Chapter 5

"What's your pleasure, little sister?"

"Hmm." Distracted, Jade glanced up, smiled vaguely. "It's wonderful. The music. It makes my heart hurt." Bianca lifted a brow. The girl had a bright and pretty face, she mused. Didn't look much like a lunatic with that tipped nose and those long-lidded eyes. "You drinking or just taking up space?"

"Oh." Of course, Jade realized, a place like this needed to sell drinks. "It's whiskey music," she said with another smile. "I'll have a whiskey."

Bianca's brow only arched higher. "You don't look old enough to be ordering whiskey, little sister." Jade didn't bother to sigh. It was an opinion she heard constantly. She flipped open her purse, pulled out her driver's license. Bianca took it, studied it. "All right, Jade Rosalie Garcia, I'll get your whiskey."

Thanks." Content, Jade rested her chin on her fists again and just listened. It surprised her when Bianca came back not with one glass of whiskey but two, then folded that glamorous body into the chair next to her.

"So, what are you doing in a place like this, young Jade? You've got a Rainbow Room face."

Jade opened her mouth, then realized she could hardly say she'd followed her mysterious neighbor here. "I don't live far from here. I suppose I just followed an impulse." She lifted the whiskey, gestured with it to the stage. "I'm glad I did," she said, then drank. Bianca's lips pursed. The girl might look like a varsity cheerleader, but she drank her whiskey like a man. "You go wandering around the streets alone at night, somebody's going to eat you up, little sister."

Jade's eyes gleamed over the rim of her glass. "Oh, I don't think so. Big sister." She said sarcastically then Bianca nodded.

"Alright then, I'm Bianca Pardue." She touched her glass to Jade's. "This is my place."

"I like your place, Bianca."

"Thanks." Bianca let loose that rich laugh again. "But you sure like my man there. You've had your pretty blue-eyes on him since you came in."

Thoughtfully, Jade swirled her whiskey while she debated how to play it. Though she had no doubt she could handle herself on the streets—or anywhere else, for that matter—Bianca outweighed her by at least thirty pounds. And as she'd said, it was her place. Her man. No point in making a potential new friend who want to rip out her lungs at their first meeting.

"He's very attractive," Jade said casually. "It's hard not to look. So I'll keep looking if it's all the same to you. I doubt his eyes are going to wander when he's got someone like you in focus."

Bianca's teeth flashed in a brilliant grin. "Maybe you can take care of yourself after all. You're a smart girl, aren't you?" Jade chuckled into her whiskey. "Oh, yeah. I am. And I do like your place. I like it a lot. How long have you owned it?"

"This? Two years here."

"And before? It's New Orleans I'm hearing in your voice, isn't it?"

Bianca inclined her head. "You've got good ears."

"I do, actually, for dialects, but yours is one I couldn't miss. I have family members in New Orleans. My late grandmother grew up there."

"I don't know any Garcia's in New Orleans."

"She wasn't a Garcia, she was my maternal Grandmother."

"Alright then, but i do know some Garcias in spain. Not personally but i've heard of them, they own a jewelry company. I have few of there jewelry brands."

"Uhm..ohh okay... that's good to hear." Jade gulped her glass of whiskey.

Bianca eased back. "There are not many Garcia's around though...or are you related to the famous Garcias of Garcia Gemstones in spain?... you're from Spain right?"

Jade burst out laughing..."I wish i was related to them, I'm from spain but from an infamous clan of Garcia's."

Jade laughed out loud and Bianca surprisingly Joined her.

Vincent didn't know how to figure it. There was Bianca, a woman he considered the most sane of anyone he knew, huddled together with the pretty crazy woman, apparently already really close friends. Sharing whiskey, laughs. Holding hands the way women do. For more than an hour they sat together in the back of the room.

Now and then, Jade would begin what could only have been one of her chattering monologues, her hands gesturing, her face mobile. Bianca would lean back and laugh, or lean forward, shaking her head in amazement.

"Look at that, Jeff." Vincent leaned on the piano.

Jeff wiggled his fingers loose, then lit a cigarette. "Like a couple of hens in the coop. That's a pretty girl there, my man. Got sparkle to her."

"I hate sparkle," Vincent muttered, and no longer in the mood to play the piano. "Catch you next time."

"I'll be here."

He thought he should just walk out, but he was just a little irritated to have his good friend getting chummy with his lunatic. Besides, it would give him some satisfaction to let his nosy neighbor know he was onto her.

But when he stopped by the table, Jade only glanced up and smiled at him. "Hi? Aren't you going to play anymore? It was wonderful."

"You followed me."

"I know. It was rude. But I'm so glad I did. I loved listening, and I might never have met Bianca otherwise. We were just—"

"Don't do it again," he said shortly, and stalked to the door.

"Ooooh, he's plenty pissed off," Bianca said with a chuckle. "Got that ice in his eyes, chills down to bone."

"I should apologize," Jade said as she bolted to her feet. "I don't want him to get angry with you."

"Me? He's..." Bianca was cut short.

"I'll come back soon." She hugged bianca surprisingly, making the woman blink in surprise. "Don't worry, I'll smooth things over." When she dashed out, Bianca simply stared after her, then let out one of her long laughs. "Little sister, you've got no idea what you're in for. Then again," she mused, "neither does sugar lips."