Serendipity (Camren)

Chapter 2: First Impressions

You never get a second chance to make a first impression." - Will Rogers

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"Oh my god! I'm so sorry!" Camila's face went up in flames as she closed her eyes to the view in front of her, and quickly backed out of the room, shutting the door a little harder than she needed to in her haste to retreat.

Camila Cabello hadn't been a band manager for long. She and four high school friends started up the KJC talent agency shortly after they returned to Marietta, Georgia after graduating college.

One gloomy afternoon, the four of them were all sitting around a lunch table at the Grille when Dinah Jane, who'd eked out a passing grade at a private art college across the country, was disappointed with the lack of jobs in Marietta.

"Normani specialized in entertainment law at UPenn, right?"

Normani Kordei Hamilton raised a supercilious eyebrow; she hadn't just specialized, she'd excelled. She was a Hamilton and she had done it in four and a half years instead of six. Normani simply nodded her head, eyebrow still raised as she sipped her drink. Whatever Dinah was about to say was sure to be either incredibly stupid, or impressively intuitive. It was always a coin toss.

"We should totally start a talent agency. There's a ton of college bands around here from SPSU. Ally can be like the person who makes ads and stuff, and Normani can do all the legal mumbo jumbo. Camilla, you'd be a great band manager. And I could, like, go to concerts and try to find people we can sign."

Normani raised her other eyebrow and looked at each girl in turn across the table. They all looked back at her with the same expression. The coin toss was in Dinah's favor today. By playing to all their strengths, it really did seem like a good idea.

When she looked at everyone's open expression, Dinah plastered her patented grin on her face and threw up her hands in a silent cheer.

That was a little less than a year ago. As they built the business, they'd had some success with a few local bands, but hadn't managed to sign anyone to a big record deal yet. Then Dinah received a call from a college friend who was in need of an agency for her boyfriend's band, Serendipity. Dinah's alma mater was located in California, as was the band, so it was a long shot, but Normani, their legal lead and business brain, felt they were ready to expand. So Dinah had scouted the band at this year's SXSW music festival, and she came back to their office in Marietta flush with elation.

"This is it, you guys. This is the next 'IT' band. They have this crazy sound that's like Paramore and Fall Out Boy all rolled into one. And the lead singer is this chick who has insane charisma. Security was literally pulling people off the fences because they were trying to crash the stage. I saw a fully grown dude cry while taking a selfie with the singer backstage. Like sobbing and peeing himself. I'm telling you, if we land this client, we're set." She passed around a handful of candid crowd and band photos she'd taken during Serendipity's performance.

Dinah's grin and excitement were infectious, and Ally Brooke smiled. "I can work with that. Edgy. I like it, but their band's logo could use some work." Ally bounded up from her seated position on the edge of her desk and sat down in her chair, pulling out a fresh sketch pad to begin drafting some designs.

Normani allowed herself a tight grin as she began pacing in short circles around the room, arms crossing and uncrossing as she mentally worked through their next steps. "Okay, we need to draw up some contracts. I'm feeling full push on this. The band is still young. They've never had a professional agency, and they've been together for three years? That means they aren't taking themselves seriously yet. Let's go forty percent of earnings. Complete creative control for marketing and booking venues. Camila, we need to get you on a flight to California as soon as this contract is signed. Let's jump on the hype the band created at SXSW."

Camila nodded silently from her seated position by the office window as she looked through the photos. Brow furrowed, she was quietly contemplating what this new step might do to her current relationships with local clients. She was good at her job. She related well to people, and they seemed to instantly gravitate toward her innate honesty and integrity. And if they didn't care about all that, they liked her because she was attractive- exotically beautiful, with just a touch of humble thrown in to keep her from seeming untouchable. Camila hoped she was up to the challenge of making the band members happy, for all their sakes.

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Camila, head down and hand covering her eyes, was busy cursing her atrocious timing in the hall behind the stage when she felt a tap on her arm. She looked up to see an attractive guy with shaggy black hair and dark brown eyes looking down at her, a questioning expression on his face.

"You okay?" He asked, his hand still on her arm in a soothing gesture.

"Yeah, I just- just-"

"I hate to be the one to break it to you because you look like a really sweet girl, but Lauren would never settle down with you anyway. I'll call you a cab, and you can chalk this whole experience up to a lesson learned."

Camila broke out of her embarrassed silence. "What?" She asked, more than a little confounded.

"Lauren. You were just- ahem- in the green room with Lauren, right?"

"Oh!" It finally started to make sense to Camila. "No. No. I'm Camila Cabello, your new manager from KJC. You're Craig, right? We spoke on the phone yesterday."

He looked sheepish, and his cheeks turned pink. "Oh man, I'm so sorry. When I saw you out here, and with Lauren being .... God totally wrong first impression. I'm Craig Sanders. My girlfriend Carrie went to school with Dinah." He stumbled haltingly, putting his right hand out to take her hand in an apologetic handshake.

Camila liked him immediately. As she'd met more and more of the typical 'band' personalities, she always seemed to clique with drummers best. Maybe it was because the wall of drums kept them an arm's length away from the adoration and hero worship that some of the others experienced. Whatever it was, drummers always seemed nice and caring, exactly the type of person she liked to call a friend.

Just then the green room opened again. The blonde, eyes averted and high heels in hand, slipped past them without a word and beat a hasty retreat.

Craig looked at Camila with yet another apology on his lips, but before he could utter it, Lauren stalked out if the room.

Camila's senses were immediately assaulted with the smell of whiskey and musky sex. Lauren looked like a panther seeking out its prey from a high tree top. Dark, smoky eye makeup streaked with sweat from what Camila hoped was the show and not other activities surrounded the most wounded green eyes she'd ever seen. Camila understood immediately why the singer was so magnetic.

Lauren bared her alcohol soaked teeth, and snarled, "Who the fuck are you?"