“Let’s start with door one.”
With a nod, I reached out and twisted the knob to reveal an acoustically sound music room. All of the instruments I played or leaned through the years were stored there along with any other equipment I might need to record in-house.
I hadn’t been down here since the diagnosis and now I felt choked up standing at the door. Everything I’d worked so hard for was in there and suddenly, none of it felt like mine anymore. Like my dreams belonged to something else.
“Hey, you okay?” Addison asked me and I realized that she’d been trying to speak to me as she walked around the room looking at everything.
“Yeah. Sorry. I was just zoning out. What were you saying?”
“I was just asking if you’d play a song for me later.”
Images of Addison naked in the tub while I serenaded her with my acoustic guitar flickered through my mind and I agreed to her request despite my doctor’s orders to rest my hands.
When Addison had taken in her fill of the room, we moved next door. Just as she had upstairs in my bedroom, Addison gasped when she opened the door. The room was a bit over the top, trees and vines covering the cedar-planked walls, but it was exactly what I wanted. It looked like the jungle, but not over the top.
In the center of the room was an inset hot tub the previous owners had installed. Across the back wall was a ceiling-to-floor glass accordion door. So that when using the space, there was an option to open the door to take in the fresh air.
I had every intention of using this space while I was here, hoping that the hot water would soothe my muscles and give me a much-needed boost. But I’d been distracted by Addison’s arrival.
“This is something else,” Addison said as she moved around the large room. The pants were all living and I paid a gardener a hefty sum to come to this room and keep them all that way. A green thumb I was not.
“That wall there opens up. I planned on hanging some lights along the ceiling for sitting out here at night.
“It’s like you brought the outdoors in. I really love it.”
“Yeah. This and my bedroom are probably my favorite spaces.”
“More than the music studio?” she asked with a perplexed look in her eyes. Tiny wrinkles formed above her nose between her brows.
“Music speaks to me whether I have a studio or not. It will always be a part of who I am. But those spaces are something. . .more. You know?”
“I think I do. That’s how I am about photography. It’s my passion and what I’m good at, but I don’t want that to define who I am as a person.”
“You know, I have no idea what you do for fun.”
“I haven’t had a lot of free time with my job, but I do really enjoy traveling. I guess I’ll definitely be able to do more traveling now, but on a budget.”
“Why is that?”
“Ugh,” she groaned as she walked past me back to the main area of the living room.
“What is it, Addison?”
“I had to take a leave of absence from my job because of some ethical issues I’ve had with the company.”
I was well aware of the issues she’d had with the company when she first started. They’d hired her in the hopes of getting a scoop on her family. Too bad they didn’t realize how loyal she was to her family and friends. She turned them down and was ready to walk, except they assigned her to a dream philanthropy project with the tribes in Africa. Addison had stuck around for the last couple of years since then. We’d all hoped that she would find something better, but she seemed content. Until now.
“What happened this time?”
After a shaky breath, Addison delved into the drama surrounding her trip to photograph the royals overseas and how an associate had undermined her to catch the princess having an affair.
“The worst part is that it’s going to appear like I was the one that took those photographs. It will look like I’ve broken their trust.”
I was livid. I could feel my blood beneath my skin, popping my veins as the bubbles burst. How could they do this to her? She’d work so hard at her career, sacrificing her personal life for work most of the time.
My hands reached out and landed on her shoulders, tugging her toward me, wrapping her up in my embrace. “Fuck, we need to get you a lawyer. That’s defamation, or slander, or falsification. Hell, I don’t know, but I sure as hell know that it’s illegal. And we need to get you a new job.”
“I know. That’s why I’m here, so I can figure out my next steps.”