Page 12 of For Eva

“Matt. He never gives up.”

“Right. Anyway, I didn’t tell you because I’m obviously not going.” I grimaced, realizing I’d phrased my last sentence more like a question than a final decision.

“You sure about that?”

“Totally,” I insisted, clearing my throat. “He just thinks I’ll have sex with him again. That I’m a sure thing, which, clearly, I am, given the failure of my ridiculous plan last night. So, I need to stay away.”

Denise gritted her teeth. “Eva, I mean absolutelynooffense when I say this because you are always themost gorgeous woman in every single room you’re ever in. But there are gonna be at least fifty girls at that show who Danny wouldn’t even have to so much as say hello to before they had his dick in their mouths. So, you know…I don’t really think he’s too worried about getting laid tonight.”

I stuck my tongue out. “Ew.”

She shrugged and reached for her coffee. “Musicians.”

“It’s still gross.”

“Like you haven’t had his dick in your mouth five hundred times.”

“Denise.”I tried to stifle my laughter but lost it once she sputtered and doubled over, her entire body shaking.

“Okay, okay.” I wiped under my eyes as I managed to catch my breath. “I’m going outside to smoke and think about it. But I’m telling you, it’s gonna be a no. One of those fifty girls can have him. In fact, they can all have him.”

I grabbed my purse, pushed myself up from the couch, and headed for the small patio outside of the apartment, catching a sideways glance from Denise before I opened the door. “What?”

She held her hands up, pleading innocence, though a smug, crooked smile remained on her lips. “Nothing, Eva. Nothing at all.”

“I cannot believe I’m fucking doing this,” I said as Denise squeezed into a parking space. I massaged my temples, trying to relieve the tension in my head. It felt like it weighed a hundred pounds, crammed full of fear and worry that I was setting myself up for disappointment.

Denise reached into her purse and opened her compact, repainting her lips before turning to me. “Do you wanna leave? Because we can leave right now, and you will never have to see Danny Kincaid ever again.”

Part of me wanted to grab the gear shift and switch it into drive myself. But a bigger part wanted to stay. The part that thought maybe I’d been too quick to uproot that tiny seed of hope from the night before. That maybe Dannywasolder and wiser. And that maybe Denise wasright. What if Ihadrun into him for a reason?

“I don’t want to leave,” I confessed.

“You know it’s okay to want to be here, right? It doesn’t make you weak or whatever it is you’re thinking. It actually makesyou a normal human being.” She reached over and squeezed my hand. “I had to say that since you wouldn’t let me say it before.”

After chain-smoking for a good twenty minutes that morning, I’d walked back inside and announced we would be going to the show, but there would be no further mention of it until we were in a moving car headed for the Troubadour. I’d picked apart Danny’s every word, every move, and every expression before making my decision and didn’t need any cause for further dissection.

“Thank you,” I said. “And just so you know, one dayyou’regonna be a normal human being, and I’m gonna be saying all that mushy stuff to you.”

“Oh, please, Eva. You know I’m immune to that shit.”

We exchanged a knowing glance, and I snickered as she cut the engine to her car and opened her door.

We started up the sidewalk on Santa Monica Boulevard, the sound of our heels hitting the concrete almost as loud as the sound of my heartbeat pounding in my ears. The black spandex dress that Denise had insisted I wear felt increasingly tighter as we approached the club, and I was sure the silver concho belt around my waist was about to cut off circulation to the lower half of my body.

“That’s a really long line. What if we can’t even get in?” I asked, slowing my pace as I spotted the crowd gathered outside.

“You said he was gonna put us on the list. The list means we’re in.”

I nodded, following behind her as she led the charge past the line to the large man in a solid black T-shirt standing at the door. He held a clipboard in his hand, monitoring the crowd and occasionally waving people inside.

Denise bounced up to him and chirped our names, then grinned at me as he stepped aside and allowed us to enter.

“Hey, Eddie,” he called to a man standing inside the door. “Can you take these girls backstage?”

My eyes swept around the venue which had a smaller section upstairs in addition to the downstairs; both were already packed. A thick haze of smoke hung in the air, several beams of light slicing through it from different directions. I licked my lips, my mouth feeling like a bucket of sand had been poured into it, then leaned over to Denise. “So I’m guessing his band doesn’t suck?”

She raised her brows as we followed Eddie through the crowd to a door by the stage. He opened it for us, revealing a group of people mingling, drinks and cigarettes in hand.

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