Page 34 of Conquest

“Hey!” Jesse reprimanded him with a light shove on the shoulder. He looked back to Kenny. “Yes, Kenny, he’s Evan Arden. What’s the big deal?”

Kenny shook his head and looked away from him. “Just go get ready.”

Jesse gazed at him for a moment, then slowly rose from the couch. He gave Evan a look asking if he would be okay, to which Evan flicked his hand in a shooing gesture. Jesse headed toward his bedroom, glancing back at them before stepping in to change.

Evan sat quiet, feeling the tension swirling in the room like a heavy invisible fog. This was not something he was used to. Since he rarely stuck around long enough to say “good morning” to his lovers, he never had to deal with meeting their friends or family, and really, he never wanted to. It was too committal. But with Jesse, it seemed perfectly natural to meet the people in his life. He just hadn’t anticipated obstacles like this.

Kenny cleared his throat. “So, do you, uh, like Chicago?”

Though he could hear how uncomfortable Kenny was by the tone of his voice, Evan smiled at his attempt at conversation. “Yeah, it’s a nice town.”

“Are you here long? I thought I heard once that you lived in New York.”

“I live here now. I just bought a house up by Evanston.”

“That’s a haul from up there all the way down here.”

“I don’t mind it, but I’m worried Jess’s truck won’t make the trip too many more times.”

“I’m surprised it made it once. I’ve been telling him to get something better, but he can’t really afford anything newer.”

Evan nodded.

Silence filled the room again.

Jesse’s bedroom door opened. A rush of relief washed through Evan at Jesse’s reappearance. He craned his head around to look at him, his body warming at the sight. Jesse had changed into a pair of black dress pants and a midnight blue button down shirt of light, airy material that flowed around his slender torso and drew out the indigo in his eyes. He’d used hair wax to accentuate the layers, and it all combined to give him a look of trendy sophistication.

“You look amazing,” Evan said.

“Thanks.” Jesse sat down beside him and rested his hand on Evan’s thigh. He looked into Evan’s eyes, recognizing an already familiar glint. He smiled and wet his lips with a slow lick of his tongue to let Evan know they were thinking the same thing.

Kenny loudly cleared his throat.

Jesse flicked him a quick glance, then turned back to Evan. “Can you give us any idea of what to expect?”

Evan took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. “Well, I was seventeen when I got signed, went on my first tour at eighteen, and even though my contract was updated before I started my third album, Allegro, some things have changed.”

“Hmmm, right,” Jesse said. “So, what you’re saying is that it was so long ago you can’t remember, and the stone tablet your contract was on got washed away in the Great Flood.”

Evan aimed a sarcastic smirk at him. “I’m sorry, I was going to tell you about record contracts, but since you’re still working your way through Curious George Goes to the Zoo, it’d go right over your pretty little head. However, I will talk to Kenny since he’s a lot nicer than you.”

Jesse let out a cynical snort. “He just hides it better.”

Kenny punched Jesse on the arm. “Please, for five minutes, just close it! Some of us are nervous about this.”

Evan put his index finger to Jesse’s lips. “Shhh, be a good boy for five minutes.”

Jesse caught Evan’s finger in his mouth and sucked it down to the middle joint before slowly drawing back and letting it go. Out the corner of his eye, he saw Kenny’s mortified expression and fought to keep from yelling at him to chill. He knew Kenny would be shocked at finding out about him and Evan, and maybe springing it on him like this wasn’t the best way to go, but when Evan asked if he could come with him to see his apartment, he couldn’t say no. He wanted to greedily snatch every second with Evan he could, and he figured Kenny would freak out for a moment, then shrug it off and go back to being his laidback self. That’s how Kenny was, he accepted everybody, so he didn’t understand why he was being intolerant now.

Evan chuckled at what Jesse did and Kenny’s reaction to it. “If you are offered a contract today, get ready for some heavy reading. Record contracts are made with the label in mind, not the artist. They want to make sure they have their asses covered every which way they can and squeeze out every penny that’s possible. There’ll be points set aside that are supposed to summarize what’s of interest to you, but read the whole thing. Really, you should have an entertainment lawyer with you or at least a manager, but,” he gazed around their apartment, “I can see your extravagant lifestyle doesn’t leave you with a lot of extra cash.”

Jesse bumped his shoulder against Evan’s. “Hey, you may have a kickass view of the lake, but you should try looking out our window between midnight and four and watching what goes on in the alley. It’s better than TV.”

“Yeah, I bet. So anyhow, with the cutbacks Phoenix has had I’m thinking you’ll be dealing straight with Greg and he’s pretty honest. He used to handle everything for me from managing to publicity. Granted, I might have driven him into the ground, but I don’t like having a lot of people in my business. So don’t worry, he’ll explain everything. You’ll probably still end up feeling like a two dollar hooker on a discount dollar day, but at least you’ll understand why.”

“Damn,” Kenny muttered.

“What else?” Jesse asked.