“Your fan club suggests otherwise,” I said. The redhead was now giving me the stink eye.
“That’s not me,” he replied. “That’s the guitar.”
I looked at the girls again. “You sure about that?”
“Yep.” He brushed some hair, wet with sweat, off his forehead. “Once they actually talk to me, they tend to be less enthused.”
For some reason I doubted this. And not just because I was now hyperalert to that one little damp lock, curled over his ear. “So you’ve never taken part in this whole scene?”
“I didn’t saythat,” he replied, and I snorted. “Just nothing worth mentioning. And definitely not a two-year, tornado relationship.”
“I didn’t say it was a tornado,” I pointed out. “I said itfeltlike one.”
“Right.” He took a sip of his water, nodding. “To be honest, it doesn’t sound so bad. Pavilion stuff tends to sputter out fast.”
I looked at Lana, who had gotten her phone back and was back scanning the crowd. “Then again,” I countered, “if you’re coming from a two-year tornado, you have no ideahowto. Start, I mean.”
“Might be easier than you think,” he replied.
There it was again. A little pulse, possibility.
Just then, there was a sharp whistle from over on our right. It was Fringe Vest, motioning toward the platform. “Yo! Time to give the people what they want.”
Ben looked tired. “He’s…” I stopped, realizing I wasn’t sure what adjective to say next.
“Hector,” he finished for me. “Serious rock-star aspirations.”
“That explains his fashion choices,” I observed.
“Another point of contention.” He pushed himself to his feet. Immediately, the girls nearby began arranging themselves in his path. Lana saw it too.
“He’s not interested!” she yelled over her shoulder as he headed toward the platform. She was slurring a bit. I counted two empties at her feet.
“You need to cool it,” Clark told her, noticing this as well. “You’re being loud.”
Cardoon reappeared: Now he had a cup in each hand. “For you,” he told Lana, extending one in her direction. “We can toast to our new communication initiative.”
Clark was offended. “What about the rest of us?”
Cardoon ignored this, his eyes still on Lana. When she didn’t hold up her cup, though, he did not seem especially surprised. Or deterred, really.
“Oh, also, some intel,” he told us. “The sale on Saturday? Very much on management’s radar.”
“Makes sense,” Lana replied sullenly. “Easier for the bulldozers if everything’s empty.”
“At least they’re going to do something kind of cool with it,” Cardoon said, clearly trying to take the glass-half-full route.
“Define ‘cool,’?” Clark told him.
“Well, it’s not just another hotel, for starters. They’re planninga multiwing structure with small residences. The working name will be the Coast. The idea is the brand of Tides and the Ebb, but homier.”
Now I did feel unsettled. It was one thing to know change was coming. Details already in place you knew nothing about? Another entirely.
“And you know this for sure?” Clark asked.
“I saw some blueprints,” Cardoon said. “There were also high-end private cottages for weekly rentals or time-share.”
“Ugh,” Lana moaned “It’s just getting worse.”
