Tough Love - A BelNika story

Mix-Up at the Recording Studio

Belcalis Almánzar jingled her keys before entering the recording studio. She was going in on this day to finish up singing "Jealous," a song from her upcoming album Tough Girl. She much preferred going in through the back with her keys than to go through the lobby. The wait was too long, in Belcalis's opinion. The receptionist was too invested in whatever was on his phone to get her where she needed to be. 

She was in an alley behind the building. It was a little too grimey for her taste, but she was used to it. The door was metal, with a broken keypad. "It can't be that important if it was broken like that," Belcalis chuckled to herself.

She opened the door to the storage room. This was a usually dark room that kept all of the equipment, including instruments and recording technology. She flicked on the light switch, revealing all of the dust in the air. Aside from the instrument cases and few pieces of equipment, there were many cardboard boxes holding miscellaneous things. They were taped with blue duct tape and were coated with dust like everything else in the room. The room was painted black.

From this point, there were two doors. One door on the left and one door on the right. The door on the left led to the actual recording studio, with a window on the front to the booth. The door on the right led to the basement of the building, which held several non-musical things. (The recording studio doesn't own the building, so the basement is just full of maintenance stuff for the landlord.)

She turned to the left to open the door, but she heard a faint noise coming from inside the room. Being prompt, Belcalis was usually early and arrived before the producer came. So who was behind that door? A chill ran down her spine. She was slightly claustrophobic from the small amount of space she had. Her fight-or-flight response kicked in. She reached toward the door and opened it. In the studio was someone she never expected to see.

"Nicki! This is my hour," Belcalis exclaimed. Nicki paused her singing. 

"It's Onika to you. And I explicitly signed up, you dirty ass-"

"Girl, we're not in public. You can drop the beef," Belcalis assured her. "Save it for the talk shows."

"I guess you're right," Onika sighed, "Let's talk."