Chapter 8
I got out of Isaac’s car and approached the building. Before I got to the door, Isaac grabbed me and quickly kissed me, pulling me away from the door as he did.
“What was that for?” I asked, giggling a little at his sudden burst.
“It was for....” Isaac trailed off to give me another kiss and then pulled away again. “I think we should tell Jake,” he said. Before I could protest he put a hand up and stopped me. “I know you’ve been putting this off for as long as you can, but Mel, he’s gotta know. We’ve been going out for almost a month now, and it’s so hard not to pull you aside and kiss you during work because you don’t want Jake to see.”
“Fine,” I relented with my efforts against this inevitable event. “But let’s ease him into it. We don’t have to go up and just tell him right out. Instead, lets hold hands or something and let him see. Then give each other small pecks on the cheek tomorrow, then do something more noticeable the next day. I don’t want to just spring it on him all at once.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know. I just have this feeling that if I do that, he’ll freak out or something. It’s just kind of weird when the kid that works for you is going out with your client. I just don’t want him to get mad or something.”
“Okay, Melody, anything you want.”
With that, Isaac kissed me once more, a longer, more sensual kiss while he held me tight to him. I wanted it to last forever because the nervousness in the pit of my stomach and the worry in the back of my mind seemed to fade a little with every second I spent in his arms.
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“Okay, we have two different versions. In this one you do that inflection thing, and in this one you don’t,” Jake played the two different parts of the song we were editing for Taylor. It was a few weeks after me and Isaac had decided to warm Jake up to the idea that we were a couple, but we still hadn’t done anything drastic. I kept avoiding it, and Isaac was beginning to get a little annoyed at times.
“I like the first one; has kind of more of a blues-y feel to it and that’s what the song is about. The guy in the song is supposed to be singing a kind of blues because he’s just realized that everything is going downhill, so...” Taylor trailed off.
“Alright, I’ll put that in,” Jake fiddled with the controls for a few moments before moving onto the next clip of the three voices combined. I sighed and rubbed my neck with one hand, more tired than I had been in two weeks. I had been up for 19 hours because of getting up early and still working at...
“Gosh, it’s three a.m.,” I muttered under my breath, thinking no one would hear me.
“You tired?” I heard Isaac whisper from behind me.
“Oh, yeah, I guess a little. I’ve been up for a while...My neck is killing me,” I cringed as I hit a sore spot with my hand.
“Here,” Isaac got closer and began massaging my neck gently, just the way that made me get chills all over my body. I let my head hang down in satisfaction, enjoying the feeling of his hands on my neck.
“Mel, you with us?” Jake suddenly asked. I snapped my head up and nodded quickly.
“Yeah, sorry. Just a little tired. What were you saying, Jake?”
“He was asking if you knew how to....” Taylor went on asking some extremely technical question I wasn’t awake enough to understand. Had I been awake, I probably would have quickly knew the answer, but it was way too late.
“I-uh....” I scrunched my face with thought. “No, I don’t think I know. You know, I think I’m just going to go grab a Coke real quick.”
“I’ll get one, too,” Isaac said, following me out of the room. Once we were out of earshot of Jake, he spoke again, “Hey, Mel, you should really get some rest.”
“No, I’m okay Ike. I’m fine,” I lied. I was tired, but I was realizing it wasn’t all from being up so long. I had pulled all-nighters and been less tired. I was so tired of trying not to let Jake see that Isaac and I had something going that it had amounted to actual physical fatigue. Suddenly remembering why I was standing in the back room, I proceeded to the cooler and fished in the melting ice until I came out with two bottles of Coke-a-Cola. I tossed one to Isaac and quickly opened the other and downed a few gulps, all at once terribly thirsty.
“No you’re not. This is more than just being tired. I’ve been up as long as you have. What’s wrong?”
“What makes you think something’s wrong?” I shrugged trying to act as if I couldn’t be more free.
“Mel, I just know. There’s something about you that just tells me exactly how you’re feeling and I can tell you’re troubled. Your tone of voice, your nervousness, how you’re tired. Something’s worrying you or you’d be acting differently.”
“My gosh. I’ve only known you for a few months and you already know how to psychoanalyze me. Scary. Is this a recent talent of yours or have you always been able to do that?”
“Add to that list that you completely avoid my questions, too.”
“Ike, seriously, I’m just tired,” I looked away from him and at my bottle.
“Avoids eye contact...” he continued.
“Is everything I do another addition to your assessment of my emotions?!” I shouted, angry with him knowing me so well. I quickly regretted it as he got a look of extreme concern on his face and took a step towards me timidly. “I’m sorry... Let’s just get back to work before I do that again. I really don’t need you to analyze me right now, that’s all. Just let me experience this so I’ll know how to react next time I go through it. I think I just need to feel pain for once.”
“All I want to know is what the pain is for, Melody. I want to know what’s wrong,” he approached me and looked me in the eye and softened. “But if you think you don’t need any help, then I’ll let you take it however you need to. Just please, if it gets bad, realize that I’m here, okay?”
I nodded and took his hand. “Thank you.” I kissed him softly on the lips before giving him a hug and leading him out of the room back toward the editing room. We ran into Jake in the front room as he walked toward us.
“Oh, sorry. I was just coming to see if you’re ready to go home. I think everyone is too tired to make any sense out of what we’re editing. Zac is babbling something about ‘Mmmbop’ and Taylor is just staring into dead air,” Jake smiled.
“Good, I was about to suggest that we call it a night,” Isaac smiled.
“Oh, Melody, before you go I need to talk to you,” Jake motioned toward his office.
“Sure, Jake,” I nodded, going through the open door and to the messy desk full of important papers and not so important ones. “What’s the problem?”
Jake shut the door and took a seat behind his desk, smiling. “Well, I have a proposition for you,” he smiled, pausing, “And you don’t have to answer right away, but I think you’ll like it.”
I smiled and listened closely.
“You’re graduated now with a diploma and everything. You’ll be 18 in a few weeks and, well, I’ve been thinking about this for a while and I’d like you to become my partner,” he laughed.
“Are you serious!?” I laughed, rising from the seat I had taken.
“Yes, I’m serious, but listen: It won’t start out permanent. I know you’ve said your parents want you to go to college, so I’d like you to try a year of being my partner. If you think that going to college is something you’d want to do, the year after that you can do it, especially with the extra money you’ll earn here. And, if you want to, you can stay my partner while you go to college if you go to a school close by.”
“Oh my gosh! Yes! I already know the answer, and I don’t care what my parents say! This is great!!” I ran to Jake and hugged him tightly thinking about all the possibilities this would present for me.
“Wait, there’s one thing I’d like to tell you before you get too excited,” Jake said as I hugged him.
“What?” I pulled away, still smiling.
“Well, I saw you and Isaac kiss and I know there’s something going on and before you get too involved I want to tell you to cut it off.”
“Jake, if you can’t be serious right now, then I can’t be here,” I laughed.
“No, I am being serious. Cut it off or no job here and no partnership. I’m not bluffing, Melody. He’s bad news and I don’t want you to get involved with my clients anyway,” he said, picking up a few papers and stuffing them into a manila envelope.
“But that’s not fair!” I forced through the oncoming emotions. I pushed them back and forced myself to be reasonable, and not emotional.
“No one ever said the music business is fair, Melody! Live with it or lose your job, understand?” Jake shouted at me. Before, he had never been cross, never been unreasonable, and never been angry with me before. It scared me and I winced at his rage.
“Yes, I understand,” I whispered
“I’ll see you later, partner,” he smiled, shaking my hand before shooing me out of the room. Jake’s personality had just done a total 180 and I was left in shock. I walked in total confusion towards the door and walked out to Isaac’s car and got in. I didn’t watch as he took off and it wasn’t until 20 minutes later that I noticed that I wasn’t home yet and nowhere near it.
“Isaac where are we going?”
“To the apartment.”
“Apartment?” I never remembered Isaac mentioning an apartment.
“Yeah, I live there half the time and home half the time. It just helps me escape the family when I need it.” he shrugged.
“Why are we going there? Why aren’t you taking me home?”
“I know I said I would respect the fact that you didn’t want to share your thoughts with me, but I can’t stand watching you struggle along like this. We’re going to the apartment and not leaving until you confess your sins.”
“Isaac, I really don’t think this is-”
“No objections allowed. We will stay up all night if we need to. It’s Friday. When we get to the apartment you call your parents and tell them something so that you can stay and then we’ll talk,” Isaac said seriously as he pulled into an apartment complex and found a parking place.
“Ike, I really don’t want to talk right now,” I protested as he got out of the car and approached my door. He then opened it, reached across me and unbuckled my seat belt. “I’m not a baby, Isaac. I can do that myself.”
“Well, you didn’t look like you were going to, so I thought I’d help you out. Now come on,” he put a hand out and grabbed mine, pulling me from the car. I followed slowly as he led me to the stairwell to the second floor. I followed him up the stairs and felt like a puppy on a leash as he led me to his front door. He went in quickly and then shut and locked the door behind me. “Okay, we’re alone now. No one is around. You can tell me anything, Melody. Just talk to me, please; it hurts me so bad to see you like this and not know what’s wrong.”
“Isaac, if I ask you to do something, will you just do it for me?” I sighed, feeling the tears coming on. Even though he did make me mad because he wanted to know so badly, I realized he only wanted to make me feel better. Kiss the wounds and make them disappear like Mommy does to make it all better.
“Anything, Mel,” he ran a hand through my hair and looked in my eyes.
I didn’t want to lose him and yet I knew it was him or my job. I had never thought I would get thrown into a situation where I would have to make such a difficult decision.
“Hold me,” I whispered.
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what would you say to Jake in this situation?
Chapter 9
Chapter Index