Under the Cornerstone (11 page)

“Yes, but my internal temperature control isn’t king-sized,” I say.

He snickers and he pushes his hand behind my neck, “Yeah, you’re overheating. Hold on.”

Fucking tingles. The little devils.

He carefully climbs from under my covers and turns on the ceiling fan and a window air conditioning unit. Then he leaves the room and I notice my door is still open just the way I left it when I went to bed. Johnny returns with a cloth and a glass of water. He takes a sip of the water, hands it to me, and climbs into the bed. I drink the entire glass and he takes it back from me before he sets it on the night stand.

He turns those blue eyes on me and lifts the cloth to my face. The cold towel feels so good on my face I let out a moan. It feels like standing in the summer sun with no water for an entire day and then taking a cold shower. You never want to leave.

Johnny’s hand sweeps under the hair on my neck and he pulls me to him. His lips touch the outside of my ear, “Don’t make sounds like that, Noe.”

Breathe. Jesus Christ Fucking Breathe Girl!

“Then don’t let four men sleep in my bed,” I cover my mini-freak out.

He blows out a very, loud, audible breath, “These better be the only four men in your bed… Fuck, I’m sorry.”

He’s apologizing for being the bossy asshole who tries to run my life. Aw, he’s learning.

I giggle silently against him.

“What are you laughing at?” I can hear the smile in his voice and his lips graze my ear again.

I’m in control of the tingles.

“Look at you learning not to be an overbearing, bossy asshole,” I whisper.

I feel his laugh in his chest.

After a moment, he finally says, “It’s not easy, Noely.”

“I appreciate the fact that you tried, apologized, and we can move on.”

He doesn’t reply, but transfers the cloth to the hand on my neck. His fingers run over my scalp and through my long hair as he picks it up from my neck. He pulls it to the side and runs the cloth over the skin.

Johnny pulls away, leaves the cloth on my neck, and settles onto his back while his fingers play with my hair.

“Cooled off yet?” he whispers.

“Yeah,” I say as I feel the fan whip cool air over my skin.

“Then come here,” he says and pulls me to the dip in his shoulder.

I throw every thought that tells me not to do this right into the fucking wind and cuddle my body up next to his very nice, naked from the waist up body.

He kisses the top of my head as I try very hard not to think at all, “Get all the sleep you can. It’s going to be a long night.

“I’m afraid of what the night might hold,” I smile.

“You’re guaranteed four things with Blood Feather…,” he begins.

In unison we say, “Sex, drugs, rock-n-roll, and all around debauchery.”

Then we sleep.

The guys leave me at three with kisses on the forehead, tight hugs, and a promise to see me at nine at Saul’s Bar before they go on stage at eleven. Johnny lingers at my door after the other three steps into the elevator.

“You’re going to miss the elevator,” I tell him.

“I’ll catch up with them,” he says and slightly leans into the door towards me.

“Tonight…,” he swallows hard. “I’ll always want you there.”

I frown at him.

He pushes a hand through his hair, “We’ve been friends fifteen years, Noles.”

“Yeah?”

“Nothing changes our friendship, right?” he asks.

“Right,” I say a little hesitantly.

“Get your fucking ass in the elevator,” Jimmy yells.

“Fuck,” Johnny mutters and takes a deep breath as he stands straight. His jaw grows tight. “You’ll be there tonight?”

“Of course,” I continue to frown at this odd conversation.

“You’ll be there the entire night, no matter what?” he asks.

“Johnny, just spit it out,” I grow impatient.

“Now, motherfucker. Get in the elevator now!” Jimmy interrupts again.

“Come find me before the show, okay? We’ll talk then. If I don’t leave now, I’m going to throat punch that gigantic motherfucker,” Johnny says.

I see that he’s genuinely frustrated, so I hurry him along with a wave, “I’ll come find you before the show.”

He grabs me by the hip with one hand, pulls me to him, stares down into my eyes, and then kisses the tip of my nose, “I’ll see you tonight, Noely baby.”

“Go before he yells again,” I wave him off once again.

When he lets go of my body, something inside of me feels empty. It’s disconcerting. I’m off balance, and I don’t fucking like it.

I meet Sabrina at the hair salon at four for a mani, pedi, and trim. As I look at myself in the mirror, I ask my new hairstylist and friend Roxy to add bright pink streaks through my hair. She nods, breaks out the foil, whips up some color, and goes to town. I met Roxy through Sabrina and have hung out with her, almost as much as Sabrina over the last four months. She’s a riot. She tells it like it is and doesn’t give a fuck what you or anyone else thinks about it. She secretly inspires me.

At seven, Sabrina shows up with Roxy. It’s the start of spring and a warm night, so I pull on a Camo mini skirt, combat ankle boots with bullet accents, and a black wife beater. Roxy does my hair while I paint Sabrina’s nails neon orange. She decided she was going with one of her favorite pinup girl army dresses and knee high boots. Her hair is still bright purple. Roxy dons the perfect black mini dress.

We have perfected our own makeup, let the others touch it up, and break out the bottle of tequila before we leave my apartment for the night.

Roxy lifts her glass for a toast and we follow suit, “May the road always rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. And may you be a half hour in heaven, before the devil knows you're dead!”

“Yes, sir,” I say as we clink our glasses.

After we down the shots, we grab our clutches and saunter our asses to the bar. The walk blesses us with full-on stares, cat calls, and lewd compliments.

“Yeah?” Roxy yells at one of the guys. “Well you can shut the fuck up. I wear heels bigger than your dick.”

We giggle the rest of the way to Saul’s Bar. As we turn the corner, I see a line wrapping around the bar. While Saul’s isn’t a small bar, it isn’t a large venue either, and apparently there is a wait.

Sabrina takes one look at the line and smiles, “Right now, I’m thankful for my tits, my ass, and Noely.”

I laugh at her and walk past the line to the front door, and take a right into the alley. A security guard I’ve never seen puts his hand up to stop us.

“You gotta be on the list,” he says in a Brooklyn accent.

“Noely King,” I tell him.

“You got identification?” he asks.

I pull my license out and hand it to him. He looks at the picture, at his list, and then takes a long and appreciating look at the three of us.

“I told you Noely baby isn’t fucking waiting,” Jimmy’s even thicker Brooklyn accent cracks through the night.

He approaches from the shadows with his intimidating height. This bouncer is not a small guy, but Jimmy makes him look like a shrimp.

“Get your gorgeous asses back here,” Jimmy tells us with a smirk.

“Jimmy fucking Crawford,” Sabrina greets him.

“Sabrina, you look as beautiful as ever,” he gives her his sexy smirk.

“What the fuck do I look like to you? Chopped liver?” Roxy asks with a serious expression on her face and hands on her hips.

Jimmy instantly responds, “Toots, if your left leg was lunch and your right leg was dinner, I’d move heaven and earth to chow down on a little something in between.”

Roxy and Sabrina both look jealous of each other. Jesus Christ, how do they fall for this shit?

Roxy responds, “You’re really fucking tall. What’s your shoe size?”

Sabrina visibly looks Jimmy up and down like he’s food and answers, “Really fucking big.”

Jimmy looks both of them over like they are also food, and then smiles at me like I bought him the best two Christmas presents in the world.

“Noely baby, your presence has been requested by the lead singer,” Jimmy says and both girls shoot me fan girl looks like they didn’t already know I was friends with Johnny.

“Aye, Aye, Captain,” I salute and the three of us follow Jimmy down the alley and into the back hallway of the bar.

Jimmy has both of my friend’s arms crooked through his elbows like a fucking king. I giggle to myself as I watch them walk in front of me.

When we make it almost all the way down the hallway, Jimmy turns to me abruptly with an odd look on his face, “You know, I should buy you ladies a shot first. The guys are still getting ready.”

“Okay,” I shrug my shoulders.

But Sabrina turns around with a look of absolute confusion, and then she turns back towards the end of the hall. I peek through Jimmy and Sabrina to find Johnny kissing a long-haired blonde who is jacked up between him and the wall.

“Fuck, Noely,” Jimmy looks heartbroken.

I take a minute to put my mask firmly in place before they all see my heartache, a heartache this sight never brought before.

“What?” I ask innocently. “Let’s go get that shot.”

I turn to walk away and feel a hand slip in mine. I look back far enough to see Sabrina a half-step behind me.

“Noely!” I hear my name shouted through the hallway.

I keep walking. Sabrina speeds up our pace.

“Fuck! Noely! Wait!” Johnny yells my name again.

I can’t pretend I didn’t hear him this time, and to save face I put a smile on my face and turn to face him and my breaking fucking heart.

He’s out of breath by the time I turn around and he meets up with us.

He looks down at me with hurt in his own blue eyes.

“Noely,” is all he fucking says.

“Hey. We were going to get a shot. You want one?” I ask cheerfully.

He eyes me with suspicion, and then his eyes move below my neck and take an incredibly long time to come back to my eyes.

“Noely, I was going…” he begins and luckily Jimmy interrupts and saves us both.

“Shots! Noely wants shots!” Jimmy calls out with excitement and with Sabrina’s help they drag me away from Johnny.

We dodge the crowd on the way to the bar. Luckily, I have the time it takes to get there to collect myself.

Who was she?

Jealousy?

Over, Johnny?

Fuck my life.

Why?

As it turns out, I don’t collect myself before we reach the bar. I’m fortunate enough to have friends who give me a moment by pretending they don’t know I’m losing my shit and trying to figure out why I’m losing my shit.

“Noely baby,” Jimmy says with tenderness as the bartender pours our first shot.

I hold my hand up at him to let him know I do not want to be fucking coddled. I don’t even know what I need to be coddled for right now.

Fuck.

I signal the bartender for another shot, and because he knows me well he pours me two more before he ambles off to care for other customers.

Jimmy grabs my wrist, leans down, and talks in my ear so I can hear over the music the D.J. is pumping through the speakers, “Tell me what you need.”

I shake my head, because I don’t know what the fuck I need.

“You and me… we’re always honest with each other, yeah?”

I nod my head in response.

“You like seeing that shit?”

I still and grind my teeth.

“Did. You. Like. Seeing. Him. With. Her?” Jimmy gets stern.

“No!” I scream and hope I burst his eardrum so he can feel half the pain I feel.

Why do I feel this way?

“That’s more like it,” he says back to me.

“Did it fucking hurt, Noles?” He asks which only pisses me off more.

I push him away from me so he can’t hurt me with his words anymore, and pour another shot down my throat.

“Did it?” He yells at me over the music and looks at me straight on.

“Fuck you, Jimmy!” I attack.

I signal the bartender for another drink. Better order a beer and take it easy for a little while.

“Then do something about it,” he says to me.

“Do what, Jimmy?!!” I ask still pissed off.

“Go get your fucking man,” he says and points in the direction we came from.