35

I had a fucking Patrick Swayze song in my head. I picked up Emma and it had been all of like two minutes since I’d spoken to her on the phone, but when she walked out of her room she was already in a bad mood again. So I thought to myself that her moods change like the wind. Which, of course, led to me singing “She’s Like The Wind” in my head over and over again. Fucking driving me crazy.

“What’s up with you?” Emma asked me as we looked over our menus at the restaurant we’d decided to eat at that night.

“Huh?” I said looking up at her.

“You look like you want to rip your own eyes out or something…” she said with a slight chuckle. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

I laughed and shook my head, “Bad song stuck in my head… It’s driving me crazy.” ‘She’s like the night next to meeee…’

She laughed, “Don’t tell me what it is.”

“I won’t…” I smiled back at her, glad to see her smiling again. “How you doin?” ‘She leaves me the moonlight only to burn me with the sunnnn…’ Fucking song, I didn’t even know all of the words. ‘She don’t know what she’s done…’

“I’m doin…” she said with her best New York accent and nodded. I chuckled and she smiled at me, “Sorry I was so quiet in the car.”

“No problem…” I said shaking my head. “It’s cool. But you’re okay?”

“Yeah… Skinner’s just an asshole. It’s nothing new.”

“I’ve got a question for you…” I said before I could censor myself. ‘I feel her breath in my face, do do do… her body close to me… do do do…’ I slapped my self in the head, “Stupid song… get out!” Emma laughed at me and I rolled my eyes, “Sorry… but yeah, I have a question.”

“Okay.”

“Do you really want to room with Skinner? Cause you know, he’s not really nice to you all that much, and you’re not really friends with him. I can arrange it for you to have your own room for the rest of the tour, or hell… you can even stay with me.” I shrugged and fiddled with the napkin on the table in front of me, “You don’t have to stay with Skinner, if you don’t want to.”

She was quiet for a while and then sighed and shook her head, “I appreciate the offer. But I’m alright. No need to get me a room or gain yourself a roommate. Half of the time he’s off screwing some groupie and I barely see him.”

I nodded even though I really didn’t understand her logic. I couldn’t understand why she’d voluntarily stay with Skinner even though he clearly rubbed her the wrong way. “Okay… Well, the offer stands. So if you ever change your mind, or even if he’s just being a dick and you want to get away from him for the night… just call me okay?” ‘Just a fool to believe I am anything she needs… she’s like the wind…’

She nodded and looked down at her menu again, “Okay… thanks.”

“You’re welcome…” I said and spent the next few minutes just watching her. When she finally looked up from her menu at me I chuckled and looked away, “Sorry…”

“Do I have a bug on my head or something?” she teased.

“No. I was just watching you.” I shrugged again and wished we’d chosen a smoking table instead of the non-smoking one we were at.

“You’re odd…” she said with a smile and put her menu down.

“Yeah…” I agreed and then laughed. The Swayze song led to Dirty Dancing quotes, I was going mad. ‘I carried a watermelon…’

“What are you thinking?”

“That our waiter is going to lose his tip soon if he doesn’t take our order…” I chuckled. “And I was wondering about you.” ‘No one puts Baby in the corner…’ I pinched my leg under the table to try and focus on the conversation I was having with Emma instead of quoting old movies and bad songs in my head.

“What about me?”

“Everything…”

She shook her head, “Didn’t I tell you that you can’t handle my ‘everything?’”

“Yeah, but if you haven’t figured it out yet… I’m not a real strong listener. Well, no… I listen, I just don’t, you know… I don’t pay attention to what I’m listening to. I’m a stubborn bastard.” And I quote movies in my head while having serious conversations, I’m a horrible, horrible person.

She smiled at me again which made me feel better and she began gently drumming her spoon on the table. She looked at me silently as she drummed and then cocked her head slightly to the side, “Five questions… use them wisely.”

“I get to ask you five questions?” I asked with heightened curiosity as I leaned forward.

“Now you have four…” she laughed.

“Fuck…” I groaned and slapped myself in the head again. I sighed and thought about the hundreds of questions that I wanted to ask her and tried to figure out what to ask. I thought about it for a minute and she waited while still drumming out a beat on the table as she watched me. “Why won’t you take a room of your own or at least room with me?”

She shrugged and stopped drumming, “He’s a challenge. With Skinner I never know what’s going to happen. Sometimes he makes me laugh and other times he makes me want to believe in violence. Plus, he’s the reason I got on this tour in the first place…”

I still didn’t get it, but I nodded. Three more questions to go. “Was Nick good in bed?”

She laughed and blushed slightly, “Yeah.”

“Do… wait…” I said and stopped myself to think about my question again. I only had two left and didn’t want to fuck up and waste the opportunity. “Do you have family in Texas?”

I knew it was crossing one of her lines, but I couldn’t stop myself. I wanted to know why she left home to roam around the country and shack up with people like Skinner. She looked at the spoon in her hand and nodded slightly, “In a sense, yes.”

I could tell that was all I was going to get out of her on the subject so I didn’t push it any further. I paused again and thought of my last question and smiled at her, “Will you spend the night tonight?”

A smile slowly spread over her face and she looked up at me over the spoon. “Sure.”