“I just meant when I first discovered Suspicious Activity Records.”
“Oh yeah, that label started by that musician you liked.”
“Seth Black, from Autumn Corrosion.”
“I see,” Stephanie said, looking pointedly at my T-shirt.
“Yeah, that’s even more of a coincidence than it looks.”
“Do tell.”
I wanted to, but I was having trouble finding the words, and not just because of embarrassment on account of the sexcapades I’d embarked on with Seth.
“Well, about two weeks ago, I got the opportunity to intern at the record label, and it was great for a while but then, things changed.”
“Oh my God, he didn’t hurt you, did he? Are you still a virgin?”
“No, but he didn’t hurt me. He is really great, or at least I thought he was. That’s where it gets confusing.”
“Take your time, hon,” she said, taking my hand.
“It was really cool at first. I shadowed him during his days at the studio for a week: listening to demos, going to shows, sitting in on recording sessions. I really learned a lot. He was never remotely inappropriate, going out of his way to not even touch me, even accidentally.”
“Okay, I won’t murder him yet.”
“Then the lockdown came, and he said he wanted to keep things going. He invited me stay at his house, so he could mentor me. I want to make it clear: I wanted to go. He is really sexy, and I’ve always had a thing for him. The fact that he might be even slightly interested in me made me giddy. Everything was normal the first day. The morning of the second day, after breakfast, he made a sort of proposal.”
“Not a wedding proposal, I assume.”
“No, but there was a jewelry box,” I said dreamily.
“Did it have that in it?”
Stephanie pointed to the collar, which was still around my neck. That was no doubt the same way that the crazy lady who had waltzed right into Seth’s house had known what was going on between us.
“Yeah,” I admitted.
“I think I’m starting to get the picture.”
There was no judgement in her tone, just concern that I was alright. I hadn’t had time to really check.
“What happened then?” she asked.
“A few days of wonderful, mixing a continuation of the internship with, um, other activities, all consensual of course. Then this morning, he says we should take a break from what we’ve been doing,” I told her, hating this part. “He said too much can be overwhelming. I didn’t want to stop. I realize now that that was because I was too far into it, which was exactly what he was afraid of, so I can’t really fault him. Then, just after he gets done explaining that, and how he still likes doing this with me, this, um, woman comes storming in.”
“His wife?”
“I don’t think so, because I think I would have heard about if he’d gotten married. I thought maybe girlfriend.”
“Girlfriend or no, it doesn’t sound like you should be seeing him anymore,” Stephanie said resolutely. “It’s not safe.”
She was right, of course. I was beginning to love Seth, in more than a crush way, but I didn’t want to risk getting hurt, which only made it worse, somehow, because it might not even be his fault.
There was every possibility that the woman was his girlfriend, enraged at his continued infidelity. Or she could be a jealous ex-girlfriend who couldn’t let go.
But whatever she was, it was too much for me to deal with just then.
I needed space and, as much as it hurt, like a fucking knife in my heart, I knew that Stephanie was absolutely right that I couldn’t see Seth again.
Chapter Ten
Seth
It had started out so well.
We’d met through a friend of a friend, the usual story.
I’d never really been a scene sort of boy. Not even during what some have termed ‘the party years.’
Sure, I went to lots of parties, due to the music I was involved in, but I more tended to be on the stage than on the dance floor or at the bar. It was an arrangement that helped me develop my tea-totalism with a minimum of hassle.
Not that there was no drinking on stage, Thom always having at least one can or bottle balanced on his keyboard, but that was to be expected from a band. Not from me, though. I stayed sober.
I was also always the designated driver, which allowed the rest of the band to get plastered, if they wanted to. I was also the one who would drive some other folks home if it was a local gig. There were times in which I felt like that ‘bus driver’ should be added to my list of jobs in the many hats I wore.
“There’s someone I want you to meet,” my friend Cam said, as we took down our set.
“Is he cute?”
“I mean for you, smart ass.”