50 Shades of Drake 5 and 6

More Life: Chapter Twenty-Two

    The most beautiful women on the island had come out to turn out with Aubrey Drake Graham. It was only right. He'd shown so much love to this island from the very start of his career. Once his career took off, he'd never stopped showing love. He'd even made comments about potentially owning property there. The people loved him, and they made sure to show it as soon as he showed up to the video shoot.

    He humbly raised both hands when everyone started screaming. Thanks to Carlos's strong suggestion, he'd focused on getting more sleep. It had done wonders for his disposition. He didn't realize just how much he was starting to lose his grip, until he'd gotten that one uninterrupted night of rest that seemed to reset all of that.

    The good sleep he'd gotten hadn't changed his belief that Destiny was alive. But it did help him to start looking at different possibilities, considering different routes to approaching the search for her. For instance, why was he hiding this search from Chubbs? Chubbs was his right hand, had always been. Even if Aubrey had a completely insane idea, Chubbs was a ride or die who would go to hell with him and back. What was up with that first instinct to hide this from him? Because of the possibility that his longtime friend would think he was crazy? Everyone knew he was crazy by now.

    Chubbs had natural instincts that he'd honed. Great bullshit detector. Great investigative skills. Aubrey should have brought him in on this from the beginning. He didn't know why he'd felt the need to protect this search. 

    Maybe I thought that if I brought him and Carlos in from the beginning, their doubt would shake my faith in all of this, he thought now as he shook hands with the island locals. Maybe I didn't want them talking me out of it, because I believe that much that she's alive somewhere.

    The music video director started barking orders and production assistants rounded up the talent for the video. That was the chaotic part about videos like these. You had people who just showed up because they wanted to bear witness to the video shoot. Then you had the people who actually wanted to be involved in the video shoot. Making it clear which group was which was imperative. Media release forms had to be signed, allowing the use of their images in the video. There was a lot of behind-the-scenes that took place with a video shoot like this, to prevent the possibility of people suing him or his label after the fact. 

    There were several parts to this video: the day beach shots, the yacht shots, and the night party shots. This video was nowhere near revolutionary. It was just going to show him, his crew, and the locals having a good time in a tropical location. That was it. While he would have preferred to shape a real video concept for this song, his decision to suddenly change all of their plans resulted in this cookie cutter rap video. 

    As long as the end result is what I want, I could care less, he thought while taking a swig of liquor. 

    "It's about time to visit the barber, my guy," Chubbs said with a clap on his back.

    Aubrey laughed and looked out over everyone as they were rounded up for the first shots of the day. "It would have made sense to do that before this shoot, wouldn't it?"

    Chubbs shrugged. "Your hair is starting to curl. Some of your female fans love that. Might as well let them enjoy it for a while."

    Sound advice, per usual. 

    "It's insulting, you know, that you think I wouldn't know something is up with you," Chubbs said. Typical Chubbs...the tone in his voice didn't change. Still light and casual. The look on his face didn't change. Casually spoken words of disappointment. 

    "Other than grieving the loss of my fiance?" Aubrey asked before taking another sip from his cup.

    Chubbs turned his head and squinted out over the horizon. "Yeah. Other than that." He stalked off.