Kathryn saw Dominic peeking through the blinds in his office with equal parts curiosity and concern in his squinted gaze. She’d skipped the last set, and at her behest, the bandleader was about to stray from the carefully curated set list for the second time this evening. The club owner tolerated the first song because it was upbeat, but he would not tolerate this one.
The first somber notes of “Yesterdays” drifted through the club and, as predicted, Dominic burst out of his office. The languid bass thumped solemnly beneath the song like a broken heart searching for a reason to repeat its wounded beat, and Kathryn’s voice rang out strong, serious, and precise, honoring her former life with an appropriate sendoff.
Dominic got halfway down the aisle to the stage when the rapt silence of the audience stopped him in his tracks. All conversation had ceased and glasses were frozen mid-drink. If the recovery of her vocal abilities had ever been in question, the slow anthem to treasured days gone by alleviated any doubt. It wasn’t the voice of old but one just as sophisticated—smoky and mature—captivating all within earshot, including the staff. Her emotive rendition brought tears to some and an appreciation for life too often taken for granted to others. She held the last note impossibly long, as if it were the last she would ever sing. It wouldn’t be the last note she’d ever sing, but it would be the last note she’d sing for Dominic Vignelli at The Grotto.
The ensuing silence after the song echoed the gravity of the moment, but soon the crowd was on its feet, applauding Kathryn for her raw honesty and for making them feel again.
She acknowledged the standing ovation with a gracious bow and left the stage in the opposite direction of her swiftly approaching boss.
“Make it a stiff one, Bobby,” she said as she arrived at the bar.
“Why’d you do it?” he whispered, pouring her vodka rocks.
The last bandleader had been fired for inserting his own arrangement into Dominic’s precious playlist, and while Kathryn knew she was special to her boss, the charging Italian didn’t look very forgiving at the moment.
Kathryn knocked back the vodka rocks she’d been handed and shuddered as it went down. “I feel free, that’s why I did it.” She tapped on the bar for another.
“You’re gonna be free all right.”
He quickly poured her another and backed away, as Dominic loomed menacingly beside his soon to be unemployed singer. Kathryn ignored him and reached for her drink. It never made it to her mouth, as Dominic plucked it from her hand and slammed it onto the counter.
“I will put up with a lot, Kathryn, especially from you. You know that. This, however, this—”
She thought the bulging vein in his brow would pop when he was unable to find the words to express his disappointment and anger.
“I quit, Nicky,” she said before he could fire her.
He flinched, the notion unacceptable.
“Come into my office.”
“I don’t want to go into your office. I don’t want your expensive gowns, or your fancy nightclub, or your misplaced sense of debt over Luc, and I don’t want to sing your happy songs anymore.”
He took her words like punches to the face and raised his chin, daring her to knock him another one.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “You’ve been grand to me in every way.” She put her hand on his cheek. “More than I deserve. But I need to sing the truth of my heart, and happy songs are not in my heart.”
“We are happy here,” he said sadly, letting her know he would not change his policy. Not even for her.
“I know.”
He reluctantly accepted her decision and tapped on the bar. Bobby stepped forward and poured a second glass. The two toasted as friends, downed their drinks, and embraced before Dominic hastily retreated to his office to hide the tears in his eyes.
Kathryn exhaled after he’d gone, and Bobby held up the vodka bottle. She shook her head and asked him to wrap up a bottle of wine instead.
“Can I call you a cab?”
“I’m a cab.” She deadpanned.
It took him a moment to get it, but he finally laughed and handed over the bottle in a brown paper bag, holding on to it as she tried to take it.
“Don’t be a stranger.”
She smiled and shook his hand. “I know where to come for the best martini in town.” She held up the expensive bottle as she walked toward the exit. “Tell Nicky to keep my last paycheck.”
Kathryn sauntered up to the bar at the Mayfly and was greeted by the bulky bartender. “Well, well, well. Couldn’t stay away, could you?”
Kathryn ignored the comment. “Two glasses, please, Ruby.”
Ruby looked at the bottle in Kathryn’s hand.
“You can’t bring that in off the street, Hammond.”
“If you served a decent wine, I wouldn’t have to.” She drummed her fingers on the counter. “Two glasses?”
Ruby looked enviously across the crowded room toward the woman on the stage and then smirked as she pulled two glasses from the rack above her head. “You’re pretty sure of yourself.”
Kathryn smiled. “Shouldn’t I be?”
Ruby looked her up and down in her shimmering gold lamé gown and decided the question was rhetorical. She handed over the glasses. “Have fun.”
It didn’t take Kathryn long to get Lani’s attention. Heck, the way she was dressed, the whole bar would have to have been dead or blind not to notice her. She raised the glasses and the bottle and cocked her head toward the hall in the back.
The gesture needed no explanation, and Lani grinned as she quickly abandoned the last verse of her song and exited the stage while the band played on without her. She went to the end of the hall, where Kathryn was perched on the stairs, leaning back on one elbow, legs crossed, and all smiles.
“Busy?” she asked coyly.
Lani grinned. “For you, doll?” Kathryn’s very presence was a prelude to sex.
She leaned in and collected her kiss, which was just as intoxicating as she remembered. It brought her back to last year, when Kathryn was a frequent visitor to her bed—a welcome apparition from the past, who appeared as quickly as she had disappeared years ago. Despite the time in between, they effortlessly picked up where they’d left off. They were sexual partners of convenience, with no intent or design, until Kathryn’s job at the high-class joint uptown went to her head and she couldn’t be bothered to slum with the old gang.
Soon, she was on the front page of this newspaper or that, on the arm of some millionaire, and the natives mourned the loss of another from their ranks, until she restored their faith by showing up again sporting a little blonde.
Lani was undeterred by Kathryn’s fickle libido. Kathryn’s motto had always been anything goes. Today, Lani was just happy the woman had found her way back to her again—thankfully, without the little blonde in tow.
She savored the familiar taste of those sensuous lips, as the passion she reserved only for the woman beneath her ignited. She pulled back, breathless and aroused, checking to make sure she wasn’t dreaming.
Kathryn smiled, reassuring her. “Still live around here?”
Those were the last words spoken, as Lani took Kathryn by the hand and led her to her room at the top of the stairs. She wasted no time making sure Kathryn Hammond didn’t get away.
Kathryn didn’t object to being disrobed. In fact, she stood like a criminal during a shakedown as Lani slid her hands and mouth hungrily along her body, unsure which delight she wished to indulge in first. She would indulge in every delight, some more than once, and would be devoured in return in a way that surprised even her.
“I forgot you like it rough,” she said, as she watched Kathryn shimmy into her long dress.
“Sorry.”
“Please,” Lani said, as she leaned against the headboard, naked and exhausted. “You know I love it that way. It was the best sex I’ve had since … well … since you.”
Kathryn was silent as she fastened the hook on the back of her dress and struggled with the zipper at the small of her back.
“Here …” Lani motioned her over.
As she finished pulling up the zipper, she ran her hand across Kathryn’s strong back, and her body hummed again with the sensual rush of the warm skin beneath her palm. She could get used to this.
“Will I see you again?”
Kathryn adjusted the strap on her shoulder and moved to the mirror, where she attended to her hair.
“No.”
“We’re good together, Kat.”
Kathryn looked at her from the mirror. “No, we aren’t. We just have great sex.”
Lani smirked. “Like I said.”
Kathryn finished putting up her hair and then sat on the bed to put on her shoes.
Lani pulled up her knees and wrapped her arms around them, wondering what brought her old flame back.
“What happened to that kid?”
“Didn’t work out.”
Lani laughed. “Yeah, I didn’t think she was your type.”
“I wasn’t her type.”
“What, is she crazy?”
Kathryn slipped her foot into her shoe and stood. “Smartest woman I know.”
Lani gazed at her curiously as she moved to the dresser and retrieved her watch. She certainly wasn’t the woman she remembered. She wasn’t even the woman she’d seen only months before. She was sad, and serious, and Lani pitied her. She once wanted to be just like her, a free spirit, willing to try anything and anyone, in search of a thrill, but seeing her today, Lani could see she’d paid for her feckless ways.
“What happened to you, Kat?”
Kathryn exhaled a humorless chuckle as she fastened the catch on her watch.
“Life, Lani. Life.”
Lani watched her gather her things. Nothing was said—they never really had much to say—but she sensed it would be the last time she saw the woman, and she realized she’d never know how much she really cared for her.
“Say, Kat. You’re welcome here anytime.”
Kathryn let out another humorless chuckle.
“No …” Lani quickly stammered. “I don’t mean for sex. Well, I mean, if you want sex.”
Both women grinned, but then Lani grew serious.
“Really, if you just need a friend or someplace to go …”
It seemed silly when she said it out loud, especially since they’d never really been what could be considered friends. She expected her to laugh in her face. The old Kathryn would have, and then she would laugh too, as if it had all been a grand joke. To her surprise, Kathryn didn’t laugh.
“You’re sweet, Lani. Thank you.”
Lani had always been sweet under her brash exterior, and available. Kathryn couldn’t help but feel bad that she’d used her to try to exorcise her demons.
“I’m sorry.”
Lani could see right through her guilt.
“Don’t be. I’m not.”
Kathryn nodded and turned to leave.
“Hey,” Lani called out, “take that bottle with you. I think you need it more than I do.”
Kathryn picked up the unopened bottle of wine and smiled. “You may be right.”
Thierry Bouchaule was waiting for her a short cab ride away in another of his first-class hotel room hideaways. It was a short ride to the beginning of the rest of her life, and the bottle couldn’t hurt.
“Thanks, Lani. See you around.”
“Yeah, see you around, Hammond.”