This wasn’t a casual question about what he’d been up to. Oh no. It was never as casual an inquiry as she made it seem.
He was always put under a microscope when he came to these things, and it was hardly his fault his mother was too preoccupied to check in on him regularly. She called sometimes, sure, but she was a busy woman, and she’d been juggling a few major corporate cases for their firm. They kept her up and at work until late, and he knew she couldn’t be bothered to do more than send a cursory text to her son to ask him about his latest piece—which was already begrudging, given his history. He’d given up on calling her himself.
It was why she insisted on these quarterly weekends so firmly.
It was to alleviate her own guilt.
And to keep a close eye on him.
He tapped his fingers against the glass but didn’t drink any of it.He hated scotch. That was Lloyd’s preference, not his. He didn’t even really drink. “I’ve been working on a new piece.”
“Oh? For Sullivan Lightworks?”
“Well, yeah, actually—one for Jessica. You remember her, right?”
“Didn’t you date her in college?”
Theo stared at her open-mouthed. “No, Mom. Jessica’s a lesbian.” And he never evenhada girlfriend in college, but he didn’t feel like pointing that out now. His uncle didn’t know and that was the last thing he wanted him to latch on to. Just another thing to tease him about. “She’s the one who came home with me for Thanksgiving junior year? Because she’d just come out and it hadn’t gone well with her parents at the time?”
Eleanor pursed her lips together thoughtfully, her brow wrinkling while she struggled to place the name and the time. “Junior year? I’m so sorry, honey, that whole fall is a blur.” She turned to her brother. “Was that when we were handling the Henderson case?”
He shrugged.
Theo rolled his jaw in annoyance. “Yeah. Well, anyway, she’s opening a new bar called the Cherry Stem. I’m under contract for delivery of a neon sign for it, and it’s almost complete. I just need to finish the wiring.”
“Oh that’s wonderful!” His mother looked relieved. “I’m so glad you’re doing more work under your LLC.”
Theo’s eye twitched.
“I’m also working on a new Lightm4st3r piece. It’s coming along nicely, I think.” It wasn’t. It was going horribly. There was a reason he hadn’t launched a new abstract piece in—what was it now? Eight months? Ten? More?
Silence.
The siblings exchanged a glance, and an eerie feeling prickled atthe back of Theo’s neck. He rubbed his hand nervously along it, and it was burning hot to the touch.
Great. It meant his big, stupid ears had gone scarlet as well.
He drew in a deep breath and held it.
One.
Exhaled slowly.
Two.
“Are you still doing work under that persona?” Eleanor finally ventured. Her question was awfully tentative. A little too cautious. “You haven’t done a piece or posted about anything in so long, I’d wondered if—”
“No, I haven’t given it up. I’ve just been a little…blocked lately, is all. It happens sometimes.”
It had never happened to him before.
Theo held his breath at the empty.
Three.
Lloyd swirled the scotch in his own glass. “You know, Teddy, you don’t get much out of that…venture. Is it really worth it?”
The next breath he inhaled was sharp.
