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Sounds of the Season: (4) : This time of year, seasonal music is heavy in the air, and you’re never far from someone’s festive music. You won’t be surprised to hear many modern tracks, and an array of timeless or nostalgic songs as well. Somewhere along the way, though, you hear something different. Someone puts on an old holiday record; you might not recognize the music at all, but you have a sudden, powerful image of someone you ‘used to know’. It doesn’t feel like an illusion; you can see them, you can hear them, you can feel them. Maybe it’s someone you lost contact with in this life, maybe it’s an old friend you haven’t seen, maybe it’s someone your starseed knows but you’ve forgotten, maybe it was a ghost from another life, a memory engraved in your heart but brought to life for a brief moment–whoever it is, it’s someone important to you. Whether you know why, or not. The song is only a few moments long, but for the duration of the music, they’re real. And then, on the last note, they disappear. Whatever magic was on the record has faded; even if you hear the song again, your companion does not return.
The party was in full swing, drinks flowing, chatter almost drowning out the holiday music playing in the background, and Quinn was checking his phone like a teenager waiting on a text from their crush. He was there to schmooze and rub elbows with others of the elite of the city, and he absolutely hated it. He detested dressing up in a tux, which he wasn’t… just in a full three piece suit including the noose of a tie. He detested the innate chatter of the surprisingly small community of rich and famous that called the city home. He loathed the whispers he knew were floating around behind his back. The young CEO was well aware that, while his family wasn’t exactly the talk of the town anymore, there were still those that speculated why his father stepped down, how it was a shame about his mother, and how he was still unmarried with yet another child…. By a different woman then the first.
All the matrons of ‘high society’ were likely tsk-tsking and shaking their heads behind their raised flutes of champagne. He hated to be the object of gossip almost as much as he detested the tie. The man gritted his teeth even as he smiled and nodded when someone came up to greet him. Quinn was there to work, it might have been a charity ball for some fund or another but he was there to be the face of his company. He was there to network, not to hide in the corner or slip out early. He just wished he had Abby there with him, it would have been so much more fun but the baby was fussing so had decided to stay home with Alanna.
His entire being seemed to soften some when he thought of the tiny little girl likely, or at least hopefully, sleeping soundly in her bassinet at home. Once again Quinn checked his phone but there was still no message, just a picture of his children, his son holding his sister on the couch, looking almost as bemused and smitten at the infant as Quinn felt every time he felt those tiny little fingers wrap around his finger or when she looks at him like he hung the moon and the stars in the sky. He loved both of his children but he had never gotten the chance to meet his son like this. The boy had already been a child when they had met, he had never gotten to hold MJ as an infant. This was all new to him.
It scared the hell out of him. He wasn’t sure he could be a good father to Alanna… he had missed so much of MJ’s formidable years, who was to say those old biddies weren’t right and Quinn was a disgrace as both a man and a father?
Realizing that he was starting to get into his own head, and he had not been paying any real attention to the conversation flowing around him, the man made his polite excuses and stepped away from the small gathering he had been standing with. He switched out his glass of wine, that he hadn’t touched at all, with some water and made his way to one of the tables that was minimally occupied. It only had one person there, a woman who seemed vaguely familiar at a distance. Once he got closer he realized he did indeed know the woman, Mariam… an old childhood friend. More like a little sister, considering just how often they were at the same events while growing up. His green eyes narrowed when he spotted the wine glass by her hand.
Oh no… no, no, this wouldn’t do. Not really thinking about it, Quinn strode over before sliding the glass out of the reach of the younger woman. “You are too young for this. I should have whoever is checking ID’s fired or something,” He muttered in way of greeting. Mariam was underage, she wasn’t allowed to drink! Who was stupid enough to give a minor alcohol?
Amasis
