No Angel

III

Her plans to take Lola to the spa and get her all dolled up and stuff was cancelled by her manager reminding her that she had yet another record label meeting. And of course she had no idea what this one was about, but it did require her flying back to New York, but they said that she would have to stay there for longer than a day. If she was just gonna be in New York again, why had she even flown back to Los Angeles yesterday?

Lola loved being on a plane. It wasn't her first time because she had flown with Demi before but it was her first time on a private jet. She loved the fact that she had room to move around and the staff always had hot food for her. Demi loved getting to expose her niece to all of the luxuries that her mother couldn't, even if she was just four years old. Lola deserved the world and if Dallas wasn't gonna give it to her, Demi would.

The headquarters for Def Jam was actually in Los Angeles, but somehow all of those rich and stuffy old men had found themselves in New York just to have a meeting with her. She wasn't thrilled about it because in the last meeting that they had, half of the executives on the label had basically told her that if she didn't succeed with this new album then they were dropping her. And then where would she go?

They were meeting in one of the conference rooms at the Plaza, which was where she was staying, so there was really no escaping them. New York wasn't her favorite place in the world but it offered her something that she never felt in Los Angeles: peace. She was away from Trey and Wilmer and her family. There was no pressure on her in New York and she liked that. The rush of the city was her comfort and if she could, she would stay in New York year round.

"Demi, how nice of you to join us." LA Reid had been the one that had helped buy her out of her contract at Hollywood Records and really sold her to the rest of the people on the label. He was also the only one that she really liked.

"Did I have any other choice?" She smiled while talking and he chuckled before offering her the seat at the head of the table. It was evening in New York but early in the afternoon in LA, which was probably why Lola was getting tired and restless. Demi would have to make up for dragging her to this meeting by making sure that they did something fun tomorrow.

"We have a proposal for you, which will also help you reach those new audiences we've been talking about. It's a collaboration. Not for your album but there's a rapper who expressed interest on having you on a single of his that is getting released soon." Of course Mr. Blue Tie (Jeff) was the one who was doing all of the talking in this meeting.

"Who's the rapper?" Demi questioned, propping her head up with her elbow. She didn't want to seem uninterested but she kind of was. The only album that she wanted to be focusing on right now was hers.

"Drake. I pray that you've heard of him because we already arranged studio time for the two of you in," Mr. Blue Tie checked his watch, "fifteen minutes. You don't really get a say in this." They had flown all the way to New York to force a collab on her? And of course she had heard of Drake. She didn't live under a rock. He was one of her favorite rappers and they had ran into each other a few times but that was it.

"Do you not see the little girl sitting on my lap or...?" Demi trailed off, gesturing to Lola who was coloring on the complementary stationary that the hotel left in every room. There was no way that Demi was gonna drag Lola to a studio session with her. She still needed to get her some dinner and bathe her and then get her into bed. This was why she couldn't take Dallas to court for Lola's custody. Having a four year old, permanently, would just never work out.

"Isn't that what we hired Max for? Can Max not watch her?" Jeff questioned as Demi shook her head. She had accepted responsibility of Lola for the week so she wanted to be the one to take care of her.