Bloom

Bloom Part 13

Whitney~

"One-take Whitney," Kenny said.

"One-take Whitney," Antonio agreed.

I laughed and smiled at their nickname for me.

We just wrapped one of my cuts for the next album. I was feeling good about it. Kenny and Antonio are crazy talented, and we work well together.

I feel a connection to these songs and I think others will too.

"See you tomorrow, boys," I said, sliding on my Ray Bans.

As I dipped out of the studio, I didn't bother to zip-up my jacket since I was taking a car.

Someone called my name, causing more people to notice me.

I waved and got in the car where Trevor was waiting to take me to Columbia. Victoria didn't know I was coming. I wanted time with her before we met up with some friends.

Victoria answered her office door and adorably dropped her jaw, seeing me.

"Close your mouth," I teased her.

"Hush up," she said without missing a beat.

My laughter came to an abrupt stop when I saw Harry in the room.

"Yeah, I'm kinda busy. I didn't know you were coming," Vic said quietly.

The guy and I stared at each other.

"Can you give me 5 minutes?" she asked me.

"Sure."

"Go say hi to Clive," she suggested. "You know he's gonna be happy to see you."

That wasn't always the case, but I saw what she was doing.

"How do you know I didn't already?"

"Because you couldn't wait to see me," she whispered after thinking quickly.

"Mhm and you're kicking me out."

She gave me a dry look. "Don't do that. I'll see you in five---give me five minutes and I'll give you the rest of my day. Mkay?"

"Fine," I sighed and looked at Harry again who just watched us while eating some of Victoria's chocolates.

Victoria~

I could tell Whitney wasn't keen on me "kicking her out," but as I told her, she would have the rest of my time. And I was sure looking forward to it.

Clapping my hands, I turned back towards the other artist. "Harry, sorry about that. Now, where were we?"

"Hate to break it to you, but we're going to need more than five minutes," he said before unwrapping another Hershey kisses.

And he was right. As much as I wanted to wrap things up, I felt an obligation to give Harry more time. Earlier today when I'd returned from my lunch break, he was there waiting for me at my office. He revealed to me that he felt he was losing me, that I wasn't invested in his career anymore. Yeah, he guilt-tripped me.

It was true, I had been focusing more on Whitney but that was because she had become in high-demand and at a fast pace. I never intended to make Harry feel ignored in the process. Even though Whitney was my girlfriend now and not just my artist, I needed to make sure I was competent with the other acts on the roster. And with Harry, I felt a personal responsibility to him because he was the first artist I ever worked with. We came up in this together. If it was not for him, I wouldn't even be handling a Whitney.

"Okay, Harry, you enjoy the rest of your night," I said twenty minutes later.

"You too, hopefully she's not too mad."