Page 107 of I Saw You First

“Oh, hey, wait a sec,” Sam calls. “Adriana and I have an extra ticket to see Dig Me Under at The Golden tonight. You want to go?”

I wrinkle up my nose in confusion. “You bought three tickets to Dig Me Under? Wait, why is DMU playing such a small venue?”

He shrugs. “Dunno. Her little brother was supposed to go with us, but he’s got a midterm. We can leave the ticket at will call for you.”

“Hell, yeah,” I say. “I’ll meet you there.”

I’m late for the show because of a last-minute email request from Kelsey for ad set feedback (when is that woman ever going to have her baby and go on maternity leave?!) and then traffic is backed up getting into downtown. Once I find a place to park, I remove my hair tie, fluff out my waves, and reapply Comfortably Plum. I sniff under my pits—passable—and throw a jean jacket over the mint-green T-shirt I wore to work. It’s late March and still chilly.

I hustle toward the front entrance and am thrilled to see there’s no line to get in. For some reason, though, the ticket window isn’t staffed, and the whole place is oddly quiet and almost deserted.

“Hi,” I say to the bouncer, a muscled, tattooed guy wearing a Black Sabbath T-shirt. “I’ve got a ticket at will call for Dig Me Under.”

He frowns. “Dig Me Under is tomorrow night.”

“What?” Are you kidding me? How could Sam mix up the date? And I close tomorrow night. I’ll have to get Kevin to switch with me⁠—

The bouncer interrupts my thoughts. “Are you Abbey?”

My eyes grow wide. “Yes?”

“Follow me.”

Well, that sends my hackles up. “No way. You think I’m just going to follow some massive rando into an empty club? No fucking way.”

“She said you’d say that.” He crosses his arms. “You can trust me.”

“Who said I’d say that?” I mirror his stance and cross my arms, too.

“I did.” The voice comes from inside the open door, and then Tamsa steps out onto the sidewalk. She looks like a wood sprite next to the big, grumpy bouncer.

“Tamsa? What going on?”

“You’re late. That’s what’s going on. Come on.” She takes my hand and tugs me into the club. “Thanks for your help, Zero. I owe you one.”

The bouncer grunts.

“Zero? His name is Zero? How do you know this guy?”

Tamsa grins, but since she told me about what happened at TC Weekly, the usual glimmer in her eyes has dimmed slightly. We’re all doing the best we can. “None of that matters,” she says, “although I am meeting up with him later. Did you see his biceps?”

“What are you doing here? Why would Sam tell me to meet him tonight for a concert that’s actually tomorrow night?”

“Don’t worry, the tickets are real, and you can still see DMU. Tonight, we’ve got something else planned for you.”

“We? Who’s we?”

“You’ll find out.”

She leads me up a side staircase that comes around in the opposite direction of the main stairs, the ones where I was standing when I first saw Wil all those months ago. So much has changed since then.

Lisa from La Cuchara stands behind the bar. Her hair is a gradient of pink and orange, like a summer sunset over a serene lake. She smiles and slides me a drink. “One vodka cranberry, on the house.”

“What are you doing here?” I ask. “I’m so confused.”

Tamsa grabs the cocktail and puts it in my hand. “Drink some of this. Take the edge off.”

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”