Hard out here | Carlos Sainz Jr

Chapter 19

Five distribution companies had rejected Giovanna's songs.

Five, and somehow one sent an email asking for a meeting with her. Which was why she was on flight to Los Angeles with Liema and Carlos where'd she'd meet up with Mark before the meeting.

Her mom had flown back to South Africa to start preparing for her aunts wedding. A seventeen hour plane ride later, they finally landed at LAX.

"First time in LA, kinda nervous." Giovanna said to her phone as they drove out of the parking lot of the rental car company. She was taking a video for her tiktok as way to start promoting herself.

Giovanna had worked on getting a team to help with her album roll out and social media and her PR manager had suggested she began making herself accessible to the public.

"Where's the crazed influencers and the Botox warriors? Where y'all at?" She said in a sing song tone.

Carlos laughed at her antics as he drove onto road that would lead them to a highway. "Careful Vanni, you might get cancelled."

"Oh no," Giovanna faked a gasp. "Apology video will be uploaded in two days, link in bio." Carlos burst out laughing which also made her laugh after trying her hardest to stay serious.

"By the way, this is a joke. Please don't cancel me." She smiled before turning off her phone.

After getting to their hotel, Giovanna changed out of her cozy ensemble of leggings and a sweatshirt to a yellow sundress that stopped mid thigh. Carlos swapped his sweatpants and T-shirt to a white dress shirt and a pair of Levi jeans.

"The white or red?" Carlos held up two dresses for Giovanna to choose.

"Red." With Giovanna's answer, Carlos changed Liema into the red dress.

The two days in LA went by quickly with them spending most of their time trying different restaurants and exploring most of the city. The meeting went fairly well, Giovanna could tell the executives and enjoyed the songs by the way they bopped their heads to song.

They told her they'd need a few days to come to a decision and would send an email to let her know.

Next stop was Miami. The trip was fine at first, Isla had flown in a day after Giovanna and they'd spent most of their days together while Carlos and Lando were busy with media obligations.

She was actually enjoying Miami, she had signed to a company which meant she could start working out promotions, until the mall. Giovanni regretted deciding to go to the mall.

Walking into Tiffany&Co, Giovanna gave the sales associate a smile. She greeted him politely before asking about their custom jewellery.

"Here we have a white gold plated heart bracelet that you can get engraved." Louis, as she'd come to know him, placed a black box on the top of the display glass. The design reminded Giovanna of the Van Cleef one.

"I like it. What about the necklace?"

With a bag of jewellery she bought for herself and Carlos, Giovanna left the store satisfied. She'd have to go back in two days to get her custom bracelet.

"Giovanna?" A high pitched voice called out to her from behind. She turned to see a small woman, teenager actually, looking at her with hopeful, star struck eyes.

"Hi!" Giovanna greeted with a smile.

The girl advanced with her phone in hand. "I'm a big fan of your music, I think I'm the reason for half of 'Regardless' streams."