Always

Twenty Three

Twenty Three

"Where are you?" Ridley is on the phone. I don't have to see him to know that Maria - my other manager - is breathing down his neck.

"Home."

He sighs heavily "Which one?"

"Oh you know-"

"Really?" I can almost see him holding his head as he tries not to yell in frustration.

"You can't keep flying around you're on tour." As a singer from a no name record who mostly performs for award shows I get to enjoy a couple of days off between each of my tour dates. My tour only consists of ten shows, three of which I have already completed. And so I flew to Copenhagen to be with Harry for a few hours. Okay a day and a half. It's only fair because he's been flying out to meet me too.

"Is this you talking or Maria?" Maria Butler was a strict middle aged woman who approached me and Ridley after a show after my transition into 'Black Adele' had started but the numbers had already started sinking.

"No one wants two Adeles." She'd then proceeded to tell us that she could market me into Waridi - exotic African Artist that sang to rich white people. Ridley wanted to agree right away, he wasn't that familiar with being a manager but he hated Maria. As the older person she tended to belittle him. She would speak over him, cut him off and most of the time she disregarded his ideas. He hated her but he was in awe of her. I could tell he respected her because he let her get away with it all.

Ever since we started working with her we had been able to make my sound classical but more African. I often sang with accompaniment of classical African instruments - some of which I didn't even know the name of until they were presented to me. And with drums in most of my beats my sounded less like Adele in Swahili and more like me. Slow, soulful. I was glad when the comparison stopped. When  I finally proved I was me.

That song - the first one we made with Maria on board - was my first single into the billboard top 50. But that's nothing as great as the week Nikolai were seen together - without a new release I almost made it to the top 30. But the chart were a random measure, there was so much more that we looked into to determine how well my songs are doing. My favourite was the sales because it meant a little more bank in my account.

"You can't distract me by getting to complain about Maria."

"So she really is next to you."

"She is but that's not the point. You were supposed to start recording new tracks." For my upcoming album. I couldn't say I was uninspired. Seeing Nikolai almost everyday was like getting new material everyday.

"I told you I want to take a break."

"You mean put me out of a job." He says I hear talking in the background before he adds "Maria says put us out of a job." Maria had almost 10 artists that she directly managed. Forget the ones on her company.