"So we were going to celebrate finding a new singer by having going out for a drink," Sullivan said. "Care to join us?"

They were standing outside the studio in Soho in the sultry summer night. The sun had just set, and the city was bustling and noisy in the best possible way, redolent with the smells of coffee and food.

"Really?" Momoko asked.

"Really truly, you have no idea how relieved we are," Tommy said with a nod. "We were at our wits' end, you saved us, for real."

"No, I mean, I believe you about the drink, I just meant you don't mind me tagging along?" Momoko clarified. "We just met and everything..." she let the sentence hang there.

"We wouldn't ask if we didn't want you," Sullivan assured her. "Besides, you're the reason we're celebrating, of course you need to come, right, boys?"

They all made sounds of assent.

"Okay, I'm in," Momoko agreed happily. "I should warn you, though, I can drink like a sailor. My father is descended from Scotsmen who drank ale for breakfast, so the legends go."

"That sounds like a challenge to me," Jude said, throwing an arm around Momoko's shoulder. "Let's go, before it gets too crowded."

The bar was the guys' regular hang out, it seemed, for they were greeted by name when they came in the door.

"And who do you have with you?" asked the bartender, whose name was Clive.

"This is our new lead singer, Momoko McDaniels," Jude announced with a flourish as he presented her to Clive.

"That's a mouthful, and the hell you say," Clive responded, eyes wide. "What happened to Marshall?"

"He left us, if you can believe it," Tommy answered. "For another band. Two weeks before a gig, three months before Battle of the Bands."

"What a dick!" Clive burst out. He looked at Momoko. "So you're a canary, eh? You can sing?"

"I'm okay," Momoko answered with a laugh.

"She's incredible," Dane said with a smile. "You should hear her, Clive, honestly. We're here to celebrate finding her, that's how good she is."

Clive smiled at Dane. "Okay, then, first round's on me." He turned the smile to Momoko. "Pick your poison, er, Kokomo. What's that name mean, anyway?"

Momoko laughed. "It's Momoko, and it means Peach child or Peach girl, I guess." She looked at the young men around her. "Since it's a celebration, how about we start with shots? Vodka?"

The guys looked at each other.

Whoa.

"A young lady after my own heart," Clive declared, putting a hand over the body part in question. He pulled out a bottle of Grey Goose and laid out six shot glasses.

"Uh, Clive? There are only five of us," Sully pointed out.

"You don't think I'm going to celebrate with you?" Clive twirled his gray mustache. "I'm just as happy as you are that you found, um, Peaches, you know?" He poured six shots and put the bottle away. "And I'm not only the bartender, I'm the owner, I can do what I want, right?"

He gestured to the glasses, but then held up a hand. "Hold on, hold on, Peaches, show me some ID, first. I didn't get a good look at you before, but now that I do, you look about fourteen years old, young lady!"

Momoko laughed and showed him her driver's license.

He looked at it, and looked back at her.

"You're twenty-two? Really?"

Momoko nodded. "Almost twenty-three, she pointed out. "See? My birthday's in two months."

"Okay," he agreed.

They picked up their shots and toasted.

"To Peaches," Clive declared.

The guys shrugged.

"To Peaches," they repeated before tossing their drinks down.

"Welcome to the band," they all told Momoko.

They thanked Clive and took a booth at one of the open front windows facing the street, and switched to beer.

"So, do you write music, also?" Sully asked. His eyes gleamed with interest.

"A little, but it's pretty much crap," Momoko responded, shaking her head. "Like I said, I started out in theatre, Rodgers and Hammerstein, the whole nine yards. I didn't start thinking about pop music until just a few years ago."

"Do you play any instruments?" This from Dane.

Tommy looked at him in surprise. It usually took him a long time to warm up to people.

"I play a little piano, you know, enough to write songs? But my instrument of choice is drums," Momoko said with a grin.

Tommy stared at her, eyebrow raised. "Really?"

Momoko nodded. "I played percussion in the band all through grade school and high school. That's kind of how I learned to play the piano. I played bells and xylophone and marimba? I even got a semester of harp lessons from an old Japanese lady in high school, which was pretty cool."

"And how's your Japanese?" Sully asked curiously. "I mean, your English is perfect. How'd that happen, if you grew up in Japan?"

"I went to an international school," Momoko replied, taking a swallow of her beer. "We spoke both, and had classes in both. My spoken Japanese is fine, though my written Japanese kinda blows, if I'm being honest." She smiled, and all four boys smiled back.

"I'm the same with Chinese," Dane said. "It drives my dad crazy. I can speak it okay, but my reading and writing are awful."

"Looks who's turned into a Chatty Cathy all of a sudden," Jude remarked, putting an arm around Dane and giving it a friendly shake.

Momoko laughed at how Jude said "chatty," and the boys turned to her again.

"What? Should I not have laughed? His accent is just so pretty--" Momoko began. "But now you're all looking at me."

"Well, your laugh is just so pretty," Tommy said softly.

Momoko swallowed and bit her lips together. "Wow, thanks," she responded. "That's really nice of you."

There was momentary silence, then Sullivan pushed Tommy playfully into the back of the seat. "You smooth talker, you," he said with a laugh. "Getting all mushy with the cute girl."

And the moment passed.

But as the conversation ebbed and flowed around them, Momoko made eye contact with Tommy over her beer glass, her gaze contemplative.

The bar had gotten loud and crowded as the evening wore on, as had the streets outside. It was a Friday night in late July, and everyone was out, it seemed.

They ordered a pitcher of margaritas next, along with a plate of nachos, and raised their voices as they talked, to compensate for the noise level both inside the bar, and what was coming through the open window.

"So do you good looking and complimentary guys all have girlfriends, or what?" Momoko asked as she licked some salt off the edge of her glass.

Sully shook his head. "Not at the moment. Jude did until about a month ago, but then she broke up with him for being--what was it again, Jude? A quote unmitigated prick unquote." Sully tousled Jude's head, though Jude moved his head away in irritation.

"Knock it off, you wanker," he complained, though he smiled a little bit.

"Oh, ouch," Momoko commiserated. "I'm so sorry, Jude, that sounds awful."

"It's okay, she was a right stroppy cow most of the time," Jude said.

"She was a really great baker, though," Dane lamented. Apparently alcohol loosened him up. "She was always bringing us the most amazing cupcakes and cookies and stuff? God, that shit was good." He looked hopefully at Momoko. "Peaches, I don't suppose you're a good baker or cook or anything?"

Momoko shook her head sadly. "I'm sorry, I can barely boil water."

"What about you?" Jude asked. "Any significant other?"

Momoko shook her head. "No," she said briefly. "No one."

And everyone could tell that she didn't want to say anything more about it.

Sullivan couldn't stand to see the sad look on her face, so he launched into a funny story about something that had happened to him in a bookstore the week before, and he was rewarded with her lovely laugh again. She laughed so hard she had tears of mirth in her eyes, and had her hand on his shoulder as she leaned forward, her long hair hanging in a curtain around her face.

"Momo? Is that you?"

The strident voice was so loud it carried through the window and over all of the clinking, music, and voices inside the bar.

Momoko sat up, her laughter stopping as abruptly as if she'd been slapped.

The words had been spoken by a man who was walking by on the street, a tall, thin blond in jeans and a polo. The two friends with him saw Momoko at the same time and shook their heads, knowing what was coming.

"Oh, fuck," Momoko murmured. She looked at the four people she was with. "I'm so, so sorry about this, you guys, okay? Really."

She rose and leaned out the window, which came to just above her hips. "Yes, it's me. Please don't make a scene, Hunter, just go home, okay? Please leave."

His friends had already grasped him by the arms and were trying to lead him away, but he was having none of it. He shook them off and turned back to Momoko. "The hell I will! We haven't even been broken up one day and you're already out with three guys? Oh, wait, hold on, hold on, four guys?"

Momoko turned to go out and talk to him, but she couldn't get out of the booth, as Jude and Tommy were blocking her on one side, Sully and Dane on the other. They saw her dilemma and began to scoot, but she waved her hand for them to forget it.

"Hunter, this isn't the time or place for this, okay? Look, if you want, I'll call you later, so please, just go?" She looked at his friends. "Ryan, Jerry, please take him?"

"You can't just talk to them like I'm not here." Hunter stepped closer to the open window and grabbed Momoko's arm. From this close, she could smell his breath and she knew that he was drunk.

This got better and better.

The boys behind her had all risen in a body and were crowded around her, their presence threatening.

"Let go of me."

"Momo, babe, why'd you break up with me?" Now Hunter sounded pitiful, like he was going to cry. "We were so good together. We had something really special."

"We had something really awful," Momoko said through gritted teeth. "And now it's really over. Let go." And she twisted her arm out of his grip.

"Why? You already fucking one of these guys? Or all of them?" Hunter leaned in the window to look at the members of Peppermint Silk. "This is my girl, please don't prong her. She's really special to me, she's going to come back to me--"

"Hunter, shut up, you're embarrassing me!" Momoko's voice was like dark steel. "Now go."

Suddenly, Hunter had his hands on her, under her arms, and he was lifting her off her feet, trying to pull her through the window.

"Shit!" Momoko tried to brace herself on the window sill, but he'd surprised her, and he was much bigger than her.

"Whoa, let go of her, fucker!" Dane, Sullivan, and Jude had all grabbed her around her waist and legs and were hauling her back down, inside the window, while Tommy had simply run outside and begun to beat on Hunter.

Oh my god.

"Hunter, let me go!"

"Tommy, stop, he's really drunk, you'll hurt him!"

Hunter let her go and fell to the ground, and Ryan and Jerry began pulling Tommy off him.

"Stop, please, before someone calls the police!"

One minute later, Momoko, Dane, and Sullivan were outside with Tommy while Jude quickly settled the bill.

Jerry and Ryan were half walking, half carrying a belligerent Hunter away. He was still calling for Momoko, saying that she was his and that he loved her.

"Oh god, you guys, I'm so sorry you had to see that." Momoko was beside herself.

Sully put a comforting arm around her. "None of that was your fault, Peaches."

There was a murmur of agreement from the other guys.

"Well, look, I'd better get back to my place really fast," she went on. "I need to get inside quickly, because there's a pretty good chance he's going to show up there, and I don't want to run into him."

"That sounds dangerous," Dane said, slipping an arm around her waist.

"No, once I'm inside, I'll be fine," Momoko assured him. "I just have to make sure I get inside before he gets there, that's all I'm saying."

"No," Jude said emphatically. "You shouldn't sleep at your place tonight. Not with that maniac on the loose. Come spend the night at our place, yeah?"

Momoko stared at him. "I couldn't possibly impose on you guys like that. We just met six hours ago."

"It's no imposition, honestly," Sully assured her. "I know I for one won't be able to sleep worrying about you."

The others nodded.

"Please come, our sofa is really comfortable," Tommy assured her.

"Okay, if you're sure," Momoko said doubtfully. "I really don't want to run into him. After whiny Hunter comes angry Hunter," she told them.

"So it's decided, then," Dane said, giving her waist a squeeze and releasing her.

"I guess so," Momoko said with a shrug. "Lead the way, guys."