I wasn’t sure if I bought her story about Incubus shirt girl, but I figured she was going to stick to her tale, so I proceeded to the issue that meant the most to me...and hurt the most to ask about. “And Elisa?” I whispered.
Tears filled her eyes as she shook her head. “You were never supposed to meet her. You weren’t supposed to return to the hotel room for your wallet and discover her in your shower. You weren’t supposed to go to Casta?eda’s and see her at work. And you were never supposed to take her home with you. I told you—dammit—did I or did I not warn you to stay away from her?”
I snorted and shook my head. “A little hypocritical of you, don’t you think, since you are her? Why didn’t you just fucking pull away when I first kissed you?”
Her mouth fell open as if that was the most ridiculous question anyone had ever asked her. “Have you met you?” she cried. “You’re freaking amazing. No hetero woman in her right mind could even remotely resist all that.”
When she waved her hand to encompass me from head to toe, I hissed out a harsh laugh. “Right.”
“I’m serious.” Her face fell as she watched me, as if she knew then that no matter what she said, everything between us was over. “The last thing I wanted to do was fall for you. Hell, after one dipshit lead singer of a band crushed my faith in men altogether, I fully expected to despise you. But then I got to know you, and I...well, it’s just a testament of how amazing you are to break through the stereotype I’d set up against you, and you actually got me to like you.”
“Well then it must suck to be you, because right now, I’m not very fond of you in return. Jesus, I actually don’t even know a goddamn thing about you. You’re a complete fucking stranger to me.”
“Asher,” she whispered, pressing her fist to her chest as a couple of tears slid down her cheek. I hated to see her cry, but the tightness in my own chest made it impossible for me to go to her and try to soothe her. She was breaking my damn heart here.
“You do know me,” she entreated. “You know everything there is to know about me. Everything I told you when I was Sticks, that was all me.”
“Except that you’re not really a man, you’re not really gay, and oh yeah...you understand English perfectly. Jesus.” I gripped my hair. “How many times did you laugh at me because I was too stupid to figure it out myself?”
“Never,” she swore, shaking her head adamantly. “I never once laughed at you.”
“I’ll bet,” I muttered. “I treated you like a guy. Jostled and joked, called you things I’d never call a woman.”
Remy hugged herself. “I didn’t mind. It let me know we were friends.”
“Yeah,” I murmured, nodding in agreement. “We were. You’d probably become one of the closest friends I’d ever had. And you just...you just took that away from me. Then you walked through this doorway and let me know Elisa, the one woman who rocked my world, doesn’t exist either.”
“No.” She shook her head some more. “They both still exist. Sticks and Elisa are still here.” She tapped her hands against her chest. “They’re just one person now. It’s just Remy.”
This time it was my turn to shake my head and say, “No. The only person I’m looking at is a fucking liar.”
I turned away to storm out the door when she called, “Wait! What about tomorrow?”
I paused and glanced back, frowning. “What?”
“It’s Friday. The band,” she reminded me. “We’re supposed to play at Forbidden.”
Shit. And to top everything else, she’d just broken up my band, too. “Oh, you’re not in the band anymore,” I announced in a soft voice.
Devastation lit her gaze, but she nodded respectfully. “And Sunday? You still need someone to deejay at Pick’s wedding.”
Damn it. I clutched my temples as a headache began. How the hell had she became so essential in just a few short weeks? I didn’t have time to find Pick a new deejay and I didn’t trust anyone else to work the sound system the way I trusted Sticks...aka, her.
“If you’re still willing, Pick needs you,” I managed to grit out reluctantly, wishing I could tell her to fuck off instead. But I couldn’t do that to my brother, who was counting on someone to play “Baby Love” for him to dance to with Eva.
She nodded. “Of course I’ll still do it.”
I gave my own grateful nod before glaring and growling, “Just stay out of my way and don’t fucking talk to me there. In fact, if I never see you again after Sunday, it’ll be too soon.”
Tears filled her eyes, but she nodded her understanding and acceptance.
Unable to stick around a second longer, I lit out of there, practically running from the building until I reached my apartment. I hissed a curse when I realized I’d forgotten to lock my place before leaving for work earlier...because I’d been too occupied with thoughts of finding Elisa.
Well, I’d found her. And I wished I hadn’t.