I gave her a couple of names as she oohed and aahed.
“But I don’t miss LA. Things are so good now, out here, Lauren. We’ve put the annulment on hold. We’re going to see how things go.”
“That’s so romantic. Tell me you’ve jumped that fine-looking man’s bones, please. Don’t make me cry.”
“Lauren,” I sighed.
“Yes or no?”
I hesitated and she got screamy at me, rather predictably.
“YES OR NO?”
“Yes. Alright? Yes.”
This time, her shriek definitely did my eardrums permanent damage. All I could hear was ringing. When it ended, someone was mumbling in the background. Someone male.
“Who was that?” I asked.
“No one. Just a friend.”
“A friend-friend or a friend?”
“Just a friend. Hang on, changing rooms. And we were talking about you, partner of David Ferris, world famous lead guitarist for Stage Dive.”
“A friend that I know?” I asked, curiosity now fully aroused.
“You are aware of the picture of your ass making the rounds, aren’t you?”
Cue the squirming. “Uh, yeah. I am.”
“Bummer. Haha! But seriously, you look good. Mine wouldn’t have looked half as nice. Bet you’re glad you walked to campus last semester instead of driving all the time like lazy ol’ me. That sure was some night you had in Vegas, missy.”
“Let’s talk about your friend instead of my butt. Or Vegas.”
“Or we could talk about your sex life. Because we’ve been talking about mine for a couple of years now but we haven’t much been able to talk about yours, girlfriend,” she said in a glee-filled singsong voice.
“Evvie! Want a soda?” Mal shouted as he sailed past on his way to the kitchen, having emerged from below.
“Yes, please.”
“Who is that?” asked Lauren.
“The drummer. They’re doing some work in the studio downstairs.”
Lauren gasped. “The whole band is there?”
“No, just Mal and another friend of David’s.”
“Malcolm is there? He’s really hot, but a total man slut,” she supplied helpfully. “You should see the number of women he gets photographed with.”
“Here you go, child bride.” Mal passed me an icy-cold bottle, the top already removed.
“Thanks, Mal,” I said.
He winked and wandered off again.
“None of my business,” I told Lauren.
She clucked her tongue. “You haven’t been on the internet to find anything out about them, have you? You’re flying totally blind in this situation.”
“It feels wrong checking up on them behind their backs.”
“Naivety is only sexy up to a point, chica.”
“It’s not naivety, chica. It’s respecting their personal lives.”
“Which you’re now a part of.”
“Privacy matters. Why should they trust me if I’m stalking them on-line?”
“You and your excuses,” Lauren sighed. “So you don’t know that the band started touring when David was only sixteen? They got a gig supporting a band through Asia and have pretty much stayed on the road or in the recording studio from then onward. Hell of a life, huh?”
“Yeah. He said he’s ready to slow down.”
“I’m not surprised. Rumors about the band breaking up are everywhere. Do try and stop that from happening if you can, please. And get your husbo to get his shit into gear and hurry up and write a new album. I’m counting on you.”
“No problem,” I said, not sharing that David was writing me songs. That was private. For now at least. The list of things I didn’t feel I could share with Lauren was growing exponentially.
“I wanted you to crush that boy’s heart so we could have another album like San Pedro. But I can tell you’re going to be difficult about that.”
“Your powers of perception are uncanny.”
She chuckled. “You know there’s a song about the Monterey house on that album?”
“There is?”
“Oh yeah. That’s the famous ‘House of Sand’. Epic love song. David’s high school sweetheart cheated on him while he was touring in Europe at age twenty-one. He’d bought that house for them to live in.”
“Stop, Lauren. This is … shit, this is personal.” My heart and mind raced. “This house?”
“Yeah. They’d been together for years. David was gutted. Then some bitch he slept with sold her story to the tabloids. Also, his mother left when he was twelve. Expect there to be some issues all round where women are concerned.”
“No, Lauren, stop. I’m serious,” I said, nearly strangling the phone. “He’ll tell me things like that when he’s ready. This doesn’t feel right.”