Page 30 of Amid Our Lines

After they got back, they grabbed a bite to eat from the kitchen before they went their separate ways. Eric luxuriated in having the staffbathroom all to himself for once, no one knocking on the shower stall to signal he should hurry the fuck up. The rest of the afternoon he spent at the piano, working on what he’d dubbed The Inevitable Breakup Song.Web of scars. Where we end and you begin. Our private thunderstorm.

Adrian wandered through at some point and paused to listen without interrupting. Then he continued on to the common area. If Eric leaned slightly backwards on the piano stool, he could see Adrian at one of the tables, papers spread out in front of him as he scribbled things into an old-fashioned notebook.

It was peaceful.

The knock cameas Eric was wrapping up a video call with an American boy band—a term that would have triggered emphatic protest from the quintette. But the reality was that they were young and cute, and punk edge aside, they’d been cast and styled to fit the stereotypes, from bad boy to heartthrob to boy next door. They’d just landed their first Top 10 hit and must have been up late celebrating because their hangovers were not subtle.

“Give me a second,” Eric told them. He muted the microphone, took off his headphones, and tilted the screen away from the door before he got up, crossing over to the door from the small table that had come with his room.

He found Adrian outside, wearing tight jeans, a loose jumper, and an oversized smile. Since Adrian had left early to go skiing, bad snow be damned, Eric hadn’t seen him all day. It might have impaired his exposure-induced immunity because for a blink of an eye, he forgot how to form words.

“Hey. Back from the slopes?”

Well,obviously. Ugh.

“Am I interrupting?” Adrian indicated the open laptop. “I can leave you to it if you’re, you know … revisiting old hobbies.”

“You’re hilarious,” Eric said flatly even as he stepped aside to let Adrian in. “I’ll just quickly finish my call, okay? Two minutes max.”

“Sure.” Adrian flopped down on the bed. To exactly no one’s surprise, he disregarded personal boundaries by helping himself to Eric’s open notebook with scribbled lyrics and ideas for melodies. It was all unpublished as yet, so Eric let him.

He returned to his laptop, angled in a way that made it impossible for Adrian to see the screen—not that Adrian was likely to recognise the band given his grasp of current music trends appeared to have stalled around his Berlin days. Still, why take the risk?

The risk, right.

‘I don’t get it,’Kojo had told Eric a few days ago.‘Here’s your chance to show the guy that you’re kind of a big deal—but no, you just … don’t?’

‘Who says I want to impress him?’Eric had countered.

A pointed eyebrow raise had been the extent of Kojo’s answer, and yeah, perhaps it was true that even as Eric complained about Adrian’s attention, he was the tiniest bit addicted to it, too. That didn’t make it fair for Kojo to call him out on it.

The point was, though… Well. The point was that Eric didn’t want to question Adrian’s motivations. Not that Adrian seemed like the type to go for money and fame by association—but Lucas hadn’t seemed like the type either. In hindsight, though, would he have even noticed Eric if not for the collaboration with one of Lucas’s favourite artists?

Anyway. That was last season’s drama.

Eric sat back down in front of his laptop and unmuted the microphone. “Sorry about that. Let’s quickly recap how we’ll work together, and then you can all go back to bed. How does that sound?”

“Great” and “awesome” was apparently how it sounded. The reality was that the plan had already been hashed out with the band’s management team, and Eric’s job was to sell it as a collaborative effort. He intended to keep the group involved as much as he could, but the final decisions would be made elsewhere. Such was the music industry.

After a quick summary of themes and deliverables, he ended the call and removed his headphones.

“Sounds like things are going all right,” Adrian commented idly. He was stretched out on his stomach, feet hanging off the bed and Eric’s notebook open in front of him.

“I’m not complaining.”

“I doubt you’d be complaining even if they weren’t going well.” Adrian moved on before Eric could respond. “Anyway, you free tonight?”

“What’s tonight?”

“A concert.” Adrian propped himself up on his elbows, and Eric’s brain tripped over the fact that Adrian was on hisbed. It was an escalation of the game, wasn’t it?

Also… “A concert?”

“Remember the old bloke I mentioned, the one who used to play the piano in the dining room? It’s his ninetieth birthday concert—half the town will be there. Thought you might enjoy it.”

It did sound like the kind of thing Eric would enjoy, especially since he hadn’t written a word after sending off The Inevitable Breakup Song last night. “What kind of music?”

“Jazz, mostly. Some movie classics. He’s invited a whole band of guys who are almost as old and fanatical as him, so it should be a fun time.”

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