FALLING FOR SHAWN

Chapter 4 - Too Crazy To Be True

The phone buzzing woke Shawn and he leaned over and looked at it. It was Andrew. He felt a jolt of disappointment that it wasn't her, but then he saw there were a couple of texts. He'd read them in a minute, first he had to speak to his manager.

"Hey," he answered.

"Hi buddy," Andrew sounded peppy and enthusiastic and way too wide awake for Shawn. "Just catching up with you, the guys said you called off the recording session the past two days, and I wanted to make sure you were OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, just....um....did a little too much in the gym and feeling a bit sore," well it was kind of true, he was feeling a bit sore, but not because of the gym. "and I needed to catch up on sleep. I'll be back tomorrow."

"OK, that's good, just not like you so I was worried."

"All good man, all good."

"Hey did you ring Camila Cabello like she asked you to?"

Shawn tried to make his voice casual. "Yeah, sure, I rang her the other day, she sounds nice, and keen to work on the song."

"Did you get the audio file of the demo from Watt?"

"Yeah, we both did actually, we had a talk about it, and even floated a few ideas, I think it'll work out well."

"So do I, so does her team. We've arranged for Watt and Blanco to meet you two in the studio, end of the week suits her, and I thought we could work around that?"

"Ahh, yeah, yeah of course, no problem." Fuck, how were they going to act like they didn't know each other in a studio full of professionals? Plus, they'd damn near finished the song, how did they explain that? He had an idea.

"Actually, she mentioned catching up, just the two of us, so that there was no awkwardness when we get into the studio. I have a text from her, but I haven't read it yet."

"Check it now then," Andrew urged. Shawn opened the text and winced, trying not to smile.

Hey gorgeous man, how you doing today? I can barely walk, or sit, or pee, but otherwise I'm just wishing you were still here...

"So does she say anything about catching up?"

"I'm still reading," Shawn said, opening the second text.

I know it's not what we planned, but I was hoping I could come over and check out your lemon house, you know, just as a friend and colleague. I need to check the bed to make sure it's comfy enough for you to get the sleep you need if I'm going to....collaborate...with you.

"Yeah, she wants to come over and work on the collaboration," he said, trying not to give anything away by his voice. Oh she wanted to collaborate alright. So much for their decision to keep things professional from then on. Come on Shawn, you had already thought about going back over there, because your guitar was still there, and you had no intention of just collecting it and leaving, don't even try to fool yourself.

"Great, let me know how that goes, and otherwise I'll see you on Friday, I'll pop in and say hi."

"Yeah, good, I'll let you know then."

"You sure you're OK buddy? You sound a bit...off?"

"Just woke up, and still not a hundred percent, but it's all OK."

"OK then, I'll see see you Friday."

Shawn looked at the text and then began tapping a reply.

***

Camila stood outside the huge house in astonishment. It was ostenstatiously ugly, and so unlike him or anything she would expect from him, that given what he had said about it, she knew it must be his. He opened the door as she approached and she walked right in, threw her bag on the floor and as soon as he shut the door she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. What WAS this thing? She couldn't stop thinking of him, she could smell and feel him when he wasn't around, he was all she could think about.