Fairplay, Denver Cereal Volume 6 (23 page)

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED and SEVENTY

Flawed

Saturday early-morning—3 A.M. PDT

Seth woke with a jolt. He’d fallen asleep at
his piano again. Or some piano, some really nice piano. Where was
he? He looked around the room until he saw the moon reflecting
against the ocean. He nodded. He was in Los Angeles to work on the
film. Ava had come last night to tell him about Andy. His heart
pinched with sorrow. He looked at the piano.

Should he play?

Should he sleep?

Yawning, he knew he had a long day ahead. He
put some weight on his feet and gasped. Pain ripped through him. He
eased back down on the bench. Thinking the pain might be a sign
from God for him to play, Seth’s fingers moved across the keys. His
fingers and hands ached.

He’d forgotten his medication and Chinese
Medicine supplements. He was going to have to get out of this room
to get them. He had to have the pills on board to be able to work
today. He had to work or the studio would kill him. His Saint Jude
related illness had already delayed the film’s production by almost
a month.

He closed his eyes and said a silent prayer
for strength. Using the metal arm crutches, he made his way to the
door. He had no idea where his bedroom was located in this
sprawling house. He hobbled out into the hall and looked both ways.
His nose picked up the distinct odor of a swimming pool or maybe a
hot tub. He had just decided to sleep on the couch when he saw a
yellow post-it note on the floor.

“
Your room is at the end
of the hall.” There was another post-it with an arrow on
it.

Seth peered down the hall he was in and
turned to look down the connecting hallway. The moist ocean air
must have made the post-it fall off the wall. Being the great
detective, he reasoned that most people put the sticky part at the
top. The arrow pointed to his left. His room was on this hall.

Or maybe it was down the other hall.

Chuckling at himself, he began a slow
journey across the hall. Along the floor were yellow post-its with
arrows on them. The half-opened door to his left had a yellow
post-it with an X on it. That could mean this was his room or that
it wasn’t. Seth smiled. Somewhere in the afterlife, Mitch was
laughing at him.

He pushed open the door. Wearing only her
underwear and a T-shirt, Ava lay sprawled out on the bed. Her long
legs had kicked off the sheet and her arms held her pillow in the
embrace of deep sleep. While the reflection off the water danced
along her perfect skin, the moonlight held her in a loving caress.
Her hair had grown to about an inch long. She styled it in a cute
male bob, but tonight, it stuck up to rival Sid Vicious. He smiled
at the idea of Sid’s head on her luscious body.

“
Seth?” Even thick with
sleep, Ava’s gorgeous voice was stirring.

“
Just me,” he said. “Do
you know where my bag is?”

She rolled over to look at him. He took her
extended hand and sat down next to her on the bed. Her eyes were
soft with love. He smiled.

“
How do you do it?” she
asked.

“
Do what?” Seth asked.
“Focus on my music to the exclusion of normal human interaction?
Abandon my girlfriend after she arrives from Denver so I can feel
sorry for myself? Treat people like servants?”

“
What are you saying?” Ava
shook her head at his words.

“
Things I know about
myself,” Seth said. “I’m not great at regular human interaction. I
do shitty things like walk away from you to play the piano only
moments after you have flown all this way and been a great
friend.”

“
Who did you treat like a
servant?” Ava asked. She gestured around the room. “I feel really
burdened in this luxury Malibu Colony home after my run on the
private beach. And that trip on the private jet? I played with
Clara most of the way here. Oh the horror! Did I mention the
gourmet dinner? That was sheer torture.”

“
You say that now
but…”

“
I’m not going to have
this conversation with you,” Ava sat up. “It’s dumb. If I have a
problem, I’ll tell you. And before you say it, I know you love
Andy. You should. Schmidty and I talked about her over dinner. She
was amazing. If you didn’t love her, I’d wonder what was wrong with
you. I love Sandy and the idea that her mother was like her… I love
her too. So of course, you’re sad. I’m sad too. The whole world
should mourn the loss of such an incredible woman.”

He turned away from her and her words.

“
I unpacked your bag,” Ava
said. “Let me get your pills.”

Before he could say a word, she hopped up.
She came back from the bathroom a few minutes later with a glass of
water, his medication and supplements. When he took the pills and
water from her, she turned in place and left the room. He used the
bathroom and changed. She returned with a glass of green goo and a
plate of brown rice, steamed vegetables and spiced chicken.

“
You have to eat if you’re
going to take your meds,” Ava said. “Maresol sent along your juice
recipes.”

She held it out to him. He groaned.

“
It looks gross but it’s
good,” Ava said. “It was handmade by your personal slave. Don’t be
a baby.”

He smirked at her and drank it down. She
opened the sliding door to their balcony and set his dinner on a
table between two lounge chairs. He followed her out.

“
So, how do you do it?”
Ava asked.

“
Do what?” Seth
asked.

“
Play such incredible
music,” Ava said. “You should have seen Schmidty and me. We were
bawling our eyes out in the hallway.”

“
You were?”

Ava nodded.

“
Schmidty recorded it. I
guess his dad said you play a lot when you’re working but don’t
remember what you play. Some of your best stuff comes while you’re
working on another piece.”

“
The tricky part is that
the studio owns whatever I create now,” Seth said.

“
That’s what Schmidty
said. Did you know his name is James? That people used to call him
Jammy?”

“
I gave him the name,”
Seth said.

“
Figures,” Ava said.
“Eat.”

He did as instructed. She waited until he
was almost done before asking again, “How do you do it?”

“
I don’t really know,”
Seth said. “It’s the joy of my life, my very soul, and one of the
hardest things I’ve learned to live with. Everything in my life is
defined by my music. Every relationship, every job, every
investigation, there’s not an area of my life that doesn’t blossom
because of it and suffer under the burden. I can’t control the well
of music that grows inside me. I’ve tried. The only thing that
works is alcohol and lots of it. If I’m not drinking, I’m
playing.”

“
How did it happen
tonight?”

“
I read Mitch’s letter and
fell into whatever came,” Seth said. “I played until the well was
empty and slept. Why are you being so great about this?”

“
You mean I’m supposed to
be mad?” Ava asked.

“
Most women feel
slighted.”

“
I don’t,” Ava said. “I’m
kind of a touch it, feel it person. I don’t spend a lot of time
thinking about…”

Ava shrugged.

“
About?”

“
I don’t have any idea
what causes some people to go crazy over what isn’t happening,” Ava
said. “So I don’t really know. I try to do my best, be my best, but
all I can deal with is what’s right here and right now. And right
here, right now, I’m sitting on the balcony of this lovely home
with my favorite person in the world.”

“
If you need
more?”

“
I’ll tell you,” Ava said.
“I’ve seen Maresol be very clear with you about what she needs.
She’s a good role model. Sandy too. They love you and accept you.
When they need something they ask and you give them whatever they
ask. That’s pretty easy.”

“
You don’t think that’s
making you do all the work?”

“
Of knowing what I want?”
Ava laughed. “I think that’s kind of my job. Speaking of
jobs…”

“
Yes?”

“
The FBI called,” Ava
said. “They want to hire us, the whole team. The CBI wants to hire
us. Of course, we’re also now getting our own lab in the new DPD
building. My Captain wants to build on our success to create a
bigger world class back up lab. You know, kind of an FBI lab West.
He wants me and Bob to run it.”

“
Lots of opportunity,”
Seth said.

“
I know! What are you
going to do about the song?” Ava asked. “Does the studio own
it?”

“
I don’t remember it,”
Seth said. “Jammy won’t remember he recorded it until six months or
something after we’re home.”

“
Sounds perfect,” Ava
said. “What do you think I should do?”

“
What do you want to
do?”

“
What do I want?
Anything?”

“
Anything.”

Ava hopped to her feet and went inside.

“
Come and see what I
want,” she said from inside.

Smiling, Seth went to join her.

~~~~~~~~

Saturday early-morning—4:35 A.M. MDT

Tanesha stood at the door of Jeraine’s
penthouse condo. She’d been staring at the door for at least five
minutes. She knew she should leave. She knew the worst thing for
her would be to fall for him again. She just couldn’t make her feet
work. Tired of her own inner argument, she rested her head against
the door.

“
You don’t have to leave,”
Jeraine’s voice startled her.

She turned around to look at him.

“
You love me,” Jeraine
said. “I’m an ass. I get that. I’ve hurt you, betrayed you, let
things happen while you begged me to do something good for myself,
with myself. I suck as a human being.”

Naked, he fell to his knees in front of
her.

“
Don’t leave me,” he said.
“You don’t want to.”

“
Then why am I standing
here?”

“
Why have you been
standing there for six and a half minutes?” he asked.

“
Why are you like this?
You weren’t like this when we were kids. You weren’t. You got that
stupid contract and wham. The boy I loved left the stadium leaving
Mr. It in his place.”

He took her hands into his. She gazed down
at him. There was no defense in his face, no lie, no manipulation.
She had the sense that if she wanted to hit him, he wouldn’t stop
her.

“
Why are you like this?”
Tanesha repeated her question.

“
I’ve answered that
question every time you’ve asked,” Jeraine said.

“
You’ve given me a bunch
of bull, a bunch of sass.” Bitter, Tanesha mimicked his voice.
“’Dem bdtchs don’t have no problem with Mr. It,’ ‘How ‘bout I
answer your question after dem fidy bdtchs to suck my
d…’”

“
Okay, okay,” Jeraine held
his hands up as if she was holding a gun.

“
Shall I
continue?”

“
No,” Jeraine said.
“Although I’m particularly fond of, ‘You can’t help it baby, you
drawn to Mr. It. Now you here and you want It but you can’t handle
It.’ Took me six months to come up with that.”

Tanesha shook her head at him.

“
I thought I’d feel great
saying that to you, strong, powerful, on top,” Jeraine said. “You
should have seen your face. You shook your head and left me. You
wouldn’t speak to me for a year after that.”

“
Two,” Tanesha
said.

“
Two,” Jeraine
said.

“
Why would
you
need to feel on
top?” Tanesha asked. “Look around you. You’re literally on top of
this building, on top of the charts, on top of the financial
markets, on top of everything anyone can see.”

“
I’m happy to talk to you
about this,” Jeraine said. “But I don’t want to talk about this
here.”

“
In your house?” Tanesha’s
voice pulsed with exasperation. “Where’s the perfect place? Your
Aspen chalet? Your mansion in Dubai? On some reality TV show? Your
flat in Hell’s Kitchen? Maybe the Moon?”

“
The hallway, the door,
right here! God damn it! Either leave or give me a chance. The
in-between is killing me.”

“
And I should care what’s
killing you!? You selfish prick. This is about
me
, about Tanesha, about the girl
you sing about, the girl you say you love. This isn’t about what’s
comfortable for you.”

Tanesha’s rage fired up.

“
Love isn’t something you
only do when you’re comfortable, Jeraine. Real life is
uncomfortable. Where are you going to be when something
uncomfortable happens? Where are you going to be if our baby gets
sick or heaven forbid dies or I get sick or we lose everything to
fire or tornado? You’ll be telling me that you’re uncomfortable!
You can’t live like this!”

“
Okay, I deserve
that.”

Tanesha was so angry she was out of breath.
Gulping air, she stood over him. She’d never intended on saying all
of that. She’d never intended on being so honest. But here she was,
standing in his doorway, unburdening her heart to the man who had
broken it.

“
My Gran almost lost her
house,” Tanesha said. Surprised, he looked up at her. “Remember my
Gran’s house? The house that you were going to buy with your record
money? I had to work four jobs to keep it and even then, we had the
foreclosure notice on the door. I almost lost my spot at medical
school. I lost my car. All of six of us would have been on the
streets. And where were you?”