“I can’t believe I finally did it!” she crowed, her face all smiles.

She plopped down next to me, and I passed her the joint.

“You just need to own that shit, girl. Ain’t nothin’ to it.”

“You’re really great, Phil. I mean, you’re a hard ass, but you’re a lot nicer than Flipper.”

“Yeah, well, he was desperate to shag his cousin. He gets twitchy if he goes without for too long.”

“Oh, yeah?” She blew out her cloud and propped her feet up on the edge of the bench. “What about you?”

I shrugged. “What about me?”

“I heard you and Baby Girl are on the outs.”

Fury sparked behind Kenna’s tattoo. “Who the fuck told you that?”

She shrugged her dainty shoulders. “Everyone’s been talking about it.”

“Everyone…” My inferno flared up. Dropping the roach on the floor, I used my boot to grind it out. “Fuckin’ bullshit.”

I was trying to wrap my head around this little piece of garbage as I leaned back against the bench when Koko decided it would be a good idea to hop on my lap.

Wrapping her little arms around my neck, she straddled my waist. “I’m down to be your little something on the side, if all you need is a bit of—”

Freezing like a deer in headlights, I gasped, “What?”

“You’ve always been my favorite, Phil. All my friends thought Jason was the hot one, but I always wanted you. Tall, dark, and so fuckin’ handsome.”

Then, she fuckin’ smashed her face on mine. Her mouth mushed against my mouth, and I grabbed her waist to push her off me. But she took it as a sign of something else entirely and ground down on me.

My dick couldn’t be bothered. If anything, that motherfucker shriveled up and tried to invert itself. I opened my mouth to yell at her to get off my junk, but she shoved her tongue down my throat.

She tasted so, so, so wrong. Foreign and just…not Kenna.

Standing up, I dumped her assless self on the concrete floor, spitting the taste of her on the ground by her foot, and I wiped my mouth. “What the fuck is wrong with you, Koko?”

“I…I thought…” Her face turned red.

She fuckin’ damn well should be embarrassed.

“I thought we were having a good time—”

“We were! As fuckin’ professionals workin’ together. You…you just fuckin’ contaminated my ass!”

“Wh-what?” she shrieked. “Contaminated?”

“Yeah! Fuckin’ contaminated!” I roared at her.

I was so fuckin’ pissed that I was seeing red. The taste of her coated my mouth, and it was so disgusting to me that I had to spit again.

Pointing at my chest, to Kenna’s tattoo, I snapped, “You see this? It doesn’t fuckin’ read Koko, does it?”

“N-no—”

“N-no? What the fuck, man?”

“I ju-just thought…”

She was terrified, and she fuckin’ should be.

Right then, I hated that little shit and everything about her—the obscene amount of makeup caking her face, her fuckin’ pink shirt and matching Chucks, her squeaky-ass voice that bitched and whined constantly.

“You thought what exactly?” I snarled. “You thought that since my Baby Girl is in no condition to fuck my ass, I’d just stick it in the first thing that offered itself up? Kenna is my whole fuckin’ life! What? You think because she is in pain and can’t handle a decent fuck that I’d just up and find somethin’ to have on the side?”

“Pain?”

My eyes crossed. I was that mad. “Fuck you, you crazy bitch. What kind of person tries to get a man to cheat on the love of his life? What sort of person do you think I am? And who the fuck do you think you are?” I sneered. “It’s women like you, Koko, who ruin it for all the wonderful, decent ones out there. You ain’t nothin’ but cheap groupie shit, and I’m sick of your ass bein’ here. Now, get your shit, and get the fuck out. I’m closin’ down the studio, and I’ll have Flipper let you know if I decide to let your flat ass back in.”

Koko scrambled to her feet, tears pouring down her face, streaking her freaky black eyeliner. “I’m sorry. I didn’t kn-know—”

“Just fuck off,” I snapped. I turned to grab my shirt off the bench when I saw them.

Connor…and Kenna.

By the looks on their faces, they had seen the whole fuckin’ thing.

“Fuck!” I screamed.

Whipping around, I threw the damp, wadded up shirt across the jam-out area. Then, I grabbed a water bottle and chucked it, too, right into Koko’s drum kit. Koko screamed and crouched down into a ball, covering her head with her arms.

Shaking so hard, I was ready to beat something half to death.

That fuckin’ skanky shit shoved her nasty tongue in my mouth, polluting me for my Baby Girl—

“Phil?” Kenna’s voice instantly cooled the raging fire in me, her hand pressing gently between my shoulder blades.

Koko gasped from her hunkered position on the floor. Turning around, I saw her looking at Kenna in surprise. Kenna’s face still had bruises, and her right eye hadn’t fully healed, but it looked so much better. She only looked a little banged up and so, so beautiful.

“Hey, Baby,” I said, looking into her eyes.

I wanted to put my arms around her…so I did. She rested her face above her tattoo and sighed, calming my heart.

“I’m sorry,” said Koko, shaking, while she tried to stand. “Kenna, I’m so—”

Filthy little shit! Pointing at Koko, I shouted, “You dare! You fuckin’ dare say her name when you were willin’ to—”

“Phil,” Kenna said softly.

“She can’t hear you, Koko,” Connor told her. “She lost her hearing in the explosion.”

“I didn’t know—”

“Can you please get her the fuck out of here?” I asked Connor, my patience at an end.

Why she wouldn’t leave, I couldn’t fuckin’ guess.

“Come on, Koko,” said Connor.

The woman turned and jogged out of my sight, Connor sighing and following.

All I could feel right then was my woman pouring her cool, calm waters over my flames. My arms tightened around her, and I rested my chin on top of her head, breathing her in.

“It’s okay,” she told me.

“It ain’t,” I grumped.

“Connor said we could come, so I could feel you playing the drums. Will you play for me?”

I wanted to go home and boil myself, scour my fucking mouth clean. Then, I wanted to kiss every inch of Kenna, tell her I loved her a million different ways. I was through with keeping my distance. I didn’t know what I had been thinking. It had been wrong to leave her like that. It had been selfish on my part. Just because I couldn’t touch her like I wanted to, I’d decided for the both of us that neither of us could have the comfort of the other.

How fuckin’ stupid can I be? No wonder people were talking shit! I fuckin’ treated her like shit! What’s the worst that could’ve happened? I’d have whacked off more?

Kenna had needed me, and I had let her down. Because I was scared to touch her, I had deprived her of everything I had to offer. She needed my support and strength, and I’d abandoned her because she made my dick too hard.

I’m a fuckin’ lowlife loser.

Kenna wrapped her arms around my waist, hugging me tight. “It’s okay, babe,” she told me. “I know you didn’t mean to.”

She could’ve been talking about the fuckin’ Koko episode, but I knew she wasn’t. She knew I had just realized what an absolute douche I was.

“Let’s go home, okay? You can play for me some other time.”

Connor had decided to stay and work on the new music while I took my Baby Girl home to my place. She hadn’t been here since before her clinic blew up, and that was depressing. I hadn’t slept here myself, but I’d been showering here on a daily basis. Kenna could have probably benefited from the tub to soak her sore muscles.

God, I was an utter douche bag. Scum. How could I have had the fuckin’ nerve to leave her alone, to let her wallow in her depression, to fuckin’ contribute to it? Fuck, I hate myself so much right now. I don’t deserve to scrape the dirt from her flip-flops, let alone call myself her man.