Chapter 28: My eyes on you

Steve

That Matt is as bad as Ned. Except Ned sincerely doesn't care if we were gay or not, he's just doing his job. I used to wonder why Matt cared so much, but it's gotten old, like a dumb joke that's only funny because it still gets told.

The elevator doors open and Johnny of Omnipotent steps out. His eyes widen as he sees me, as if he owed me money. I don't remember him owing me money, though. "Hey, you guys, what's up?" he slaps hands with us as we exchange places.

"You are, my brother," I say in jest, making him laugh.

"Oh not today, son," he replies good naturedly. "See you guys around."

The elevator doors start to close, then suddenly open again. Antonia whooshes in like the breath of fresh air she always is. "Oh, hello boys!" She positions herself in the middle of our triangle and beams at us flirtatiously.

"Hi Antonia," LJ is suddenly 13 again and can't look at her straight.

"Hi Antonia," Jamie says, comparatively more calm. The tips of his ears are red, though.

"My eyes on you..." I start singing my line from Hunger and laughter bursts out from everyone and bounces all over around us.

"Are you done with the new album, yet?" she asks me.

I raise an eyebrow at her. "Didn't you ask me that the other day?"

"No, I asked you if you still had problems with you know who," she counters. "If you're still recording, can I watch a session?"

"LJ is finishing all his tracks tonight," I offer. "He'll be in the studio in between 5 and 10."

"Oh darn," Antonia is pursing her lips together. "I may have a thing until 9..."

"Oh please don't trouble yourself for us," LJ smiles at her with fake sincerity and we laugh.

"Mark is re-recording a track after that, so I'll still be working probably until midnight."

"And where will Jamie be?" Antonia flashed him her winning smile.

"Asleep, hopefully," Jamie chuckles.

I look at Jamie with interest. He is scratching his nose again, which is his nervous tick. He realises he is doing it and puts his hand down, stuffing it in his pocket.

"Darling, when you're not so busy sleeping, could we have dinner or something and you could help me figure out my social media account?"

"I charge two grand an hour though," Jamie deadpans. He deadpans really well. But I know for a fact that inside, Jamie is 13 years old again, clutching his first ever Antonia CD to his heart, and screaming.

"Oh so expensive!" Antonia flutters her eyelashes at him.

"Pretend it's a date so he won't charge you," I elbow her. She giggles because I had hit a ticklish spot and slaps my arm. Her hand rests on the spot she slapped and turns to Jamie again.

"But if it's a date, that means I can't pay for dinner," Antonia pouts.

"No, you can," Jamie replies. "I'm big on equal opportunity." Satisfied, Antonia turns around to face the elevator doors, as they open to the parking lot.

Jamie is eyeing Antonia's hand on my arm, which she eventually detaches and takes with her as she walks away from us. He looks up to see that I've been watching him and quickly looks away. His profile is beautiful, with those high cheeks and lush lips and almost transparent skin.

"Goodbye, boys," Antonia waves, "Steve Wonder, I'll call you if I can drop by, okay?"

"Just text, because I'll be recording," I tear my eyes away from Jamie to smile at her.

"Oh that's right. Whatever, I will drop by definitely, just expect me. Later!"

We all stand in front of the elevator for a bit, watching her walk away. LJ is the first to speak. "Mamia's?"

Mamia's is a quiet Italian restaurant near my house. They're mostly busy in the evenings, but relatively empty during lunchtime. "Call," I nodded.

Jamie is still watching Antonia walk away. He has this look on his face that makes you curious about what he is thinking, though I have seen this look on his face many times. I sing softly in his direction.

"Can you see my eyes on you... My eyes on you..."

Jamie turns to look at us, his eyes narrowed. Then, he can't help but grin, because both LJ and I were grinning. "Call," he says. We turn and walk towards where we each respectively parked our cars.