Early in the morning on the day that JC was arriving, a phone call woke Eva from a deep sleep.
“Hello?” She answered groggily.
“Hey Angel, did I wake you?” It was JC, she sat up in bed suddenly awake.
“No, well yeah.” She looked at her clock, “Josh, it’s five am.”
“Oh, geez I’m sorry I forgot about the time thing again.” His voice sounded hoarse, like he had been yelling.
“That’s fine, what’s up?”
“I kind of have some bad news.”
“What happened? Are you sick? Because a week with me will cure you up in no time.”
“That’s just it Eva, I’m not coming. We got called in to do some stupid show and argh! Trust me I fought it all the way. I’m just so frustrated right now. All I want to do is get away from this and I can’t. I feel so trapped.” He sounded desperate. Eva’s heart sank, she had been so excited to see him and now he wasn’t coming, but she couldn’t let him hear that. He needed her to be positive so that he could feel better.
“Well honey that’s something that you can’t control. When do have time off next?”
“I don’t know, probably when I drop dead.”
“Don’t say that Josh Chasez, you know I don’t like it when people joke about dying.”
“I’m sorry Angel, it’s just the way I feel right now.”
“Well when is that show?”
“Tomorrow, right smack dab in the middle of the vacation.”
“Do you have the rest of the time off?”
“We have one day, the rest of the time we have to be in the studio to record more songs.”
“Then this is what you do, on that day off you should go and spend the day by yourself. Go off on your own, drive somewhere. That way you can have a mini-vacation okay?”
“I guess, but all I really want to do is see you. I can’t tell you how much I was looking forward to seeing you.”
“I was too Josh, but you know what? I’ll still be here the next time you have a couple days off and you can see me then. Really it’s not then end of the world, it’s just an obstacle. You’re not missing much, it’s actually quite boring here.”
“Yeah, well it sounded like paradise to me.”
“Joshua Chasez you stop this right now. You are not to feel sorry for yourself, understand? You are to go and do those shows and record like your life depended on it, because it’s your dream, and not many people get their dreams. So you should embrace it for all it’s worth and get the most out of it, you never know when it could end.” Eva said sternly and JC was quite for a few seconds,
“God I hate it when you’re right.”
“Well someone has to be.” She laughed.
“Yeah, I guess so.” He laughed back.
“It’s good to hear you laugh.”
“It feels good to laugh.”
“I’m glad.”
“Well I don’t want to keep you up any longer than I have to. Go back to bed. If I'm guessing right, you were probably up late doing something or other.”
“You know me too well Josh.”
“Yeah, I do. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Talk to you later, have a good week and a good mini-vacation.”
“I will, thanks. Bye Angel.”
“Bye Josh.” Eva hung up the phone and flopped back in bed, she was crestfallen. She had been so excited to see JC.
JC called Eva more often now, almost daily, and she figured that he was trying to make up for not coming to see her. Eva didn’t care, she loved talking to him. She had missed talking to him everyday like they used to and it was the best they could do considering his hectic schedule.
Sam worked at his own computer business that was flourishing. He fixed computers as well as designed web pages for big companies. Anna worked as Sam’s personal assistant. Kerrie was finishing up her degree in art, she specialized in ceramics. Roxy was still trying to decide what to do with her life. She had a degree in marketing, but didn’t know if that was her calling. Really she wanted to be an actress but her conservative parents would have killed her. So she was basically drifting aimlessly through life.
“So what do you want to do tonight?” Roxy asked.
“I don’t know, but I want to do something. Where’s the nearest night club?” Eva replied.
“In LA and you usually have to know someone to get in. We could go to the bar.”
“Nah I’m tired of both of those scenes.” Eva said.
“Yeah me too. There is a definite lack of nightlife in town. I wish a new bar or a club would open.”
“Yeah, that’d be great.” Eva thought for a minute and had a revelation, “We could open a bar.”
“Eva, opening a bar takes a lot of money and there’s a liquor license and just stuff.”
“Don’t worry about the money I have that covered. Let’s just say that I have some stored away for a raining day and as for the other stuff just leave the legal crap to me, I happen to know a very good lawyer who could help us."
“Ohmygod! You're really serious aren't you?” She asked and Eva nodded,
"Yeah, I am."
"Holy shit!" Roxy screeched, “This is so exciting! Come on let’s go to my house and start planning! I have so many ideas!”
They both raced home and made out the blue prints for the new bar. Over the next few weeks they got the ball rolling. Eva’s uncle helped them start up even though he didn’t like the idea of Eva working in a bar but he didn’t have a choice. He figured out all the insurance and the licenses that they needed.
It wasn’t long before they had the grand opening of ‘The Wild Pussy Cat’. Roxy and Eva became bartenders and hired Kerrie and Anna to help too. It wasn’t too bad, the hardest part of their job was learning how to serve with flair, which meant tossing bottles. Eva was the best at it and the other girls learned quickly. They hired Alex, Sam and Garrett on as bouncers.
The bar was a hit, it was the hottest one in the area and it was packed every night. The bar had a dance floor with a DJ booth and a jukebox for when they didn’t have a DJ. It was a mix between a western saloon and a modern nightclub. Eva ended up being the grand hostess of the bar. Most nights she was rarely behind the bar because she was walking around making sure everyone was having a good time.
One night as they were cleaning up the bar, one of Eva’s favorite songs came on the jukebox, ‘He wasn’t man enough for me’ by Toni Braxton. She started singing along as she walked along cleaning the bar. The other girls began singing it with her and soon they were dancing around the bar. Eva grabbed the mike and hopped on a table. She was dancing and singing having the time of her life. After the song was done she looked around and the girls were just staring at her.
“What?” She said to the awe stuck girls.
“Where did you learn to sing like that?” Anna asked.
“And dance, it was amazing!” Kerrie finished.
“Sixteen years of dance and singing lessons of course.” She laughed. “Oh come on, I’m not that good.”
“Yes, you are. It was like having Britney Spears or Madonna here but only cooler cause it was you.” Anna said and the other girls agreed. Eva blushed.
“You guys are sweet, thank you, but enough about me. Let’s get this bar cleaned and go home!”
The next night Eva was roaming around the floor again. Anna caught Roxy’s and Kerrie’s eye as they were serving and smiled, they were all thinking the same thing. She went over to the jukebox slyly and set it to play, ‘He wasn’t man enough for me’. The song came on and Eva sang along to herself. Suddenly Roxy came up to her and put a mike in her hand.
“Go show em what you got.” She said as she smiled at her. Eva shook her head.
“I can’t.”
“You can and you will.” Roxy said as she pushed her up on a chair. The crowd cheered her on. Eva got into the song and ended up on the table dancing her heart away. The crowd loved it and wanted an encore. So she sang, ‘Free’, by Mya. From that night on it became a nightly ritual for Eva to entertain by singing along to the jukebox or the DJ.