Page 42 of Everything After (Everything Trilogy)

ALFIE

The first twenty minutes of XrAid’s time in the booth had been mostly about bass levels, voice tones and technical mixes with their producer, and for most of that time, I’d scrutinized Cody’s behavior toward my wife.

Once I felt comfortable that he was being mindful of her, I began to relax and poured myself a coffee.

Being used to better blends and richer tastes in my coffee, I grimaced at the offering and set my cup down. Tapping Maz on the shoulder, he turned and pulled his headphone off one ear with a questioning look.

“That stuff’s gonna strip the skin from my tongue,” I said, gesturing toward the black liquid that swayed inside the glass pot I’d put down on the ancient coffee maker.

Just as I said this, Oscar arrived. “Boss, you need to stop leaving without me. You didn’t arrange a leaving time this morning. How can I protect you if you don’t keep me in the loop?”

“We were only coming here. I didn’t think it was necessary that you came along,” I said dismissively. “Besides, I like driving myself places, it makes me feel normal for a change.” I turned my attention to Maz. “I’m gonna nip next door to the coffee house. Want anything?”

“A large Americano, plenty of sugar, since you’re offering,” he replied, smiling. He dropped his headphone back in place and pressed a button on his mixing board to talk to the band in the recording booth. “I think we’re ready to do a run through for the levels before you record the first track.”

“I’ll get the coffees what do you want?” Oscar said.

“Nah, I like to do normal stuff myself,” I insisted.

Leaving the studio with Oscar in tow, I sauntered to the coffee house. Thankfully, it was pretty quiet, but I’d still had to sign four autographs and pose for two selfies with fans before we’d headed back.

As I re-entered the studio with the four-cup cardboard holder containing two drinks for me, one for Maz and one for Oscar, I was met with complete silence because recording had begun.

“Go home, I don’t need you today. Grab some lunch and take a swim or something, you’ll only be in the way here,” I murmured to Oscar, dismissing him.

“No,” he replied sternly.

“Yes,” I insisted, eyeing him carefully.

“I’ll sit in the car. Give me the keys.” I knew it was an argument I couldn’t win. Not after what had happened in the coffee shop. Relenting, I dropped the Merc key in his hand and Oscar headed out the door.

As I turned to walk to my seat, I glanced past Maz to the band in the booth. Rage instantly charged every cell within me once I’d taken in what I saw, then my heart stopped for a beat.

“Fuck.” The word burst out of my mouth just as a surge of adrenaline coursed through me. Jealousy narrowed my eyes when I saw Cody’s hands all over what was mine.

The silent scene in front of me looked intimate. Way too intimate for my liking. A sudden pain in my jaw made me realize how hard my teeth were clenched, then a small muscle close to my ear began to tick. It was only when I became conscious of it that I remembered to breathe.

My eyes narrowed as I focused on Lily, and for a moment I felt my anger dissipate when my love for her dampened my rage.

Even though I couldn’t hear anything, I knew from Lily’s closed eyes and the way her body swayed that she was lost in the song, feeling the emotions of the lyrics and living every word of the story she sang.

Once I’d dragged my eyes away, switching my gaze to Cody, the ominous feelings I’d had before about him and Lily being in the same room came roaring back. Even from his profile stance I could read how much he wanted her. They stood, each facing the other on either side of the mic.

Cody appeared enthralled while he watched my girl singing, and as they appeared to take turns, I guessed they were singing a duet. Lily sang first and Cody followed, then they both sang together at what I guessed was the bridge in the song.

Blindly placing the tray of coffees down in slow motion, I wandered behind the mixing board, stiffened and folded my arms in full view of the booth window.

Maz briefly glanced up, lifted and waved a spare headset toward me, then continued with what he was doing.

Taking them from him, I slipped off my beanie and put them on.

The instant I caught the name of the song at the start of the bridge my fists clenched. The song “What He Can’t Know” was littered with soulful lyrics about a secret love that had lasted for years.

My basic instinct was to go rip that booth door off its hinges and drag that weaselly fucker Cody out of that studio by his stupid gel-styled hair.

When he appeared to massage my wife’s shoulder, a sharp pain made me clamp my hand to my jaw and I realized that I’d cracked one of my molars.

To Lily’s credit as the song came to an end and she opened her eyes, she sidestepped away from the mic and glared at her bandmate. There was a short exchange between them with Lily’s hand over the mic.

“Wha-what happened? It was going great,” Maz queried, frowning.

I reached over and pulled Maz’s headphones away from his ear. “Her bandmate got handsy,” I informed him before letting go of his earphone again and strode toward the recording booth door.

As the door was locked for recording, I couldn’t enter without a release, so I banged on the glass with my wedding ring. No one turned around so I marched back to Maz and knocked his headphones off his ear this time. “Tell them to release the fucking door,” I ground out.

“What the hell did I miss?” he asked, his brows knitted in confusion.

“You were sitting right here. You didn’t see it?” I fumed, gesturing toward the window.

“See what? One minute they were making an amazing connection on the track and the next Lily abruptly stopped.

“Yeah, because that fucker was taking advantage and pawing my wife while she was trying to sing.”

“Get the fuck out here,” I bellowed, pointing at Cody through the window and gesturing to the recording booth door.

The shock on Cody’s face made it clear that when he’d seen me leave, he’d thought I’d gone for good.

Lily frowned as she marched toward the door, and I saw the red recording light that still reflected against her skin go off.

“Alfie! What are you doing?” she hissed, with her arm stretched out across the doorway, like I was the one in the wrong.

“What am I doing? What the fuck does he think he’s doing?” I yelled in a menacing tone, eyeing Cody over Lily’s shoulder.

Lily twisted her body to follow my gaze, and her shoulders sagged in disappointment. When she turned back to look up at me, she placed her hands on my chest and shook her head. “Wait a minute. It’s fine, he was acting out the lyrics.”

“No, he was pawing you,” I stated.

“Calm down. If that’s how you feel, then that’s a conversation I need to have with Cody.”

“No. I don’t fucking think so because I saw what he was doing with my own eyes. And I saw how you reacted. He was pawing you. Granted, you were lost in the song and looked oblivious to what he was doing for most of it, but that fucker there…” I muttered through gritted teeth, “took advantage.”

Lily turned to look at Cody and instead of pacifying me with excuses like, I’m sure it wasn’t like that, as she’d done in the past, she called his ass out. “Is that right?” she asked, dropping her arm from the door and clearing the way for me to enter.

When I stepped into the booth Lennie ducked around Shawn, blocked my path to Cody, and quickly put his hand up to stop me from going closer. “Hey, I didn’t see what happened but if Cody disrespected Lily, I’ll deal with him,” Lennie insisted.

“I don’t need a boy to do a man’s job,” I countered, eyeing Lennie with contempt.

“Alfie, please,” Lily pleaded, grabbing my upper arm and holding it in a death grip.

Giving Cody my full attention, I challenged him. “Did you think I’d left? Is that how you treat my wife when I’m not around?”

“We were singing,” he responded, shrugging his shoulders.

“She was singing… you were taking advantage.”

“Fuck me,” he said, his eyebrows at his hairline, looking surprised. “I was performing… so I might have gotten a little carried away.” He shrugged again.

“Carried away?” I glanced at the rest of the band members worried faces before my eyes settled on Lily. Her lips barely moved but I read the plea on them not to escalate the situation any further. Realizing my confrontation was distressing her, I let out a frustrated sigh.

“Please, Alfie, don’t,” she pleaded again when my gaze switched back to Cody.

“Don’t!” I said, repeating her warning but to Cody. “Take this as your last warning, dude. Lay your hands on my wife one more time today and you’ll get carried away alright, by a fucking duo of paramedics.”

Lennie scowled at Cody before he laid a placating pat on my shoulder.

“I’ll watch him,” he muttered, “but we need to get back to work,” he said.

Turning to Cody, Lennie scowled. “And Alfie’s right, you need to keep your hands to yourself, Cody,” he ordered.

Cody held his hands up in front of his chest in surrender.

“Tell Lily and Alfie you’re sorry and it won’t happen again,” Lennie ordered.

“Look, Lily and I are a team. Jesus, Lennie, part of the hype of the fans is their speculation about the chemistry between her and me,” Cody countered.

“If that’s true the chemistry is all on you,” Lily interjected, sounding annoyed. “We might be friends, Cody, but make no mistake, my husband is making it clear that you’re to keep your hands to yourself. I’d hate it if Alfie had a girl in his band and she was all over him.”

“There you go, straight from the horse’s mouth,” I ground out, wagging a finger toward Lily to make my point again. I glanced at Lily and when I saw the worry etched on her face, I smiled and cracked a joke to lighten the mood for her. “Not that you’re a horse, baby,” I said playfully toward her.

“Right, we need to get back to work,” Lennie snapped again. “Cody, keep your fucking hands to yourself. Alfie, it would be better for everyone if you weren’t here. We’ve got work to do and time is ticking,” he suggested when he turned his attention toward me again.

I was reluctant to do what Lennie wanted until Lily caught my wrist and pulled me back toward her. “Please go. I won’t be able to concentrate with you glaring at Cody through that window.”

We stared at each other for a long minute, then my shoulders slumped, and I nodded.

“Consider yourself on your third strike,” I warned Cody before turning back to Lily.

“I was going to head to the university at some point today to check in on Delilah anyway. Don’t leave the mainland without me.

I’ll be back in a few hours,” I said loud enough for Cody to hear.

Dipping my knees, I pressed a small kiss to my wife’s pretty lips, hugged her extra tight, then reluctantly left like she’d asked.