Miss Cleopatra: In Love I Fall

8

Hmmm... what'll it be today? After Ryan filed a complaint about how messy my car was getting, I decided to take action. And by that, I mean I just threw all my CDs into a box that sat on the floor in front of the passenger seat. 

Traffic looked pretty backed up today, and I wasn't exactly looking forward to driving to Pasadena with no music. I shut my eyes, and fished a disc out at random. This might not have been such a great idea, judging from the delightful cover of what looked like a unicorn riding through a graveyard. I wasn't entirely looking forward to it... but there's no time like the present. Might as well get it over with. Just as I was about to pop the CD in, my phone connected through the Bluetooth system and started to ring.

"Hello?" I answered, quite relieved that I didn't have to listen to the scary demo quite yet.

"Anna? Hey." James' voice echoed through my car.

"Hey! How are you?" I grinned, pulling my car out of the parking garage next to my apartment building.

"Pretty good. Just calling to check in and all that..." He sounded a little spacey and distracted: which was weird for James.

"Wes told you about Drew, didn't he?" I was sure that's what was going on here. The two of us were best friends: we told each other everything. And I knew from past experience that James was only uneasy around me when it had something to do with Drew Chadwick. 

"No?" His voice wavered, and I don't think he even believed the words coming out of his mouth.

"James..." I warned.

"Okay! Okay! You got me. I'm just checking in to see how you're dealing with everything." Even though James couldn't see me, I rolled my eyes. It was nice having all of my friends check on me, but I was getting tired of hearing, "are you okay?" over and over.

"I'm fine, James. Thanks for calling." A small smile made its way across my face in the end: after all, he was just looking out for me. And my friends always found a way to get me to smile.

"So how's you day going? I didn't think you'd be up this early. The plan was for you to see the missed call notification when you woke up, and then call me back."

"I normally wouldn't be awake at this ungodly hour." I joked. "But the LA studio's air conditioning has been out of whack since yesterday, so I'm headed to the studio in Pasadena."

"Out of whack?" He asked; and I remembered I had yet to fill him in on what happened.

"It's colder than the arctic tundra in there." I said. "They're having trouble finding a way to shut the fans off: they've been blowing at their highest speed all night."

"Sounds chilly."

"Yeah, but as you know that wasn't the worst part of my day yesterday." I decided it would be better just to bring Drew up on my own. James was itching to talk about him, and I'd rather have him get the full story from me. So, I went on to tell him everything: about Flax and the label, the advance, and the article in Rolling Stone.

"But I don't understand: if you don't want to produce his album, then why did you agree to do it?" James asked.

"I didn't exactly have much of a choice. And the huge advance that Flax threw in really sweetened the pot." As much as I hated to admit it, I totally sold out for the money. I never wanted to be one of those producers that just made music to make a profit. But just like that, in a blink of an eye, I became one of the people I never thought I'd be. And who was on the other end of this transformation? None other than Drew Chadwick.

"I just don't see why you didn't have a choice though." James said.

"I work for the studio, but unfortunately Flax's label also owns my ass. Under contract, I work for him so when he brings me a band I have to produce them. He didn't have to say it, but there was definitely an ultimatum when it came to producing Drew's album: record it, or I'm fired."