Bad Seed

“Is the band meeting you there?”

“No, just me and my guitar this morning. Come on, we’re taking my truck.”

I walked over to my blacked-out truck, a present to myself after my second hit single.

I pulled open my truck door and tossed my guitar in, but I noticed Delia wasn’t getting in. She was standing against her truck, her arms

crossed as she studied me closely. I didn’t have time for this shit. We had to get going.

“You coming? Or is this you quitting?” I asked.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Just answer me one question.”

She walked over to me, her hips swaying as her tits jostled with her movements.

“Have you been drinking already this morning?” Delia asked.

Her eyes were holding mine as her hands rested on her hips. She was eyeing me up and down. Sizing me the fuck up at seven in the damn morning. I sighed as I closed my eyes, knowing it did me no good to lie to this woman.

I nodded, hearing her let out a deep sigh.

“I’m driving,” Delia said.

“I’m fine.”

“I’m driving.”

“I’m not even drunk.”

“I’m driving. Now get in,” she said. “You'd think you, of all people, would know better than to get behind the wheel when you've been drinking.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I asked.

“You know what I mean,” she said. “Now get in the fucking car. I'm driving.”

She had a fucking point, and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I wasn’t drunk, but I still had a drink that morning.

I watched her open her truck door and hop in, sitting there as she waited for me to join her .I ripped my guitar from my truck and slammed the door, gritting my teeth in the process.

I slid into her truck, my guitar sitting between my legs as we pulled out.

“I got the address of the place,” I said.

“I know where you’re going,” Delia said.

“You told Hank I’d been drinking, didn’t you?” I asked.

“Yep,” she said.

The truck ride was silent after that. Her hands were gripping the steering wheel tightly, and her back was completely straight. If she wasn’t going to entertain me with some sort of conversation, then I was going to study her. I hooked onto the profile of her face and grazed my eyes down her body.

She was a pain in my ass, but she was nice on the eyes.

We pulled into the venue, and I saw Hank flagging us down. Delia pulled into a parking space, not speaking to me as she slid out of her side of the truck. I grabbed my guitar and started for the coordinator, who was usually a goofy-looking asshole with a clipboard.

Hank and Delia were talking to one another before they joined the conversation.

“You’ll have time at the top of the hour to set up, then your set starts at eight fifteen, Mr. Blackthorn. Your bus is here with your gear in case you need it, though it’s an acoustic set so a speaker and a hookup is plenty. Your bus is yours to use as you wish—”