AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I grinned at him. “A year ago, and you didn’t bring it home?”
“I kept meaning to. I guess it’s good, since you didn’t properly dress tonight.” He took my hand. “We’re going to walk ten blocks. Will the bodyguards freak out?”
I really didn’t think so. “This crew is less attached to me. They trade in and out from Michael’s overall employees. They’renot permanently assigned to me. Not that they don’t take it seriously, but…”
He nodded, like he understood what I hadn’t said. “The other two are getting paternal. I can see it with them. That’s actually a good thing. Better they care than not.”
Max locked up the place and then took my hand in his. It was nice to be in his jacket, almost like he had his arms around me in a hug. I rolled my eyes internally. Yep, I’d done the thing where I’d over-attached. This was not a man who did relationships, I didn’t think. Truthfully, we didn’t know each other all that well yet. Maybe we were on course to become friends.
Who slept together.
We walked quietly, but it wasn’t awkward. Eventually, we arrived at what had to be the destination. I hadn’t even thought to ask him where we were headed. What did that even mean? It was a jazz club, and we entered through the basement. The smell of smoke outside wafted around us while Max tried to pay the cover charge for us to enter. He must come there a lot, because the bouncer refused his money and just let us inside instead. They shook hands like old friends, and I’d been right to think that I was walking into his world tonight.
I’d never been to a place like this. It just wasn’t something that I did with my friends. Maybe, for all of our money, we were pretty uncultured. That was an interesting thought. I’d dwell on it later. I was going to have a lot of time to do that since, as of now, I had no jobs lined up, and I was probably, for all intents and purposes, done with my job. Out of work.
It was always going to be temporary, which didn’t mean it didn’t burn a little bit in my gut.
We sat toward the back of the room. “Normally, I prefer being closer, but I want to be able to whisper in your ear without bothering anybody. Are you hungry?”
I was absolutely not. “Honestly, I’m still full from that decadent luncheon. I don’t think I could eat anymore.”
He waved his hand at the passing waiter. It looked like the musicians were between sets, and they must want to distribute all the food and drink then.
“Max,” the man who wore his bow tie askew greeted my date. I smiled at the thought.My date.Yep, that was what this was. “What can I get you two tonight? Great timing. Joe is playing. He’s killing it.”
Greeting him as warmly, Max looked over at me before he answered. “I’m going to have a whisky. Neat. You know which one I want, if he has it. Bring me some peanuts or something to munch on. The lady will let you know what she wants.”
I swallowed. This was exactly the kind of place where I wished I didn’t freeze at the idea of drinking alcohol. It would probably be fun to have one, but I wasn’t there yet. I might never be, and I had to be okay with that. I was here. That was really something. This place—I hadn’t even looked at the name because I’d been so consumed with Max—was outside of my comfort zone. I was sort of proud I’d made it through the door.
“Do you have a ginger ale? If not, I can—”
“On it,” he said, cutting me off, then hurried back to the bar.
“So you’re still full? Really?”
I placed my hand over my stomach. “Yes, very. It was so delicious.”
“I didn’t ask you if you liked jazz.”
No, he hadn’t, and it didn’t bother me at all. I loved it. Looking around, I couldn’t say that I’d ever been to a place where so many different types of people all gathered at the same time. All ages, all kinds of outfits. Everyone stared at the stage with expressions that said they enjoyed the sounds. One woman with long gray hair, that fell past her waist, drummed along with her fingertips, while her companion, a much younger man withburgundy hair, tapped his leg. The music started softly and then got louder.
I turned my attention to the stage, watching the piano player intently. I might never choose to listen to jazz when I was alone, but I was perfectly happy to let it move around me, suck me in, and take all of my attention.
If I closed my eyes, I might be able to make out one instrument from another, but I didn’t want that. No, I preferred to take it all in at once. It was loud and it almost shut off my brain, so I couldn’t do anything but be present in the moment and exist through it. I bit down on my lip. My thoughts were downright crazy. I was listening to music, not having a transcendental moment that would alter the shape of time.
Still, I drifted through it, loving the power of the sounds and the people to change my mood entirely. Who knew? All this time, I should have been going to jazz clubs. Why wasn’t this a thing in my life? Why had I spent so much time worrying about things when I looked in the mirror? So what if I wasn’t Layla? Layla wasn’t Bridget, and Bridget wasn’t me. We were sisters, but just because we’d shared space in a uterus didn’t mean we had to spend the rest of our lives worried about how we compared to the others. And…
Max squeezed my leg. His gaze focused on the stage. To me, he seemed almost casual, like he wasn’t thinking a million miles a minute because the sheer magnitude of the sound had cleared up the background noise of his own head.And there I go again.
He leaned slightly toward me, tugging gently on the edge of my hair. I turned to look at him as he leaned over to whisper to me. “Do you like this? Or hate it? I should have asked. We can leave.”
I shook my head. “I like it.”
Even if it was doing something to me. Perhaps whatever that turned out to be was something that had to be done.
The night wasmuch quieter when we left. Well, maybe it was. Perhaps I had just lost some of my hearing, although I doubted that. Max raised his hand to call over my car. “Come home with me?”
I leaned against his arm. “That wasn’t already implied?”
