They dined at The Ivy – which put Zane's back up. For all his fame and success, he still wasn't one for great excess. He traded humility for luxury when his income had started to allow it but he still liked the local joints opposed to the places where your dining neighbour was plastered across the front of the entertainment section and the person who had just walked in had won six Oscars.
Of course, such places always came with their perks.
No one bothered them. No one asked for autographs or photos or questions. No one expected them to give up their private time just because they were famous and thus shouldn't have any.
But, in a way, that lack of distraction made things worse – a rarity.
There was no distraction from the strange quiet that rippled beneath the conversation.
Everyone talked as their turn rolled around.
Everyone polite and charming and witty and ignoring the tension that lurked below.
And Zane couldn't understand where it was coming from.
The others knew something he didn't.
What?
What was it?
Locke had returned to a recording studio. That was good thing, right? He was openly choosing to discuss tour dates. He was willing to do a live performance.
These were good things for his career and, supposedly his mental state.
He had given his answer.
Zane got it.
He really did.
Well as much as he ever got anything about Locke.
Perhaps it broke his heart to know that they weren't going to go any further than last night. But that was potentially a good thing.
The answer freed Locke from years of imprisonment inside his own head.
Rich had broken things with off with him.
He had broken things off with Zane.
Knowing that – possibly – broke Zane's heart but it could be the best thing for Locke. He was only twenty-seven. He could start again. Put to rest some of his demons and start again.
He and Locke could still be friends.
He wasn't going to push Locke for anything more.
He wanted to try something more but he'd wasted ten years of Locke's life skirting around that fact so he could hardly demand they try being together just because he finally felt like growing a pair and coming out and admitting he wanted something.
He could bow out with grace.
So what was the atmosphere in the air?
What had been unsaid in the studio?
What had they talked about before Jessica had come to get him?
Why drag him there in the first place?
He had nothing to do with Locke's music career. He had barely been involved in the conversation other than... other than to be reminded that it was time for him to leave.
His cutlery fell still on his plate as he looked down at the beautiful food he hadn't really tasted.
"Are you alright?" Jessica asked at his elbow, her voice soft.
YOU ARE READING
Encore (Prodigy: 3)
General Fiction'Locke is dead.' Zane's world shattered when he received that message. Locke was one of the greatest musicians of the modern era but highly unstable, and growing more so as the years wore on. But at only 27, could he really be gone? As Zane's caree...
