“God, Will, don’t pressure her.” Wow, Audrey moves fast. I guess she was getting comfy in the relationship because she was already telling him how to act. The thing is, Audrey didn’t know Will the way I did. He wasn’t pressuring me or intimidating me, he was asking, pleading, begging me to go with just a look.
“Okay,” I said. He winked and flashed me a cocky grin. A group of young girls began gathering behind us so we started to make our way toward the door where we found Frank chatting with the bouncer. Although Frank was on the short side and a little heavy, he still had an intimidating look about him. He could have been taken right out of a scene from The Godfather. He wore nice suits with no tie and he was never seen without a black fedora. He seemed much younger than his sixty years; I figured his job required him to stay pretty current.
When we approached, he reached out to me first and kissed my hand. “Ahh, Will’s Mia.” I practically choked on my tongue.
“Hi, Frank.” I looked back at Audrey who was oblivious.
“Let’s hit it,” he said and then he ushered the group to the stretch limousine waiting at the curb. Frank sat on the bench behind the driver, next to him on the bench running down the side of the car sat Kara, Audrey, then Will. Dustin and I were in last, sitting on the seats between the doors. From where I sat I could see all the way up Audrey and Kara’s dresses, luckily they weren’t channeling Britney that night. Still, the view I had with the talent manager and the artist basically sandwiching two leggy bombshells in the back of a limo with black leather seats, mirrors everywhere and little blue lights, made me wish I had stayed home. Frank started talking to Will about something called the Big Four while Audrey and Kara giggled between them. I turned to Dustin after what seemed like ten straight minutes of seeing him staring at me in my peripheral vision.
“Hi, Dustin,” I said, expressionless.
“Mia,” he said it long and seductively.
“You’re pretty good with those spoons, buddy.”
A tiny smirk played on his thin lips. “You should see what I can do with my stick… sss.”
Dustin wasn’t a bad-looking guy. He was maybe five-ten, with shoulder-length, light brown hair. He wore his bangs sweeping across his forehead, Justin Bieber style, and he always had a backward baseball cap on. I thought it was bit juvenile for a thirty-year-old, but other than the smarminess he was nice, so I didn’t hold it against him.
“Mia, do you want me… to demonstrate that for you tonight?” He put his hand on my thigh and gave it a little squeeze.
“Shut the fuck up, Dustin, and get your fucking hands off her!” It hadn’t even occurred to me that Will was listening.
“Relax, Will, she’s not yours. She can speak for herself.” Will looked at me like go ahead, speak for yourself. He arched his eyebrows, waiting for me to say something. I put my hand over Dustin’s and slowly removed it from my thigh, my gaze never leaving Will’s.
Audrey giggled inappropriately and said, “It’s gettin’ hot in here,” and then I saw her wink at Dustin. It was a bizarre reaction, but I thought maybe she thought Will was just trying to protect me from Dustin’s wild ways.
“Everybody cool off, we’re here,” Frank said and then we all piled out of the limo.
Sokurov was a kitschy Russian bar with tall, round, red leather booths and a hundred different kinds of vodka. Kara jumped up and down with excitement but quickly got disappointed when she realized there wasn’t a soul in the place who was actually Russian, not even the owner. She said the place wasn’t authentic but the vodka would do. I sat on the end of the booth next to Kara and then it was Dustin, Audrey, Will, and Frank on the other end. Frank and I talked across the table to each other for an hour about recording studios in New York. He told me about the need for good studio musicians and suggested I look into it. I thought I could ask Shiel and I knew Will had connections too. The idea excited me.
I could see out of the corner of my eye Will’s arm around Aubrey’s shoulder; he was leaning into her neck, whispering something in her ear. Then I saw him take her earlobe in his teeth and give it a little tug before planting a kiss on her jaw. I stood up. “Well, I think I’m gonna call it a night,” I said, smiling. “You guys have fun.”
“Have the limo take you,” Frank said.
“I think I’m gonna walk, it’s less than a mile to my apartment.” I looked at Will, who was staring intently at me.
“I can walk you home,” Dustin said with a smirk.
“No, really, you guys, I’m fine. It’s like four blocks.” Will shook his head slightly and narrowed his eyes.
I said goodbyes, Frank kissed my hand, and then I left. My foot ached as I headed down the street. I heard someone yelling my name; I turned and saw Will running toward me.
“Mia, wait up!”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing is wrong, I’m gonna walk you home.”
“You don’t have to do that, Will.”