“When I need a Bonnie to go with my Clyde, I know who to call.” Then he slaps my ass and I yelp.
We hike and hike and hike, and my heart squeezes in anticipation as we make it to the top of a cliff.
The view is breathtaking, the city lights brightening up the sky like lightning bugs. The air is clean, clear, crisp, and sweet as honey. Something about being away from the city makes the air smell fresh.
“Wow,” I say, and Felix grabs my hand and rubs his thumb on my knuckles and goosebumps arise all over my body.
“My mom used to take me here a lot. I remember when the band got booed off the stage for the first time, she brought me here and told me that the world is mine and to never give up on my dreams.” He exhales and we both sit down on the hard ground. “I haven’t been up here since her passing. A few days before she died, she asked me to do this with her again. To bring her up here, so I did. My mom knew that she was going to die sooner than we thought. Because she kept saying her soul was weary.” His words are packed with so much emotion.
Grief. Sadness. Pain.
And his whole body tenses and his sharp jaw tics. I relax my shoulders a bit and chew on the inside of my cheek.
I don’t know how to response to this type of situation. So, I listen to the crickets and the horns honk, and the traffic and cars zipping through the streets.
“You and your mom were close,” I state.
“She was my best friend.”
“And what about your dad?”
“We’re close, but not like me and my mom. I guess because he was always working, and my mom stayed at home.”
“Oh. You came from a lovely family. You’re lucky, Felix.”
He stretches his legs in front of him. He looks like a bad boy as the wind blows his hair.
“How did you get involved with music?”
“My mom wanted me to play an instrument in high school and I chose drums. When I met Easton, he wanted to form a band and decided it was a way to get him and his sister out of their hell hole, and Azrael was already playing the guitar. I’ve been in love with music since I was fifteen. She was my first love.”
I don’t want to put a damper on our mood but I want to ask him about Mae. “You met Mae in high school?”
His demeanor changes from sad to angry. “Yeah. We were high school sweethearts, but she didn’t go to my high school, she went to another one. Her family was dirt poor.”
“I have to go pick up my dress tomorrow for the wedding, and it’s rose color so if you want to wear a matching tie, you can.”
“Rose color?”
“I’ll send you a pic of it.”
“OK.”
“Were you going to show my diary to my father?”
He shakes his head. “I would find another way to fuck you.”
I don’t know what to say to that, but even if he didn’t blackmail me, I would have eventually given in to his advances.
“I wish I got tired of you.” His tone is filled with disdain. “You’re like blood in my veins, and you can’t live without blood. But I can’t keep you, Sadie. Sometimes I wish I’d never met you. You make me have thoughts of being with you. You make me feel things that I should have felt with Mae. You make me have a burning need to keep you.”
I should pump the brakes in this relationship. My starved heart wants his attention. My neglectful heart wants his love. My treacherous heart is selfish and it’s a leech feeding off his presence.
He just admitted to me that he wants me but doesn’t want to want me.
What sense does it make for me to want to stick around? Little to none.
“You’re a god, Felix. A broken god. There is no amount of glue that can fix what Mae did to your heart.”
He nods slightly. “What happens when a mortal asks a god to reveal their true selves to them?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know.”
“The moral gets burned alive.” His tone is shaped than jagged glass.
“I’ll burn you, Sadie.” His words crush my chest like two heavy boulders.
But this is not a myth, this is real life. He’s a rock god and I’m a mortal, and gods burn mortals with their bright lights. Gods and mortals don’t fall in love. And if they did fall in love, it would end in tragedy.
Sadie
I zip up my Louis Vuitton bag and roll it to the door. I made sure I packed enough clothes and shoes to last me a lifetime on this trip to Key West. I haven’t been to Florida since I was eight years old for a family reunion on my dad’s side.
Nervousness bubbles in my chest, I’m not ready for this trip. I’ve never been on a trip with a guy. Even though this not a real vacation, it feels like one. Felix and I are there to show Mae that he doesn’t care that she’s marrying his uncle and that he moved on with his life.
The doorbell rings and I rush to the front door and open it. My mother stands there wearing a floppy white hat with a matching tight dress hugging her small frame. Her charcoal hair cascades down her shoulders. I see why men are so intrigued with her beauty. Even at fifty-three, she’s drop-dead gorgeous. She works out every other day and she takes Botox injections in her face to look younger.
“Are you going to just stand there? Invite me in.” Her tone sounds high and overzealous. She’s never so eager to see
