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She smiled. “Thanks for the other day. I’m not sure…”
She didn’t finish that sentence. I really wanted to know what she wasn’t sure about. Me? The song? Life itself? But she’d work that out for herself. The tension cracked and sizzled between us. We weren’t touching but I could feel the pressure of her hands as they pressed against the table edge. I could sense the tickle of hair hanging in her face. My lungs filled each time she inhaled.
“When are you playing again?” she asked.
“Saturday night, actually.” I didn’t tell her, of course, but Saturday night was the night the record company guy was coming to check us out. I didn’t want to think about it too deeply. I had been considering releasing stuff independently until I’d received that call. It was an option. I’d even contacted a few publicists. I didn’t need a big company backing me, but it did seem a much safer option. A stamp of approval.
“I might pop along,” she said. “I never really got to listen too much last time.”
I grinned. She sure hadn’t.
The distance between us didn’t seem so insurmountable when she smiled at me like that. I wondered what it’d be like dating a girl like Dee. Even though she wasn’t a kid anymore, how much of that tough front was real. Without Jake around, had she run wild? I couldn’t imagine it. Underneath it all, she was still pretty innocent.
A lock of her hair floated down over her face and I longed to reach over and tuck it behind her ear, but I knew that wasn’t a thing I could do. This peace between us was fragile.
Pete called Dee over to him and she reluctantly moved off. The swing of her hips as she walked was truly a great thing. Before I got a chance to speak to her again, Carlie came in, full of fire.
“Sally’s in the toilets downstairs, crying. What the hell did you do to her?”
Everyone in the small room stared at me.
“Nothing. She’s just being over-sensitive.”
“Well, you should go down and talk to her. She’s really upset. She said you are going to sack her.”
I rolled my eyes. “Okay, I’ll sort this out.”
I’d have happily left Sally crying in the toilet if that suspicion hadn’t come back into Dee’s eyes, but I didn’t want to look like a heartless bastard in front of her. Sally would get over this far better without me interfering. Carlie should know that. If I acted kindly toward her, she’d just get ideas.
Still, I went downstairs and knocked on the toilet door.
No answer, just a sniffle.
“Sally, come out. We need to talk.”
“I don’t want to talk to you.”
My first instinct was to leave it at that. I didn’t particularly want to talk to her either. But then, if I went back upstairs and Dee asked me about it, I couldn’t tell her I’d left things unresolved.
“I’m going to get a Jack and Coke and take it into your office for you. If you decide to come out, I’ll be there.”
I grabbed the drink from the bar and took it into Sally’s office. When Violet had worked here, that office had been a death trap, with stuff piled up everywhere. Sally had it as neat as a pin though. Maybe I’d been a bit harsh on her. She did her job well; it was just that she wanted my intervention far too much. I knew full well the kind of “intervention” she really wanted.
Sally came in a moment later. She’d tried to clean up her face but her eyes were swollen and red and she’d not managed to remove the traces of mascara that had run down her face.
“You wanted to talk?” she said. She picked up the drink and stirred it with the straw.
“Sit down,” I said.
She sat at the desk and I sat on the couch. I put my foot up on my knee, trying to keep this casual.
“Look, I probably shouldn’t have snapped at you earlier…”
She tried to smile at me.
“But, I need you to be much more autonomous in this job. If there’s an issue, sort it out yourself. I won’t always be here and, even if I am, I have other things to deal with.”
She nodded.
I bit the inside of my mouth for a moment before continuing.
“Sally, you have to understand, our relationship is professional. That’s all it’ll ever be.”
