Tennessee Line to LA Lights (A Matthew Gray Gubler FanFiction)

Chapter 2

Curled up underneath the covers, Matthew's show still playing in the background, Stephanie typed his name into Google on her phone. The amount of information that popped up shocked her. She'd been living in such a bubble for the last decade that she hadn't even realized how famous he had become. She searched for this show, trying to find out where it was being filmed. Scrolling through a handful of websites, she came across the information she had been seeking. Sure enough, the show was being filmed right here in LA, just across town from where she was currently staying. She wasn't sure how she was going to pull it off, but she would have to figure out how to get a hold of him, let him know that she was living here now.

Bright and early the next morning, she set out towards the recording studio that would be her new place of work. She also had a list of other things she needed to attend to, the second on that list being getting a good divorce lawyer and figuring out how to stop paying for her husband's way of life. Once everything was cut off, she knew that he would be pissed and that he'd probably come looking for her, but she needed to worry about that later. Right now, right now she needed to worry about the present events.

She managed to find her way to the studio with minimal time lost losing her way. She checked in at the reception desk and waited patiently in the pristine, modern lobby. She tapped out a tune with her foot, checked her bag again for her demos, and checked to make sure that she had all of her lyric writing notebooks with her. She started to Google lawyers, checking to see which ones would deal with out of state cases. She was deep in the middle of her research when she heard her name being called. She glanced up, meeting the bright blue eyes of a tall, thin, beautiful woman, in heels that would have made Stephanie fall flat on her face.

"Stephanie, I'm Adrienne Rhodes. You and I will be working together quite a bit. Let me take you to meet our boss." She extended her hand, and Stephanie took it while standing.

She followed the lanky woman down the hallway, listening to her shoes click clack on the tiled floor. They entered the elevator, rising up to one of the upper levels, before exiting and maneuvering their way through the maze of halls and offices.

Adrienne stopped at a large, dark door and knocked twice before pushing it open. A man sat behind a glass desk, facing the window that put the city of LA on display. "Terry, this is Stephanie, our newest songwriting guru."

The man stood, crossing the room towards the two women. "Stephanie, it is so nice to finally meet you. I've heard wonderful things about you and your success. Welcome to Freedom 16 Records. Please have a seat." He motioned towards the two chairs in front of his desk and both women sat down. "I've had long discussions with the team at your old label, and we are offering you the same deal that you had there, only with a bump in pay, due to cost of living. I've read through and listened to several of your songs and I'm confident that your lyrics will transform easily to our genre of music. I'm also under the impression that you will still be writing for your old label, am I correct?"

Stephanie nodded her head, "I promised that I would write a couple songs a month for them. It should not interfere, and more than likely, they will get the songs that don't work for you or your artists."

He nodded his head, "That sounds like a very good plan to me. Now, Adrienne here has set you up in one of the company apartments. You are welcome to stay there until you find a place of your own. We also offer any support that we can in getting your settled here."

The conversation lasted for several more minutes, Terry or Terrance Barnes continued to go over her contract and what was expected of her. She was only half listening but signed when and where she was told to. She asked several questions about lawyers, and was handed the card of the label's legal team and told that they would help her in any way possible. As they were standing to leave, Stephanie wavered at the door, "I just have one final question, where are the CBS studios from here?"