UNSOLVED

15

The humming of the air conditioner and the noises of the cars that were coming in from the busy street were the only sounds in the room as Taylor was waiting in Emma's office for the editor to return. She had gotten a call and gone outside to answer it right when they had been about to start their meeting.

She was mindlessly scrolling through her phone, checking her social media. A notification popped up from Twitter, and she curiously clicked it.

When she saw what it was, her heart started beating faster. Someone she didn't know, but who was apparently a subscriber to a number of channels from Blaze, had tweeted her a video. 'This is you right?'. The video was of her performing in Nashville from a couple of years ago. She put her head in her hands in embarrassment.

She knew those were still on the internet somewhere. She would have never thought that anyone would ever recognize her, though. She thought about what to do, and decided to go with a simple 'yup, that's me :)' as a reply. She even favorited the tweet. Before she had more time to ponder, Emma came rushing back into her office, sweating from the heat and apologizing furiously.

"No worries" Taylor reassured her. "I don't really have to be anywhere after this. I had a video shoot this morning and ate lunch before this."

Emma nodded relieved. They started talking about this and that.

After a while, Emma got serious. Taylor felt nervousness rising in her chest. She wasn't the new, anxious person she had been only four months earlier, but Emma never called her to her office just to make small-talk.

"So, your true crime series has already ended a while ago, huh? And you're working on smaller projects here and there now, right?"

Taylor cleared her throat before she spoke. "Yeah, that's correct."

Emma smiled. "Your internship ends in roughly six weeks. Any plans for what you want to do afterwards?"

"Oh ... I ..." Taylor didn't know how to reply. Should she have been writing applications?

"You already know this, but it's not too early to say that your internship has been very successful. It's a pleasure to have you around. You completed your own small project, and you've been participating in other videos, getting praise not only from the people you work with but equally importantly from our viewers as well. You've written articles for our website, too." Emma folded her hands in her lap.

Taylor's heart started beating faster with every word that left Emma's mouth.

"And you've even worked with Karlie Kloss a couple of times." Emma gave her a strange look she couldn't interpret, but Taylor's heart started beating even faster at the mention of Karlie's name.

She nodded, looking at Emma with wide eyes.

Emma smiled again. "It would be a pleasure to keep you here from September on as a junior producer, Taylor. What do you think?"

Taylor felt her throat go dry. "I ... I'd love to." It came out hoarse, and she cleared her throat again. "I'd love to" she repeated.

Emma grinned. "I'm very happy to hear that. We'd love to employ you, Taylor. Of course you are required to finish the internship according to plan, but you will work more closely with Selena from now on and learn about the technical stuff as well. You have a lot of potential."

Taylor felt like she could hug the whole world. On impulse, she got up and gave Emma a hug. The supervisor laughed and hugged her back.

"Thank you so much!" Taylor couldn't believe it.

She recalled what Karlie had told her a while ago. She grinned. "Karlie said something about me being able to stay here after my internship ..."

"Karlie?" Emma's eyes went wide. "Oh dang ... did she hear about it from Todrick?"

Looking at Taylor's reaction, the editor realized she probably said too much and hastily put a hand over her mouth.

"Anyways ..." She leaned forward.

"So, you've collaborated with Karlie a couple of times now, huh? I assume everything is okay again between the two of you?"

Taylor blushed. "Yeah, and yes. We resolved our ... issues." Emma didn't need to know the details. She and Karlie were friendly, and that's all she was going to say.

"I'm happy for you."

They talked more about Taylor's internship and her other projects and videos she was in. Emma didn't bring up Taylor's true crime show, and Taylor didn't have the guts to ask. She didn't want to ask for too much, having just been offered a job. She would figure it out over time.

For now, she had a lot of text messages to send and phone calls to make and freak out about the opportunity she had been given.

***

Taylor was in the middle of writing an e-mail to another producer about a video they were working on when Selena came into the office.

"Hey Taylor, hey Abigail!" The two interns looked up. They were the only two in the office.

"What's up, Selena?" Abigail asked nonchalantly, but Selena went over to Taylor's desk. Taylor looked at her with wide eyes.

"I saw that video on Twitter. I have to say, I had no idea you played guitar and are such a good singer, Taylor." She held out her phone towards the blonde.

Taylor had no idea what she was talking about for a second, but then it hit her. "Oh, you saw that?" She felt embarrassed.

"Are you kidding? Did you check your Twitter at all? I just talked about it with a couple of the other producers. Everyone is so in awe of your singing, Taylor!"

Taylor put her head in her hands.

Abigail chimed in. "What are you guys talking about?" She took her phone from her desk and started browsing.

"Someone tweeted a video at Taylor of her performing. It's pretty awesome" Selena explained. Abigail whistled when she found the video and played it. Taylor didn't move, feeling shy.

"Where is this?" Abigail asked while watching.

Taylor turned towards her friend. "I used to go to Nashville on the weekends when I was in college to perform small gigs. I played at the Bluebird Café a lot, where the video was taken. It was a lot of fun, and it made me a little bit of money, too." She shrugged.

"Look at you with your long curly hair and that sparkly dress!" Abigail cooed. "Damn Taylor, you told me you played guitar, but I didn't know you were this good!"

Taylor blushed and mumbled a 'thank you'. She felt awkward. She had slowly gotten used to be the center of attention when filming videos, but this felt different, more personal.

"I just wanted to come by and tell you I loved it, Taylor, and maybe you can perform for a video or at one of our next office parties?" Selena asked. "Just throwing around ideas here."

Taylor gulped. "Oh, yeah, I'll think about it."

"Did you write a lot of songs?" Abigail asked.

"Yeah, I have a lot of older songs. I've written a few recently but didn't finish any, I just have a lot of notes and chords and stuff."

Abigail hummed in response.

"Sorry for the interruption, guys, I'm heading home now" Selena announced and waved, then left the office again. Taylor and Abigail waved good-bye, too.

"I really wanna see you play guitar now" Abigail said, not letting the topic rest.

Taylor wasn't sure if she was more humbled or embarrassed. "I'm sure I'll play in front of an audience again sometime."

Abigail grinned at her in encouragement. The two friends finished their work for the day, then left for the subway station together. As soon as she got home, Taylor picked up her guitar.