“I suggest whatever you drink, you have me make, lass” Auden interjects and smiles. “For all our sakes.”
Autumn is giggling now. I ignore her. “Is there an issue with the band?”
“Is that the name of a specialty cocktail?” Autumn kids.
Auden looks over to Tanner and the hot dude. My sister’s eyes follow. “Go find out.”
“Me? No.” I shake my head. “It’s not my place.”
“Might as well,” Auden adds. I think he’s just trying to get me to move farther away from him so I don’t clock him with anything again. But I do know my way around musical instruments and can set up a drum kit or tune a guitar in my sleep. It might be nice to actually show Tanner I have skills.
I slip out from behind the bar and make my way over to the two of them. The closer I get, the hotter the band dude gets. Those blue eyes are a really great cobalt color and the T-shirt he’s wearing with the band name on it — Imposter Syndrome — fits him perfectly, hugging some decent sized biceps and clinging to a very fit waist. His shoulders are broad, and that perfectly high and tousled hair just begs to be held onto during a blow job. I mean, if the guy gave them, but I’d bet money he doesn’t. There’s a really strong straight boy vibe coming off of him.
“I’ll ask Molly, our waitress. She plays in a band so maybe she knows a drummer,” I hear Tanner say to the hottie.
“Tanner, I am so sorry. I don’t know what else to say, but thanks for trying to save this for us,” the guy says and rakes his hair with his hand again.
“Dude, it’s saving my night too. You packed this place,” Tanner replies and then he notices me standing about a foot away. “Hey, Bowen. Did something else go wrong?”
He doesn’t mean it bitingly, so I force myself not to let his words chip away at my ego. “No, I thought maybe you needed help setting up the band or something. It looked like there’s an issue.”
The band guy tilts his head to look at me. His gaze is intense. I mean, it’s probably just the pressure of whatever the situation is, but damn, he gives a good stare. “Not unless you know a drummer who can get here in half an hour or less,” Tanner says.
“I might,” I say and now they’re both staring at me intensely. “I play.”
“You play the drums?” Tanner blinks at me in disbelief. “You play, like,well?”
Ouch. But I get it. Autumn talked me up to be this excellent, hard worker who could learn anything quickly, which is why he hired me and well, he must have doubts at this point. But I don’t. I know I can drum. “I was a music major in college. I mean, I didn’t graduate but I wasn’t kicked out or anything. I can play drums, guitar, and piano. Proficiently, I swear.”
“Can I show you our set list? See what songs you might know?” the hot band guy asks but before I respond my eyes fly to Tanner. I’m his employee, after all.
“If you really think your band member has flaked, I’m more than happy to let you borrow Bowen,” Tanner says, and his eyes move back to me. “If you’re cool with it.”
“Yeah. I love playing.” I do love playing, especially more than every job I’ve had here.
“Cool, let me show you the set list.” Hot band dude motions with his hand, and I follow him through the growing crowd to the corner of the stage. He grabs a piece of paper and hands it to me. “I’m Chase by the way. Ashton. I’m the singer.”
“Bowen,” I reply.
“Yeah, I know.” I lift my eyes from the set list, and as we stare at each other, he smirks. It amps up his hotness tenfold. “Tanner said your name.”
“Right,” I force myself to go back to scanning the song titles. They’re all songs I know well, thanks to my parents who loved music. “Here’re the ones I’m confident I can pull off.”
I point to seven of the ten. Chase’s eyebrows shoot to the ceiling. “Really? That many?”
“Yeah. My dad loved nineties grunge and my mom loved seventies and eighties music, so I grew up on a lot of these tunes,” I explain. “They’re the ones who first taught me how to play.”
“The drums?”
“Yeah. And everything else,” I shrug. He smiles again. Damn. I like it more than I should.
“Okay, cool, I’m gonna trust you completely,” he announces and clasps my shoulder. His hand is strong and warm. “Let me introduce you to the other guys.”
The other guys are Grant and Joe and the guy I’m replacing is “Fucking Bennie.” At least that’s how each of them refer to him. Grant and Joe seem nice enough but they definitely don’t seem to have as much faith in me as Chase does. Still, they’d rather take a shot with me than cancel the gig so the next thing I know, I’m settling in behind the drum kit.
I have no idea what I’m getting myself into. These guys could suck. I might end up looking bad by association, but honestly, it can’t be worse than how things have gone at Vino and Veritas so far. I take a deep breath and hope for the best.
It turns out to be a pretty great experience. These guys are more than okay. They’re pretty freaking great, actually. Chase has a fantastic voice, singing everything from Bon Jovi to the Eagles to Nirvana with ease. And the crowd loves him. He has great banter and a confidence and ease on stage that draws you in and makes you comfortable. We have a couple small mess ups, like I came in late on a song, but everything goes better than expected and I can see Tanner smiling in relief and approval. Feels good to play again, and to not just be a fuck up inside these four walls.
