“Time for what?” I asked, innocent as a little lamb.
“To get to Seth’s office and wait for him, of course. You and Seth will be working very closely together. He likes to teach by doing… says it makes the information stick better.”
I certainly couldn’t argue with that. Doing things was always the best way I learned. We hadn’t even met yet and Seth Black and I were already agreeing on things.
I’d always felt a sense of connection with him, not least because of our shared musical taste. One that I had yet to have contradicted. We would just have to see what happened when we were in the same room together.
“I’m Holly, by the way,” the receptionist said, rolling out from behind the counter.
Of course she was Holly— the name suited her perfectly. I wouldn’t have been surprised if her surname was something cool like Spektor.
“Holly Jones,” she said, as though reading my mind.
It must have been a question she got a lot, and therefore could predict.
“Nice to meet you.”
“Here we are,” Holly said, stopping in front of a nondescript door.
“Thanks,” I said to her rapidly disappearing back.
The door was unlocked. I’d always been told to knock first, but I already knew Seth wasn’t in and unless I wanted to stand out in the hallway until he got there, I figured I’d better go in and sit down. Unless it was all an elaborate prank and the door that I was standing in front of went to the janitor’s closet or something.
The ‘cool kids’ in high school, known as ‘the cruel kids’ to most of their victims, did something similar to freshmen every year. Lucky for me, when it was my turn, I’d already seen them do it to someone else and wasn’t fooled. I was late for class but wasn’t fooled.
The office was a modern, minimalist space. From what I could see, there were two main sections of activity. A desk on which was set a computer and a landline phone, as well as what looked like a listening station. It had a comfy looking chair next to one of those old-style stereos that somehow managed to pack a turntable and two tape decks into it.
There was also a slightly newer, multi-disc CD player next to it. Though none of the equipment, aside from the computer, looked like it dated after 2000, it looked weird in a way, but I could also respect someone who knew what they liked and what worked for them.
Seth Black was definitely a 90s kid. It seemed like he’d been around for decades, which, I guess technically, he had been. Though he’d also started the earliest incarnation of Suspicious Activity as a teenager, so he could only be in his late 30’s or maybe early 40’s.
The chair creaked its welcome. There was a scent I couldn’t identify but found I quite liked. It smelled like leather mixed with something else. Something natural and masculine. I took a deep breath in, my hormones stoking like a bonfire.
I crossed my legs and squeezed. It was too late to keep my panties from getting wet, but the least I could do was try and keep him from noticing. That really wasn’t the best impression to make. I knew I was only there for an internship, at least to start. It was important that he took me seriously, rather than as a silly kid who became excited at the slightest provocation.
Particularly because I wasn’t.
I was 19 and still a virgin. In fact, it could take a lot to get me turned on. In normal circumstances, anyway. There were still triggers that I had that set me right off. Sitting down in that office had somehow magically hit all the buttons.
I hoped I wouldn’t let it slip, how much I had stalked Seth. That would be a secret I planned to take to my grave- this burning desire to know all about him and be around him, and now here I was, about to do that in person.
In the past, I’d seen lots of pictures, visiting the Suspicious Activity Records website every day. It had a live camera feed that people could watch, to see the inner workings of records being recorded.
And watch it I did. Several times, most days. No matter when I would visit the website, there he would be, like a welcoming friend. Sometimes alone but usually with some employee or another, or a member of one of the bands signed to the label.
You could almost chart the change in him. He’d started out as a producer, but as the label grew, he found himself taking on more responsibility, delegating his former tasks to producers he hired to work under him.
His hair got shorter and his clothes plainer. No longer mistakable for one of the musicians, he had become ‘The One in Charge.’ And I thought that was hot as fuck.