Page 34 of Hard Rock Muse

Talking about Julian’s current band wasn’t why I’d agreed to come with him. I wanted to throttle him and tell him to just spit it out. Was he stalling? Or had he decided to drop the subject, whatever it was?

I was about to open my mouth and demand he just tell me when a man sidled up to the bar beside us. Julian looked startled before a chagrined expression crossed his face.

I turned my head to get a look at the guy, wondering what had caused Julian’s reaction. He looked normal enough, broad-shouldered with dirty blond hair, a bit shaggy and in need of a good cut.

“Hey, Julian,” the guy said. The corners of his mouth tugged up in a sad smile. “Long time no see.”

“Aaron,” Julian greeted him. “It’s been a while.”

“How’ve you been?” Aaron asked, sounding like he was only saying it to be polite.

“I’ve been good,” Julian said simply. “What are you doing here?”

“Meeting with some friends,” he said. “I didn’t realize you’d be here. I can—”

“No, it’s cool,” Julian said. “We’re just getting a quick drink.”

“Right,” Aaron said, flicking his eyes briefly to me. “I’ll let you get back to it. Just wanted to say hi.”

“Good seeing you.”

Julian let out a sigh of relief as soon as the guy left.

“Who was that?” I asked.

“An old ex,” Julian said with a grimace. He ran a hand through his hair. “We were pretty serious. But it didn’t end well.”

I snuck a look at Aaron. He was handsome enough. I could see Julian going for a guy like him.

Then realization dawned on me.

Julian was dating other people.

He said it had gotten serious.

“When did you break up?” I asked.

“About half a year ago,” Julian said. “He couldn’t take the touring, me being away all the time. He heard all these rumors about groupies and stuff. Made him jealous.”

Out of all the reasons musicians broke up, those tended to be the main reasons.

But that meant Julian had been dating someone as recent as six months ago. They’d gotten serious.

He wouldn’t have gotten serious with someone if he was still in love with Seth, would he?

A little spark of hope lit up within me.

Maybe I’d been wrong.

Maybe there was a chance for me and Julian to…

A girl in heavy makeup and a leather corset holding a tray of drinks appeared beside us.

“Hi there!” she said cheerfully. “You guys good for drinks?”

“Hey, Jessie,” Julian said. “We’re good for now, thanks.”

“Oh yeah,” she said, nodding at Julian. “I actually wanted to talk to you about Gael’s birthday.”