Then she felt a sense of grim coldness; Mark had come here to pick up dates, and probably for that exact reason. Not one of their usual circle would be caught dead in these streets, not even if they got lost.
Gina touched her shoulder, and she flinched. “You okay?”
Kathy nodded. “Yeah. Just never been in a place like this before.”
“I know it looks kinda shitty, but it's really not that bad on the inside. I think the owner just likes to keep the tourists away.” She got out of the car. “C'mon, it'll be quiet for a while yet. I'll show you around.”
Kathy took a deep breath, and got out as well. She followed Gina through a small 'Employees Only' door, which lead to a narrow staircase leading down. There were garish posters in the stairwell of dozens of different heavy metal acts, none of which Kathy recognized. It seemed that they were descending for more than one floor, and then it opened out into a short corridor with a couple of dressing rooms on either side – complete with little star sticker.
“We have bands here pretty regularly,” Gina explained. “Plus we have our own house band every Saturday night, if there isn't something else going on.”
“Just how big is this -” Kathy stopped dead when Gina opened the door at the end of the corridor. This wasn't the greasy dive bar she had expected – the room was enormous, and must have taken up the whole block. The ceiling was better than twenty feet above her head and supported by industrial steel columns. The bar itself ran the length of one wall, with separate booths taking up the opposite wall and tables scattered in between. They had come out just beside the stage, a broad raised platform where a few men were setting up amps and drums. The actual entrance was another set of double doors at the far side.
“Oh, wow,” she said.
“Yeah, everyone's got that reaction at first.” Gina smiled at her. “Come meet the guys.”
There were three of them moving things around on the stage. One of them was tall, lean, and dark-skinned, with tribal tattoos peeking out from under his shirt. The guitar guy – who was carefully tuning a long black bass – was a more normal height, and wore a sleeveless shirt with spiked bracelets.
The one setting up the drums caught her attention. He was almost as tall as Mr. Tribal Tattoos, and twice as broad. The faded Led Zepplin T-shirt he wore strained against his muscled arms and thick torso. He wasn't toned, simply built on a bigger scale than normal, and had a slight gut that suggested he liked either his food or his beer. His long black hair was tied back, and he had a goatee with what looked like a day's worth of stubble growth. Of all of them, he looked the most like he could pick her up in one hand and break her in half.
Kathy was very nervous as she came forward to be introduced to the trio. The place was quiet – only them, another waitress, and a couple of people sitting up at the bar drinking – but she was out of her depth here, in unknown territory, in a parallel world where going to a heavy metal bar was a normal thing to do.
Gina waved at them by way of greeting. “Hey, how you guys doing?”
“You ain't working til six, Gina. You miss us or something?” the guitar guy said playfully. “Who's your friend?”
“This is Kathy. She's, uh, just got some man trouble, so we're hanging here for a while. Kathy, meet Tony, Axeman and Eddie.”
She got smiles and handshakes from all of them. The broad one that seemed so intimidating, Eddie, had a very gentle grip and surprising warmth in his fingers. He was better than six inches taller than her, and couldn't help looming over her a little, but he did try to put her at ease. “Can I buy you a drink, beautiful?” he asked, his voice deep and powerful. “You can tell us all about your man troubles if you want.”
Kathy blushed to her roots. “Uh, sure. Thanks. I mean, if we're not interrupting...”
“I'm all set up here, how about you guys?” He looked to Tony, with the tattoos, and Axeman with the guitar.
“You go on, I'm not done here yet,” said Axeman.
They left him to mess about with his bass, and Gina sat them down at one of the booths and went to collect a few beers from the bar. Kathy still felt uncomfortable, seated as she was beside two men she had never met before, but Tony and Eddie were nothing but friendly.
“You must have some pretty bad trouble to want to hang out here,” Tony said. He had a very slight accent, one that suggested Latino or European descent. “So what happened?”
Kathy didn't know what to say, and felt her face getting red again. Eddie elbowed his friend in the ribs. “And what if she doesn't want to tell us, man? She just met us, c'mon.”
“Alright, I'm just curious-”
“My boyfriend cheated on me,” she blurted out. “I caught him sleeping with another woman last night. And now he's making it seem like I'm the bitch and he's the innocent one.”
The two guys looked at each other for a moment. “Wow. Why'd he do that?” Tony asked. “It kinda seems stupid to me because you're smokin' hot – OW!”
Eddie withdrew his elbow again. “Tony, you remember last week when I said you were being a dick and you better shut up?”
“Ow, yeah, I do.”
“You're doing it again.” He turned
