The Desired Effect

Welcome To Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada

Saturday 2nd December - Las Vegas, Nevada

Poppy is greeted by a stuffy, humid arrivals hall at McCarran airport in Las Vegas. Having finally arrived after what felt like a never ending flight and then the chaos of customs and the baggage carousel, she felt a little relief in the fact her journey was almost over. A tinge of nerves niggled in her stomach, causing a pang of nausea to hit her. Taking a gulp of water before scanning the crowd for Jake, her new manager, she composed herself. Then, amongst the swarm of people, she hauled herself and her numerous bits of baggage towards the line of taxi drivers, family members, friends and lovers as they all waited somewhat patiently for their people. After a moment of walking slowly along the line, her eyes fell on a piece of paper with her name on it. She smiled awkwardly at the man holding it.

He was tall and thin, and his dark eyes were shadowed by a big cowboy type hat.
"Hi, I'm Poppy" She greeted him, doing her best to seem bubbly despite wanting to crawl into bed and sleep for the next 24 hours.
"Oh hi honey" he beamed as his eyes met hers. "No offense Poppy but they weren't lying when they said you were young!" he chuckled, assessing her. Poppy shrugged awkwardly, unsure of how to take that news. "Sorry, I'm Jake. Come here, let me take this" he offered, hauling her largest bag onto his back, "there's a car waiting outside" he added before leading them off out of the airport. "How was flight?" He began the small talk as they wandered out into the parking lot. The hot heat of the desert, took Poppy by surprise. They didn't have to walk far before they reached the cab. After a bit of small talk to break the ice, Jake ran through the important details. She would be living in an apartment complex only a couple blocks from battle born studios and it was also on the same block as where the bassist would be living. She started on Monday and basically needed to be available whenever Brandon needed her and she would be paid weekly by the label. All the while Jake was lecturing, Poppy couldn't keep her eyes from scanning the city lights as they drove across to the apartment.
"Oh and by the way, Brandon is taking you out for dinner tonight for the business meeting. A cab will pick you up at 6" Jake informed her as he left to her own devices in her rather large apartment. "Need anything, just call me kiddo!" He turned on his heel and waved. Leaving behind a startled Poppy to try and take it all in.

She collapsed onto the sofa and took out her phone, needing a moment to catch up with herself.

Jaz 1:05pm: if I've done my math correctly, you should roughly have arrived by now right? Call me when you can x

Her maths was correct and so Poppy instantly FaceTimed her. She beamed as she saw her friends familiar face pop up on her screen.
"Oh my god, you've made it!" Jaz practically yelled, causing Poppy to giggle. "Show me, show me, have you met anyone yet?" Jaz was like an excited child, her brain working far too quickly for her mouth. Poppy did her best to meet her demands and showed her round her new digs. They were both astonished and impressed by the apartment. She couldn't believe she didn't have to pay anything, this was apart of the job. She had a huge open plan living room, dining room and kitchen and a spacious en suite bedroom. It was all slick and modern with lots of light thanks to big panoramic windows. Jaz was jealous. Very jealous.

After enough of the show and tell, Poppy realized the time. She only had a an hour and a bit left to ready herself for tonight. Plus she had to get her things organized. So she nodded farewell to her friend and jumped in the shower. It was so much better than the shower in her old flat, it had a jet setting which really soothed her aching shoulders. After the invigorating shower, she set about choosing her outfit, opting for her skinny black jeans and black crop top and a funky, floaty shirt over the top. Her hair was blow dried into place and then fixed with enough gel and hair spray. Taking her time, she did her simple but effective make up. Checking the time, she realized she had enough time to unpack some more of her things. Then right on time, she was pulled from her focus by her intercom buzzing. She jumped before instantly running over. One last check over herself, she hurried down the set of stairs and out to the cab.

20 minutes later Poppy anxiously hops from the cab, thanks the driver and wanders up to the restaurant. It felt so surreal to Poppy, she couldn't quite believe what was happening, she expected it to be some kind of cruel prank. She stepped inside and was relieved to find it was air conditioned.
"Hi, um, I'm meeting someone" She gingerly told the waiter who was standing ready by the door.
"Their name?" He asked, a polite smile on his face.
"Flowers, Brandon, it's a business meeting" Poppy stammered, watching as the man scanned the sheets in front of him.
"Ah yes," he nodded, "follow me please" he announced setting off, allowing Poppy to follow after him.

Poppy felt a swirl of nerves in her stomach. It was the moment of reckoning. She hoped he would be cool and easy going but she also worried that he would be a bit of an arrogant sell out. She had done her research. The Killers were a successful indie rock band and she did kind of like their music. She tried to piece together the story behind their break up, the only story she could put together was a clash of characters or something. The walk from the door to the table felt like an eternity. Poppy did her best to keep her mind open and limit the wandering. They approached a table in the quiet far corner of the restaurant. A man with dark hair and features sat browsing the menu, he looked focused. That must be him, she thought.

"Here you are ma'am" the kind waiter pulled a chair out for Poppy who thanked him and took the seat whilst simultaneously giving a nervous smile to the man already sat opposite.

"Hi," she smiled, doing her best to sound bubbly and not in the least bit nervous.
"Hi," he replied, dropping the menu down to turn his attention to her.
"I'm Poppy" she continued, offering a polite hand out. He reached his hand out to shake hers. His swamped her delicate, smaller one.
"Th-they weren't joking when they said you were young! I'm Brandon by the way" He scoffed, sitting back slightly in his chair. His words caught Poppy off guard. She didn't know what to make of it, was he being rude or was it a joke? He was hard to read.
"I think I'll take that as a compliment, Brandon" Poppy replied, doing her best to make light of the situation. Brandon just remained quiet for a moment.
"This is the best Chinese this side of the city" Brandon announced, watching as she perused the menu. "I bring everyone here" he giggled lightly. That was all Poppy needed to know where she currently stood with this man. She switched her gaze between the menu and him, stealing glances to help her try and figure him out. Things were cold and awkward. Brandon couldn't help but feel like he was out with his niece and Poppy started to think her suspicions of him being an 'arrogant has been' were accurate. They ordered their food and made small talk as they waited.

Poppy would be the main engineer come producer and would work quite closely with Brandon, however, there would be another producer but they would only do the final mastering over in LA. Over the course of the meal, Poppy and Brandon got to know one another a bit better. Poppy discovered that this album was going to be very singer-songwriter and quite funky which was different to what she was used to but not too difficult. Brandon learnt that Poppy was quite self-assured and perhaps a little cocky for her age so he decided that she needed to prove herself on this record.

After the pair had eaten, Brandon sorted the bill and they headed out. Brandon had offered to walk her around the neighbourhood so that she was a bit more familiar with the area. After all, Brandon understood what it was like to be the new kid, alone in sin city. They walked and talked, Brandon pointed out key landmarks and snippets of information to help Poppy.

"Um look kid, I know you hit it lucky in the past and you probably do an alright job, but you still need to prove yourself. I've taken a massive risk here hiring you for this!" Brandon stated, instantly regretting how harsh he must've sounded. He didn't mean to sound so cold, he mentally blamed his current emotionally instability but he knew that was no excuse. He bit his lip as he anxiously awaited her response. Poppy, again, was baffled. He was definitely being rude this time, she decided.
"Excuse me?" She sighed, disappointed that he was proving her initial suspicions right. There was a brief pause. "Brandon, if we're going to work together successfully we need to respect each other. Now, I know I'm just a kid compared to you, but I am very capable at my job thank you!" She sassed, her confidence flowing through her voice. "I know I need to prove myself to you and I will do but I don't need confirmation from you ok, just let me do my job and I'll let you do yours!" She finished, finally taking a look at Brandon, seeing him stunned into silence satisfied her.
"Ok, deal" Brandon did his best to brush off her response, knowing full well he deserved it but still didn't want to show weakness so soon. Poppy smiled at the fact he didn't argue and they carried on walking. They wandered around the block and back to Poppy's apartment in a comfortable silence. Poppy thanked Brandon and then the pair dispersed.