Chapter 28
Chapter twenty-eight
Hendrix · Now
The Kids Aren’t Alright – The Offspring
“Shit. Hendrix. You’re so sick.”
Talia's youngest brother, Marcus, claps a hand onto his thigh, his head bobbing to the synthesised beat ringing through the studio.
I grin, twisting the solo dial until only his crisp voice comes through, the quick lipped rapping flooding the speakers.
I click my fingers. “This is what’s sick! Have you heard yourself? Hip-hop isn’t my usual thing but I’m so buying your EP when it drops and playing it on a loop.”
“You think so?” He brushes a hand over his buzzed umber Afro, glancing at me through thick black lashes. “You really think I’ve got what it takes?”
I pat his shoulder. “I tell no lies, my dude. You’re going places.”
“Thanks, Hendrix. I know you didn’t really wanna work on this. But I really appreciate it."
“Don’t be daft.” I click my tongue and shake my head at the eighteen-year-old. “I’m lucky I get to do this with you. Imagine the bragging rights I’m gonna have when you’re a platinum selling artist.”
His dark brown cheeks round as he grins. “You sure you don’t want to run away with me and do this together forever? Talia never has to know.”
I snort.
Not the first time I’ve had that offer, but the easiest to turn down. “I’m too old for you, kid. You can do better than me.”
“Dang. At least I tried.”
“That you did,” I say as my arse starts vibrating.
I scoot forward on my chair, easing my fingers beneath me to tug it out.
An unknown number flickers across the screen.
I frown, turning to Marcus. “Hey, I’m just gonna step outside and take this. Don’t touch anything, got it?”
He holds his hands up before pushing off his seat. “I’ve gotta run anyway, Lucy’s mum is swinging by on her way home from work to pick me up. So I’ll love and leave you.”
“Alright.” My phone stops ringing. I chew my lip and look back up at Marcus. “And don’t forget, I’m not gonna be here for a while. I’m happy to chat over the phone if you have any questions, but I’m pretty confident we’ve finished up and you’re ready to go.”
“Yeah?” He beams.
“Yeah.” My phone starts ringing again. “Right, I’m out. Text me when you get home, okay?”
“Will do,” he says. “Thanks again, Hendrix.”
I wave my fingers and slip out of the control room while he gathers his stuff.
The door closes behind me with a soft snick, silence curling around me for a beat as I swipe to answer, and shuffle down the hall and into the kitchenette.
“Hello?”
“Hendrix?” A soft female voice crackles down the line. There’s something oddly familiar about it. “Hey, it’s Theo. Cole gave me your number. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Hi, Theo.” My chest tightens. “No, it’s fine. Is everything okay?”
“Yeah.” She chuckles and my muscles loosen. “Sorry didn’t mean to worry you. I didn't really think before I called. Probably should have texted beforehand.”
“Honestly, you’re good.” I hop up onto the small table, punch the speaker, and balance my phone on my thigh. “What’s up?”
“Cole said you were sticking around here a bit to work, so I just wondered if you’d maybe want to catch up. Go get dinner or drinks or something?”
I roll my thumb ring as guilt gnaws my stomach.
I hadn’t even thought to reach out to Theo while I was in London—not because I don’t want to, but because I can’t imagine she has all that nice of things to say about me after the way I treated Cole and Saint when I left. She was there, with them, while I ran away.
“If you’re not interested,” she starts.
“No, no. It’s not that.” I rub aching temples. “It’s just…”
“You’re worried I’m gonna call you a raging bitch and throw a martini in your face?”
“Honestly?” My face scrunches and I choke out a laugh. “Pretty much, yeah.”
She grunts. “Not gonna lie, I’ve thought about it a few times over the years.”
“I don’t blame you.”
I hear her exhale. “Look, the truth is Hendrix, while I don’t agree with everything you did. I could really use a friend these days.”
I frown at the tone of her voice.
It’s not exactly sad but there’s something I can’t quite read lingering in her soft lilt.
“And if I’m not mistaken,” she says, her voice soft, “I think you could use one too. Someone who understands a little of what you’re putting yourself through by working with Cole again.”
I swing my legs through the air, drumming my fingers absentmindedly on the table edge. “Yeah. Maybe.”
“I get that you’ve got your friends there. And I’m not dismissing their roles in your life. But you and Cole working together? I don’t think anyone can really get it unless they were there to witness it the first time.”
“Probably not.”
While Talia and Riley have been my rocks the past few weeks, neither of them truly understand what Cole was to me or what I’m dredging up—personally and musically. I love them but they’re a part of my post Reckless Abandon life. Theo was there during.
“So, what do you say?” She asks. “Drinks? Thursday night?”
Fuck it. Why not?
“You’re on. I’ll call you when I reach my hotel and we can arrange something.”
“Hotel?” I can hear her frown in her voice.
“Yeah, I’m staying at the Premier in Camden.”
“No, you’re not.” She scoffs. “Cancel your reservation. We’ve got so many spare flats in this place. You’re staying here.”
I shake my head, my stomach knotting. “Theo I don’t think that’s a good—”
“I won’t hear an argument. There is no way I’m letting another woman stay in a hotel alone in London when there is a perfectly comfortable and safe place for her to stay. With security, might I add. Rock star perks and all that.”
“You guys have security?” My eyebrows dip and my lips twist. “I didn’t see anyone when I was there.”
A tinkling laugh spills through my phone speaker. “They’re very discreet.”
“Huh.”
“Are you done changing the subject now?” she teases, and I grunt, non-committal. “You’re staying with us. That’s final.”
“Whatever you say,” I appease her.
Though I have zero plans to cancel my hotel reservation. I don’t think any of the guys would appreciate me moving into the sanctity of their home for the unforeseeable future. And I would never want to make them feel put out in their safety bubble.
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Hey, I’ve gotta go. I’ll call you tomorrow when I’m on the road?”
“Great. I’ll see you soon.”
“Bye Theo.”
The line clicks dead.
Air whooshes from me, my shoulders sagging.
I’m not sure how this meeting with Theo will go. Hell, if she really does throw a martini in my face, it’ll be well deserved. But for the first time in a long while, there’s something else brimming in the pits of my stomach regarding my old life.
It’s not dread, guilt, pain… there’s hope beneath it all.
The hope that maybe I didn’t destroy everything forever.
Riley and Talia are sitting at the dining room table when I get home.
Italian food litters the mahogany and my stomach rumbles.
I drop my bag at the door, toss my keys onto the counter, and grab a can of Coke zero from the fridge before tugging out a chair and dropping beside Riley.
Snatching a fork, I help myself a large heaping of spaghetti from her bowl, and shove it in my mouth.
“I’m definitely setting reminders on your phone before you leave,” Riley says.
Talia arches a perfectly shaped brow. “Leave? We just got you back.”
I hold a finger up as I swallow. “I’m heading back to London Thursday. Didn’t I tell you that?”
“No.” Talia tilts her head. “How long are you going for?”
Riley shoves her bowl in front of me as I reach for it again.
I twirl my fork in the bolognese. “No idea. Haven’t really figured out an end date yet.”
“What about your work here?” Talia asks.
“I’ve wrapped up everything I can today,” I tell her. “And anything else I can do remotely.”
“What about Jasper’s EP?”
“Already in your inbox.” I push the fork past my lips as relief flickers over her face.
“And my wedding?”
“I’m not missing your wedding, Talia.” I chase the spaghetti down with a sip of icy Coke Zero, before giving her a pointed glance. “You know, there are these things, they’re made out of metal, have wheels, and can get you from A to B in a flash.”
She gives me a look. “Didn’t know you had a private plane at your disposal.”
“Ha,” I deadpan.
“Cole does,” Riley says.
I jolt in my seat and spin to face her. “How do you know that? I don’t even know that.”
“Axel told me.”
“Did he now?” I turn to Talia, my eyebrows raised to the sky. Talia mirrors my expression, lips twisted in amusement. “Did you know they text?”
“Do they?” Talia drags the question out. “I had no idea. It seems you aren’t the only one who keeps secrets in this friendship, Hendrix.”
“I’m right here,” Riley says, impassively.
I snicker. “I love you, Riles. Now spill, they own a private plane?”
“No.” She shakes her head, her fingers drumming in her lap. “But they lease one. It’s safer when they’re touring. So, I’m pretty sure if you asked Cole he’d lend it to you if you needed it.”
Talia’s eyes widen.
“The more you know,” I say, twirling my fork again. “But I was talking about driving anyway. No private planes for me, thank you.”
“Okay.” Riley shrugs.
“So, my wedding?” Talia asks, lips twitching.
“Is in eight months,” I remind her with a grin. “I’ll be back by them, I promise. It really shouldn’t take too long for the album to be finished. A couple weeks at best. Two months at most. Then, I’ll be home for good, and life can resume as normal.”
Talia watches me, head titled, eyes gleaming with something I can’t read.
I squirm under her gaze. “A weird thing happened today, by the way. Theo reached out to me.”
“Saint’s wife?” Riley asks.
“Yeah, she wants to get together when I get back down there,” I tell them.
“That’ll be nice,” Riley says.
“Yeah, I think so, maybe…” I exhale, and quiet falls around us.
Talia’s watchful gaze never strays from my face as I duck to finish Riley’s pasta. I want to ask her why, but I don’t. Pretty sure I know what she’s thinking already and it’s not something I’m willing to put into words yet.