Eternal Flame (Mature 18+)

Chapter 8

"You said to be here at a quarter 'til 3, I'm here. Why is he still in the fucking booth? I have shit to do and I don't have long. Nick, can you come out of there for a minute so I can record this shit? We don't have a lot of time left."

Kristen astoundingly looked over at Roman. Diego clenched and worked his jaw as he stared at him. He cut the song, still looking at Roman with hard eyes. Nick stopped mid-song and opened his hands in a "what gives" gesture.

"Is there a problem?" Roman bitingly continued. "If there is I can come back. Or I don't have to come back at all and I can just skip this song altogether. I don't like this shit anyway. I told you guys the other song sounded better but majority rules so whatever..." He knocked his knuckles against the control panel and roughly ran his fingers over his beard.

Diego glanced over at Kristen and worked his mouth. Kristen could tell he was trying to be professional and remain calm. He looked like he wanted to knock the shit out of Roman. She couldn't blame him.

"I can come out of here so they can leave Braxton," Nick said, taking his earphones off. "It's no damn problem. Ro, the booth is yours."

Diego looked back at Roman and shrugged his shoulders. Roman turned on his heel and stalked to the booth, bumping into Nick as he went. He didn't offer an excuse me. Nick looked at him in annoyance and shook his head. He held his finger up to Diego and mouthed, "One more time." Then he left the engineering room and walked over to Kristen.

Diego and Roman watched as Nick and Kristen warmly greeted one another and hugged.

"Start the fuckin' song please," Roman grumbled.

Diego looked up at the ceiling and shook his head. He pressed a few buttons and the song started playing again. Roman immediately began singing, his voice clear and perfect, giving no indication to his intolerance and impatience moments before. Nick and Kristen watched him in joined silence. Kristen couldn't take her eyes off of him. She was lost in the vision of his flawless beauty and strong voice. Roman looked over at her, his eyes holding unflinching contact with hers as he strongly sang the words to the song.

Kristen liked it. It was a song about love and lust and she thought the lyrics were perfect. The melody was catchy and nostalgic. She didn't know what Roman's problem was with it.

"So," Nick started, disrupting her moment with Roman, "how's the "date" going?"

Kristen broke eye contact with Roman and looked at Nick. "It's... different. Not really what I expected."

Nick's eyes shone hopefulness. "Oh? Why's that?"

"He's not much of a talker." She paused for effect. "He's not much of a gentleman either, for that matter."

"Yeah," Nick sardonically replied. "No one can ever confuse him with a smooth talker."

Kristen reflectively looked over at Roman. He wasn't looking at her anymore. His eyes were closed. He was using his fist for effect to drive out the falsetto notes he was singing. Kristen hugged her arms. My God. He really did have one of the most beautiful voices in the world. But damn he was an asshole.

Thinking of that, Kristen looked over at Nick who was also watching Roman again. "Why do you guys let him get away with that?" she asked him. "I don't get it. There are four of you to one of him. He shouldn't be allowed to talk to you guys like that."

Nick held his hands up to her. His voice was no-nonsense as he spoke. "Because we get it. We get it." He looked at her. "None of us like it but we can't blame him and we don't. We've all mutually agreed to cut him some slack, at least for a while. It's a mother-fucker what he's going through. I mean, it happened a long time ago but with this chick coming back around again it's just stirring up all kinds of bullshit."