Page 107 of On The Rocks

“Don’t think you stood a chance with that swipe.”

“No kidding.” She held out her spoon.

I refilled it. “Here you go.”

“Thanks.”

“I did enjoy watching you watch me tonight.”

“Because you were stupid hot. I had no idea just how intense you got with the guitar.”

“More like I haven’t practiced enough to show off to people.”

“Couldn’t tell by me.” She turned to look at me, the peas rapidly melting with the heat off the water and her skin. “You look good up there. Don’t forget it.”

I stared down at the pint. “I haven’t felt that good with a guitar in a damn long time.”

“Why did you stop?” She flipped the peas over with a relieved sigh.

“Wasn’t the same after things...happened.”

“Yeah, but it had to be really bad to steal your music.”

“I’m sure you’re not up for that story.”

“I’m sure that I am.” She held out her spoon.

I scraped out a healthy chunk and handed it to her. “I told you there was some relationship drama, right?”

She nodded. “Fleetwood Mac-style swapping partners.”

“Yeah, well, Baron and Marc were used to her creating drama between them. If you ask me, they got off on it.”

“Toxic,” she said, around a cherry.

“Beyond, but it was also the status quo if that makes sense. Baron was getting tired of the games. He’d been in love with her since the start, but even he had a breaking point.”

And I was it.

“It was the last week of the Vegas thing. I could have killed Trident for putting that together. They dangled a carrot so big that Marc couldn’t say no and that meant all of us couldn’t say no.”

It had been enough money that none of us would ever worry about it again. Even Marc, who didn’t know how to handle his impulses, couldn’t blow through it. At least, not for a while.

“Money is a motivator.” She put the peas on the lip of the tub. “But that doesn’t kill a band, does it?”

“No. I mean, money had gotten us all in trouble over the years. Baron with drugs for a bit, but he got clean when we did Morning Pages. Irene barely spent her money, she always got other men to spend it on her.”

“You too?”

I shrugged and set the pint aside, then took her spoon and put it with mine. “When you’re on the road all the time, the accounts are managed by our team. We wanted something, it turned up. We got away with a lot of shit.” I dipped my hand into the warm water and dragged my fingers along her arm.

“I bet you did.” She turned to watch me with far too intelligent eyes. “Heartbreaker, I bet.”

“Not as much as you’d think. Bringing people into the shitstorm of our band never worked out well. I’d been able to escape some of the worst of it by offering up my writing services to anyone who wanted to work with me. But that left Baron and Marc to spiral, depending on the whims of Irene.”

“Why the hell did you put up with her? Why the hell did they?”

“Addicted. I stayed for Baron. I knew Irene was going to push him over the edge eventually, and she did. Using me.”

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