But then there was Alex…
I knew that he wanted me, I was certain of that. And yet, the young man seemed determined to shoot me down at every turn. I didn’t know if he was afraid, or if the imaginary line he had drawn between his personal and professional life mattered that much to him...but there was definitely something preventing him from doing what he really wanted.
“Dad!” Idina cried out from the backseat, and I slammed my foot down on the brakes. I was so distracted thinking of Alex that I had driven past Mike’s house without even slowing down. If Idina hadn’t called me out, I might have kept on driving across the state. Putting the car in reverse, I draped one arm across Iris’ seat and drove back to Mike’s house, parking my car right in his driveway. I still hadn’t killed the engine and he was already at the door.
“What are you doing driving backwards in my street, you maniac?” he asked me, a gigantic grin on his face. He was wearing denim shorts and a dark shirt with the logo of his band plastered on it; a more casual look than his stage persona, but he still fit the rock-star profile all the same.
“Dad!” Iris and Idina squealed at the same time, jumping out of the car and running toward him. He opened his arms wide and pulled them in for a tight embrace, his smile one of pure happiness. I watched the three of them for a while, happy that Mike and I had never let our divorce get in the way of family, and then took it upon myself to unload the girls’ bags. I was already halfway toward the entrance when Mike joined me, grabbing two of the bags and slinging them over his shoulder.
Only when we had laid it all on the entryway did he turn to me, his hand already going for mine. It still felt a bit odd whenever we greeted each other with a handshake, but I had learned to go with the flow.
“Not playing the fancy doctor today, huh?” he teased me, glancing at the clothes I was wearing. I had ditched my usual dress shirt and black pants and was now wearing a loose-fitting Slayer shirt and a pair of blue jeans. As much as I liked to look the part of someone with a career, nothing really beat the liberty that an old shirt and jeans gave me. If it weren’t for the fact I had to be out of the house, I wouldn’t even be wearing any shoes.
“You already know my darkest secrets,” I laughed. “No use coming in here with a nice shirt and cufflinks.”
“Ain’t that the true,” he laughed with me, the sound of his voice blending with the girls’ happy chatter. They climbed up the stairs that led to their bedrooms in a hurry, their footsteps echoing throughout the house. “You’re not in a hurry, are you?”
“Not really,” I admitted.
“Good.” Turning his back to me, he made his way down the corridor and toward the kitchen. I followed after him and, before I could even protest, there was an ice-cold beer in my hands. “No, don’t even try to complain,” Mike said before I could even speak up. “When was the last time we had a beer, huh?”
“Point taken,” I said, tipping my beer toward him. “What about that thing? Still going through with it?”
“Damn right I am,” he replied. “Just bought the ring. Now all I need is the right moment, and I’ll pop the question.”
“The girls are going to be over the moon, you know that, don’t you? Get ready to hear the word ‘dress’ over and over again. I’m happy for you, Mike, I hope you know that.”
“Thanks, man,” Mike smiled. “I mean it. It’s nice to know I have your support.”
“Don’t mention it. Where’s Sam, by the way?” I asked. If she were here, she’d already be sharing a beer with us. That woman didn’t give two damns about giving men their own space, and that just made me respect her even more than I already did.
“She’s out today.” Taking a large gulp of his beer, he then set it down on the counter. “Some guy is throwing a fit over his contract, and the label wants to scare the living daylights out of him.”
“So they send Samantha?” I laughed. “That guy must’ve really pissed them off.”
“True. She can be scary when she wants to,” he laughed alongside me. Samantha was one of the lawyers working for Mike’s record label, and she had a reputation as a cut-throat lawyer. Not that anyone would guess it—outside the boardroom, she was one of the sweetest women I had ever met.
That, of course, made it easier to accept that Mike was getting married. Especially because this time he’d be marrying a woman. I had always known that, unlike me, he was bisexual...so, in a sense, I was already half-expecting something like this.
“What about you, Neil?” Mike continued, finishing his beer at the same time as I did. Moving faster than I could speak, he opened the fridge and grabbed two more. “Is there someone in your life? Or is your only mistress Riverside Urology?”
“You know me.”
“You know me,” Mike repeated in a mocking tone, chin held high as he tried to imitate me. “C’mon, man. Don’t hold out on me. You’re all chirpy and in a good mood. You know you can’t hide stuff from me, don’t you?”
“But I can try,” I grinned, popping the caps off both our beers.
“I was right, huh? Who is it?”
I sighed, averting my gaze. I thought of keeping it all to myself, but I knew Mike wouldn’t let go. When he wanted to, he could be as insistent as I was determined. “It’s just someone I met. A young guy,” I told him as I brought the beer up to my lips and took a gulp. “His name’s Alex. Alex Hughes.”
“Alex Hughes?” Mike sputtered, a slight frown taking over his face. He leaned against the kitchen counter, his eyes never leaving mine.
“What?” I asked. “Do you know him?”
“Huh, not exactly.” Scratching the back of his head, he hesitated before he continued. “But I know someone who used to know Alex, yeah.”
“Well?” I insisted. “Don’t hold out on me. What do you know?”
“Remember Rick Barber?”
“The asshole at that dinner party?” I asked, remembering a dinner organized by Mike’s record label. Rick Barber, if I was remembering things correctly, used to be a producer there. Cocky and arrogant, he had spent the whole dinner boasting about how he had transformed the label into a behemoth of the music industry. Coincidently, he was fired a few months after that because, it turned out, he had been doing a shitty job with the new artists under his wing.
More than that, I also knew that Rick Barber was a member of the club. I had only seen him there a couple of times, but even so I always did my best to avoid him. I didn’t need to make acquaintance with people like him.
“Yeah,” Mike nodded. “He really was an asshole, wasn’t he? The band only recorded one album with him and, after he was done, we had to send all the tracks to a different producer. Thank God that guy’s gone.”
“I don’t doubt it,” I said, already aching to redirect the conversation. “But what does Barber have to do with Alex?”
“I, uh, am not entirely sure,” he hesitated, “but I think these two dated for a while.”
“Seriously?” I couldn’t stop my eyebrows from shooting up, my jaw growing slack. I would never imagine Alex with an asshole like Barber. “That’s...unexpected.”