“I’m heading to the gym. Will you guys be around later? I’m not going in to the bar until about five.”

Julia looked at me, studying me for too long. “We’ll be here.”

I grabbed one more piece of bacon and walked back to my room. It was time to beat the shit out of some stuff and silence the demons again.

I sat in Cal’s office, reviewing some band applications we’d gotten online. The door was open, and I was waiting to hear Bex come in. I’d been listening to demos, but I wasn’t into it. I wanted to see if she wanted a little pre-show action tonight.

Cal appeared in the doorway. I scowled, not wanting to entertain him right now. I’d spent the entire night, morning, and afternoon thinking about Bex and our night together. I wanted tonight to be even better. I had a few tricks up my sleeve for her.

“What’s that face for?” Cal flopped in the chair next to his desk. He wiped his forehead. “Damn, it’s too hot. I need a day off.”

“Do you ever take a day off?”

“Not many. So, what’s your deal, bro? You’re a sullen guy on a good day, but today you’re just out of it.”

I leaned back in the chair and crossed my arms in front of my chest. A ripple of pain coursed through my muscles. I may or may not have pushed it a little too far at the gym today. “I hardly slept last night, I pushed it at the gym, and I’m just naturally a dick.”

Cal laughed, shaking his head. “You’re too much. I bet I could figure out why you didn’t sleep much last night. “

I didn’t acknowledge his statement.

He raised an eyebrow at me. “You did it, didn’t you?”

“I haven’t a clue what the fuck you’re talking about. Care to give me a little more than that?”

Cal looked back at the door and reached out his leg to force it closed. As soon as it clicked shut, he turned back to me. “You fucked her, didn’t you?”

“What?”

“Bex. You went up there after the show. She gave in, didn’t she? What am I saying? Of course she did. Shit, I can’t believe it. You cracked the Ice Princess.”

I pressed my lips together. I didn’t talk about this shit. “Dude, I keep telling you, you need to get laid.”

Cal laughed again. “Well, if you weren’t so busy getting off last night you’d know that I did get laid. You could’ve met the lady I was talking about the other day. She came up here last night at closing, and we went back to my place.”

Thank God. We could talk about something else. I lifted my eyebrow in question but didn’t ask. I honestly didn’t care, but it kept me from being grilled about Bex. I wasn’t one of those guys that went around chatting it up to my friends about sleeping with women. Not that I had many friends. I had Kirk back at home and now Cal. Neither one of them I’d call and ‘hang out’ with outside of work. It was what it was.

“Remember I told you she was a little older but had a smoking hot body? Let’s just say that the few years she has on me has done her well. She was by far the best I’ve ever had. She’s a freak in bed.”

I almost groaned. Why did he think I wanted to know this? I guessed maybe men liked to talk about this shit with each other?

I turned back to the screen and pretended to be interested in the information from another local band, Twisted. Cal continued to rattle on and on about his night, not seeming to care that I wasn’t paying attention.

“So just when I get here this morning, Mia called me. She called me. She wants to see me again. I almost ran out of here and right into her bed. It was that good.”

The name caught my attention. “Mia?”

Cal whistled. “Yeah. I can’t tell you how many times I called that out last night. The things she can do with her . . .”

“Cal.” I held up my hand. “No offense, but I don’t give a fuck about that. I don’t want to think about what she was doing to any part of you. I know a lady named Mia, that’s why I was asking.”

His eyes got wide. “Really? Blonde, legs for days, mid-forties, great tits, smoking hot?”

I nodded. I wasn’t going to tell him how I knew her. So he got to fuck Mia. Okay so now I almost wanted to know information. About her, not him. “Yeah. My brother-in-law knows her.”

“Small world,” Cal stood, opening the door back up. “I hope to hell she wants to rock it every damn day. I’ve never had it like that.”

When I made a face again, he shut up. “Sorry. I’m like a damn chick today, aren’t I?”

“She’s hot if it’s the same Mia he knows,” I agreed. I wouldn’t admit that I also had wanted to fuck her. “I’m glad she wants to see you again, Cal. You looking to be serious with someone again?”

He shook his head. “Nah. I just want to have fun, you know? Kind of like you.” He waggled his eyebrows at me. “I know you did her. You don’t even have to tell me. I can read it all over your face. The way you keep looking over my shoulder into the hallway, too? You’re waiting for her.”

I never showed anything on my face. I learned long ago that showing what you were feeling or desiring on the outside made something bad happen. It made people understand you and see what made you tick. Then they knew how to hurt you. It was bad enough I’d never been able to hide my love for my sister. That’s why she’d always been my weakness. I forced my face to go blank.

“I have work to do,” I said, dismissing him. I wasn’t getting into this with him. He could assume all he wanted. What Bex and I did—and what we were going to do later—was between us. Well, and apparently Natalie, too. I wondered if Bex said anything to her after last night, but I kind of doubted it. There were women that you knew were going to go tell everyone they knew about your dick size, what you did, etc. I didn’t feel like Bex was that kind. Maybe because she’d told me to fuck off more than she’d said much else.

I loved that about her.

I’d gone through all of the emails, sent back some replies, scheduled some bands for upcoming months, and Bex and the band still weren’t down. I looked at the clock on the wall. She was usually warming up by now. I hadn’t even seen Natalie.

I stood up, stretching my back. I was seriously going to pay for killing myself at the gym, but the pain felt good. Before I could stop myself, I was heading into the hotel and up the elevator to Bex’s room.

Stepping off the elevator, I beelined it for her door. Just before I got there, Natalie stepped out. Seeing me, she stopped in her tracks, pulling the door shut behind her.

“Not a good time,” she said. She looked like she might’ve been crying.

“I was just checking because they’re usually warming up by now.” Both of us knew that wasn’t what I was there for, but hey, it sounded good.

Natalie put her hand on my arm and steered me away from her door. “They’ll be down in a bit.”

I knew I should leave well enough alone. I didn’t want to get into whatever was going on. But before I could stop it, I heard myself saying, “What’s going on?”

Natalie stopped and turned to me. “Johnny, I know you and Bex . . . hooked up last night. But she’s not the girl for you, okay?”

“I don’t want her to be my girl,” I said. “We have an agreement.” Not that it was any of her business. “I’m just asking if everything is okay because we have a show in less than an hour and no one is down there.”

She looked at me for a beat too long. “They’ll be down there, don’t worry about that. I have to go. Leave her be, Johnny. Seriously.”

Natalie walked down the hall and disappeared into one of the other rooms, leaving me staring at Bex’s door. What was going on? Did I care? I shouldn’t, but I kind of did. Plus I kind of thought I might be able to understand fucked up.

I knocked on her door, my eyes fixed on the one down the hall like a kid trying to sneak past their parents. I didn’t want Natalie to see me. No noise came from the room, so I knocked again. I knew she was in there since Natalie had just left.