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Seine in France. The radio blasted out hits and I couldn’t help but roll down the windows and sing my own cover of each song.
    Vaguely, I could see how nuts I was acting. When I got off the highway people around me at stop lights gave my vocals the same odd look I’d seen on my dad. I couldn’t contain it though. It was like that white boy had punctured something in me that had been building up for years. Now the pressure was pouring out any way it could.
    Jada found me giggling at a patio table as I waited for her at the Ham Shop Cafe. It’d been one of our regular spots for years, but it had just now struck me how ridiculous the name was.
    “You high?” she asked. Her hoop earrings jangled as she checked me from every angle. “You look high.”
    “No,” I said, squeezing her into me with a hug. “Just excited for the day.”
    “Alright… Well, let’s get some food in you before you float off.” She sat and started looking for the waitress.
    “Ordered already. I got you Huevos. Is that ok?”
    “Sure.” She sighed and leaned in on folded arms. “Alright, tell me what’s going on.”
    I fidgeted on the table a bit, wondering just how to tell my best friend what happened. Finally the precise words made their way to my lips. “I got fucked in a car last night!”
    “Holy crap. Really? When?”
    “In the employee parking lot, right after work. Remember that guy who tipped me big? He stayed, and…”
    “Jesus, Gabi. Jesus!”
    “And Hallelujah!”
    It felt so good to let the truth out. She started pressing for details and I gave every juicy bit. Watching her face deepen from curiosity to attraction at my description of his body made me feel a little less crazy. He had looked that good. I wasn’t nuts to want him so quick.
    “So you’ve been like this since?” she asked.
    “No, it felt wrong last night. I think he wanted to talk, but I just kinda ran away.”
    “That sounds more like the Gabi I know. You used a condom right?”
    The coffee came and I pushed it towards her. “God, Mom, yes, ok?”
    No need to mention that I hadn’t been the one pushing for protection.
    “Well, ok, good then. I’m glad to see you having fun. I told you to live a little right?”
    “This is at least a medium amount.”
    “Yeah, good.” She beamed at me. “Alright Ms. Rocketeer, what do you want to do today?”
    “Anything, everything. Just consider me a puppy dog.”
    “Jamal and I were going to jam a bit and do a small show at Wayne State. You can tag along.”
    I remembered myself singing on the highway. Watching their band live sounded even better. What else was I gonna do? Study for next semester’s classes?
    “Sounds great.”
    “And then Jamal’s been dying to go see some underground fight thing. His friend’s in it or something. I told him I might go, but I’d love to have company of the female sort.”
    My giddiness popped like a balloon. “What sort of fight?”
    “Some martial arts mix, I don’t know. It’s not like I follow these things. It’s for guys, really.”
    “Yeah…I don’t know. It seems kinda brutal.”
    I didn’t have any desire to see two men draw blood, but I’d have been lying if the more troubling thought was seeing Sean in that ring. Or worse, him seeing me. I couldn’t land a finger on why. It just felt like another hit of this might do some permanent damage when I was already floating on the last one.
    Or maybe I was afraid I might get addicted.
    “That’s fine,” Jada said. “Maybe we two can convince him to do something else.”
    The food came and we chowed through it. Jada gabbed about family and her music and classes. Even with my new energy, I tried to listen, but my mind drifted off into pleasant memory. I wondered whether Sean felt like this every morning. I knew this couldn’t be his first time doing that, not by a long shot. But I wished he could feel what I felt. For a flash, I reconsidered attending the fight, but the thought fled quickly.
    We went