Page 3 of Sweet Temptation

“See?” Elle said, tugging me into the ladies’ room. Inside was an elegant sitting room, which we at least had to ourselves, for now. “Your day is looking up. You just got free crab cakes.” She drew me over to the mirrored wall, where I took a close look at my hair.

“My day is almost over,” I pointed out. “It’s after eleven. Can I go home now?”

“Since when are you ever home before midnight?”

“Since I’m having a shitty day, and decided to throw a cheer-myself-up party at my place?”

“Ah.”

I pawed at the back of my dark hair, trying to find the burnt part. I’d worn it loose and wavy around my shoulders tonight, and somehow it looked just fine. “How bad is it? Do I need to artfully shave my head now?”

“It’s not bad. You just started smoking… I don’t even know if the flame actually caught.”

“Well, thank you for beating me with a menu and saving my life.”

“I panicked. Sorry if I whacked you a bit hard.”

I sighed and took another swig of the martini, which I still had in-hand. “I feel cursed, Elle. I swear, someone is sticking pins in a tiny little Summer doll today.”

“You would make an amazing doll,” she offered. “I see branded products in your future, DJ Summer.”

“Thanks,” I said, halfheartedly, where normally I would’ve eaten that up. “You know that feeling when a day is going all wrong? Like maybe you should’ve just gone back to bed and slept through ’til the next day, because everything was so fucked?”

"Sure.” Elle sat down on one of the upholstered chairs. “For me, that was pretty much every day for about a year after Jesse broke up with me.”

“Well, shit.” I turned to her, leaning on the counter behind me and setting the drink down.

She shrugged. “I’m just saying. One day isn’t bad.”

“Oh, it’s pretty bad.” I didn’t mean to make light of her past heartbreak, but at least that was in the past. “First of all, it started at like two in the morning. After my show last night, someone stole my wardrobe right out from under Sledge.”

“What! How?”

“What do you mean, how? They stole it. While he was loading up his truck behind the venue. One minute my equipment is there, all stacked up and ready to go, and the next, my wardrobe case has taken a walk into oblivion.” I was already on my way home from the show, with friends, when it happened. Sledge, my longtime roadie-slash-technician had called me practically in tears, he felt so bad about it.

I felt so bad for him, I couldn’t even be upset.

“Why didn’t you call me?” Elle said.

“Uh, what were you gonna do about it?”

“Well, nothing. But… moral support?”

“Whatever. It’s insured. I’m sure whoever stole it probably thought they were making off with a way better haul than a bunch of clothes. But a lot of it was custom outfits and stuff I’d collected over time. And there was some jewelry… including the diamond ring my dad gave me when I turned eighteen.”

“Oh, Summer.”

“I know. I should never have left it. But I was all sweaty after the show and I took it off. Honestly, I’d rather they stole my equipment. It would be easier to replace. I don’t think I can even bear to tell my dad.”

“Shit. Any chance you can get it back?”

“I doubt it. We called the police, but they couldn’t do anything but take a report. Whoever it was was fucking fast and long gone.”

“Babe, I’m sorry.”

“Oh, there’s more,” I told her. “I was woken up at like five in the morning, you know, after an hour of sleep, when my neighbor’s house alarm went off. It was so fucking loud, I couldn’t go back to sleep after, so I gave up and got up… to discover that I was out of coffee. The day pretty much went downhill from there.”

Elle cringed sympathetically.

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