Broken Sonnet

Chapter 1

Shane came out of the bathroom, her hair dripping on the expensive sheepskin rug. She grabbed her bathrobe and tied a lazy knot around her. She lit her cigarette and took a long, lethargic puff from it. For a brief moment, she just let the smoke fill her lungs and felt a sad little satisfaction knowing that every puff she took meant she was dying sooner. She walked out into her living room and didn’t spare a backward glance at the visitor as she made her way straight to the bar.

“Shane this is the third assistant you fucked and do you know how much I have to pay her just to keep her from mouthing off to the tabloids?”

Shane slid into her armchair and if she heard Will, she didn’t give any indication. She propped her feet up on the coffee table and seemed intrigued by the contents in her glass as she swirled the ice and bourbon around in the glass. “I pay you to do things like that Will….that’s why you are my manager….we’ll make the money back anyway..” she said with careless disregard as she raised her head and tipped the contents of the glass down his throat.

“Shane, the point is there is only so much I can do to prevent the people you sleep with from trying to sell their stories to the tabloids…and everything you work so hard for will go to waste….your image as a songwriter-singer will be destroyed Shane…”

Shane snubbed her cigarette in the ashtray, an indication that the conversation had ended. She drew the curtains across the windows and the room was sheathed in darkness.

“Shane where am I going to find an assistant for you? An assistant you won’t fuck? And Shane why are you drinking at 2pm in the afternoon? You’re going to spoil your voice….you have a performance at Costa Mesa in one week’s time,”

There was a note of exasperation in Will’s voice and Shane laughed, even though the laugh was devoid of happiness. “Find one I hate then….and Will…take my card to buy a new suit, go to the bar or something and get laid,” She slipped the card into Will’s pocket on his suit and Will looked up at Shane’s lanky frame making her way into the bedroom. He knew this was Shane’s way of apology but he didn’t want that. Sometimes he wondered why he had stayed by Shane’s side all these years, back when she was just a struggling singer barely surviving from her earnings. He knew it wasn’t just concern towards his charge he felt….it was something else.