FIVE
The main subject of the conversation outside Brad’s office was about their new manager, unsurprisingly. As Jamie came out and Lance took his place, it carried on smoothly, with Ken more than happy to give his opinion about their new boss, and Lance, and then Jamie, only holding back slightly more than the outspoken Ken.
The consensus was, he was a stuck-up businessman with a stick so firmly shoved up his ass that he probably would need actual medical help to dislodge it. Bossy, domineering, with veins that ran green instead of crimson, none of Aaron’s bandmates seemed all that impressed.
“What if he’s just like Lester?” Ken finally whispered, when Lance had come out to tell Ken that it was his turn to go in. “What if he starts to steal from us, too? Lester tried to control us, right?”
Aaron frowned and shook his head, and though it wasn’t usual for him to speak up, though he normally would have left the moment the meeting was over and wouldn’t have heard this conversation at all, he found that he couldn’t, for once, keep his silence.
“He’s not like Lester,” Aaron informed them, and three sets of surprised eyes turned his way. It was, Aaron noted with a mixture of amusement and annoyance, like they would have sooner expected the walls to speak up than him. He wasn’t that quiet, was he?
“I mean, we don’t know yet …” Lance started, but Aaron shook his head. He knew. He’d had a bad feeling about Lester for ages, just no proof, but he had completely different feelings when he looked at Brad.
“I know. He’s not like Lester.” He needed some sort of reason, though, because when he looked into the eyes of his bandmates, he saw shock fading toward a sort of suspicion. Not that there was anything for them to be suspicious about. “Lara wouldn’t let that happen. There’s no way she’s given him, or anyone, enough freedom to steal from us.”
Which was all perfectly logical, right? Aaron thought so, but when Ken got up and went into Brad’s office, the other man gave Aaron a long, slow, lingering look, like he thought he could see through Aaron’s skin and right into his soul. Thankfully, he was gone soon enough, and Lance and Jamie took off, hand in hand.
Aaron was alone, and usually, he liked it that way. It gave him time to think, and God knew that right now, he had things to think about. What was he going to do about Leah, for instance? She had responded so well when he had just spent the time with her, but time was one thing that he had in short supply, and it was about to get even shorter with this tour.
Sighing, Aaron rested his head back against the wall and closed his eyes, breathing deeply. This was a crucial time, but surely he could take a few months to do a tour? Besides, he needed to. He needed the money if he was going to be able to take care of his sister, because who knew what sort of job he could get.
He could go back to school, he supposed. When his parents had been in that accident, Aaron had just been about to go into the second year of his undergrad degree and had been starting to think about a career in medicine. No reason he couldn’t go back to that, but that, too, would take money.
The minutes ticked on, and Aaron gave a soft hiss as he waited. It wasn’t fun being alone for once, and he found himself in the highly weird, for him, anyway, situation of wishing that he wasn’t. Wishing that Lance and Jamie had stuck around to chatter at each other and him.
Because the truth of the matter was, no matter how much he might try to deny it, he was thinking about the cab ride with Brad. Thinking about the brush of their bodies together, the way their fingers had met as they both reached for the door.
It seemed to take forever, but Ken finally stepped out of Brad’s office and into the waiting room, a strange look on his face. Deeply thoughtful, Ken was once more staring at Aaron in a way that he didn’t know how to interpret, and Aaron fought the urge to fidget and rose to his feet instead.
“He said to wait,” Ken informed him, looking into Aaron’s eyes. “He’ll call you in when he’s ready.”
Aaron sighed and fell back into the chair. That figured. He’d been sitting there waiting, doing nothing, for hours now. Why did Brad need time? He hadn’t for the rest of the guys. He’d taken them one after the other.
Was this some sort of game? If so, Aaron couldn’t imagine what Brad hoped to gain by it. Maybe he just wanted Aaron off guard, but if so, why him, specifically? Why not Lance, or Ken?
“I’d watch your back.” Ken had been standing there, just giving Aaron that same odd look, and despite Aaron having just wished that he hadn’t been alone, he found himself nervous once he actually wasn’t. “If I were you.”
Aaron sighed softly. It was a strange thing to say, no doubt about it, but he supposed it was really none of his business why Ken was on about this. So he just shrugged, and Ken stared at him with those turquoise eyes, which were usually so oblivious and clueless, but right now they seemed anything but.
It was a relief when Ken left, even if Aaron was alone with his thoughts again. His bandmates all seemed like they were wondering about him now, about him and Brad, though there was nothing to wonder about. The best way to show that, he figured, was to say nothing, to let it pass, because denial would probably only make them more sure.
The minutes passed, though Aaron had to keep checking his phone because it seemed to him that each minute had been encased in honey, ticking by to the point where he would swear that each minute took ten minutes to pass. Finally, Aaron did lurch to his feet, pacing back and forth across the carpeted floor. He had things to do, what sort of power trip was this that Brad was playing at?
Just when he thought that he would just burst in and get this over with, Brad’s office door opened and the man stood there, as calm as he had been the whole time that Aaron had interacted with him. There was even a faint smirk on his lips like it amused him to see Aaron pacing.
Bastard. Maybe Ken had been right, but no. Brad may be an asshole, but Aaron would be willing to bet that he was at least an honest asshole. Honest, mocking, self-confident, domineering.
And so, so damn hot. Aaron was only human, though it annoyed him sometimes. When Brad stepped back, exaggeratedly sweeping his hand in an elaborate gesture of welcome, Aaron swept past him and into the other man’s office.
“Let’s get this over with,” Aaron demanded, sitting down on the very edge of the chair.
“Okay.” Brad arched his eyebrows at him, but if he was surprised by Aaron’s demands otherwise, he didn’t show it. Instead, he steepled his fingers and looked at Aaron, as though sizing him up for a new suit. Or a coffin. “You’re the biggest asset that I have right now. Maybe the biggest one that the whole record label has.”
Whatever Aaron had expected, it wasn’t that. For a moment, he just stared, certain that he had heard wrong, but Brad continued, and there could be no mistaking what he was saying.
“I think you have something, Aaron. Something that the other Lost Boys don’t have. And I think that you need to think about your future.”
Aaron held up a hand, just trying to catch his breath. Those were some rather remarkable statements that Brad had just made, and Aaron needed some time to catch up.
