Page 22 of Bitter Beats

MAV

“I needed that,”I tell Lia. Stretched out in my bed, I bend my arm behind my head and stare at the ceiling. Fuck, I could go for a cigarette right now, but I stopped smoking.

Some shit my agent tossed out about optics and the youth. As if vaping is any better.

“Me too. I’ve been working nights to train the new girl,” Lia says, looking at me.

I feel her stare on my face but don’t take the bait. If she wants to talk, she will, whether I prompt her for her shit or not.

“Aren’t you curious about the new girl?” Lia asks after a beat. She shifts her weight, draping her frame over my chest and looking down into my eyes.

I roll my lips together, curious. Unlike many of my past hookups, Lia isn’t looking for anything. She doesn’t play mind games or try to manipulate me. She’s down to fuck, and sometimes, that leads to a casual conversation or a quick bite. She knows the score, the same as me.

I twirl a strand of her pale hair around my finger. Tug. “What’re you playing at?” I ask. Mckenna’s words from the kitchen filter through my mind.

What the hell are you playing at, Maverick Tate?

Fuck if I know. I work a swallow against the ball of emotion that lodges in my throat when I think of Mckenna. When I think about Mckenna with some fuckwad taking her for a ride.

Who the hell is she spending her nights with? And why, when I’ve got easygoing, fun Lia splayed out and naked, do I give a shit about Mckenna at all?

She shakes her head, her eyes narrowing. “You really don’t know.”

Irritation flares. “You playing games now, Lee?”

“No. I’m just surprised.”

I huff. “‘Bout what?”

“The new girl is Mckenna.” She gives me a look as if she’s carefully gauging my reaction to this news.

I sit straight up in bed, shaking her off me. Lia snorts, rolling onto her side and propping her head up with her hand.

“What the hell?” I say, but my mind is already rewinding the past few weeks.

Mckenna’s late nights. Her exhaustion. Her weight loss. The way my comments have yet to land. How she drew a line in the sand and let this little cold front we’ve got going play out.

“Why wouldn’t she tell me?” I wonder aloud.

What are you playing at, Mckenna Byrne?

“That was my question.” Lia sits up next to me. “It’s weird. When she first moved in, and then when she showed up for a job, I thought she was taking advantage of you. Of this.” She waves a hand around my plain bedroom that feels like no one lives in it. Years ago, I used to bunk here with Allegra, but those days are in our rearview now.

The Burnt Clovers have exploded, and the fact that I still crash in my old room at the brownstone is something my brother and bandmates regularly poke fun at.

“Mckenna’s not like that.” It’s strange to hear myself defend her, but for all the things she does to piss me off, she’s nevertried to take advantage. If anything, my success has always irked her.

“I know,” Lia agrees.

I narrow my eyes. She doesn’t volunteer any additional information.

“You hungry, Mav?”

At her simple question and blasé attitude, I wonder if she’s the one playing mind games. It’s not that Lia and I haven’t grabbed a bite in the past, but it’s usually because I had a session and needed the food and am not a complete dick, so I picked something up for her too. Not because one of us asks the other one to eat.

Still, curiosity about my reluctant roommate has me saying, “Sure.”

Lia grins. “I know an Italian place around the corner.”

---