Daron's Guitar Chronicles: Vol 4

257 EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES

"What's the name?"

"Bombay Sapphire."

"Yeah, that sounds like something worth stealing from a museum."

"Don't it, though? But it's not hard to find." She poured things into a metal cocktail shaker and actually shook it, then poured it out into a glass. She set a napkin in front of me, put the drink on it, and said, "Try it."

I took a sip. "Hey. it's good."

She nodded at me. "See, there are two ways to counteract something bitter. One's with sweet. One's with salty. All alcohol is bitter to some degree."

"But salty and sweet don't go together, do they?" I eyed the drink suspiciously and sipped again. But it was good.

"Sure they do. You ever have caramel popcorn?"

"Yeah, okay." I sipped and for half a moment my brain had completely forgotten about what had happened upstairs. Then I remembered and took a bit bigger swallow.

She put another glass down on another napkin.

"What's that?"

"That's the water you're going to want to drink, also. You want some lemon in it?"

"Sure."

She squeezed a lemon over the top of the glass and both of us shied back as it squirted aggressively. "When you've been partying hard, water is a great cure-all."

I let out a long breath. "Do I look that rough around the edges?"

"Nah. But it's okay. I know who you are, sugar. I heard what happened upstairs."

I had some lemon water. "Does everyone know?"

"No. But you know, we're all sworn to secrecy."

"You are?"

"Don't look so surprised. It's not like a conspiracy theory thing. Just common sense. Any hotel employee at any decent place has to sign a thing saying we won't ever talk about guests of the hotel. And especially a place like this. You're not even the only A-list celebrities staying here right now."

"Am I A-list?" I wasn't fishing for a compliment. I wondered what the criteria was, or if there was one.

"If you're not, you will be soon. If the number of girls we had to chase out of here is any indication."

"How many is that?"

"After the first two dozen or so, they locked the side entrances and you have to show a hotel key to the guard outside to get in. You didn't know that?"

"I haven't been outside in a while."

She cracked a crooked smile. "It's still new to you."

"Pretty much. I mean, we toured before, but the stuff is still climbing the charts. I guess it's like a giant bandwagon that more and more people are getting on all the time."

"Is it scary?"

"A little? I mean, like a rollercoaster is scary. I just keep thinking if I wake up tomorrow and our moment is over and people stop buying the records or forget about us or whatever, well, you know, we did a lot more and got a lot farther than most bands ever do."

She looked skeptical. Truth is, I don't know if I believed what I said or if I was just trying to convince myself. She asked, "What would you do if that happened? If it all ended tomorrow?"

"Look for a real job, I guess. Maybe go back and finish school...?"

"You don't sound too sure about that one."