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“And why not?” Beth asked as she started the coffee maker. “We go out on Fridays all the time. We may be older, but we’re not dead. I think we have more of a social life than you do.”

“Probably.”

She came to the counter and leaned against it. “Something’s up with you. I’ve known you long enough, Simon. And my kids may be long grown, but it doesn’t mean I don’t know whatthatlook is.”

Oh right, the other kids. I always forgot about them. I shouldn’t have, given that I saw them during the holidays when Nancy guilted me to participate. Beth had a daughter named Jessica who was a few years older than me, a clay artist who lived in Maine and visited at Christmas. Then there was Zach. He was around my age, and more of a mystery than even I was. I knew he worked with computers, and that was really it.

“How are thekids?” I asked.

“Oh my god,” she sighed. “You’re as bad as Nancy when you’re being stubborn.”

“I got an invite to meet with a record label on Friday,” I said.

Her eyes lit up. “What?! That’s what you’re being weird about?”

Nope.It was Pepper. It was knowing that I’d fucked the CEO for hours last night and wanted more. Like some feral, unchained beast, I thirsted for her in a way that was uprooting all the little dark parts of me I worked hard to actively lock away. It wasn’t just a one night stand. It was a night I wanted to repeat over and over.

“I just don’t want to get my hopes up,” I said.

“Well, if you’d unblock us on social media, maybe we could support you more.”

I groaned. “My god. I just don’t want you to see all the comments. People get weird.”

“Can’t be any weirder than seeing you put a cock cage on a senator last year.”

My laugh came from my very full belly. I sighed, the tension and anxiety melting. There’d been a sex party I’d gone to last year, and I’d ended up playing with a couple who needed afirmhand. I didn’t have intercourse with them, becausealmostall of the time I didn’t mix that with kink. But I had put a cock cage on him. Then made his wife rim him while I flogged him.Good times.

Apparently he was a senator. I didn’t really care. But Beth had been giggling about it on and off for months now.

“You’re so shy about your music with us,” she chuckled.

I scoffed. “I’m not shy.”

“Yeah, you are. Still just a little boy sometimes.”

“Okay, I’m definitely not that,” I argued. “You should have seen the crowd last night. A den of Dionysus.Revelry.” I didn’t tell her that was the name of one of my songs.

She just smiled. “I’ve heard you sing and play, Simon. You’re special. I told Nancy that years ago. I can’t wait for you to bring me bubble tea on Friday and tell me all about the meeting.”

“Bubble tea?”

“Darn it,” Beth sighed as Nancy joined us.

“Are you conspiring with Beth?” Nancy asked. “You know she’s off sugar right now.”

I held up my hands. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. But I will say they have no-sugar options.”

“Simon has a meeting with a record label on Friday,” Beth said with a knowing smirk. I was now certain they’d played me in order to squeeze some more information out of me, but I also knew it was done out of love.

Nancy’s brows raised. “That’swhy you’re being shady. Nervous?”

“Yeah,” I admitted. “I don’t know if it’s what I want. I mean, I still have to deal with the house, and I don’t know.”

“You could renovate the house,” Nancy said. “Turn it into?—”

“No,” I said firmly. “That place will never be a home to me.”

She pressed her lips, but nodded. “Understood.”

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