Chapter 14

Bo ran her over the riff until she hated it.

"You're playing with your head," he said. "You need to practice until you can play it in your sleep. When you get into the zone it's like you have all these possibilities and nothing is real until you make it real. There is nothing else like it."

"If it's so glorious, why do you drink until you can't play?" She went to the table to get her water and grab a head ache pill from her purse.

"The only thing keeping me from drinking is drumming and sex. I'm not doing so good on either of those, am I?" He shoved his hands in front of her. They shook almost uncontrollably. "I don't shake because I drink; I drink because I shake. If I drink just the right amount the shaking stops, but I can't stop there. The booze pulls me in until I can't play at all. The only reason I'm not dead is 'cause I owe Cher's old man. If you think you're going fuck with her, you'll have to go through me. Don't you tell her anything either. I won't have her pitying me."

"Damn," Marilyn dug through her purse. The idea of pitying Bo made her headache worse. She dumped everything on the table and grabbed the bottle. She threw a couple of pills in her mouth and drank more water.

"What's this?" Bo held up the poster from the talent show.

"Contest I'm thinking of entering."

"Bah. contests are ruining the business." Bo frowned. "Nobody wants to work at it. They want to go on a show, sing a song, tell a sob story, get famous. The real talent isn't the ability to play. There's thousands of people who can play. The real talent is being persistent enough so you can grab opportunity by the tits when she walks by."

"This isn't an opportunity?"

"This is a gong show." Bo waved the poster. "You win. Then what? How are you going to know how to work your heart out if you never had to do it before? Singing brilliantly once on TV is easy, singing every day so people don't walk out on you is hard."

"What about Mack?"

"Mack's got a family, what does he need with fame?"

He pointed back to the drum set. Marilyn swept everything back into her purse and stuffed the poster in too. Then she walked over to the drums and started working them again.

Her headache didn't ease up all night, but Marilyn smiled at customers and served drinks. She stayed in the shadows. The tips weren't as good and the harassment worse, but the people couldn't see her well. When she sang, she threw Birungi's scarf around her neck. No one could see her back on the drums.

"Cher," Marilyn said after close, "do you have a second?"

"We can't afford to give you a raise." Cher didn't look up from the cash. "We're barely making the nut as it is."

"I don't want a raise. I want to tell you I'm not after Mack."

"Get out." Cher pointed at the door. "Don't come back."

"Shit," Marilyn put her hand against her head. "I can't think." Tears leaked down her face, burning tracks into her cheeks.

"Give the girl a break," Bo set himself down at the table.

"I didn't know you were out here."

"Can hardly teach the girl if I don't listen to her." He kept his hand on his knees beneath the table. "You should know she's been working wounded. She had a headache this afternoon and from the looks of her it hasn't left."

"Ok, say your piece." Cher sighed deeply. "Before Mack comes and makes it a complete circus."

"I don't want Mack. I wouldn't know what do with him if I had him. What I want is this job without worrying I'm busting up my friends' marriage. I'm not good at this." Marilyn massaged her head. To her surprise, Cher walked behind her and began rubbing her head.

"Keep talking. I'm not convinced."

"You get rid of Marilyn," Bo said, "Mack won't think you trust him. It isn't far from not feeling trusted to not being trustworthy."

"You would know."

"I do, girl; to my everlasting regret."

"So, what do you want me to do?"

"Tell me if things are getting out of hand," Marilyn said, "and I'll quit."

"You should quit now," Yet Cher's hands didn't stop, "but Bo's right, and the bastard knows it. If Mack starts confessing to you, it's time to quit. I'll be sorry to lose you, but I'd rather have Mack than you. You," Cher glared at Bo, "don't think I don't see those hands shaking. You do what you have to." She rested her hands on Marilyn's shoulders with her fingers lightly touching her throat. "If you breathe a word of this to Mack, I'll fire you, then rehire you so I can kick your ass and fire you again. Now get on home before the headache comes back."

Marilyn stood up and overbalanced for a second as she realized the pain was gone.

"I only seen her work that magic on two people, and neither was me." Bo put his hands in his pockets and walked back to his room.