STILL THE ONE

Chapter 1 - I Remember

Your hair's grown a little longer
Your arms look a little stronger
Your eyes just as I remember
Your smile's just a little softer

And I, and I never prepared for a moment like that
Yeah, in a second it came all back, it all came back

'Cause after all these years
I still feel everything when you are near
And it was just a quick hello
And you had to go
And you probably will never know
You're still the one I'm after all these years

"Camila you have to decide on the support act for the tour. These are the three options we've narrowed it down to, it's your final choice."

Camila looked at the list. An up and coming pop princess, she was Latina with a hit single, and about to release her first album, but Camila was worried she was too similar in sound and image to Camila herself. Second choice was a band that was doing well but was really known for being country, and although she loved them both personally and professionally, she didn't think her fans would give them the appreciation they deserved, nor would they be happy with the choice. The third was a guy who had been part of a boy band that had split a couple of years ago. He had struggled with his solo career and his setlist would really be mostly rehashed songs from his group, some covers and the originals from his recent EP.

"I need to think about it, can you leave it with me for the weekend?"

Roger sighed and leaned back in his chair, tapping his pen. "I guess the weekend isn't going to make much difference. Where is he taking you?"

Camila looked down. "There is no he."

Roger's eyebrows raised. This was news to him. She had been dating this one for about six months. She really wanted to be in love with him, but there was a restlessness in her soul and she couldn't settle, she couldn't commit, and he wanted to know where things were heading, but she didn't want to be pressured so she broke it off.

"So it's a solo trip? Somewhere warm?"

"No, not really." She hadn't decided for sure yet.

She drove home to her house and rang her Mom and Dad in Miami to say hi. They used to travel with her all the time when she was younger, but she did it mostly on her own now, although she had a big team, a band and a dance troupe, stylists, vocal coach, tour manager, and her management team. She was never really alone.

She had a bath, trying to calm her mind, then dressed in pyjamas and sat at her desk with a glass of wine. She opened her laptop and it was still on the same page it had been on this morning. A YouTube channel. She pressed play and the familiar face came up and started playing the cover. This was the one she had discovered a year ago by accident. She remembered the day so clearly, her heart had pounded as she had stared at him on the screen. He was two years older, broader in the shoulder, stronger in the jaw, and his voice was raw and husky and beautiful. She had opened a fake account so she could get notifications when he uploaded. After a couple of weeks she knew she had to tell someone. She sent the link to the channel to a guy she had met recently, the head of A&R at another record company. He had got back to her almost straight away, he was excited. She asked to be left out of it, she didn't want him to know it had come from her. Since then, he'd had two hit singles, had supported Taylor on her some of the dates of her latest tour and had an album due out. He had a huge fan base already, mostly young girls, and a lot who remembered him from the early days. So far she had managed to avoid bumping into him at any events, but that time would soon come. Especially if her plan worked.

She remembered the night they had spent together. She had been seventeen, he had been sixteen. They had been on the Austin Mahone tour together, both of them feeling like the odd ones out. Well, the odd ones, period. They had begun sneaking time together, just as friends of course. She would listen to him play guitar, they would chat about everything and nothing. Then one day, he had kissed her, and she had kissed him back. Then their little secret meetings had become even more clandestine. There had been a lot of kissing, and eventually a little more, and on the last night, she had snuck out of her hotel room while her mother was downstairs with the other adults and knocked on his door.