Contrary to popular belief, Stevie was a very private person. She didn't let just anyone step through the doors into her home, which was exactly why Lindsey had visited her there only a handful of times. He knew, he shouldn't have said, yes. He was supposed to go home.
As soon as they were inside, Stevie shed several layers, leaving her in a skirt over a leotard, similar to the ones she wore on stage. She turned on the lights and left them on long enough for her to light up candles around the room. Lindsey was instructed to find something to drink and when he located the bar, he thought, she had more bottles than an actual liquor store. A wide variety of choice was in front of him, but he didn't bother asking, he picked for them both.
"Well, don't just stand there." Stevie showed him to take a seat.
"Why am I here?" Lindsey asked, after swallowing a mouthful of some fine brandy he probably wasn't meant to touch.
"I don't know. You wanted to come in." She sat down beside him and pulled her feet up, moving to sit Indian style. "You're here probably because I'm the better option compared to your girlfriend."
"You talk so much about her, one might think, you're jealous." Lindsey said, resting his arm along the back of the couch.
"Me? Of Carol Ann freaking Harris?" Stevie burst out laughing and it didn't sound forced. He knew, there was nothing for her to be jealous of. "Why would I be? I still have everything I had before she came into the picture. No, that's not true. I'm richer now." The smug expression on her face made him laugh, too. She wasn't wrong.
"Can we be honest with each other for a change?" Lindsey asked, breathing out heavily, swirling his drink around the bottom of the glass.
"We can try." Stevie nodded, standing up again. She went to the record player in one of the corners of the room and crouched down to look through her collection.
"Why do you hate me so much?"
Silence.
Stevie carefully skipped through her records until she found something that interested her. She put it on the turntable and gently lowered the needle. She made her way back, but she didn't join Lindsey on the couch as she picked up her drink and began slowly swaying along with the music.
"I don't hate you." Stevie finally spoke up. "I hate that you're trying to control me. You have lost the right to say anything since the day we broke up. You tell me, who to be friends with and not, who I should see and not. You tell me, how I should write my songs. You tell me, what to wear." She shrugged, knocking back her drink. "And you have no right. It's driving me crazy."
Even if Lindsey wanted to disagree, he couldn't. He believed that he was doing all of the above because he cared and that it came from a place of love, but...
"Why do you hate me?"
Lindsey sighed, rubbing his chin as he thought. "Are you going to stand there for the rest of the night?"
"Maybe." Stevie replied with a tiny smirk on her face. "Why? You're gonna tell me, I shouldn't?" She saw him tense up, but he didn't say anything else about it.
"I don't hate you either." Lindsey shook his head, running a hand through his curls. "I hate that you don't need me anymore." She knew. "We started together. Now, you're this huge star and everyone wants a piece of you. I'm happy for you, really, but you don't need me anymore. You can get everything you want by yourself. And what I'm the most afraid of..." He trailed off, casting his eyes down, wishing it was a beer bottle in his hand, so he could peel off the label. "I'm afraid that one day you'll wake up and realize that you don't need Fleetwood Mac anymore either. You'll leave us and you'll leave me. We won't be connected in any way."
Placing her empty glass down on the table separating them, Stevie walked around it and stood in front of Lindsey. He look up, unsure of where she was going with it. He watched her as she shimmied out of her skirt and lowered the straps of her leotard. In just a few short seconds, she stood before him completely naked, then maneuvered herself into his lap.
"I'll always need you." She whispered against his lips before she kissed them.
