“Hey, made for it or not, that first show was terrifying. My brain may be hardwired for that stuff but my anxiety sure wasn’t.”
“Yeah, but then you got out there...” I shake my head as I close my eyes, picturing that first show and how it looked from my vantage point. I saw magic that night, and I wanted more of it. “This completely different entity took over. Once the songs started rolling in, it was game on, and we could see the fear melt and evaporate. You took the world by storm that night, cakes.”
Leo knows I’m right. She couldn’t argue with me if she wanted to. And she also knows I’m trying to make her remember how that felt to try to get her to listen to me.
“I always thought I was the only one like me. The only one who could hear a song once and be able to play every part, sing every lyric, live every note. I could practically see the music, the way it floated through the air.” She pauses as she lifts her hand, wiggling her fingers to mimic her words, and I can tell she’sthinking over her next ones as she lights another cigarette. “I felt like such a freak. I never considered it a gift or a talent. Until I met you, I had no idea what the fuck I was doing. I was a lost warrior without a tribe...”
Leo smirks and I smile at the term of endearment. We always called her our warrior, mainly because she was scary, and she always referred to us as her tribe of misfits because we were just as lost as she was. But we found each other, and everything changed. That little bit of nostalgia is exactly what I want from her right now.
“Then fate, in the form of Justine, brought you into Mother Loves Cafe, and you were thrown in with the four of us numbskulls. At the risk of sounding completely creepy, I knew from the second I saw you that you were what was missing. I don’t know how or why, but the day I walked in there and saw you sitting behind the counter with Justine, my spidey senses went ape shit.”
Leo smiles and gives me a side eye. “You are a total creep.” Then her nose scrunches up the way it always does when she’s thinking. “That wasn’t the first time we were introduced, though.”
I shake my head and think back to the day I first saw her. I had gone to Mother Loves to blow my paycheck on the beignets Justine makes, they were the best I’d ever tasted and I had a mild obsession with them.
I was working at the music store a few doors down and normally blew my cash on pieces for my kit, but that day I had a craving for some baked goods so I walked over on my lunch break. I was barely twenty-three years old, a struggling musician trying to pave my way, and when I opened the door to see the most beautiful girl I’d ever laid eyes on sitting there with Justine, my heart did this weird flutter-stutter-stop thing and I froze.
After a few awkward minutes of gawking and blocking the doorway, I spun around and left. I didn’t even get my damn lunch.
“I do remember Justine going on and on about The Ravens though, just gushing over you guys before you played her place. Thehometown boys destined for greatness. I honestly didn’t expect to see what I actually saw when I went to that show. After everything she told me, I thought you were going to be four clean-cut, all-American heroes or some shit.” Leo laughs and my heart does that same little flutter-stutter-stop thing it has every time since the first time I saw her. “Man, was I ever fucking wrong.”
“You know how Justine can be, she could care less about your story, she saw what she saw and that was all that mattered. For some reason she saw the four of us assholes and knew we were better than we allowed ourselves to be. And she knewyouwere our missing piece the day she met you, just like she knew we needed you before she even brought you to the cafe.” I push my unruly hair out of my eyes and grin. “Justine’s one hell of a talent scout.”
“Vous avez raison.”
Now, I know Leo dropped the French to try to break up some of the heavy feelings she’s experiencing, telling me I’m correct in that Parisian tongue but she knows it drives me fucking nuts when she speaks any other language—especially French, just not for the reasons she thinks.
My family is multilingual.
We speak incredibly fluent French and Italian at my parents’ house, French was for my dad and Italian for my mom. My mother insists on speaking Italian all the time despite living in New Orleans for over fifty years so when we talk, although rare, she won’t engage unless that’s how we do it. And my brother is a huge mama’s boy so he mostly speaks to me in Italian as well.Which are just a few of the reasons Leo thinks I don’t like it when she speaks either language.
The truth is, it drives me nuts because I like it way too much coming from her smart mouth.Way too fucking much.
“I know I’m right.” I laugh away the incredibly inappropriate feelings that want some attention. “Still with the French. You should be glad I can understand it, otherwise we’d have serious beef.”
On the very few occasions that Leo has convinced me to have an entire conversation with her in French, I got so turned on I had to leave the room before the end of it. My feelings for her have always been ridiculous and confusing as hell but you throw in something like that, and I had to take cold showers and avoid her for days. Our friendship, the band, they were always more important than ruining what we had to explore the undeniable spark that has always been between us.
So, Leonor has always had to remain in thefriend zone,and I hate it more some days than others.
“Our first gig was so electric,” Leo says wistfully, giving me a bit of what I’ve been hoping for. “I was worried people would hate us because we were doing nothing but covers. I was even more worried the fan base you had already built would hate that you added a chick, changed the name, and scrapped your originals. You talk about my nerves like they were completely unwarranted.” She giggles a little and nudges me back. “I had some pretty fucking valid concerns.”
“Yeah, but we had to reestablish ourselves as The Ravens featuring our new leader,Leonor Poe. Going out there with theput a song in a hat, we’ll draw it and play it on the spotgimmick was an explosive way to get noticed. Which totally worked, I might add. It opened the door for us to write new stuff, build a bigger fan base, gain publicity and start touring. Shit, we toured North America.Threetimes.”
Leo looks a little torn between love and longing as she gazes out into the night, her cigarette resting between her delicate tattooed fingers, her eyes lingering on a few brighter-than-normal stars.
“We were like no other band out there. All of us oozing with talent. Hell, between the five of us we have yet to find an instrument we can’t play. You were the driving force behind expanding our horizons, you know that, right?” I bump her knee with mine to make sure she’s listening. “Once you got through that first show, man, you really came to life. You pushed us to be more than we were, to exceed the expectations we had set for ourselves. We were signed to a legit independent label because of what you did. We still are, you know...” I shake my head, knowing that this is a battle for another day. “And your name. Fuck, it couldn’t have been more perfect.Leonor Poe and The Ravens. Shit, man, it was gold.”
“You know it isn’t my real name, though.” Leo stands with a smirk as she heads to the railing.
“Yeah, yeah, some asshole thought it was cute to give you the last namePoewhen they found you on the steps of that firehouse. Your only identification was the note pinned to your onesie that readMy Sweet Leonor,but after some digging, they were able to at least give you yourreallast name, I remember the story, but come on. There could not have been a clearer sign than that.”
Leo shakes her head with a smile but it quickly slips off her face as her eyes move back toward the street. That same car is still parked there, which wouldn’t normally be odd but it’s two in the morning which makes it a no parking zone, and it is way out of the norm to see a Lamborghini Veneno on this side of town.
I watch her wrap her arms around her body, visibly uncomfortable with the vehicle’s presence, her eyes straining to see through the tinted windows.
Then a flash goes off in the front seat before the car peels out of its spot, the smell of burning rubber left in its wake, causing Leo to gasp and jump back. And I’m there in two long strides wrapping my arms around a seriously shaken Leonor.
“Sorry, I wasn’t expecting that.”
