Fireworks 1 and 2

Chapter Forty-Six

    "I'm still here, Jahron. Yeah. Sorry about that. I had to have 40 turn down the music. What's up?" Drake sat in the chair next to Noah, leaned as far back as the chair would allow. He was dressed in a white tank, black jeans, and Timbs with a backwards white baseball cap on his head. He rubbed his eyes and tried to stifle a yawn. He listened to one of his OVO label artists, PartyNextDoor. "That's when... tonight, right?"

    Mia and Bri were sitting on the couch in the back talking, and Noah checked his text messages while Drake handled business.

    "I mean...you know I'm here in town, so yeah. I'll come through. For sure, yeah. You know how we do. Reps up, right?" He listened to what his artist had to say. "Haha, I know right? It's been too long. But you've been representing, I get the videos of your performances and I see the clips. You are making us proud, brother. All right, so if I'm coming through then we'll probably perform what...'Preach,' obviously, right? And 'Recognize,' and 'Over Here.'" He stood up from the chair, signaling to Noah that he would be back. He headed towards the back of the studio, cradling the cell phone between his ear and his shoulder.

    Mia looked up as he approached. She was truly so adorable. Whenever he came around her now, she would get all shy and nervous. Try her best to seem normal in front of her friend, pretending that she wasn't remembering all of the things he'd done to her the night before. He bent down to retrieve his BlackBerry, which was sitting on the table next to her notebook.

    "For sure, yeah," he said into the iPhone sandwiched between his ear and his shoulder. "I'm already putting it in the Blackberry. You know it's official when I do that. So I'll tell you what. I'm in the studio right now. No, no, no, it's all right. Taking a night off from writing won't kill the project. I'm going to put in a few more hours here in the studio, and then I'll get the crew gathered up and we'll head over. I'll text you right after I leave out. Yeah, of course. All right, brother." He pulled the phone away from his ear and pocketed it. Then, he continued typing into his Blackberry.

    "I take it you're going to do a surprise cameo appearance for PND," Noah called back to him, turning the volume of the music back up just a bit.

    "Yeah," Drake called back as he typed into his Blackberry. When he finished, he scratched his head. "I need a minute to get my thoughts together. Just give me a minute."

    The room was quiet, with the exception of the music that Noah was playing around with and testing different effects on.

    Drake sat down on the couch and leaned his head back, staring up at the ceiling. Tossing around ideas in his head, but always coming back to one. He turned his head and stared at Mia, who was singing to herself and making notes in her notebook. He smiled. "Mia."

    She stopped singing and glanced at him. "What?"

    "Perform with me."

    "What?" she asked, sounding confused.

    "I'm performing with PartyNextDoor tonight. I want you to perform with me."

    She shook her head. "I'm not a singer," she reminded him. "I'm just a songwriter."

    "We sang together at OVOFest and the crowd loved it," he pointed out.

    "I don't understand why you'd keep wanting me to perform with you, though," she told him. "I'm not a singer. I'm not coming out with a CD or anything worth promoting."

    He chewed on his bottom lip thoughtfully. "The song you wrote," he said after a moment of thought. "I want to put it on the album."

    Bri's eyes widened. "Oh my God."

    Mia's eyes widened. "But...why?"

    He laughed. "Why? Because it's good."

    She searched his eyes, looking beyond the surface of the answer he'd given her.

    He arched a brow at her. "I repeat, I want the song on the album because it's good. And I want you to sing it with me. And I want a music video for it. And I want you to perform with me tonight. Will you?"

    She broke eye contact and shook her head in disbelief. "I...don't know what to say."

    "Say yes, bitch," Bri said, smacking her on the arm.

    Mia laughed. "Yes," she said, looking back at Drake.

    He grinned and typed something else into his Blackberry before setting it down on the table. "So the plan for the day," he said, glancing at his watch, "is for us to continue working here in the studio for a few hours. Then we're going to take a look at the clothes you've packed and see what's going on, if you have something that will work for the performance or if we'll have to pick up something for you to wear. This performance will be at a smaller, intimate venue. Nothing flashy. Just a raw performance, the audience and Party's voice. Deliberate move on our part. What this means for you is that you don't have to wear some crazy costume or crazy leotards, or anything like that. Just something casual, but nice." He paused, giving her a once-over. "I'd like to see you in a dress. Like the night you sang with me at OVOFest."

    "I have other dresses," she told him, still trying to believe that all of this was really happening.

    "Good," he said, his eyes still on her.

    Noah called back him, "Are we ready to go back to work?"

    "Yeah," Drake said.

    They got back to work and made a lot of progress in lyric development. Mia pulled her hair into a topknot so it wouldn't get in her eyes as she wrote. She raised her feet up on the couch and wrapped her arms around her knees, singing softly to herself, trying to figure out the final verse of a song they were piecing together. She closed her eyes while singing to herself, repeating the words over and over again. When she opened her eyes, she realized that Drake was staring at her. "What?" she asked him, her brows furrowing.

    He shook his head, balancing a pen between his index and middle fingers. "Nothing," he said softly. "I just like watching you work."