“Hey Chester,” I said as I walked between the deserted tables of the Eloquent Spider. I’d never been to the club when it was still light out, or seen the place so empty. Even a twenty-eight-year-old songstress singing Sarahific covers brought in more people than just one person at a table. It was a club that hosted up-and-coming bands, so I’d played there many times. I played, but I didn’t hang out. There was something in the air I didn’t like. Some people thought the atmosphere was exciting, but I thought it was frenzied. Everyone at the Eloquent Spider wanted something too much.

The old friend of mine wasn’t much different.

“I’m only tolerating you calling me Chester because we’ve known each other since we were nine, but if you call me anything but Chase in front of another human…”

“I know. I don’t need my vocal cords to play the drums,” I said with a smile as I took a seat across from my old buddy.

Chase and I had been grubby little boys together, been in many different bands together as teens, and eventually, he chose the club scene and I chose the orchestra. Neither of them paid well. For me, it wasn’t about the pay. It was about beauty, so even though I played the drummer for him whenever I could, our worlds had mostly split. He was the one who set me up to play for City of Vines the night Shannon kidnapped me.

Now he sat across from me. His hair was cut well, albeit, poorly styled. He wore olive sunglasses over his eyes and a black leather jacket, showing the tattoos on his fingers, and the metal bracelets on his wrists. He didn’t play or sing anymore, but floated through the industry, hooking this person up with that person. He’d been the manager of the Eloquent Spider for two years. I liked how the job grounded him, but I still didn’t have the heart to hang out in his club on a Saturday night if I wasn’t going to play.

“You were so secretive over the phone,” I said. “Why didn’t you want to tell me who you are planning to introduce me to? I’m not likely to turn into a fanboy and scream it from the rooftops, even if you are introducing me to someone good.”

“Fletch, that’s the most annoying thing about you. You never get excited. It’s like the music doesn’t get under your skin the way it does for other people. Do you ever get songs stuck in your head?”

I shrugged.

He had a case. We were friends, but we were very different. Chase had a wall of pictures in his office of selfies with him and musical celebrities. I could usually recognize them, but he also just liked to get his picture taken with the most beautiful women who came into the club. Sometimes, they were famous, sometimes not. They sure prettied up his wall, and it made him look like he’d accomplished something I couldn’t, even though I had a master's degree.

“I dunno. Music sounds like math to me,” I agreed.

“Well, I’m introducing you to the lead singer of Blades and Blasters. Her name is Ringlet and she may very well be the most desirable woman on earth. Beautiful, talented, smart, she checks everyone’s boxes.”

For Chase to say that, she must be something special, but she couldn’t be prettier than Shannon. I scoffed, “You make it sound like you’re setting us up on a date instead of a gig. Aren’t I just supposed to drum for her?”

He regarded me levelly. “She asked for you specifically.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. Her drummer sprained his wrist and she wants to give him a week off, so she asked me if I could get you to play for their Friday and Saturday night shows while they’re in town. Asked for you, using your full name, no hesitation. I wondered if you already knew her.”

“How would I know her? Did she previously moonlight as a violinist?”

“I don’t know where she heard your name, but she clicked her ravishing tongue and had this sick little grin on her face like meeting you would be the highlight of her tour stop. What the hell?”

“Unless Ringlet is not her real name, then I have no idea who she is or what’s going through her head, Chester.”

He pointed a tattooed finger at me. “Don’t call me that. Seriously.”

“Fine. Where is she?”

“She should be down any minute. I told her you’d be here at one.”

I rolled my tongue around my mouth and looked at the clock on the wall. It was a few minutes after one.

Chase drummed his fingers on the table. “She’s using my office to make a call.”

“Oh, that’s why we’re down here? She couldn’t use her dressing room?”

“She says it isn’t soundproof. I always thought it was,” Chase said, casting his eyes across the ceiling. His office was directly above the spot he stared at. He leaned back in his chair. “Anything new with you?”

“I have a new girlfriend,” I said as nonchalantly as I could manage.

Immediately, Chase’s face lit up. As soon as I was tied up with a woman and not in competition for Ringlet’s affection, everything was fine. “Why didn’t you say so?”

“I am saying so.”

“What’s her name?”

“Shannon Bilx.”

“Shit. Isn’t that Simon’s old girlfriend? What are you doing with her?”

I shook my head slowly. “He’s known I was seeing her, but it’s pretty new that we decided to knot ourselves off for some more exclusive time together.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“He must be pissed.”

“Yeah. He is, but…” I chuckled. “I can’t bring myself to care. She’s amazing. All wrong for Simon and all right for me.” I was talking too much. I shut my mouth and stroked the stubble on my chin.

Chase was nodding appreciatively. “From what he told me, she’s a huge player. What makes you think she’s not playing with you?”

“I think she’s the type of woman who would always make you feel like she was playing you because she is. I don’t think she can turn that off. She’s so playful. From what she says, she comes from a long line of prankers, tricksters, and people who don’t know when to stop.”

“And you’re okay with that? Don’t you eventually want to be with a grown-up woman and not just a fun lay?”

I resented him referring to her like that, but I also knew it was only concern for me and the aftereffect of having seen the figurative hole she’d left in Simon’s chest.

“I don’t know if I’ve thought of it that way. If I could say one thing about it, I’d say that Simon chased her. I haven’t done that. She’s come after me.”

“Is her pool of admirers running dry?”

“I doubt it.”

“Have you got a picture? I don’t think I ever met her personally when she was with Simon.”

“I hadn’t either.”

Chase took out his phone and got on social media. Within seconds, he’d found the picture of us making out against the wall. His face lit up. “That could be an album cover. Well, I hope she’s not jerking you around, my friend.”

“And I hope night doesn’t fall before your girl comes downstairs.”

“I’ll ask Renee to see what’s keeping her.” He dialed his office number to get the phone on his assistant’s desk, but just as Renee picked up, Ringlet came around the corner.

I didn’t recognize her. Her head was shaved up one side and dyed the most vibrant color of neon purple a person could think of. Up close, her face was like a porcelain doll or like a painted mask. There were so few lines and so little movement, I wondered if she’d had work done, and how she could have made the expression Chase described when she asked for me. Didn’t she have so much filler and botox in her face that she couldn’t move it now if she wanted to?

“Hey,” she said drolly as she approached. “How’s it going?”

“Ringlet, this is Fletch, the drummer you asked for.”

“So, it’s you?” I was wrong about her face, as soon as she realized who I was, her face came alive, bending in lines that made her interest as obvious as the look on her face.

I stood up and put out my hand. She took my hand in hers and jerked me toward her. Our faces were closer together than was comfortable for me and I tried to shake her loose, but she held on tightly. “You’re cute,” she said before she let me go.

She pulled out a chair and sat down between Chase and me. Turning her chair completely toward me she started, “So, we want you for rehearsal tomorrow and again before the show on Friday. From what I’ve heard about you, you should have no trouble keeping up, but still, I want to make sure you know the songs and nothing surprises you. I don’t have a stylist for my band. I dress all my boys myself. Take off your shirt.”

I glanced at Chase, who was so green with envy that the rest of his face matched his sunglasses.

Then I looked again at Ringlet. Her eyes were blue and almost as luminescent as a droid’s. I tried to figure out what was so special about her, but I came up at a loss. She had a fine body and had dressed it well, but I realized immediately that I was not getting the same kind of treatment Chase had received. The way she treated him was probably the way she treated everyone to get the results she wanted. It was a skilled kind of manipulation intended to make her object feel special, but also to keep them at arm’s length. I saw it all the time among musicians. For some reason, I was excluded from that performance. What I thought probably didn’t matter, because she was coming on so strong, it almost gave me whiplash.

All the same, what she wanted was not ridiculous if she was going to dress me. I had been fitted for many pieces in my many years as a performer, and I had been compelled to change my clothes in many strange places. It was fine. I could do what she asked without squealing.

I stood up and removed my coat. I was wearing a button-up-the-front shirt with a white undershirt underneath. I started with the buttons at the bottom of my shirt to make myself feel less like a stripper, but I didn’t miss the hungry way Ringlet observed me. I folded it before setting it in a square bundle on the table. Then, with one hand, I grabbed the back of the collar of the white undershirt and pulled it over my head in one motion.

I stood, staring at her, and held my shirt in one hand.

“Nice six-pack,” she commented as her eyes searched my skin. “That’s a lot of freckles, dude.”

“I have red hair,” I replied without interest.

“The freckles go all the way down,” Chase commented before he could stop himself. The man had known me since I was nine.

“You know that, do you?” she said, clicking her tongue.

Chase scrambled with an explanation about our relationship Ringlet wasn’t interested in, while she got up and walked around me, inspecting me.

Finally, she said, “I like your freckles. They make you look different. Why don’t you have any tattoos?”

“I do. You just can’t see them.”

“Oh?” she clucked, raking her eyes across my lower body.

I didn’t flinch, but answered, “They’re in the chambers of my heart.”

In response, a look crossed her features. It was a look that was half excitement, half desire, and I realized with sudden clarity that Shannon almost always had that look on her face when she was with me.

Ringlet took two solid breaths to steady herself before she said, “Call me Rin. All my best friends call me Rin.”

I nodded.

She came closer and touched the undershirt I held clutched in my hand like she wanted to touch me, but knew she shouldn’t. “You know, I wasn’t planning on making you over. I was just going to pick up a few togs like what our normal drummer wears and put them on you, but I’ve changed my mind. I want you to perform with your shirt off. I’ll cut your hair, buy you boots, trousers, and I’ll find something for you to wear around your neck.”

“My hair is fine. I don’t need a cut.”

“You do,” she said in a way that couldn’t be argued with. “The way you look right now, you’re a nine. That’s good. It gives me a lot to work with, but we’re rock stars, and I need you to be an eleven. Come upstairs. I’ll cut your hair in my dressing room.” She licked her lips. “You’re going to make me famous.”

“You’re not going to use my office?” Chase cut in.

“I don’t need it anymore,” she called as she led the way to the back stairs.

I pulled my shirt apart to see its shape so I could put it back on when Chase came around the table to hiss in my face, “What are you, a stripper? How can you take your clothes off like that in front of a woman?”

“I didn’t think it was that provocative,” I hedged.

“What the hell? Don’t you have a girlfriend? And when did you learn to say crap like that to a woman? You got her looking at your junk and then thinking about your heart? Who are you? You could have nailed her on the table if I hadn’t been here.”

I had no interest in sleeping with Ringlet. But Chase was right. Where had that come from? “I don’t know. Shannon talks like that.”

“Can I use that line?” he asked, as perplexed as he was annoyed.

I shrugged my shoulders. “If you can line it up.”

Chase practically spat in vexation as he followed Ringlet up the stairs.