AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She shook her head hard and indicated to the bar, empty stools lined up beneath it. I took the one in the farthest corner, a spot that was darker than the rest of the seats which caught the glow from the bar lights.
I sat heavily, resting my arms on the countertop. I’d kind of half expected a sticky residue, but the bar was squeaky clean and smooth.
Eve motioned to the woman behind the bar, one I hadn’t seen before. “Echo. This is Boston. Get him whatever he wants tonight. On the house. Food, drinks, whatever.”
“I can pay,” I protested weakly.
Echo acted like I hadn’t even spoken. “You got it. What’s your poison, cop?”
“Rum.”
She turned back to Eve. “I’ve got him. You go.”
With a final glance at me, Eve nodded. “I’ll check in with you later.”
The ache inside me started up again the moment she walked away. Echo pushed a glass across the bar, and when I knocked that back in one, she sent me another.
The alcohol warmed its way through my system, and Echo kept the drinks coming, as well as a hearty bowl of rich stew that tasted as amazing as it smelled. Every bite tasted better than the last. Around me, the music ratcheted up, and bodies filled the other seats along the bar. It rapidly became a crowd, their chatter a low hum beneath the music, and slowly I began to relax.
Echo pushed another drink in my direction, then cocked her head to one side, studying me. She was a tall black woman, with big eyes rimmed in heavy eyeliner. “You aren’t watching the show?”
The bar was opposite the stage. It wasn’t an ideal setup because I had to swivel on my seat to watch. But I hadn’t come here to watch women dance, so I was happy with my corner, food, and drinks. “No.”
“Eve is up in a minute.”
The temptation to watch Eve on the stage was great. A niggling curiosity in some very male part of me was definitely interested in watching her do her thing.
But a bigger part of me didn’t feel good about it. It wasn’t what I’d come here for. And despite what we’d done together last night, and the venue, I didn’t feel I had that right. “Is there any more stew, please?”
Echo nodded and left through doors I knew led to the kitchen.
Minutes disappeared into hours. Hours that I sat alone, drinking at the bar, watching Echo work while the rhythmic music regulated my heart and my breaths. The people around me came and went, none of them paying me any attention. The alcohol buzzed through my system pleasantly, and I was happy to be around people without actually interacting with them.
“How you doing?” Eve slid onto the stool beside me, her voice like honey.
She was different. Instantly I leaned in her direction, hoping she’d talk some more. “I don’t know,” I answered honestly.
She looked different tonight. Heavy makeup accentuated her eyes and cheekbones. Glitter sparkled in a thick slash across her eyelids, and her neck and cleavage were misted with sweat. A tiny t-shirt covered her breasts, leaving her belly bare, but whatever she wore beneath that was lost to the darkness that crept up from beneath the bar.
She stared hard. “Echo said you’re drinking to get drunk.”
“I am.”
“Do you do that often?”
I shook my head sadly. “No. Not at all. I’m normally a two or three beers sort of guy.”
She nodded. “So what’s different about tonight then?”
A lump rose in my throat so fast it took me by surprise. I’d been doing good since I got here. The alcohol helped drown out everything I’d seen and heard and done today. It helped bury the pain. But the kindness in Eve’s voice nearly undid hours of drinking.
I glanced over at her. “My partner was murdered today.”
Eve recoiled, her hand coming up to cover the gasp that punched from her lips. “The woman you were here with the other night?”
I swallowed down the lump in my throat. “Yes.”
“Jesus, Boston. I’m so sorry.”
