Stay With Me a While

Part 10

After a quick shower and in a clean set of clothes, Lindsey jogged down the stairs and into the kitchen. He said, he'd meet Stevie for breakfast, but he wasn't the best cook in the world and that had been well documented. He found Karen, sitting at the table, cursing at her laptop.

"You goddamn piece of shi-"

"A ray of sunshine as always." Lindsey greeted Karen, who barely turned to look at him.

"Hello." She forced and looked at the screen again. It was not a secret that those two disliked each other. "Where's Stevie?"

"She'll come down soon." Lindsey replied and moved to put the kettle on. "You hate it here, don't you?"

"Yes, I do." Karen nodded, seeing no reason in lying. "I don't understand, why I have to be here, when you're clearly taking wonderful care of Stevie."

"Nothing happened." He sighed, taking out two mugs. "We just talked, you don't have to shoot those daggers in my back."

"I'd like to ask you to think of other people involved, Lindsey." Karen spoke calmly, typing away on her laptop. "You're there for the fun part, I'm left picking up the pieces."

"Nothing-"

"Good morning." Stevie joined them, looking well rested, a smile on her face. 

Lindsey didn't continue and Karen wasn't going to listen to him anyway. Instead, his gaze shifted over to Stevie, admiring her beautiful, natural look. He couldn't remember the last time he saw her hair without it being styled. She wore no makeup and had put on her usual so called uniform.

"Two sugars and cream?" He asked in reference to her coffee.

"Make it one sugar, I'm trying to cut back." Stevie replied, taking a seat next to her assistant. 

"Here you go again." Lindsey gave her a look. "Steph, you tend to go crazy with your diets."

"Well, you're not the one, who's being criticized for putting on an extra pound or two. Nobody cares that I'm a woman in her 60s. I'm supposed to look the way I did back when we had just started out." 

Lindsey opened his mouth to say something else, but he knew it was no use, arguing with her about her image. She'd always disagreed with him. Even when she was the slimmest, she'd ever been, she still didn't look good in her own eyes. When he called her beautiful, she'd always get shy and change the subject.

"You've been invited to do American Idol." Karen informed Stevie. "They'd like you to be the mentor of the week for the kids. The taping would be happening three weeks away from now."

"Do I want to do that?" Stevie wondered to herself, not necessarily expecting an answer from anyone. "Is there some kind of a theme for the week? They have those, right?"

Karen nodded. "Yeah, personal idols."

"That's a big responsibility." 

"I think, you'd be great." Lindsey offered his two cents, Karen rolled her eyes. 

"You'd be working together with Jimmy Iovine." Karen added and Lindsey gritted his teeth. He shouldn't have said anything.

"Oh, he's on the show?" Stevie smiled at Lindsey, thanking him for her coffee. "We haven't done anything together for a while."

You should have never done anything together, Lindsey thought to himself.

"Isn't Steven Tyler a judge on American Idol?" Stevie asked and Karen confirmed that he was. "Alright."

Who else, Don Henley and Joe Walsh are making a special appearance too? Lindsey sighed, sitting down on Stevie's left. 

"I haven't gone through all of the emails yet, but we'll have some more business to attend to later." Karen said and closed her laptop. "Since you've got company, Stevie, I'm running out for a bit."

"Okay." She nodded with a smile and turned to Lindsey. "So, what's on our agenda today?"

"I was thinking about starting with Without You. That one requires the most attention right now." Lindsey sipped from his mug. "And I'll have the tissues ready for you."

Stevie covered his hand with hers. "It might get ugly, Linds."

"Pretty sure, I've seen it all by now." He reassured her, smiling at her lovingly. "We'll see how it goes. If we have enough time left, we can continue on with the others, but that's completely up to you. I believe, I'm more patient in the studio as well."

She smirked. "I'll be the judge of that."

The front door opened and Stevie stilled, then pulled her hand away from Lindsey. They were just sitting together, but it felt like they were doing something wrong, knowing that his wife was about to come in. 

"Oh, hello." Kristen walked in. She approached Lindsey and touched his cheek, she leaned in to give him a show off-y kiss on the lips. "Did you sleep well, Stevie?" She straightened up, directing her attention to the other woman. 

"Wonderful." Stevie replied. 

"When did you get up, honey?" Kristen asked Lindsey as she put her handbag on the kitchen island. "I didn't find you next to me, when I woke up."

"Uh, early." Lindsey answered, his eyes on Stevie. She couldn't have felt good. "I had trouble sleeping, so I didn't want to disturb you with my tossing and turning."

"That's what I thought." Kristen didn't think so. She had woken up during the night and he wasn't there. "Have you two eaten already? I could make something."

"Thanks, but I'm not very hungry." Stevie pushed back her chair.

Lindsey knew, she wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. "I've had breakfast, yeah." He lied. "We were just about to get to work, actually." He got up to his feet as well. "But let us know, when lunch is ready." He added, before following Stevie out of the kitchen. 

Stevie wasn't sure, where she was going without Lindsey. Thankfully, he caught up with her quickly. He reached for her hand and led the way to his studio. He pressed a chaste kiss on her cheek and she gave him a sad smile.

~

I hope you don't mind, I'm trying not to rush this.