Then she dressed in clothes she felt more comfortable in—skinny, shredded jeans, burnished red Docs, a Ramones t-shirt, and her jewelry and makeup. Feeling like Manny again and not Emma, she heated herself up a microwave burrito, tossed back her meds with some orange juice, grabbed her keys, and headed to the Ferret Cage.
That was what the band called their house. They were such dorks.
oOo
Fierce Ferret was Manny’s little brother, Dmitri, on lead vocals; his best buds, Seth, on lead guitar, and Kevin, on drums; and Gigi, the hot Asian chick who’d answered their online ad, on bass.
Manny had trouble liking people, as a rule. But she really could not fucking stand Gigi, who thought she was uber-everything. Uber-hot, uber-talented, uber-smart, uber-what the fuck ever. She acted like she was too good for this little local band.
And all the guys seemed to agree. They all wanted in her pants. And she handed out access passes to those pants like little gold stars. When one of the guys did what she wanted, he got a trip to Gigiland.
She was a fricking bassist. She had a self-serving spiel she did about how important bass was, but as far as Manny was concerned, bassists were a dime a dozen. Manny herself could play bass. A little. Not that she’d get on stage to do it.
Gigi knew exactly how Manny felt, because Manny didn’t bother to hide it. Too much work, and not her problem. She was waaaaay more important to the band, seeing as how she was the only reason any of them earned a hot red cent.
Also, Manny was perfectly willing—happy, even—to cut a bitch who pissed her off. Or at least beat her quiet. She was small, but she knew how to be nasty.
Gigi seemed to understand that, and didn’t usually make too much trouble when Manny was around. But today, there had obviously been some drama before Manny got there. Even she could figure that out, because not a damn one of them was talking to any other of them, and it looked like Gigi wasn’t even around.
Awesome.
She went to her brother, and he hugged her. Dmitri had clearance to touch her whenever he wanted. She knew how to process his touches, and she wanted them. They’d been in each other’s corner since they’d been a family.
“I thought you’d be practicing by now, Dimi. Saturday is a Battle gig.”
“I know. We’ll get to it. Just having a moment, I guess.”
“What happened?”
“Usual shit. Kevin is pissed that Gigi and Seth were fucking in the living room last night. Kev said some shit, then Seth said some shit, and there was more shit, and then Gigi said she couldn’t deal with such babies and flounced out.” He shrugged. “I know where she goes. I’ll go get her in a minute. She needs a minute to be dramatic.”
Knowing that her brother had his own hard-on for the Asian Princess of Garage Punk and also that he knew well how she felt, Manny kept her opinions to herself for once. “Okay, well. I’ve got some updates for the Battle gig and for the wedding next weekend. Can you go get her now so we can have a band meeting?”
He sighed. “Yeah. Sure. Make yourself at home. I’ll be back in ten.”
oOo
The band meeting was tense, band practice went badly, there was another big blow-out that Manny couldn’t figure out what it was about, and by the end of the night, she was a near basket-case from trying to navigate all the emotions around her, and Dmitri hated everybody but her.
She offered to let him crash on her sofa so he could get some distance, and he took her up on it. So she drove him back to the coast.
She knew very well that she should go straight home and get calm. Fireworks happened when she wasn’t calm. But Dmitri wasn’t like her. He needed to expend excess energy, and he was practically bouncing with excess energy. He wanted to hit the clubs.
Manny couldn’t handle that, but she compromised. There was a bar in Quiet Cove that had a rep for getting rowdy. That wasn’t exactly the kind of wild night Dmitri was looking for, but maybe she could take him in for just a drink or two and then get home.
3
Luca felt a lot better after the massage. That little shit was really good. Mouthy, but good.
Actually, he’d enjoyed the mouth. He didn’t often meet girls who cared so little what people thought about the things they said. As somebody who found himself in trouble of one kind or another fairly often for speaking his mind before his mind had finished thinking, he could appreciate the unfiltered utterance.
She was a slight little thing, not his type at all. He preferred blondes with a little curve to them. One of his favorite spots on the female body was the join of hip and waist, that flare as the hip widened from the cut of a tight waist. A great place to get a firm grip. He especially liked it if he could get his thumbs into a pair of ass dimples while he was holding a woman like that. Mmmm.