Page 87 of A Taste of Bliss

“Yeah, about that—who are you to talk?” I ask now, glaring at him. I almost forgot about that part of it.

He smiles sheepishly at me and a traitorous part of my mind can’t help but find his smile endearing and charming.Just because he’s a cute guy doesn’t mean he can get away with being a jerk,I remind myself.

He bends his knees and rests his elbows on them, his hands hanging in between his legs. He fiddles with his fingers. “You ever think maybe our mothers had something against us? Like their labor was so hard they had to get back at us in some way?”

I let out a laugh. “If that’s the case, I would have thought Amelia would have gotten the weird name. Apparently they put my mom on more drugs during my delivery, so it should have been easier.”

Pisces chuckles and the sound does something to me. It’s deep and rough. I look over at him and he meets my gaze, growing somber. “I am really sorry, about before. I was already feeling angry about something else. I took it out on you and I shouldn’t have.”

I guess I can’t really blame him. And I was only talking to him to try to get details on the band. That wasn’t super nice of me. “Apology accepted.”

He smiles softly at me and leans his head back against the wall. His dark brown hair falls into his eyes and he sweeps a hand across his forehead.

“Just so we’re clear, I don’t know how to braid hair, so we’ll have to skip that part of our new friendship,” he jokes.

I reach up and touch the ribbon that’s tying up my hair into a ponytail. But I match his smile.

“Can I ask you a question about your job?” I ask, hoping he won’t think I’m just trying to get information about him.

He looks at his hands. “I guess so.”

“How’d you get started as a guitar tech? I’m thinking if Goddess’ Trance does another big gig like this—which hopefully we will—I should try to hire some techs.”

Pisces and I look towards the door, hearing a muffled sound, but it seems too far away to be anyone coming down here. Turning back to me he says, “I honestly just got it because I was already friends with some of the guys. You could probably ask around, see if any musicians you know want to make a little extra money. Though there are a lot of technical things they’d have to be familiar with. It’s not as easy as just playing the instrument.”

I nod. I’ll task my musicians with asking around.

“Can I ask you a question?” Pisces asks.

“Sure,” I say, a little scared of what he’ll ask.

“You said you broke up with that guy? Goddess’ Trance’s old guitarist?”

“My question was way easier,” I reply, mostly to stall and gather myself. I was not expecting him to bring up Jordan.

He laughs, the sound echoing around the empty concrete room. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”

“Yeah, we broke up. I finally saw how terrible he was treating me. It was like I had a blindfold on the entire time we were dating. I actually realized it after a Voracious Maw show. Something about Wrath’s lyrics helped the blindfold come off, I guess.”

“Seriously? Which lyrics?”

“In ‘Owe,’ when Wrath sings ‘You don’t get to decide when my fate ends’ and then screams ‘It’s not up to you!’” I pause, smiling. “There are a ton more I could list, but when I heard those lines for the first time it was eye opening.”

Pisces doesn’t say anything, his eyes roaming my face.

“And he crashed his car while driving me home that night. I almost died,” I continue.

A guttural sound comes from his throat and I can see he’s no longer looking at me but at the wall opposite us. His jaw clenches and his fists tighten into balls.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

He breathes in and out slowly through his nose a few times and nods. “Yeah. I’m sorry, it’s just—I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

I place my hand on his forearm. I wonder if he can somehow relate to what I’ve told him. His reaction seems to indicate as much. But I don’t want to pry.

The cords of muscle along his arm seem to relax as he allows his fingers to uncurl. I remove my hand and let out a sigh. “I can’t help but wonder what Wrath has been through in his life, for his lyrics to be that powerful. That life changing, ya know?”

Pisces doesn’t respond. I look up and find his eyes have narrowed again.Fuck. I forgot how mad he was when I was asking him questions before about the band.