Carlie caught my eye and laughed. “He’s never going to give up. This will be going on forever. We’ll have no female customers left.”
It was okay for her to laugh. She was the one who’d suggested it. It was almost like she’d done that for her own amusement. Well, exactly like that.
I tried not to look in Gina’s direction.
“I’ll give you another week,” I said to Drew. “Then the challenge is off.”
“That wasn’t part of the agreement, Jackson.”
“Yeah, well it is now. One week for you to get a date. Then it’s back to normal life and the women in this bar will be safe.”
Drew went to argue but I cut him off. Carlie walked off to serve someone. I looked over and met Gina’s gaze. She was the one Carlie had gone to serve. I was about to say hello when I remembered. For that split second, I was happy.
She looked away as soon as she noticed me and I turned back to my whiskey glass. What I needed to do was forget her. Forget her existence, instead of taunting myself. Which was hard to do when I couldn’t even stay away from the bar without Carlie dragging me back.
She tried to smile at Carlie but her smile was as cold as a winter’s morning.
Chapter 8 Gina
I HADN’T SPOKEN TO Jackson since that night. I hadn’t even wanted to. Not unless he apologized. And groveled. Jackson didn’t seem the type to grovel. He was the type to hold onto his stubborn pride, no matter what.
I’d gotten over my anger, almost.
I’d had a few drinks when Drew came over to talk to me.
“What’s up, Drew? You look a little bit down lately.”
He told me about how he’d been trying to talk Jackson into teaching him to play guitar.
“No matter what, he won’t teach me. But he should, Gina. He should get off his high horse and teach me.”
“Why Jackson?” I asked. I mean the whole bar was full of guitarists. Why pick the one person who’d definitely say no.
“He’s the best. Alex and Razer and all those guys think they are good. They are good. But Jackson is a legend. He was the best, really. Then he quit because he injured himself. But that shouldn’t stop him teaching. He doesn’t have to play himself, just tell me stuff. I really want to learn, Gina. Can you ask him about it?”
“Not me. We aren’t talking.”
“Ah, yeah. I noticed that.” Drew sighed. “He set me a challenge and if I do it, he’ll teach me, but it’s impossible. It’s the hardest challenge ever. Harder than beating Carlie at Galaga. Did I tell you about that?”
I smiled. “You sure did.”
Carlie yelled out for Drew to get back to work. He jumped up and ran off to wipe down tables.
I didn’t think Drew would win out on this one. Jackson hated the guitar now. No matter what, he’d not let Drew win. The challenge would have to be something super hard for Jackson to even offer it to Drew. He never talked about his guitar-playing past but sometimes, when we watched other bands play, a look came into his eyes. I never knew if it was envy or sadness, just that there was something he missed. A part of him that was no longer whole.
After a while, Drew sat back down with me. Violet joined us.
“So, what’s the challenge?” I asked him.
“He’s got to ask a girl out on a date.” Violet laughed. “It’s been pretty woeful.”
“Violet, it’s not a joking matter. I’m perfectly capable of asking a girl out. But it’s wrong to ask out someone just for the sake of winning. She might really like me, and even fall in love, then be devastated when she found out. I have to think very carefully about this. You can’t go into one of these situations lightly.”
“Tell me about it,” Violet said.
“Huh?”
“Remember the bet between Alex and Razer? The one I had to agree to so evil Chuck wouldn’t sell the club? Look what happened there.”