A haunting past

13.3 Mae West

Spring 1997, West residence

Mae never had conciously listened to any Deep Rift music ever.
Francesco had sometimes hummed some song ideas to her back then in Paris, but that was something else.
So she decided to give it a try, and bought the latest record of the band.

The music wasn't even bad for a genre she usually didn't like. It was quite heavy, though, and with dark lyrics.
His voice sounded different on the record than she remembered it.
Not like when he was singing in that bar, or the soft humming when they were alone.

She jumped forward to "Blues in May". 

It started very calm, different than the other songs.

The lyrics were also very different.

Explicit.

 "How can he stand on a stage and sing this without dyeing of shame?!", she cried out.

"What's wrong?", Linda asked.
Mae hadn't realized she had been so loud.

"Linda! Listen to this!", she said, still confused.

Her sister listened. The chorus was playing again.

"This is supposed to be a love song, no?", Linda asked as if it was any other bubbly romantic pop song from the radio.

"Who's this?"

"It's Franny's band!", Mae exclaimed.

"Uhm... remember the man that talked to me last summer in the night club?", she added, not sure if she ever had told her sister about him.

But Linda also never had asked her.

Usually her sister wasn't too curious about other people's relationships.

"Ohhhh...", Linda looked as if she tried to remember. 

"Ah, that one. The one that looked more like the type of man you would date than your current boyfriend", she chuckled.

"Pfff... Herbert is much better!", Mae said.
In her mind she wiped off a bunch of uncomfortable memories that wanted to crawl up again.
"Also Herbert is my fiancé now, please don't forget that", she added.