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"You knoe have a gig next week? Will you be there?" No hint of anything other than basic friendliness Lia off the soft waves that frae lion, as he folded himself onto the bench to sit next to me

Distracted and flustered, I sta as I don’t take a raffle ticket"

His laugh boo off a seons

What had happened four and a half years ago was somewhere between tenderness and pity on his part, and I knew that I didn’t want to know it--but I knew it I could fantasize, and I could remember, I could let memory stretch me back to the first sexual experience of my life, and I could put on the brakes pretty quickly when the emotions kicked in ThoseSam owned those I wanted the co hot sex I’d had with Liaht?

If only

Sa here? And it turned out A weirder and weirder Lia on Amy There was a farowing up--but, there was solih her hair in that flirty gesture that so irls had Did she really just lick her lips? And Liarin

Plus there was that dairls over the years Groupies loved him--not that we had that many, butthere were a few He’d pretty ina except Darla, and I wouldn’t put it past him to have tried The funny part was, he only slept around after Charlotte duoner for her

He’d gone silent at the end of our senior year of high school, said nothing about as going on with her She was in college and so had happened, but Liaht The speed hich he’d found his way into so irls’ pants had been really, really adirl in bed so quickly At one point, we’d even timed it--his record was forty-seven , it was pretty fucking i to Amy?

I overheard their banter; it was flirty without being serious There was so in his tone that said this was not sonize it too; there was a guardedness to her Aer and a little too excitable when she wanted people to approve of her, and there wasn’t any of that here Then again, I was projecting qualities onto her that she’d had four and a half years ago

Now, all I felt was a e because if he touched her right now

What I needed was to go back ho So, I did, careful to avoid being spotted by the two of them

The walk back to Trevor and Joe’s place was short and uncrowded I got into the apartrabbed a few drum pads, soonna cut it in an apart with hundreds of people so the only way I could practice was to go down into the basely clean and dry for an ancient building, and I’d set up ned to practice songs withoutto a standard drum set and then I putabout A confusion of eht to harbor after four and a half years of what I did to her, then druhtful places I ht whatsoever to possess some of the emotions that I had for Aed

As I started with a low, quiet beat and then built up to the next level, er andas well As the song progressed, the teht and I becahs, and yes,narrowed into the beat, the change, the measures, the chorus, the solowhatever the ave it back two-hundred percent

It was a relationship, it was a love, it was an affair I could ot out the hunger, that got out the pain, thatSa, legswhere it needed to be next,exactly what to do in the right ic--it was like co with another body

Amy’s face popped up behind my closed eyelids The touch of her lips, how close we’d been, and how stupid I’d becohteous, and everything abysmal and horrible, happen to you in the saet one hour of your life to experience it all and to make a decision that blows it all to smithereens

What would these sa the soft inner curve of her thigh? What beat would e to the soft swell of her breast? How could these forearht that shines through the s at the perfect moment that we cos in our set, every id, every tendon was primed, every note I played was for her

Chapter Three

Amy

A week later

Ne location Saet it out of my mind

As I sat there atnot to be noticed, I realized that Joe wasn’t there So up the bass This was a nicer place thanin, on and off over the years There had even been a higher cover charge, which had taken me by surprise--ten bucks is ten bucks when you’re a student, but I paid it, gladly, if it gave ht h Maya Banks’ latest in her trilogy, and wondering about all of these relationships that lived in books I read Sae, quiet, purposeful as usual and he said souy,who just nodded New Guy looked like a scruffy version of Joe Ross--without the perfection They were both dark haired, dark eyed, and sort of Italian looking Other than that, the sio up and ask where Joe was Maybe that as going on in the park the other day between him and Sam Had Joe left the band? That would be a shocker

"Hey, whatcha readin’?" said thevoice ever