Motivation of Memories: The Second Book of the Labors of Love Series

In A New Light

Prince's POV

It's been a few months since our time in LA and Genevieve is fired up. She's been in Paisley Park everyday working and training. She's bought weights and mats and resistance bands. You'd think she was training for the Olympics.

In the kitchen, I sip on my second cup of coffee for the day reading the setlist and playing through it in my head. She walks in dripping in sweat, notebook in hand, her hair pulled back tight. In her dance gear her physique is alarming. I thought her body was toned before but now she's developing abs. Somehow though, she still has delicate arms and legs. She downs a large glass of water before joining me at the bar.

"Workout go okay?"

She nods.

"Get some practice in?"

She nods.

"Practice go okay?"

"My turns are not tight enough but I'm getting there."

"I hope you plan to have some fun during these performances. You'll be doing the same thing every night for months. It should be something you enjoy and something you won't mind repeating. Doesn't hurt to leave room for freestyles too."

"I just want it to be perfect."

"And it will be but not if you're too tired to perform."

"I won't be."

"Yea alright. You coming to the studio with me? I could use your ear." She grabs her notebook off the counter and follows me to the studio. She finds a place on the floor and waits for me to set up. I pull down my guitar and sit in the engineer chair. "I want to work out these harmonies. We start rehearsals in four months and I want to record a few things."
She clears her throat and does a few scales before sipping from her water bottle. "For the most part, I'm stripping the harmonies straight from the songs."

"Okay. What do you need?"

"Just sing all of Wendy and Lisa's parts."

"That is so high."

"You can get up there."

"I can but it is hard."

"What have you been singing?"

"Whatever Andre sings." She shrugs.

"We'll you're gonna sing with Wendy and Lisa now. They could use the help. Let's start with 1999."

"Will you sing it for me?" She smiles.

"You gotta sing too, mama." I play the chords on the guitar and wait for her to start.

"I was dreaming when I wrote this but forgive me if it goes astray." She sings bouncing her head to the rhythm. I open my mouth to sing but she continues. "When I woke up this morning could of swore it was judgement day." I give her a look of shock and she winks. I can't believe it.

"The sky was all purple there were people running everywhere." I sing before cueing her in. "This part." Her voices jumps up for the harmonies as we continue to sing through the songs. She flips between the female and male part effortlessly and I'm able to record all the harmonies I need.

At this point we're just playing around with the songs. Going over them again singing them together with tracks we've just made.

"What's your favorite song from the album?" She asks softly.

"I like Purple Rain. The guitar solo is my favorite thing I've done in a while. What about you?"

"Darling Nikki."