The Forever of Ella and Micha

on. “I’m only nervous for you.”
    Ever since we left New York, our relationship has been on a strict friends basis. She seemed to close the door when we returned to our real lives so I backed off, even though I didn’t want to.
    “Did you come back here just to psych me out?” I joke to cover up the sexual tension. I rake my hands through my hair and glance over my shoulder at the people pouring in through the front door. “Because that is very mean of you.”
    She throws her arms around my neck and bites at my earlobe. “I’m feeling very mean tonight.”
    Gently pushing her back by the shoulder, I notice her eyes are glossy and dilated. “Are you drunk?”
    She bobs her head up and down, looking cute as hell. “I had a rough night so Lila gave me some shots of Bacardi.”
    “Lila gave you Bacardi?” I question with a doubtful arch of my eyebrow. “She doesn’t seem like the Bacardi type.”
    “Well… Ethan gave it to her.” She teeters to the side, falling toward the floor, and my arm snakes around her waist.
    I help her recompose her balance and keep a hand on her side. “Are you going to be okay?”
    “I’ll be fine…” Her eyes drift to the middle of the room where people are dancing beneath the bright lights. “We should dance.”
    Suppressing a laugh, I scoot us to the side when a group of rough-looking guys walks by. I turn her back to the wall and she leans against it while I brace a hand possessively beside her head. “Ella May, I have to play in, like, five minutes. I can’t dance right now.”
    She pouts out her bottom lip, sulking and batting her eyelashes. “Pretty please.”
    “Ella…” I start through a laugh and then my shoulders jerk upward as one of her hands rubs up the front of my jeans over my hard cock. I snag her hand before she can stick it down the front of my jeans. “Baby, I think you might be a little drunk, so take it easy, okay?”
    Her free hand begins to seek the same area when Ethan and Lila appear in the doorway. Ethan’s carrying a beer in his hand and Lila has a phone up to her ear, talking really loudly over the noisy room behind us.
    “So she found you,” Ethan calls out with a smirk. “Thank God. She wouldn’t shut up about you.”
    Ella burrows her face into my chest. “I’m tired.”
    “How much did you let her drink?” I ask Ethan, annoyed. “Too much, obviously.”
    Ethan shakes his head and tips his head back to take a swing of his beer. “She chose to drink. I left them out in the living room for, like, fifteen minutes while I was taking a shower, getting ready for this little shindig. When I came out, there was a half a bottle of our Bacardi missing and these two were in the kitchen drunk off their asses.”
    Lila stumbles in her heels and supports herself with a hand against the wall. “Well, I don’t really give a shit what you do,” she says into the phone. “I don’t want you coming over.”
    A big grin rises across Ethan’s red-tinted face as he points at Lila. “She’s breaking up with some dude over the phone. It’s fucking hilarious.”
    “Are you drunk?” I accuse, stumbling backward as Ella puts all her weight against me.
    Ethan nods his head. “Maybe a little.”
    I smooth Ella’s hair away from her face. “Who drove?”
    “We took a taxi.” Ethan gulps down his beer and sets the empty bottle down near the wall with many discarded bottles and glasses. “I’m not stupid enough to drive drunk.”
    Ella cups her hand around my ear and whispers, “But he didn’t pay the cab driver. He made us jump out and run.”
    I sigh and put my arm around her lower back. “Let’s go get you three sat down, so I can focus on what I need to do.”
    I choose a booth in the far corner and ask the waitress who showed me where everything was to keep an eye on them and not serve them any more alcohol. They’re trashed—beyond trashed and it’s only going to lead to trouble.
    Ella rests her head on the table with a sad, puppy-dog look on her face and I brush her hair away from her sweaty forehead.
    I crouch down beside her and ask in a low voice, “Did something happen tonight that upset you?”
    She shakes her head and turns her face away from me. “Nothing happened. I just want to go home and go to bed.”
    She’s lying, but I can’t pick her brain right now. Even though it nearly kills me, I leave the table and head for the backstage area to collect my guitar. When I step out onstage and into the light, the