“Do you want to go over things now?” Joanie offered, probably trying to distractme.
“In a minute. Just make sure my schedule is totally cleared for the next few days. Like, I want to owe nothing, and to no one.”One could onlydream.
Talented as she was, though, Joanie wasn’t a miracleworker.
“You want me to reschedule the call withDanielle?”
Shit. Danielle. I’d forgotten I was supposed to have an important conference call with my publicist and herteam.
“That’sMonday?”
“It’s tomorrow,” Joanie said. “But I can get itmoved.”
A bold offer, since Danielle had been all over me the last few weeks about this meeting. We had a lot to talk about with the upcomingKiss & Tellcampaign; my new lipstick line was launching in two months. She was not gonna be happy to hear from Joanie on this instead ofme.
“Move it to next week,” I said. “I need seven days. Just get me seven days and I’ll love youforever.”
“You already love me forever,” shesaid.
“I really, really do.” I put my head back on the seat. “Music.Please.”
Joanie tapped her phone, and through the wonders of Bluetooth, Lenny Kravitz’s “Always on the Run” filled the air. Joanie had everything I’d ever want to hear at her fingertips; she was that good to me. I should’ve been thinking about giving her another raise. As soon as I was back fromvacay…
As we slid to a stop at a red light, I rolled my head to gaze out the tinted window. And I saw himthere.
It was pretty dark out… but it was definitelyhim.
Sitting on the curb in front of the taco place across from the bar. He was leaned back against the drive-thru sign, like some street busker, but his guitar case, discarded next to him, wasn’t open for change. The dirty old man sitting next to him—and he was literally dirty—was holding his acoustic, and the two of them werechatting.
“Fuck me.” I satup.
The old man was obviously homeless. But despite his faded T-shirt and the rips in his jeans, Seth Brothers was far fromthat.
Wasn’the?
Jesus, what was he doing? Hanging out on the curb like yesterday’strash…?
Was he scoringdrugs?
The thought passed through my mind, far too disturbing to ponder for any length oftime.
“Stop. Pull over!” I called up to Flynn as we started to drive off. “Can you pull around? To the tacoplace.”
“You want drive-thru?” Flynn asked; I never ate fast food. But he threw on his turn signal and squeezed into the turninglane.
“Just pull into the lot,” Isaid.
He did. He pulled around into one of the narrow spots along the side of the taco place and I immediately hopped out. Flynn got out behind me to stand guard, because that’s what Flynn did, even if I was just buying ataco.
But I walked right past the door of the restaurant and over to Seth. The old homeless man was twiddling on the guitar; they were talking about music, as far as I could tell. The old man looked up at me first. When he saw me standing over them, his eyes widened in his heavily-linedface.
Then Seth looked up,too.
“I want to talk to you,” Isaid.
I did. As soon as I saw him sitting here on the curb… I just hadto.
“This your girl?” the old man asked, smiling. His words were slurry. He sounded drunk, maybe, or unwell. Or it could’ve just been his age and the missingteeth.
