An explosive guitarist. A fiery temper. A flame that threatens to die with each meeting...and one slip of the tongue that changes everything. I get a call late one night about some band that got ripped off. When I get there in uniform, it's like showing up to class without pants on. My sneers set them back a notch. I'm no groupie. But this one guitarist in glasses, Spex, isn't afraid of me, so I bite back harder. Later that night, another call arrives, this time it hits home hard. What Spex shows me makes me look twice at him. And it's a long, hard look. More than that, it's a look that makes everything else completely different forever. And I don't think I'm ready for that. *** We're being treated like the dirtbags here, but I get the feeling that this Claudia chick uses a broad stroke with people. Doesn't matter if you're the guitarist in one of the most popular bands ever. She has a silver tongue but I've got ironclad chops. When I follow her to the airport, and back home, having received a mutual call, I realize that her act is just that. My glasses come off and my perspective changes, when I see something in Claudia that I never want to see in myself. My gift to her makes her look twice at me. ...but when the flatline sounds in the Emergency Room, all bets are off. Rock star romance Happily Ever After Hate to love romance Medium heat Drinking Drug abuse Swearing Cliffhanger ending