“Let’s talk about you,” Floyd said to me.
Oh dear, here we go.
Okay, I decided in that moment that Floyd was not the kind of person I wanted to know.
I turned away and walked to the platform where my guitars were. “Nothin’ to talk about.”
“Bul shit, Stel a Bel a. You aren’t pul in’ any wool here, girl,”
I stopped on the platform, opened up a guitar case and grabbed one of my electric guitars.
I’d known Floyd a long time and I’d never, not once, been able to pul any wool with him. And believe me, I tried.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” I tried an evasion tactic.
“Wel , I do,” Floyd returned. “Not to mention, Emily is scared shitless.”
My tactic failed.
Shit.
Floyd had two grown daughters. Therefore Floyd was the Master of the Guilt Maneuver and was not afraid to use it.
“Let’s start with Mace,” Floyd pushed.
“Let’s not,” I replied, placing the guitar in the case careful y and then closing and locking the lid.
I heard Floyd’s boots on my floor then I felt Floyd’s fingers curl around my upper arm. With no choice, I stopped what I was doing and turned to him.
“Girl…” he said low, his voice both steely and sweet, something which I was sure worked for him with Emily and his daughters. I was sure it worked for him because it always worked on me.
“He thinks we’re back together,” I told Floyd and his hand dropped away as his eyebrows went up.
“He thinks?” Floyd asked.
“We’re not,” I answered.
This wasn’t altogether true as I’d been sleeping with Mace for days. Not to mention, I’d had sex with Mace twice.
Good sex. Sex some would even define as “getting back together sex” (though, if I was honest, sex of any kind could be defined as that). And further, not two hours ago, Mace had dropped off two big, stuffed-ful gym bags and two boxes of crap at my apartment. Then he grabbed me, kissed me hard and took off saying he’d see me later that night at the gig.
“Why not?” Floyd prodded, cutting into my thoughts.
“How many reasons do you want?”
“How many you got?”
“Seven thousand, two hundred and eleven,” I retorted sarcastical y.
“Wel , I got seven thousand, two hundred and twelve why you should let him back in.”
I felt my eyes go round. “Are you loco? Were you not around when he broke up with me? Were you not there when I went through two boxes of Kleenex in your and Emily’s living room? Hel o? Mace came into my life, settled in a way I thought was forever and I liked it. I liked it a lot. I liked it too much. Then he ripped us apart and walked away. I’m not going through that again.” I shook my head.
“Unh-unh. No way.”
“Emily left me,” was Floyd’s reply.
This time, my eyes bugged out and I felt my mouth drop open. I figured my mouth dropped open in an effort to give my body oxygen but it was an impossible feat. My lungs had turned to stone.