Page 50 of For Eva

“Oh, you know,” she said, waving her cigarette. “A friend of a friend of a friend.” My eyes traveled down her delicate neck to her tits which looked damn near perfect in her tight shirt.

I nodded, shifting in my seat. “So you’re from here?”

“Born and raised,” she said, flicking her cigarette into the ashtray between us.

“Nice. You’ll have to tell me what to do on my day off tomorrow, then. We don’t leave for Columbus till Monday.”

“I mean, I have an idea.” She twirled one of her loose curls around her finger and flicked her tongue over her lips. “If you’re up for it, of course.”

Her stare caused me to blush, and I let out a nervous laugh. “Oh, yeah? What’s that?”

I knew exactly what she was talking about, and normally I would’ve told her I was flattered, but she should meet Matt or Eric. Neither was anywhere to be found, though, and I didn’t want to stop playing this game. The girl was insanely hot. Besides, it wasn’t like I was doing anything wrong. It was just a little harmless flirting, and talking with fans was good for business.

Shawna extinguished her cigarette, exhaling the last of her smoke over her shoulder. “Oh, I think you know what I’m talking about.” She leaned forward, her cleavage exposed, setting off all kinds of dirty thoughts in my head.

I took a deep breath and shifted in my seat again, trying to keep my dick in check. “That’s, um…that’s tempting.”

“Shall we?” She raised her eyebrows and extended her hand.

I looked down at it, then at my own in disbelief as my fingers reached for hers.

“Hey, man, what's going on?”

Will’s voice startled me, and I quickly retracted my hand and took a long swallow of my beer.

He offered a half-hearted wave to Shawna. “I’m Will.”

“Hi,” she said, the corners of her mouth turning downward.

“I, uh, need to get some sleep.” I put my drink on the table between us and rose to my feet. “Nice to meet you, though.”

She pursed her lips at Will before looking back at me. “You, too.”

I shoved my hands in my pockets so I wouldn’t have to touch her soft hands again and walked off with Will toward the elevator.

“That chick was smokin’,” he said, looking back at her before pushing the call button.

I ran my hand through my hair and took a deep breath. “Fucking tell me about it.”

He hiccuped and stepped into the elevator. “Did I, uh, interrupt something?”

His eyes burned into me, trying to extract my thoughts, so I diverted my gaze to a corner of the ceiling. “Nah, man, just some girl looking for a guy in a band. You know how it goes.”

“Eva’s a good woman,” he slurred. “You don’t wanna fuck that up.”

The elevator came to a stop, and we exited onto our floor. He gave me a squeeze on the shoulder and a quick “night, man” before heading down the hallway in the opposite direction. I trudged to my room and fumbled for the key, Will’s words echoing in my head. He was right. Evawasa good woman. She believed in me and the band, and she’d never give up on any of us. But she was aroundall the fucking time. At sound check, in band meetings, on the bus…everywhere. It was getting to be too much, and even though I kept telling myself it would be over soon, things were getting dicey. Because I knew damn well I’d be with that chick if Will hadn’t shown up.

And I didn’t want that.

At least I didn’tthinkI wanted that.

I dropped my chin to my chest as I inserted the key into the door. “You really are an asshole, dude.”

TWENTY-ONE

Eva

August 1989

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