Chapter 6

May

Some nights, Theo didn’t think he did enough to earn five hundred dollars manning the door at Flawless. Other nights, it seemed they couldn’t pay him enough for this gig. Tonight was one of those nights.

The early crowd was already sloshed and rockin‘. Theo looked at his watch to see that it was eleven-he had five more hours of this before he could go home and collapse. He’d sleep in until about ten, then hit the books. His test was in three months and it weighed heavily on his mind.

Theo knew it was rare for someone to reenter medical school once he’d dropped out, especially after what would be a four-year hiatus. Sometimes he thought he was nuts for even trying. The brain absorbs information at an astounding rate in med school, and once you leave that environment, it’s like a stopper is removed and the draining begins. Much of what he’d learned had already hemorrhaged, and he was attempting to shove it all back in, trying to reacquaint his mind with the pounding demands of medical school.

It was the hardest thing he’d ever done.

The score on his readmission test would determine how much of his life he’d wasted. There was a distinct possibility he’d have to start all over again, from the beginning of his M-l year. It would be demoralizing, and he wasn’t sure if it would be worth it. But if his scores were high enough, he could start at any point prior to where he left off and maybe even pick up right at the middle of the M-3 year. That would be ideal, but he wasn’t counting on it.

“Hey, Theo, baby.” He looked up to see one of the club’s regular honeys sashay inside. For women like her, there was no cover. All she had to do was look gorgeous and occasionally dance on the bar, a huge mahogany structure built for just that purpose. No one sat at the bar at Flawless. Few people sat at all. It was just a writhing sea of techno dance music, sunbaked bodies barely covered in shamefully expensive clothing, and naked hunger.

It’s what South Beach was all about.

“Good to see you. Enjoy yourself tonight.”

“I’d enjoy myself more if I had you.”

Theo tried to smile. He’d seen this woman operate more nights than he could remember. Safe sex with her would require the use of a full-body condom. “Sorry, but I gotta work.”

When she pouted and shook out her hair, the glitter she’d spritzed on herself from eyelids to toenails twinkled in the lights. “Maybe some other night.”

The patrons poured in. Theo had to turn away a female foursome with the lamest fake IDs he’d seen in some time. “Come back in a few years, girls,” he’d said to them.

Theo put up the rope at about eleven forty-five. From now till about two thirty he’d be cajoled and tipped and begged by those who knew it was uncool to show up before midnight but weren’t cool enough to make it through the rope after then.

He despised this game but smiled and joked to pass the time. He looked at his watch. It was just after midnight.

He recognized the voice long before he saw Gia. There wasn’t another person on the planet with that cackling laugh and that grating, fast, Spanish-laced speech.

She kissed his cheek. “Hola, Theo.”

He kissed her back. “You missed your appointment Wednesday.”

“You mad at me, or what? I forgot to tell you I had to fly to New York.”

Something in Theo’s brain snapped. He could swear he just got a whiff of Paradise Awaits and he sniffed at Gia, but it wasn’t her.

Then Gia stepped out of his face and his eyes landed on the most amazing sight. It was Lucy-two Lucys, really: the one he knew and a shrimpy version, standing next to two other women he’d never met.

“You gonna make us stand out here all night or what, Theo?”

He hardly heard Gia. He blinked. Lucy was wearing a sparkling silver top with tiny straps and a black skirt that fell well above her knees. He hadn’t seen this much of her skin since he dipped her in the hydrostatic tank. But she hadn’t looked like this back then. Back then she’d been a big, out-of-shape woman. Tonight, she stood before him a voluptuous, curvy, solid, glowing, slightly larger-than-average woman.

So he was shallow. He admitted it. All he knew was the Lucy standing in front of him, her eyes wide and her shiny hair falling free, was hot.

“I’m Lucy’s sister, Mary Fran. I’ve heard all about you, Theo.”

A soft little hand was shoved into his palm and broke his fixation on the real Lucy. The small Lucy began to shake his hand with gusto. “So is this when I tip you?” she asked, holding out a five.

Theo laughed, pushing the money back into her hand. It was amusing seeing someone who looked like Lucy but was so different. He raised his eyes to see the real thing smiling at him.

“And this is Veronica King and Maria Banderas,” Lucy introduced her coworkers to Theo.

“Please, come right on in, ladies.”

Lucy passed by last, and Theo inhaled-paradise indeed. “You look beautiful,” he whispered in her ear.

Lucy spun her head around, and a section of her hair slapped him across the chin. He loved it. Though he knew it would be the stupidest thing he could do, he wanted to reach out and grab that hair and crush his mouth against hers-just one more time.

“Thanks, Theo.”

Her eyes were beguiling. She stood on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his cheek. On the surface, it was exactly the same kind of perfunctory, social kiss that

Gia had given him just a moment ago. But it didn’t feel the same, and when Lucy’s warm lips touched his face he automatically turned toward the kiss, and the very corners of their mouths touched.

It was electric.

Lucy pulled back and looked away, running to catch up with the other women, already swarmed with admirers. Theo worried about Lucy in there. He worried she’d get hit on. He worried she’d not know how to protect herself.

Then he pictured her warrior princess stance on the Miami Springs High School track last month and knew she’d be OK.

Besides, there was no way he’d let Lucy out this door without knowing what time she left and whom she left with. He’d make sure of it.

Theo took a break about one thirty and decided to search for her. It didn’t take long-he found her dancing with a Latin lover type, her head thrown back as she laughed. Theo stood stock-still, staring at her hips. She was moving in a way that had nothing to do with building core strength and everything to do with seduction. He swallowed hard, just as Lucy turned to see him staring.

The song ended, and he watched Lucy shake her head several times, turning down whatever offer her dance partner had extended. Theo sighed in relief as Lucy sat down at a small cocktail table just to the side of the bar, alone.

“What are you drinking?”

She grinned at him. “Diet Coke,” she shouted over the music. “Is this a journal check?”

He laughed. “Nope. I was going to get you another one. Be right back.”

Theo helped himself to two sodas and returned to the table, hopping up on the stool right next to Lucy. He knew that conversation would be tough with the music, but just sitting by her side was better than nothing.

He let his eyes scan the club and saw Gia holding court on a red velvet sofa on the raised dais toward the back. This club didn’t have a VIP room, but the platform cluttered with sofas, chairs, and Persian rugs served the purpose.

His eyes fell on the miniature Lucy named Mary Fran, who was shaking her thing on the bar with Veronica and Maria. He raised an eyebrow in surprise.

“My sister is having a marital crisis!” Lucy shouted in his ear. “I think she just needs to blow off some steam!”

He looked down on Lucy’s glistening face and smiled. Without thinking, he brought his hand to her cheek and touched her smooth skin. Her eyes flew wide. Theo wanted to smack himself. Not only did he have to stop thinking about touching and kissing her-he also needed to stop doing it.