Nashville Eve

I didn't know what to expect in Nashville. I hadn't been in touch with Eve beyond a few phone calls in years, and those years felt like decades. It was like driving into my past to the time before Monica, before I turned my life upside down for better and for worse in my efforts to hang on to her slippery affections.

We pulled in, found Eve's place and she was lovely. She had a small clean apartment in a really pretty part of town. I don't know what part of town as my sense of direction is nill, but we were walking distance from an ivy and moss covered building with Vanderbilt's name on it. Pete excused himself to go get some cigarettes and Eve pounced on me. Eve was good at pouncing on me.

It was strange to be kissing her again so quickly, we'd hardly spoken. I considered putting a note on the door aking Pete to stay away for a spell, but I decided against it, instead surprising myself by saying "Hey, Eve. It's great to see you, really great. This is just such a head trip. I need to slow down a little bit. I mean, don't get me wrong, I hope there's more kissin' later, but I'm just coming off a really strange adventure." Eve was understanding. She ran her fingers through my hair while I caught a nap after an all night drive.

When I woke up Pete was back and the three of us went to Waffle House for grits. I loved that Waffle House had records on their jukebox with songs about Waffle House. I will someday own one of those records, no matter what I have to do to get it.

That night, or perhaps the next night we decided to camp out next to a tobacco field. Eve told us a few things she'd learned about Nashville's favorite crop. Pesticides were unnecessary as bugs were smart enough to stay off of the stuff. We laughed at this, and smoked some cigarettes. Pete crashed on the bottom bed and with the pop top up, Eve and took what we'd come to call the attic. We got to kissing again. She was a wonderful kisser. I ran my hands up her side, and as I found her breast things were heating up in a hurry. Eve started Crying.

"I'm sorry, dammit, this is embarassing. I didn't want to cry."

"It's alright Eve." I pulled her to me. She was in a weird space herself. She'd just recently broken up with the man she'd been dating for the past few years and she was still not quite used to the idea. She wasn't even in a good place to get used to the idea as it was an ambiguous break up with some dating and the ever popular attempt at being friends with the ex continuing on.

I tried my best be reassuring and to tell her that I could relate and to not be embarassed. We fell asleep holding each other. In the morning more southern breakfast, followed by falafel for lunch and it seemed the ex would be meeting us for live music that night. He was a music executive and we'd be seeing some bands that he was working with playing a free show in the parking lot of a Tower Records. Sounded fine, as long as we found dinner first. I was starving. Eve took us to a patio burger joint type place for veggie burgers and fries and when we were horsing around she made a comment along the lines of "I hope you don't embarass me in front of my ex." Well, that was one sure way to guarantee we would be on our best behavior.

Pete and I found some 40 ouncers of malt liquor and got to drinking. We hocked loogies, and observed that the poppy top forty new country we were listening to was, well, crap. Eve invited us to get lost and we did. The bus barely made it back to California, dying just blocks from my brother's house in Riverside. Eve and her ex were married soon after.

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