CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“You’re sure this isn’t going to be a shit show?” Allie had her camera around her neck; she’d ridden out to the studio with me, and we’d parked a minute before.
“Alex says he’ll be pleasant to you,” I told her. I’d told her more or less about the conversation, about how Alex didn’t like or trust her--but was willing to basically go along to get along. She hadn’t been all that enthused, and when she’d agreed to come along anyway I had to admit that there was something like an alarm bell in my brain telling me it was another sign that Alex was right--but she’d agreed to come along.
“I want the shots to be as candid as possible,” Allie said, checking her equipment. “I guess I’ll just hang around, and wait for things to kind of settle in.”
“Probably best,” I said, steeling myself for the initial drama. I could count on Dan and Nick to be solid. I could probably count on Jules to be charming in his usual snarky, sarcastic way. I didn’t know what Alex would do. “We’ve got a long day of tracking ahead of us--trying to wrap things up as much as possible,” I added. “If you need to head out, you can use the car--I’ll catch a ride home with Nick.”
“If you can hang for the whole day, I can,” Allie said, smiling at me. “As long as we don’t end up with the cops getting called, I’m in.” I laughed.
I definitely steeled myself a bit when we went into the studio, expecting at least some kind of tension from Alex’s quarter; but at first at least, Allie seemed content to hang out a bit, to stay at the fringes of what was going on as we sat in the control room and talked to Jack about the day’s work, as we discussed what we were going to do, what we wanted to go back to and tweak. Alex said hello to Allie and then mostly ignored her. Allie kept the camera around her neck, but she didn’t take pictures, for the first thirty minutes--then for the first hour. By the time she actually started taking pictures, I barely even noticed that she was doing it.
Of course, I thought to myself; that had been her plan all along. I’d seen her work this way before, keeping the camera on her but not using it, waiting and waiting until people started to relax and stopped thinking about the camera being there at all. Then, when she started taking pictures, nobody really noticed; even Alex didn’t seem to particularly see that Allie was snapping the occasional picture, moving from the live room to the control room to one of the individual spaces as her interest carried her around. I tried not to feel on edge, tried not to keep waiting for something to happen between her and Alex, but I couldn’t help wondering just how well my friend was going to be able to keep with his promise to be pleasant to her.
“This is actually kind of fun,” Nick said during one of the breaks. “It’s like when Liv went on tour with us, except I’m not constantly distracted by how much I wish I was having sex.” I rolled my eyes.
“Does it count as sexual harassment if it’s a girlfriend of the band being harassed?” Jules smirked.
“I’ve heard worse,” Allie said with a shrug, taking a sip of the beer Dan had gotten for her.
“You’ve hung out backstage at festivals and shit,” Nick pointed out. “I’m sure you’ve seen worse.”
“Not everyone thinks it’s a good idea to fuck their girlfriend in a supply closet, Nick,” Dan said.
“How you managed to avoid getting chemical burns is still beyond me,” Alex added.
“Let’s go to lunch,” Jack suggested from the control panel. “I need to work on some things here anyway.”
“I’m game,” I said. “Fucking starving.” We’d been working for hours at that point; we had hours more to go, but all of us were starting to get that feeling of restlessness that came along with being bored and hungry.
We cleared out of the control room and Allie said she wanted to put some things away in the car to avoid getting them messed up. I went into the back area to make a phone call to my mom; I told Jules and Nick that Allie and I would catch up with them at Clive’s. I had started to relax a little, to think that at least nothing was going to go drastically wrong during the session. I told my mom that I was going to be able to go to my brother’s birthday in a couple of weeks, and promised that I’d have lunch with her that weekend. “Look--if I don’t go soon, Allie is going to kill me,” I said, when it looked like Mom was going to go on for another hour.
“Bring her with you for lunch this weekend,” she said.
“I’ll do that,” I told her. “Love you.”
“Love you too, Marky,” Mom said, and before she could think to start up some new topic of conversation I said goodbye. I’d been on the phone maybe fifteen minutes at the most.
I made sure I had my wallet and my keys and at least half a pack of cigs in my pockets and headed out of the studio, looking around for Allie. I walked towards my car, thinking that she was probably there, having a cigarette and maybe talking to a client. Maybe Alex will warm up to her. Maybe he’ll stop being such a pretentious all-knowing asshole, and things will work out. I’d take her to lunch with my mom, and she’d go to my brother’s birthday party with me, and it’d be good.
I was thinking that, and picturing it in my head, and I saw two people standing over by where Alex had parked; they were standing too close together for it to be a simple conversation. I recognized Alex first and thought to myself that maybe the reason for his improvement in mood was that he knew he was going to be seeing Mary. I almost called out to say hello to Alex’s girlfriend, but then I stopped dead in my tracks. Right there, next to his car, I saw Alex kissing Allie.
“What the fuck! What the hell--You--What the fuck?” Alex and Allie parted and Allie looked at me in shock, and opened her mouth to say something. Whatever it was that had frozen me in my tracks melted like ice on a charcoal grill and I turned around and walked away. I somehow managed to make it to my car, find my keys in my pocket and get them out.
“Mark--Mark, wait!” Alex wasn’t saying anything, and I thought angrily to myself that it was no wonder. I unlocked my car and climbed into the driver’s seat, getting the key in the ignition somehow and starting the engine. I pulled out of the parking space with my wheels squeaking on the asphalt and didn’t even look to see if Allie was close, if Alex was coming after me with her. I turned the car towards the road and left the lot. Suddenly I wasn’t even a little hungry anymore. Just the thought of telling Jules and Nick about what had happened turned my stomach, and I decided I was done--for the day, maybe for good.