I had to be strong—not just for me but for him as well.
“Hey,” he replied, taking off the sunglasses and hat, placing them on the seat next to him as he sat down. “Did you order already?”
“Yeah.” We discussed food and he decided to ask them to make him the same thing. Meanwhile, I refrained from telling him he should order a bacon double cheeseburger so he could put on a few pounds. At least he ordered a Dr. Pepper. He’d get a few extra calories from it. Finally, I asked, “So what’s this all about?”
“I’ll get to it,” he said as the older woman serving us brought his drink. “First, I wanted to talk to you about the new album.”
“Okay.” Why the hell did my heart flip at that, knowing that I was probably the first one in the band he was telling?
Calm down, Dani.For all I knew, he’d spoken with Braden and Cy about it after our Zoom meeting with the suits at the label.
“The sound is still hard and heavy—but you heard a couple of the tracks I was working on when we…”
“Yeah.” I didn’t want to hear him finish the sentence. When we were together. When we shared a room and a bed. When things were a little better between us.
But had they really been?
“I never want to be predictable. I mean, yeah, we’ll alwayshave the Riot sound, but why can’t we evolve? I get it—a band is adored and loved for delivering the same kind of hits, but you gotta break free sometimes.”
Remembering our old high school conversations about some of our favorite bands, I said, “Yeah, kinda like Korn withThe Path of Totalityalbum,” referencing how they melded their nu metal sound with dubstep. For Zack and me, it worked—even though we knew, albeit coming later to the game, that not all their fans appreciated their creativity.
“Exactly.” He unwrapped the straw and shoved it in his drink, taking a quick sip. “I don’t think our shift will be viewed as such a digression as Korn’s, but some fans might not like it.”
I tried being patient, but I felt like he was teasing at this point. “Okay…”
“How do you feel about blues?”
“Like, the musical genre?”
“Yeah.”
Shrugging, I grabbed my cocoa. “I don’t know. I don’t hate it.”
“That’s fair—but what if it was just a layer on top of what we already do?”
“I guess I’d have to hear it.”
“But that’s what I’m tellin’ you—youhaveheard it. Did you like the shit I was working on…before?”
I had to stop thinking about us together, but he kept shifting my mind there. I tried to separate the songs I’d heard him playing on his guitar from how I’d felt about him at the time…about how we’d been. It had all been a lie, and I needed to remember that. Zack didn’t love me. I’d been convenient. I’d been nothing more than a warm body to curl up next to, a hole he could stick his dick in without much effort.
Just that reminder helped me focus fully on the music alone.
“Yeah, I guess.”
“You guess.” He all but rolled his eyes, picking up his phone off the seat.
While he tapped and scrolled, the server brought my plate of food. “Yours’ll be ready in a minute,” she said to Zack.
“It’s all good,” my friend said, not even looking up. I didn’t want to eat until he got his, but I grabbed the bottle of ketchup on the edge of the table against the wall and squirted a dollop of it near the fries for dipping.
Zack tapped on his phone and held it in the middle of the table as it played a tune. There was no bass, no drums, not even a guitar. “What is that?”
“Harmonica.”
“Oh.” The tune had a mournful edge but it simmered with hope. And then a few guitar notes came into play, building to something.
“That’s the intro to what I hope will be our first single. And I swear we’re gonna sound like Riot—but it’s gonna be a step up. Do you wanna learn how to play the washboard?”
