Xandros and Ally

Chapter 15 (Ally): Determined To Win

"Now you're firing me?" I asked Xandros after he told me he didn't want me working at G&N. Was it possible to be fired more than once in a day?

"No," he said. "You can work here as long as you want, but I think it's a mistake."

"Because...?"

"Because even though you're beyond brilliant, and you're an excellent researcher and chemist...I think you have an even bigger talent, and that's your singing."

"That isn't for you to decide," I said to him.

"No, you're right. I have no say in this at all. And if you want to stay here at G&N, you'll have a job for as long as you want it. But I also reserve the pleasure and privilege of being supportive if you want to pursue singing."

"Xandros, singing isn't going to pay the bills."

"It could," he said.

Shaking my head at him, I tried to make this man who had more money than he could ever spend in three lifetimes understand. 

"I'm not the fame and fortune kind of artist. That's not what I'm after, and it's not what I'm comfortable with. I'm not going to go on tour and promote myself. I...that was so uncomfortable for me, being on the Greyson Whitlock show. I was glad I did it, but who I am, who I want to be is someone quieter. I love making music with Zed, playing at small venues, maybe even writing some songs...but I think what I want most is something more personal."

"Do you think I don't know that about you, Ally?"

"You didn't know me well enough not to ask me to be your mistress after you married Cressie."

"I knew," he said heavily after I snapped at him. "I was just too desperate to think straight, and I'm not ever going to get over asking you that, at the amount of disrespect it showed."

"That makes two of us," I told him, my voice razor sharp.

"I wouldn't blame you, but I'd like you to be open to letting me change your mind."

To that, I didn't say anything, but I had to ignore those puppy-brown eyes.

"There are a couple of things I wanted to talk with you about, and the first one is a song."

"A song?"

"A possible follow up to Lip Service and Pretty Lies for you to take to the top of the charts. I have friends of friends of friends who got me in contact with Hayvin Dickson. She wrote Toxin."

At that, I knew my eyes lit up because Hayvin was one of my favorite song writers. I was fangirling just hearing her name, and Xandros knew this, too, because I'd always made him listen closely to her songs, pointing out what made them great.

"Your kiss is like poison, A toxin on my lips, Venom in my blood, Vengeance in my soul," I sang the lyrics from Toxin to him. "That Hayvin? She's brilliant. Her melodies are perfection and her lyrics either speak straight to my heart or slap me across the face."

"Turns out, she has a song she thought would be perfect for your voice."

"I..." I was about to fall over. She had a song for me?

"You now have the exclusive rights to it in case you want it. It's called Pierce Me."

I felt like a parrot, needing to repeat what he was saying. I had the exclusive rights to a Hayvin song? This was not my life. What did it feel like to hyperventilate?

"I also called Rio Hawkens. And this is where I might have totally overstepped, so if I did, I apologize."

"What did you do?"