"You just had to buy him a sweet ass guitar, didn't you," Angel complained in a monotone.

We looked at each other from opposite ends of the couch for a moment, staring dully. The floor was covered with wrapping paper that Jackie had careless tossed away after opening each gift. The fairy had gone ballistic over my present. I ain't kidding. Not even I saw his reaction coming. He'd jumped off his chair and hugged me. Apparently the guitar was signed by someone the kid liked—thus the high price.

Total accident on my part, but still, I couldn't help but enjoy the fact that it'd given him something to grin about.

"Man, I spent like five hours trying to find him a fucking present. Didn't know what the hell to get him. I found that CD he's been scrounging the internet for, and then you had to get him a guitar signed by some lame-ass twenty-something-year-old punk-rocker I never heard of."

I shrugged. "What can I say? It's a gift."

"Pftt. A gift. You prolly walked into some trashy music store and pointed at the first thing you saw on the wall. Took you what, ten minutes?"

"Five, actually..."

"Yeah, see, that's my point. You just threw money around and got your way, just like always."

"Ain't my fault you went cheap, sweetheart," I said, rearranging myself to a more comfortable position.

"Don't even go there, man," he said, sitting up a little straighter like he was about to launch into a lecture about my spending habits. He took a breath like he was about to get started, but Tonia walked into the room with three open beers in her hands, distracting him.

"I need to borrow my man for a while, Angel," she said, handing him one of the damp bottles. She winked at him. "You don't mind, right?"

He leaned back, taking a sip and resolving to focus on the TV. "Pffsh. You want him, he's all yours, Tonni."

I smiled a little as my girl slapped a beer into one of my palms and then dragged me to my feet by my shirt collar. I chased her up the stairs at a slow jog, being careful not to spill my drink.

I suppose I should've guessed we were headed for my bedroom, but for what purpose didn't really hit me until I'd shut the door behind us and walked over to sit beside Tonia on my bed. We sat there for a while just enjoying the quiet, and the ice cold beer. I kept reaching over as if to touch her breasts, and she kept playfully slapping my hand away, a game we'd started sometime in high school and never grown tired of.

"Sort of missed you this week," she finally admitted, letting her weight rest behind her on one arm. "Seems like I never see you when I come over to do exercises with Jack and Angel."

"Yeah, we should really work on that," I said, taking another swig.

Inevitably we were going to make love that afternoon, but I wasn't in a hurry. The mood wasn't right for mad passion, especially with so many people downstairs.

She finished hers first, setting it down on the dresser and looking over at me.

"You know, Bobby, I think there's something I forgot to mention when I got here today."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. You're really hot with short hair."

I nodded appreciatively, taking a moment to soak in her comment. "Well, you know, I'm really hot in general, but when I try..."

She smiled. "You need to learn when to shut up."

"Hmm, make me," I said, acting like I wasn't watching her every move.

She scooted over to my side and kissed me, one of her small hands gripping the front of my shirt.

"You shaved," she whispered.

I pulled her closer, wrapping an arm around her waist and kissing her again. When we came up for air I noticed her slight flush, the spark in her eyes.

"Well, at least there's still one way to make you put a sock in it," she opined, looping her arms around my neck.

"Sure you wanna do this now?" I asked. "Jerry's kids are over."

Tonia nodded. "Yep, that's it. The world's fastest buzz-kill. You working tonight, Tough Guy?"

"Na, not until tomorrow night."

"Okay, so we'll save the romance for tonight. Deal?"

I kissed her again, deciding I'd think about it before responding.

We all went out to a bar to celebrate Jack's birthday that evening. Not that Jack came with us. With his damaged lung, he would've choked to death on the smog. It was me, Angel, and Tonia. Jerry and his family stayed with the fairy; not that he needed the company. He had a new guitar. We'd be lucky if he spoke to any of us within the next half century.

Angel found some girls he knew from high school within two minutes of entering the door, and disappeared to go chill with them. Tonia and I sat at the bar, shooting the shit with the bartender, watching a baseball game on TV. I had one round of whiskey, then stuck to beer the rest of the night. Tonia had a couple beers, then switched to soda. Probably figured she'd have to drive my drunk ass home, and she wasn't going to count on Angel to stay sober enough to do it.

I took a trip to the bathroom around one in the morning. I'd drank enough to get a good buzz going, and I figured soon we'd need to get home, or else I'd be way too tired to take advantage of the pleasant evening Tonia had promised me.

The second I stepped out of the men's room, I knew there was something off. I couldn't immediately pick out Tonia in the crowd, because some jackass had sat down on my empty stool beside her.

It was a young guy. Between Angel and Jerry's age, I guessed, when I got closer. He was trying to hold a conversation with Tonia, not paying any attention to what went on around him. White, drunk, and stupid. Three deadly ingredients when you live in inner-city Detroit.

"Yo, asshole," I addressed him, having walked up behind him.

He didn't stop chattering on to Tonia. "Yeah, you should see my boat sometime. When it gets warmer you could come out with me and my friends. We tube and ski. Do you water-ski? You look like you'd be great at it."

I'm not sure what pissed me off more. The fact he was trying to pick her up, or the fact she sat there with a calm smile on her face, absently playing with the straw in her drink, not even bothering to fend him off.

I slapped him across the back of the head hard enough to make his brain bounce.

He grabbed at the back of his skull. "Ow. What the fuck is your problem, man?" he asked, having turned half-way around to look at me.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I hit you?" I asked, pouring on the sarcasm.

"Yeah, you did. What the fuck's your problem?" he whined.

I pointed at Tonia. "She's my girl. That's my seat. Get up," I said, jerking my thumb in the general direction away from the bar. "Get the fuck up," I repeated when he didn't start moving fast enough. I grabbed him by the collar and helped him along, reclaiming my stool.

I settled on my seat, looking over at Tonia. She was sipping her soda through a straw. She smiled at my scowl, putting her drink down and reaching over to tug my sleeve.

"Come on, hon. Let's go, huh?" she asked.

I shook my head, my eyes rolling up to look at the ceiling. She had to know her mellow demeanor around that guy had ticked me off.

It had always bothered me when she wouldn't react to a situation. She'd just sat back and watched me blow up a million times in the years we'd been together, but I'd only seen her get truly emotional on a very small number of occasions. I could only remember seeing her cry twice. Once when her dad died, and again a year or two later, when we were in our early twenties, not too long before I got kicked out of the league and left Detroit. Both times she'd come to the window of the room I'd shared with Jack in the middle of the night; and after I'd let her in, she'd lay down under the covers with me, trying to muffle her crying against my chest so Jack wouldn't hear.

I'd never found out why she'd come to me that second time. It'd disturbed me so much to see her in pain, I didn't even consider asking what was wrong.

She slipped off her stool, leaning over to nip my ear. I felt her squeeze the back of my neck. "Come on, baby. Let's go home," she whispered in my ear.

I nodded, giving in. God, it was sick how good she was at making me want her.

"Want me to go find Angel?" she asked.

"Na. He ditched us. We're leavin' 'um," I said, pulling out my wallet and putting down money to cover the tab. The bartender was going to get one hell of a tip, just so I could get laid as fast as possible.