Page 41 of Aaron
TWENTY TWO
It was too late, far too late, for him to be calling Lara. At this hour, it was too late to be making any business phone calls at all, and Brad was very aware of it as he glared down at his phone. He should wait until the morning, especially since his hands were trembling and he had no idea if he was going to scream or burst into tears or what.
Just like that, it was over. Brad had needed to hear it right from Aaron’s lips, and he had now. Aaron had soundly denounced him, had made it very, very clear that they weren’t together, not now and maybe they had never been. Not only that, but he’d done it in front of people that Brad was supposed to be managing, who were now going to have a hard time respecting him, he figured.
He should talk to Lara. Before she talked to Ken, or Lance, or Jamie, who would certainly have some pretty interesting things to say to her about what they’d seen. Though how he was going to manage to do damage control when he could barely see straight, he didn’t know.
And for the first time, he had to wonder if he even wanted to.
Chances were, he was going to get fired, anyway. He had made a huge mess out of this assignment. Lara had put her faith in him, and while he had done better than Lester, that wasn’t saying much. Lester had stolen, had robbed them blind, but Brad had not only slept with one of the people he was supposed to manage, but he’d also driven him away.
Or so it felt, and so he thought that Lara would believe. Even if she didn’t, though, even if she gave him another chance, did he even want to take it? For the first time in his life, he was faced with the highly uncomfortable, unwelcome thought that maybe this was one he was just going to have to give up.
He wasn’t in the habit of giving things up that he hadn’t already finished, but could his heart possibly be in this now? In just a few short months, Aaron was going to be gone, and then who knew what would even happen with the Lost Boys? Would Lara go after Ken as a solo act? Or just throw herself behind someone else?
There were too many unknowns, Brad supposed, which meant that he couldn’t quite make himself just quit. Not just yet. If he was fired, well, then, there was a first time for everything, and he would have to accept that.
But he just didn’t have it in him to quit.
With that decision made, Brad put the phone down. It really, really was too late for him to be calling Lara. He’d been over that. First thing in the morning would be soon enough. So he did the right thing and put the phone aside, but less than a split second later, he had it snatched up and was pressing the button which would get him in touch with Lara.
It wasn’t like she slept much, anyway. And he knew very well that she lived, breathed, ate, and drank her business, so she would never be the sort of person to blame him for calling. In fact, she would probably be annoyed if he didn’t.
“Brad. What?” Just as Brad had thought likely, there was no trace of sleep in her voice. Which almost made this harder. At least through the veil of sleep, she might have had some mercy on him.
“I lost him.”
There was no sense in beating around the bush. That sort of thing had always annoyed her, and it was pointless when she would have it out of him sooner or later. Subtlety was and had always been, lost on her. There was no point in pretending otherwise.
“Aaron?”
All of a sudden, with just that one word, her voice was still and quiet and focused. She had put a lot of her considerable energy into her plans for Aaron, and Brad felt an unaccustomed flush of shame, of failure, as he realized that it was all his fault that her plans were falling through.
She had trusted him. She had taken a relatively untried, at least on this level, manager and given him a huge project and had believed that he could do it. And he had failed her. She hadn’t said it, but he knew that it was true, and it wasn’t a feeling that he was used to.
“Yes. He signed the short contract,” Brad told her and fought with himself for a few moments before he continued. His instinct was not to tell her, but someone would tell. There was no way that Ken, Lance, and Jamie would all keep their mouths shut about what they had seen, and no reason for him to even think that they would try.
“Shit,” Lara commented, and it was rare to hear that tone of defeat in her voice. The Lost Boys were one of her main projects, and this solo act launch with Aaron was something that she had been counting on. Brad had already known that that was true, but he hadn’t known just how much.
“It’s worse than that,” Brad finally said, each word feeling like it needed to be dragged out of him through sheer force of will. But really, she might as well know now how bad it was. Like ripping off a band-aid all at once, though Brad had always been much more the slow, careful peeling type, himself.
“Worse? How? Are Lance and Jamie going to sign with another label? Is Ken going to quit the band and take up macramé?” Lara’s voice was sharp, her tone brutal, and Brad couldn’t even honestly say that he didn’t deserve it.
“No as far as I know. But they did see me kissing Aaron in his hotel room.”
The silence which stretched between them went on for so long that Brad started to think that Lara had just outright hung up on him. Just when he was pulling the phone away from his ear to see if the call was still connected, he heard her voice, still and quiet, coming through once more.
“You and Aaron …?”
Brad sighed, and even though it would probably mean his job, he would have given anything, at that moment, to be able to say yes, that he and Aaron were together. But Aaron had made it only too clear that that wasn’t the case.
“No. It’s over,” Brad assured her, though he was surprised by how bleak and sad his voice came out. He was usually better at hiding his feelings than that, especially when he was talking to his boss.
“I … see.” Lara drew out the last word, and there was a strange tone to her voice that Brad didn’t quite understand. “Okay. Well, what’s your plan now?”
What was his plan? Well, he had planned to be thanking Lara for the opportunity, assuring her that he understood why she had to fire him. Telling her that he would make sure that his desk was cleaned out as soon as possible. The abrupt change disconcerted him, and Brad took a deep breath before answering.
“I’ll come back.”
