Chapter 14: You Want Me?
We walked over to an empty sofa roped off with velvet curtains on each side. He took my hand as I sat down and settled in comfortably beside me, nodding his head to the beat while his eyes made a quiet assessment of the room. Then he turned his full attention to me and I felt it the way you always felt it when Evan looked at you. Like everything else in the room had just lost its relevance entirely and did not mind.
"How have you been doing?" he asked, sliding closer.
The drums hit hard at that exact moment and the guitar volume surged and I found myself staring at his lips trying to lip read like a woman at a very glamorous and very inconvenient disadvantage. He must have seen the struggle written plainly on my face because he took my hand, pulled me up and led me upstairs to a rooftop patio where the music dropped to something I could actually hear and think over.
"Sorry about that. It gets loud sometimes."
"You are in the music business," I said. "I imagine you are well used to it by now."
"I am. But enough about work. How have you been?" There was genuine concern sitting in his eyes and I noticed it immediately.
"I am doing well. I start school in a couple of days actually. Very excited about that."
"School for what?"
"Healthcare Management at Tulane."
"So not only are you beautiful, you are smart too."
"If I were truly that smart I would have found a way to finish before I dropped out," I said.
"I am sure you had good reasons. Tell me."
"Trust me, you do not want to hear about my problems."
"Actually," he said, shifting to face me more directly, "I do. I want to understand why a woman like you ended up doing what you do."
I looked at him for a quiet moment. "Because sometimes life throws things at you that you did not ask for and did not plan for, and you make a decision to do the right thing regardless of what it costs you personally."
"Do you always try to do the right thing?"
"I try to analyze the cost against the benefit," I said. "In your terms, the ROI. Return on investment."
"And do you think you are a good ROI?"
His amber eyes caught the moonlight at just the right angle and I had to actively remind myself to breathe at a normal and socially acceptable pace.
"Only you can answer that question," I said.
He bent down and kissed me. It started warm and unhurried and became something considerably more heated with a very clear and specific promise attached to it about what later was going to look like.
"Mr. McCain." A voice from behind him. Someone clearing their throat with considerable effort.
Evan pulled back and I watched his expression shift into something that was very clearly controlled irritation wearing a professional mask.
"What do you want Brian?"
Brian was a nerdy looking man who appeared to be approximately one deep breath away from genuine fear. "RJ2’s manager wants to discuss the contract. Should I tell him you will get to it later?"
Evan looked at me. "Do you mind? I promise five minutes."
"Take your time," I said. "I will be right here."
He kissed my cheek and walked away. I turned to the balcony and looked out over the Mississippi. The ships moving across the dark water looked like ghost ships, half swallowed by the night sky, trailing tiny wisps of smoke while car headlights crawled along the streets below. I got so wrapped up in the view that I did not notice the girl appear beside me until she was already there and already looking at me like I owed her something.
"So you the one dating Evan McCain?"
I looked at her. She was looking at me like I had personally offended her simply by existing in the same building.
"We are just friends," I said pleasantly.
"You don’t look like his type. Too fancy."
"I am sorry?"
"All I’m saying is me and some of the other girls have been trying to get his attention for a while now. Then you walk in here and he nearly breaks his neck getting to you. But since you are just friends we still have a chance."
Before I could respond a second girl materialized right beside her. Light skinned, dark brown hair, dress that left absolutely nothing to anyone’s imagination and seemed proud of that fact.
"He is rich and fine and clearly into Black women," this one said. "And you look white to me. No offense but maybe stick to your own kind and leave our men alone."
Two more appeared behind them. I backed up slowly. Were they actually circling me right now? At a music industry event? In Prada? On a Thursday?
"Look," a dark skinned girl said, finger already working its way off an earring with practiced efficiency, "I saw you kissing Evan. He has been mine for years and I am not about to let your bleached self come in here and take him from me."
"Ladies." Brian appeared from absolutely nowhere like a man who had been specifically trained for exactly this kind of situation. "This is not the time or the place. Ms. Montgomery, please follow me." He turned to the group with the calm energy of someone who had handled considerably worse on a slow Tuesday. "If anything happens to Ms. Montgomery or if there is any further disruption from any of you, I will have you removed from the building and permanently banned from all future events. Are we perfectly clear?"
They dispersed. Not happily. But they dispersed without incident and that was what mattered.
"I am so sorry about that Ms. Montgomery," Brian said, walking me back downstairs. "You simply cannot take certain people anywhere."
I laughed despite myself. "They genuinely thought I was white Brian."
"They are not used to seeing a woman with actual class walk through that door. And no offense intended but you could absolutely pass."
"I am biracial," I said. "My mother was white, my father Black. I came out closer to her side."
"That explains it entirely. Follow me, I will take you back to Mr. McCain."
He led me to a back room and told me to wait. A few minutes later he poked his head back in with an update.
"Five more minutes. He is almost finished."
"Thank you Brian." He made to leave and then stopped himself. "Can I tell you something Ms. Montgomery?"
"Of course."
"I have worked for Evan for three years now. In all that time I have never once heard him talk about a woman the way he has talked about you these past few weeks. Whatever you are to him it is genuinely not nothing. He is a good man. A really good one. Those girls upstairs would never get his attention on their absolute best day and he would never give them the time. You have absolutely nothing to worry about." He smiled warmly and stepped back.
The door opened a moment later. A large man followed by two others walked out shaking hands and exchanging brief words. Evan came right behind them, wrapped things up efficiently and turned to find me waiting.
"I am sorry that took longer than I expected. Does it count against me?"
"Of course not," I said. "Business is business. I would never get in the way of a man handling his."
He smiled in a way that reached his eyes and kissed my cheek softly.
"Let us go," he said, taking my hand. "I have already wasted enough time without you tonight."
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