Fireworks 1 and 2

Jungle: Chapter Sixty-Nine

     As expected, Drake was on time picking Mia up from the studio. He opened the back door of the SUV for her, then climbed in after her. She scooted all the way across the seat, until her elbow bumped against the other door. Her session with Beyonce had gone very well; they'd wrapped up the writing for "Infinite." Now, all Beyonce had to do was lay done the vocals for it. Their work wasn't quite done, but they'd made a lot of progress.

    Beyonce praised Mia's ideas, and incorporated several of them. She was such a joy to work with. Mia would have loved to talk to Beyonce about how she'd managed to make a marriage work, despite a number of different controversies - but not only would she be prying, Chubbs's advice continued to play on a looped reel in the back of her mind. She wasn't in high school and she and Beyonce weren't besties. This was business, and she should treat it as such.

    Still...she gives such good advice. It would have been nice to see how she handles the drama and rumors with such grace and poise.

    "Did you have time to think about what I asked you?" Drake questioned once the car was on the road.

    "Smiling and kissing you in front of the cameras, and then pushing you away as soon as they're gone?" Mia asked. "That's fake. It's phony. I don't want to do that, Aubrey."

    He glanced at his watch. "Let's hash this out. Okay?"

    She crossed her arms over her chest and stared straight ahead, at the driver's seat in front of her. "I'm listening."

    "Do you plan on staying mad at me for forever?"

    The question caught her off-guard. "Of-of course not," she stammered.

    "So you agree that we can get past this?"

    "Yes," she replied.

    "Okay. Now...knowing that you're going to end up forgiving me at some point, do you really think it's that misleading for us to smile in front of a few cameras? All we're doing is making sure to keep our private business private. The last thing we want is MediaTakeOut digging their noses into our lives... more than they already are, I mean."

    While sitting beside Beyonce, Mia had wondered how Beyonce and Jay-Z managed to keep their heads up above all of the rumors and controversy, how they managed to keep a lot of their lives private despite the fact that they were the closest thing to American royalty. As she listened to Drake, she realized that Beyonce and Jay at some point had to play it up for the cameras. They weren't a perfect couple; perfect couples didn't exist. But you wouldn't know that from their photographs. They usually looked happy, in love, and head over heels for each other. At some point, though, every couple went through their struggles or their difficult periods. Beyonce and Jay, for the most part, save a few missteps (such as Jay's and Solange's altercation in the now infamous elevator), kept traces of their personal struggles out of the media as much as possible. So what Aubrey is suggesting, while a little misleading, is probably how the high profile couples manage to make it work. By making sure not to give the press any clues that they're going through a hard time.

    "I know it seems dishonest," Drake told her. "But when it comes to making sure we last through the long haul, being who we are, it's kind of necessary. If we start acting out, or if we look like we're deliberately avoiding all contact with each other, then people will wonder what's going on with our relationship instead of paying attention to our music. Our music is what I want them to pay attention to. At this point, we're considered a package deal. We're, like...America's sweethearts. Our fans want to see us together and happy. I want to see us together and happy, but I know it will take some time for us to get back there. Until we get back on track, can we just...can we just pretend that we're already back on track?"

    Whether it was something that Beyonce and Jay, or other celebrity couples practiced or not, Mia hated the idea. It felt like lying. But he had a point, and he was right. Neither one of them wanted gossip sites hounding them, or digging through his garbage cans, or trying to hack into their phones to dig up dirt on them. She was quite sure that Drake also didn't want his precious Nicki's secret to slip out. Lord knows he wouldn't want her image tainted in the public eye. She forced that bitter thought to the back of her mind and nodded. "All right. Yeah, we can make nice for the cameras."

    He smiled, but she turned away before it could have an unwanted effect on her.

                                                                           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    A milestone in the careers of most big name entertainers was selling out Madison Square Garden. It was no easy feat. The stadium held a maximum capacity of 20,789 people. While Drake and Mia were getting ready for the performance, a lot of big names passed through. It was New York City. Familiar faces and household names were in abundance. Some of the faces Mia saw, such as Zoe Kravitz, she recognized as a former flame of Drake's. They were all friendly and supportive; many had new boyfriends on their arms, Zoe included. Zoe had arrived with the current love of her life. She wasn't the only former flame of Drake's in the building; there never was just one. Several of his songs alluded to having multiple exes in the same room at any given time. Experiencing the phenomenon in real life had taken some adjusting; that adjustment was required if you intended to date Aubrey Drake Graham.

    Beyonce and Jay Z stopped by the backstage area to wish Drake and Mia a good show.

    Mia was standing in front of a long mirror, adjusting the sheer skirt of her revealing performance outfit when she heard a high-pitched, slightly nasal voice shout, "Look at my little brother, selling out MSG!" She didn't have to turn around to see who the voice belonged to, but she did anyway. It was a slow turn, slow and calculated. By the time she was facing Nicki, there was a wide smile on her face.

    "Look who made it," Mia greeted, gathering her skirt in her hands and walking over to Nicki. She leaned forward and hugged Nicki. Drake moved to stand behind her.

    "Are you and I cool?" Nicki asked her. "At the end of our session yesterday, the vibe was a little...off."

    "It was, wasn't it?" Mia asked, throwing the question back in Nicki's court.

    "Yeah," Nicki said with wide eyes. "And then I'm hearing rumors that you and Aubrey are fighting or at each others' throats or some shit, and I'm just over here like...no, no, no, you guys have to have it twisted. I kept telling everyone, Mia and Aubrey are very happy together, always have been. Right?"

    A hint of cold touched Mia's eyes, but she smiled warmly. "Me and Aubrey? Fighting?" She laughed and turn around to face Aubrey. "Did you hear that?" she asked him, wrapping her arms around him. "People are saying we're fighting."

    "News to me," he said, his gaze fixed on Nicki.

    Mia grabbed his jaw in her hands, forcing him to look at her. She rose on her tiptoes and licked his lips. Then she kissed him so deeply, that both of them forgot to breathe. She felt his arms go around her, and then his embrace was practically crushing her, but she still didn't break off the kiss. She continued to kiss him until she had no choice but to come up for air. "Mmm, yum," she said, giving his cheek a pat. She turned back to face a stunned Nicki, and wiped the corner of her mouth. "I don't know what would have ever given anyone the idea that we're on bad terms. I love this man right here, and tonight? Tonight we're going to kill this show. Now...excuse me, Nick. I have to finish getting ready."