Back-Up (14 page)

The chain of events that occurs next has me staring numbly as if I am watching a car crash in slow motion.  Lori gives Jack her best Lori-is-most-definitely-into-you doe eyes. Jack graces Lori with his CCDS smile. Lori fans herself and winks. Jack laughs again. Lori bats her eyelashes.

Ugh.
The entire exchange has me nauseous.

Wait. W
as his invite a last minute decision once he met Lori? Is my invitation a ruse? Damn it…I
DID NOT
see this coming.

“Lei, we have to go.” Logan says with a definite edge to his voice. Before he walks away, he leans over the bar and whispers something in Alisa’s ear. Her reaction is one of a kid who just got reprimanded for misbeh
aving. This is not like Logan. He is not usually a jealous person normally. Jack can single-handedly bring the worst out of most men, and the lust out of most women.

“I have to go. I’ll see you guys later.” I excuse myself to follow Logan to the stage, where Evan, Matt
and Joe are waiting for us to resume our show.

During our second half, I continue to torture myself by watching the flirting duo interact with each other. Hunter has moved back to his table while talking on t
he phone. Can’t say I blame him. He may as well have been invisible. He also didn’t react to Lori like most men do when they first meet her. Not like Jack is reacting at the moment.

After Logan walks away, Alisa moves on to help another customer. This leaves Lori and Jack alone to continue their conversati
on as if no one else existed in the bar, and for me to stew on stage for no logical reason whatsoever.

Matt keeps glancing over at them making me wonder if this is bothering him as well.
He is used to being the best looking guy in the room. No doubt his jealousy is simmering even more so now that Lori seems to have moved her obsessions to Mr. Lair. Is this part of her plan or has she truly moved on already? It figures the day she decides to get over Matt Rizzo is the same day Jack Lair walks into the bar. What are the odds? I almost feel sympathy for Matt.

Jack returns to his seat and has a brief conversation with Hunter as they both gla
nce back at Lori while smiling. This totally consumes me. Lori walks over to their table with two beers in hand and is now playing the role of waitress.

Lori sits in a chair next to Jack and
leans into his ear.

He
leans back and she laughs.

She puts her hand on his arm.

He grins.

She gets up leans in and says something.

He nods.

She gives them both her best smile.

They wave.

She saunters back to the bar and
speaks to Alisa.

Alisa
responds.

Lori nods enthusiastically.

Watching this play by play unfold from the stage has my own mind racing with jealous, harpy thoughts. I hardly know this guy so why should this bother me so much? I try to break it down piece-by-piece and figure out why the prospect of Lori and Jack together has me tied in knots.

I am
neither attached to Jack, nor do I plan to be. We are co-workers. He is my boss, end of story. On the other hand, I really don’t think I can handle living through a budding romance between a man I clearly lust over and one of my best friends. It would be too painful to watch them fall madly in love.

By the end of our very long, very torturous show, I have Jack and Lori married with two point five kids, a center hall colonial, a dog, and a minivan.

Just as they do every night, the boys literally jump off the stage and beeline to the bar for a round of shots. They only do one and it’s always tequila and I always pass. As they all turn right, I turn left towards the back room. Fighting the urge to grab my stuff and exit via back door, instead, I put on my happy face and walk back out to the bar, jacket and bag in tow, ready to make as quick of an exit that I could.

Our fun, happy
bunch is predictably doing their end of night shots. They invite Jack and Hunter to join their holy ritual. Two lonely shots sit on the tray waiting for my ass to arrive to the bar. “I’m not doing a shot.”

Lori rolls her eyes. “God forbid. This one is mine.”
She picks up the tequila and the last shot that is much lighter in color than all the others. “This one is yours. It’s ginger ale.” Matt, Lori and Joe all chuckle at my expense. They tease me mercilessly every single night. Why should tonight be any different?

Actually the difference is,
that tonight I’m going to kill her.

Evan comes over and throws his arm around my shoulder. “Leave Lei alone.”

Lori smiles sweetly at Evan. “Ev, are you going to tour with Devil’s Lair, too or is Leila hiring a NEW bodyguard?”

“That’s not a bad idea Banzini. Things will be boring around here without Leila to bust on.”

Ignoring Lori and Evan, I turn my attention to Jack and Hunter rolling my eyes. “See what I have to put up with? It was really nice of you guys to come see our show.” Turning back to my friends, I smirk and wave my middle finger at their laughing faces. “I’ll miss you all so much.”

“Wait,
if you don’t like ginger ale, I have apple juice.” Lori antagonizes me.

“Bite me Banzini.”

“With pleasure Marino. Bend over.”

“Ok…I’m outta here.”

Evan kisses my cheek as I turn from my ball busting, hysterically laughing friends, Jack and Hunter included.

“Leila, I want to give yo
u our address.” Jack calls out as he rushes to catch up to me.

“Oh,
ok.”

I plug
the address he recites into my phone. We stand facing each other, and I’m pulled into the magnetic field that surrounds him.

An awkward silence stretches between us.

“You ok?”

“Yea
h, I’m just exhausted.” I lie from necessity. I’m not in the mood for small talk at the moment. Jack watches me closely for a few seconds.

“Um,
ok, see you at the party Leila?”

“Yes, we’ll be there. Bye Jack.”

Jack steps closer so we are face to face. My heart skips a beat, then another. “I’m glad we came tonight. Your band is really good. I knew you were talented, but seeing you performing with your band, I kinda feel like we’ve stolen you from them.” It looks like he wants to say something else, but chooses not to.

His presence consumes me.

His words confound me.

I
whisper a very quiet thank you. I’m clearly at a loss for words.

“Ok,
see you Sunday.” Jack looks directly into my eyes, and I fall under the spell of his gaze. He then grips my shoulder as he walks away, leaving me panting and wondering if he is going to wait for Lori to finish her shift.

Damn it!

***

What do I wear to this stupid thing? I stare at my closet hoping that something presents itself to me. It’s getting late, and I’m almost out of time. I’ve dilly-dallied, had three glasses of wine, which was a big mistake in hindsight as I’m now running around trying to get ready while slightly tipsy – another mistake.

Evan and Lori are due here any minute.  Logan, Alisa, Joseph and Matt are meeting us there. I was surprised
that Matt decided to come. My gut instinct was to un-invite him. Evan assured me Matt would be on his best behavior.  My response to Evan was that we’d see.

The door buzzes scaring the crap out of me.

“I need five minutes.”  I call into the intercom, now panicked. Jeans, shirt, mascara, lipstick, a squirt of perfume between my breasts (I have no idea why, no one will be near them tonight) and I’m done in seven minutes. Not bad.

I take a deep
breath and leave my apartment feeling even more buzzed from the adrenaline rush of getting ready in record time.

On my way down
three flights, I consider my original plan of setting Lori up with Hunter.

Maybe it’s not too late?

Maybe Hunter will capture her attention tonight?

Maybe Lori will become deathly allergic to Jack?

Evan and Lori are sitting in Evan’s car waiting for me. The minute I slide into the back seat, Lori starts yapping.

“What a week this has been. Lei, you are the best. First you hand me a dream job on a silver platter
. Next you introduce me to the best-looking man I have ever seen. Then he invites us to a party at his place. Life is so good.” She reaches back to squeeze my knee.

I feel bad for being angry
with her. It’s not her fault she is so irresistible to men.

“Evan can you stop at a liquor store? I want to pick up something to bring with us.”

“Sure, Lei.”

I settle
into the back seat. The soothing motion of the car makes me feel very sleepy all of a sudden.

Evan watched
me through the rear view mirror and asks, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I’m
just a little buzzed.”

“Buzzed? You? Why are you buzzed?” Lori turns in her seat watching me
skeptically.

“Don’t look at me like that. I am a little nervous about tonight. I had a glass of wine that led to three.”

Evan and Lori exchange a look, which I decide to ignore. They aren’t my parents. I close my eyes and drift while picturing Jack’s face.

It takes longer than it should to get to Brooklyn, between my brief
catnap, stopping for liquor and the tons of traffic we hit cutting through Manhattan. We are over an hour late by the time we arrive at Jack and Hunter’s building and my buzz is gone. From the sounds coming from the fourth floor, the party is definitely in full swing.  Evan carries the case of beer he and Lori split, and I have the bottle of Tequila that I decided on.

Scott answers the door looking confused until he spots me behind Evan and Lori. “Hey Leila, so glad you could come.”

“Scott, this is Evan and Lori. Guys, this is Scott. He’s guitarist for Devil’s Lair.”

Hunter spots us standing at the door.  “Hey, you made it” He says walking over. “Your friends got here a little while ago. We were wondering where you were.” He is holding hands with a brunette beauty
that is partially hiding behind him. Hunter turns to her and says, “This is Amanda.”

She smiles shyly and waves.

Well any small hope I had left of Lori and Hunter hitting it off just took a free-fall off the roof without a parachute. That explains a lot.

“I’m Leila. T
his is Evan and Lori.” I turn back to Hunter and shrug. “Sorry, we hit some traffic.”

I’m instantly distracted as I spot Jack walk into the room.
He notices our arrival, and walks straight over to us looking like a runway model. My mouth goes dry and Lori groans besides me and licks her lips like she is about to have him for lunch.

“Lei
la, you made it in one piece.” he teases.

“Evan drove.
” I respond defensively. “I was merely a passenger.” Evan gives me a look.

“So, it’s all your fault Evan.” Jack
elaborates while fist punching Evan.

“Apparently so.” Evan answers sourly.

Jack turns to hug Lori and then me. Man…he smells so good. He feels even better.

As Jack and Evan discuss the route we took
to get here, Lori leans into me. “He smells so damn good.”

I
smile weakly and nod, wondering why she hasn’t broken out into hives yet.

God forgive me
.

Evan hands the beer to Hunter and
I give my bottle of tequila to Jack. “Awesome. We are almost out. Thanks Leila. Come get something to drink.”

Jack leads us through the small apartment towards the kitchen. Besides my band, the girls and Devil’s Lair, Patti is here.
She waves when she sees me. I have to make it a point to thank her. She is the reason I am now a member of Devil’s Lair. Also mulling around are Scary Sally, Trey, a selection of pretty girls and a few other guys I don’t know. In total there are a few dozen people cramped into this tiny apartment.

The short counter in the kitchen is littered with liquor bottles of all sorts.

Jack helps us select our drink of choice and grabs a beer for himself. Not seeing any white, I decide on a rum and diet coke. Jack makes a very strong drink. I casually grab an opened can and add more diet coke to my glass.

Shrugging, I say, “I’m a light weight.
I usually drink cheap white wine.”

“
It has to be cheap?”

“Yes, otherwise it’s awful.”

He laughs and rubs my back. Lori catches the whole exchange and is unable to hide a frown. I quickly become the least her problems. As we stand in the small kitchen, three other girls appear from nowhere surrounding Jack like sharks circling a seal. Lori slinks over and stands next to Jack, clearly staking her claim. Damn, she’s already territorial. I saunter out of the kitchen leaving the four beauties to duke it out as best they can.