Hearts on the line

chapter 31

chapter 31

Danielle

"Reservation for Danielle Marsh please," I said as I walked up the maitre'd. I followed him to the back of the restaurant where Soobin and I usually sat.

I sat down when he pulled out a chair for me at the empty table. I let out a disappointed sigh, he was late again. I should've known.

"Can I start you off with anything to drink?" he asked.

"A bottle of red wine, please."

He looked at me expectantly to be a little more specific as to which wine and I smiled politely, "whatever you recommend."

He gave me a nod and left me to look at the menu. I looked around the restaurant instead, Soobin and I had been coming to this place ever since we started dating, sitting at this exact table. A waiter came by placing  wine glasses on the table and filling mine with red wine.

After taking generous sips from my glass, I just knew that Haerin would prefer not to come to a place like this. She loved going to hole in the wall kind of restaurants, where the decor was outdated but the food was amazing.

I almost didn't notice Soobin slip into the seat across me because I was so busy thinking about the reasons Haerin would never come to this restaurant.

"Hi, honey."

I jumped in my seat a little, "oh, hi."

He nodded at the half-empty wine glass in my hand, "I see you've already gotten a head start," he chuckled, lifting the wine bottle and pouring some into his glass.

I nodded, looking at the wine in my glass as I twirled it around by the stem, "it's been a long day."

He looked over the rim of his glass when he took a sip, but raised an eyebrow, "are you alright? you seem a little...aloof tonight."

"Yeah, I'm ok," I answered in a bored tone while I still looked at the wine swirling in my glass.

He cleared his throat, "shall we order?"

I didn't have much of an appetite but I hummed a response. I didn't want to be here right now, I wanted to be at home, cuddled on the couch with Haerin watching bad reality tv listening to her commentary. I drained the rest of my glass in one gulp and reached the bottle.

Haerin

The music stopped and I looked up at the see-through glass of the recording booth expectantly at the team. "How was that?" I asked taking the headphones off my ears and putting them around my neck.

Grant gave me a thumbs up while Seth grinned and nodded his head, but it was Shannon's reaction that I was dreading. We've been working on the song for a couple of hours and I was so nervous because I wanted to make sure Shannon was content with my work. She looked up from the computer and gestured me into the room.

I exhaled loudly and placed the headphones from around my neck onto the stand in front of me.

I sat on the couch behind Shannon, Grant, and Seth as they tapped away on their keyboards. I just finished recording the vocal guide for the song and nervous couldn't even cover what I was feeling inside.

My leg bounced up and down while I tried to slow the beating of my heart. This was the first time I was in a professional recording studio with a big producer, the composer, and the writer so I wanted to make sure I did a good job.

"Can you stop bouncing your leg?" Shannon said not turning around her chair, "I can feel your nervousness from here and it's making me nervous."

Grant turned around and smiled, "why are you nervous? You did great."