Shut Up & Listen

Manifest

July 22
7:32am

Cole reached over and turned off his alarm. "Baby, wake up." He whispered to a soundly sleeping Jemaika in their penthouse suite bedroom in New York City. "Babe! Jemaika! Yo ass gonna be late baby girl." He said once she started stirring in her sleep.

"Mmm mm I'm calling out today. I don't feel good."

"Yes you do girl. You just gotta get them limbs moving... take a shower, brush them yellow ass teeth! Imma fix you sumn good to eat."

She raised her hand from beneath the blanket to give him the finger but he kissed it. She giggled, snatching her hand away from Cole.

"Please please baby baby baby please." Cole said, imitating Mars from She's gotta have it. "When you get off work, I wanna go see the city. I ain't really get to when we was here on tour."

"Which part? It's a whole day type thing."

"Okay, then we do the whole day. I'm done around 12, you?"

"About three."

"Damn, it take you at least 2 hours to get ready. So let's just do dinner tonight and make a day of it tomorrow."

"Sounds good, now let me get my last thirty minutes before I kick your ashy ass."

—

Once I was all dressed and prepared for a long morning of interviews, I went down to the lobby where my driver Jermaine was already standing out front waiting for me. He drove me straight to the studio where my first interview was. Geoffrey had been blowing me up about my singles hitting the charts and trending on social media. He was so excited I couldn't say no when he told me about all the publicity events he had set up for me this week. When I got into the car, Geoffrey called to make sure I was on time.

"So, what was your inspiration for your music. Songs like Drip and These Arms?" The young woman smiled.

"I bet you're expecting me to say something like 'there's this girl in my life who completes me and I just wanted to write a song for her letting her know that I love her this much'" he said holding up his hands as if to measure the amount of love he meant. "...or some shit like that right?" He smiled. "If you were to ask me that a year ago, I would've told you all about the girl I was in love with; who I thought was in love with me. But love don't..." he trailed off, becoming uncomfortable with giving details of his personal life on live television. The host caught on and ushered him into the next question seamlessly.

"Well, even if it isn't love, it's been rumored that you're dating child actress and r n b singer Jemaika? Can you confirm this for us, Luke?"

"Uh yeah... we are in a relationship. It's still very new, she's cool though. You know what saying like that's my girl." He smiled, rubbing his forearm. "we're really good friends, that's more important to me than trying to find love. True friendships last longer. They're way more genuine, in my experience."

"So, if your ex isn't, and if Jemaika isn't, where is this passion coming from? Who are you writing for?" She grinned, leaning forward, resting her elbow on the accent chair.

"I write for me." I nodded, looking the young woman in her eyes. "I write about the love that I imagine I deserve... how I want to be loved, how I want to love."

"Some might say that by doing so, you're manifesting the love you want by making your requests known the higher power?"

"Oh yeah. Yeah, most definitely." I chucked, "Maybe I've already got it and just don't know it yet."

"I'm gonna go out on a limb here and agree. Sometimes things are right in front of us and we just haven't gotten hip to it yet." She said, collecting her cue cards into her lap and looking Cole in his eyes once again. "Alright, Luke. I just have one more question."