Angel

Part 20

August 28th, 1980

~

"That's fantastic, Jimmy!" Lindsey heard while taking a shower, he stopped the water to listen. "I don't know how to thank you. You know how much this means to me!"

Lindsey frowned. Stevie did mention that she was going to make a call, but she didn't tell him that she was going to talk to Jimmy fucking Iovine. What was so urgent anyway? Couldn't she wait until she got home so that he didn't have to hear any of that?

A towel wrapped around his waist, Lindsey came out of the bathroom, hoping that his facial expression wasn't giving too much away, that his true feelings about Stevie's phone call, which was still ongoing, weren't showing. He couldn't escape the slightly flirtatious at times conversation. You're not a couple, not yet anyway, Lindsey told himself, even though they were surely acting like one. It's just business, he reminded himself. Business, which was about to take Stevie away from him for a while.

"Okay, gotta go." Stevie spoke into the phone as she glanced at Lindsey, but he was too busy messing up the clothes in his suitcase. "I'll be coming home soon. I can't wait to get started on this!"

With his back turned to Stevie, Lindsey rolled his eyes. He knew, she was done with the phone call, but he kept his mouth shut. He then felt her behind him, pressing herself closer to him, arms wrapped around his middle. For a second, he started to let the tension leave his body, however, only until she spoke up.

"Guess what Jimmy told me?" He could hear the excitement in her voice.

"I have no idea." Lindsey replied through gritted teeth, freeing himself from her hold. "You sure sounded happy, though."

"Jimmy managed to get Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers on my album!" Stevie revealed, clapping her hands together. "Can you believe that? It's a dream come true!"

Lindsey remained silent as he was getting dressed. He knew, he shouldn't be an asshole about it, but he couldn't help it. "That's great." He finally forced it out of himself.

"You'd think, I've just told you that somebody died, Lindsey." Stevie gave him a look, arms crossed over her chest. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing." Lindsey shrugged, trying to keep calm. "I'm happy for you." He squeezed out a smile and leaned in for a kiss, but Stevie held up a hand to stop him.

"You swore to me, this wouldn't be a problem." She pointed a finger at him. "You told me-"

"It's not a problem!" Lindsey yelled out, throwing his arms up.

"Doesn't sound like it." Stevie scoffed. "How do you imagine us making this work if you can't even stand to hear about my work? Or is Jimmy the problem here? I told you, I'm not interested in him."

"Well, I'm sure he's interested in you." Lindsey shrugged, unable to hold it back.

"Oh my God!" Stevie sighed heavily. "Who cares! He can want whatever he wants, but I don't want the same, Lindsey!"

"I know how these things work, Stevie, okay?" Lindsey began and she knew, she wasn't going to like it. "I've been working with you for years. I know all about long days and late nights at the studio. Sometimes, you just can't resist-"

"Are you actually being serious right now?" Stevie scoffed, staring at him. "Late nights or not, if I'm in a committed relationship with you, I'm not going to risk it all just to fuck my producer!"

"Yeah, well... he wasn't a producer, but you can't say, you haven't done it before." Lindsey shrugged and saw Stevie's expression change immediately.

"Why did you even start this? Why did you talk to me about being in love with me, wanting to work things out if you can't even fucking trust me?" Stevie emphasized, she took a moment to breath. "I know what I've done and I've told you, I'm sorry, a thousand times."

Feeling that the situation was escalating quickly, Lindsey softened his tone and tried to reach for her, but Stevie pushed him away. "I didn't mean to bring that up."

"Yes, you did." Stevie spat. "You couldn't wait to throw that in my face, huh?"

"Right, I'm getting out of here." Lindsey held up his hands, taking a step back. "If you're going to act crazy, I'm just gonna go."

"Fine!" Stevie yelled as he reached for the door handle. "If you can't handle one argument, maybe this isn't worth fighting for after all."

Lindsey stilled. He wanted to stay, but if he stayed, he knew, it wasn't going to end well. So, he left, hoping that some time to calm down would work better instead.