“Something like that,” he answered. “Did you get to hear them?”
As they started a conversation about the bands from tonight and music in general, I rolled my eyes and turned away, sick and disgusted and freaking hurt.
He was going to pick this one. I just knew it.
I hated it, and yet there was nothing I could do about it.
I should’ve left then. I knew I should have. But I just had to torture myself. I had to watch it all play out.
They were totally hitting it off. Asher was laid-back, but I could tell he was into her. I mean, he didn’t flirt with her or look at her the way he had me when he’d caught me in the shower—a small consolation I played up in my mind—but it was enough. He was drunk and desperate enough to take her home.
When she announced she had to go the ladies’ room and would be right back, he spun to me and flashed me a thumbs-up as well as a grin that seemed to say we have a winner.
I didn’t smile back. Instead I hopped off my barstool. “I gotta take a piss too.”
His grin died. “Uh...okay.”
Turning away from him and unable to keep looking at the hopeful, excited expression on his face, I hurried toward the bathrooms. There was a little alcove before it separated into the men’s and ladies’ rooms. As I entered it, I completely ignored the men’s side. Instead, I bent down and peeled off my mask.
When I straightened and shook out my hair, some guy had just entered the alcove and had stopped frozen, gaping at me. “Dude,” he said, raising his hands and circling around me before he could escape into the lavatory.
I didn’t even care that I’d been caught. I was too drunk, or jealous, or something, to think it through. I hurried into the women’s room and pulled to a stop when I saw Tamra with a few friends, fluffing their hair in the wall of mirrors above the sinks.
“You lucky bitch,” one said, slapping Tamra’s arm. “I can’t believe you’re about to score Asher Fucking Hart.”
“I know, right?” Tamra giggled and bit at her lips to plump them
I drew in a breath and pressed my back to the wall just inside the doorway.
But I couldn’t believe this. She already knew who he was. He’d never told her his last name.
God, of course she already knew who he was. She was just better at the game than all the other clueless women out there.
This was exactly what Asher didn’t want. And yet a groupie was about to trick her way into his pants anyway. I needed to warn him, except...how?
Oh, you’ll never believe what I just heard in the ladies’ room, Ash?
Yeah, that’d go over real well.
Wanting to cry, I pushed from the wall and started for an empty stall. Tamra and her group spotted me and offered me tentative smiles.
“Love the purple streaks,” she had the nerve to tell me.
I sent her a sickened smile. “Gracias.” My hair was a disaster, I knew. It’d been trapped under the mask for hours and was probably matted and sweaty, sticking to my head in a most unnatural way.
Escaping into a stall, I sat down and hugged my ribs, wanting to cry.
Outside my door, one of the skanks asked, “Do you think he’ll take you back to his place or rent a motel room somewhere?”
“Like it matters. I’d settle for the backseat of his car if that’s what he wanted.”
It’s a motorcycle, bitch. He drives a motorcycle, not a car.
And then I pictured him taking her on his motorcycle and had to squeeze my eyes closed and press my lips together to keep from crying.
“Just as long as we don’t go back to my place,” Tamra cooed, beginning to sound way too smug.
Both of her friends laughed before one said, “Yeah, I’m sure your husband and two kids would have a small problem with you banging Asher the rock god Hart on the living room couch.”
My eyes popped open as the other two joined in, laughing.
Say what?
Oh, no fucking way. The skank was married? Surging to my feet, I tried to barge my way from the stall, only to find it locked. So I fumbled a second before I could escape, and yep, by the time I was free, the three women were gone, only their snickering, married-ass laughter echoing around the bathroom behind them.
I started to follow them, pushing my way from the bathroom. But no sooner did I charge from the bathroom alcove than I spotted Asher headed my way.
And he saw me. At the same moment his eyes went big and his mouth rounded into a surprised O, I remembered that I’d forgotten to put my mask back on.
Moving quickly, I ducked behind a group of three guys passing by just as I heard Asher’s voice call, “Hey, wait.”
I crouched down behind my unknowing shield until we passed a door, which I reached out and tried. When it opened, I popped inside the dark space, with no idea whether it was an office, supply closet or what. Afraid to shut myself fully inside alone, I kept the door cracked and was able to peek out from my dark hiding place.
“Hijo de puta,” I hissed when I saw a determined Asher striding my way as if he knew where I was hiding.