Page 181 of Smooth Sailing

I loved all of them.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you guys any of this stuff,” I said.

“Yes you did,” Mel returned. “Just now.”

“All good,” Bernie put in.

Totally loved all of them.

The waitress came back with our bill.

“Let’s sort this and go get Hugger,” Charlie said, reaching for the bill.

This wasn’t about them sizing him up.

This was about them getting to know him.

So I uttered not a peep as I opened my clutch to get my credit card.

“What the fuck is an ‘ambient jam’?” Hugger asked.

I busted out laughing.

It was after drinks at the Linger Longer Lounge, which included late-night scarfing of fried bologna sandwiches. We were a little overdressed (well, Hugger wasn’t), but it was the Linger Longer and it was Phoenix, so anything went.

It was after incredible sex.

We were in a zone that was coming to be familiar, me on my back in bed, Hugger on me, both of us under the covers, happy, limber, warm post-coital and chatting.

And Charlie had invited us to her gig the next weekend.

An “ambient jam.”

“We’ll need to down two dirty chais before we hit it, trust me,” I replied.

“What?” he asked.

“She’s in a sort of band. And I don’t say ‘sort of’ to be mean, it’s just not like any band you’ve ever seen, though they play instruments. Charlie’s keyboards, there’s someone on a drum machine, there’s a lead guitar and a bass guitar. But it’s all very…” I searched for a word. “Moody. They have some recordings, and I have them on my phone. I’ll play one for you tomorrow.”

“I’m not sure I’m looking forward to that.”

I smiled and ran my fingers along the whiskers at his jaw. “It’s really nice, if you’re in a mellow mood at home, coloring in books and drinking wine or whatever. It’s a little…shall we say, awkward when you’re out at a gig.”

“But you go,” he noted.

I shrugged. “Charlie wants us there, so yeah.”

“So yeah,” he repeated quietly.

We weren’t going to get into how selfless I was again, because right then, I was feeling cozy good and nicely tired without being exhausted, and we had something else to go over.

“Did you like them?” I asked.

“They’re great.”

I smiled again.

“Mel, Charlie and I had a conversation while you were pissing me off going to the bar with Bernie to get more drinks.”

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