’d done something wrong. Mallory handed me coffee and her face brightened with her first sip. “Good. Because you’re not ready for more yet.”
Her words prickled inside my brain. “I know that.” The walls and the crowd started closing in on me, and I walked out the door quickly.
“I just don’t want you getting hurt.” Mallory practically ran to catch up with me. “What’s he going to make you?”
“I didn’t ask.” I couldn’t look her in the eye. She was ruining it. “Don’t worry about it. I know what I’m doing.”
Lie.
“No you don’t.” I stared at the people we passed by on the street, refusing to acknowledge the look of pity I knew was on Mallory’s face. It was the same look I got from everyone when they realized I wasn’t actually dating Devon, or anyone, and never had. “I want your first time, when it eventually comes, to mean something. Don’t just do it for the sake of doing it. You deserve more than that, for waiting so long.”
There went what was left of my good mood. “I have to get to school,” I mumbled. “I’ll just let you know how things went in the morning.”
The gray cloud that Mallory formed over me weighed heavily on my shoulders as I walked. How many times had Mallory screwed guys when she didn’t even know their names? Or had friends with benefits, or something else I thought was trashy? Why was she holding me to a different standard? Even though she criticized me for doing the exact opposite. Not that I planned on doing one of Mallory’s ‘chew and screws’ with Eli, but I at least wanted her to pretend she thought of me as an adult who could make mature decisions. Just because my hymen was still intact didn’t mean my emotions had been stunted.
I couldn’t concentrate on anything the rest of the day. No one had ever taken interest in me like Eli had. Everyone always told me how wonderful I was, but no one bothered to act on it. Maybe Devon really had sucked the single out of me, like Mallory said. Even though Eli spoke his mind and was actually pursuing me, was he really going to expect me to sleep with him tonight? I could barely breathe just thinking about it. Mallory and her friends always joked about the third time being the charm or something like that, and here we were, at date three.
Shit. Maybe I should cancel. I had no idea what I was doing.
He had to know. Guys might not talk the same way girls do, but I’d spent enough time around Sinister Riot to know they talked about girls all the time. He’d had enough questions for me about Devon that I would be shocked if he hadn’t asked the same about me.
Once it was time to get ready, I couldn’t move. I sat on my bed and zoned out. A dozen times I picked up my phone to cancel, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
Ziggy sensed something was wrong. She never wanted to cuddle with me, but tonight she crawled right into my lap. Patting her absentmindedly, I tried to remind myself it was just dinner, and I was making a big deal out of nothing.
Every time I pictured what might happen later, all I could see was Devon.
“I had to call my mother,” Eli confessed before a quick peck on the cheek when I came in the door to his French Quarter apartment. It looked way more settled and grown up than I expected. Totally put together, and he had real furniture. Not crates and a futon like our apartment. He handed me a glass of red wine. “She might be in the car on her way down here. I think she wants to see the girl I wanted to make lasagna for with her own eyes.”
“You made me lasagna? And you told your mother about me?” I hid my shock by taking a sip of the wine. I was so screwed. I inhaled deeply, the smell of garlic and meat sauce soothing me even more than the drink. “Whatever you did, it smells fantastic.”
I climbed up on a stool in front of the island that separated the kitchen from the living room. Eli peeked in the oven. “You can tell her that when she gets here. It’s her recipe.”
“Are you close with your family?” I took another sip. All this talk of mothers was making me nervous because it sounded serious.
Eli nodded, and pulled garlic bread out from under the broiler, dropping it gingerly on the stove top. “Yeah. I know it’s not very rock n’ roll, but I lived with them before I auditioned for The Spotlight. I was only working as a session musician on and off before that, and rent in New York is insane.” He cut a piece of lasagna from the pan, then uncovered a bowl of salad, and added that to the plate. Once he added a piece of garlic bread, he served it to me, and then repeated the motions for himself. “What about you? You don’t talk about your family much.”
“I guess I don’t.” I looked down at my plate. “My mom moved Chicago after Katrina.” I swirled my wine. “My dad came back to New Orleans almost immediately, hoping things would go back to the way they were before the storm. It never really happened, and he decided he couldn’t live without my mom, so once I started college, he moved to Chicago to be with her.”
“That’s very romantic.” Eli topped off my glass.
“I miss him,” I continued. For some reason, I'd always taken it personally that my dad had left the city. “In return, my sister moved in with me.”
“Are you two close?”
“Not really.” What the hell did I say without bringing up Devon? “She thinks it's ridiculous, that I’ve stuck with the band for so long.”
“Ugh.” Eli picked up his fork and dug in. “I have some family like that. Even after I won the show, they would ask, ‘but what are you going to do for a job?’ Some people don’t understand that you can actually work in the arts.”
“Most people are too scared to. Because of that, they think it’s just a hobby for everyone.” Eli’s mom’s lasagna was amazing. “Unless you want to work in the movies.”
“Tell me what you really think about that.” Eli smiled over his wine glass.
“It pisses me off. Everyone jumped on the bandwagon once there was a tax credit and decided they wanted to work in the industry. Mallory didn’t give a shit about doing this until the movies came into town. I’ve lived and breathed this my whole life, and all they want to do is name drop.” I stabbed into the lasagna, which was far too delicious to deserve such rage. “Your folks are supportive of what you do?”
“Oh yeah. They’re my biggest fans. You met my dad, I should probably give you full disclosure. He was the lawyer at the meeting. I’m blessed to have them. Like I said, not very rock n’ roll, but I couldn’t have done any of this without them.”
I took another look at the apartment behind me. Curtains hung in the long windows, flowers had been planted on the galley. This place had a woman’s touch. “Did your mom help you with this place?”
Eli shook his head. “I rented it furnished. It’s a short term rental.” I raised an eyebrow. “I had no idea how this was going to work out. I didn’t want to sink a ton of money in to something I was going to lose.”
“I know it’s totally not cool to talk about money, but as your sort of boss, I have to ask you.” It probably wasn’t cool to date my employees, either. “Are you making money, being in the band? The rest of the guys have the record contract, but they’ll never see a dime from that. They’re only going to make m
oney from the shows and merch.”
“I’m a salaried employee of the record company. That’s what was negotiated for me.” Eli looked down at his empty plate. “So yeah, I’m not a millionaire, but I don’t have to worry. I’m not taking money out of anyone’s pockets though, my contract is just different from theirs.”
“But you’re making a lot more money than they are,” I protested. It didn’t sound very fair. Besides Mo, the rest of the guys were struggling to survive.
“You probably will be too, for a while,” Eli reminded me. “You’ll be making money off of the single. That just goes toward paying off their debt.”
Now I felt like I wasn’t being fair. “I never thought of it like that.”
“Don’t apologize for being paid to do your job, Abby.” Eli picked up my plate. “Do you want more?”
“I would, but I’m stuffed. It was delicious, though.” A corner of bread was all that was left, and I picked it up so Eli could bring my plate with his to the kitchen. “Your mother taught you well.”
“Thanks.” He leaned in and kissed my head. “More wine?”
“Please.”
We headed to the gallery with our wine glasses. Eli’s apartment was on one of the quiet side streets in the French Quarter that tourists didn’t often wander down. The night was warm and breezy, perfect for sitting outside.
“We have different roles in the band than the rest of the guys.” I was surprised that Eli kept talking about work once we’d temporarily stopped. “They’re not getting screwed, I promise. If all goes well, they’ll be making more money than both of us combined.”
“I just want good things to happen for all of you.”
“They will.” Eli rubbed his foot against the outside of my shin. “We’re talking shop again.”
“Well, it’s what we have in common.” Although something about all this full disclosure felt like dirt under my fingernails, but I needed to know.
Too Many Reasons Page 7
