I felt like I had to share something with him too. I wanted him to know how much I valued his honesty. This night and the things we were saying to each other felt important, and I wanted to be as open with him as he’d been with me. “My ex broke up with me by letting me know he was going home to marry the girlfriend he’d been with the whole time we were together. I guess we both fell for people that didn’t deserve us.”

He seemed horrified on my behalf and tried to speak a couple of times, but in the end he just lifted his glass to clink it to my beer bottle. “To our battered hearts.”

“To our stronger and wiser hearts,” I replied.

As we smiled at each other, we heard the band getting ready to start playing. There was a DJ on stage mixing some music to get the crowd warmed up, and some of the musicians were fiddling with their instruments. After a moment, a second woman climbed on stage, and I decided she had to be the lead singer. She was wearing a bona fide rock star outfit, complete with brown leather pants, and with her makeup and hair, she could have stepped off the cover of Rolling Stone. When she grabbed the microphone, everyone in the room cheered.

I looked at Elias, impressed. “Wow, she’s popular.”

He shook his head in amusement. “You don’t recognize her?”

I took a closer look as she scanned the crowd and waved back at some of the people in the audience. She spotted Elias and gave him a wink and smile. Then it finally dawned on me.

“Tsehay!”

She winked at me too, and I waved frantically as Elias blew her a kiss, which basically had me swooning.

I was so gone for him. It seemed that my stupid heart had learned nothing after Miguel, and decided it was a great idea to throw myself on the potential emotional landmine that was Elias. A man who was not only in the midst of making some major life decisions, but was also in the closet and on the rebound. And had been burned by a dude with a profile similar to mine.

Did any of this deter my thirst for him? Not even a little a bit.

Self-sabotage, thy name is Desta Joy.

I turned my attention to the band as the first notes of “Love Galore” by SZA sounded out through the space. I immediately stood up and pointed a finger at the stage while grinning at Elias, who had a matching expression on his face. “I have to be standing for this song. God, I love SZA.”