Page 261 of Back in the Saddle

He had his his eyes on Harlow’s door.

Shanti did too, and she looked concerned.

Javi looked contemplative, but he morphed to pissed, at who—himself for playing games, or Harlow for doing it—I didn’t know.

“He screwed the pooch on that one,” Eric muttered as he handed me my cocktail.

“Absolutely,” Cap said as he showed and offered a fresh one to Raye.

“Raye said she was avoiding him,” I noted. “He went the flirt-with-another-chick route.”

“Not a good call,” Jacob, also joining us, grunted, then he shot a flinch toward Alexis who leaned into him and put her hand on his chest in a nonverbalI’m over it, baby.

Oh yeah.

Right.

Jacob had pulled that shit with Alexis too.

“If you only got eyes for her, you should only have eyes for her,” Cap gave us some man wisdom.

“Yep,” Eric agreed.

Shanti showed at our group. “Is Harlow all right?”

“She’s into Javi,” I told her.

“Okay,” Shanti said like she didn’t get it.

“And he was flirting with you,” I pointed out the obvious.

Her eyes got big. “We weren’t flirting. We were just talking. He’s funny. He’s gorgeous. But really, he wasn’t flirting. I saw how he looked at Harlow, and it totally wasn’t that, not only because it wasn’t because he wasn’t taking it there, but because Harlow’s my girl, and I wouldn’t take it there.”

Good to know that about Shanti.

“Well, she doesn’t know that,” Raye said.

“And it looked like flirting,” I semi-repeated.

“Should I go talk to her?” Shanti asked.

I searched for Javi.

He was now chatting with Jeff, Linda and Rhea (Raye’s next-door neighbor) like he hadn’t just blown it huge, the big oaf.

“Let them figure it out,” Eric advised.

“I feel bad,” Shanti mumbled.

“Don’t,” I said. “It’s not on you. Really.”

“All right,” Shanti agreed, but I could tell she wasn’t committed to it.

Ugh.

Javi and Harlow both needed a kick in the ass. If they wanted to play games, great. But collateral damage wasn’t cool.

The music from the speakers cut out and the piano intro to The Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York” started playing from the direction of the stage.

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