Page 18 of Call and Response

She winked at me.

Playfully.

I think.

It was kinda hard to tell with Audra. Everything out of her mouth felt like flirting, honestly. I wasn’t sure if it was actually flirting, or just her personality, or maybe a mixture of both.

With a heavy splash of my attraction to her stirred in.

Audra was fuckingfine.

Unambiguously.

Pretty deep brown skin, pretty full lips, pretty big brown eyes, a full figure she didn’t camouflage with baggy clothes. Right now, she was in these little shorts that had her thighs on full display, and yes, a matching oversized tee, but it was cut to expose her shoulder and sports bra underneath.

Frankly… it was giving sneaky link energy.

Which I was about to ignore like my life depended on it and not make assumptions that her outfit had anything to do with me.

I needed her help professionally and couldn’t let thinking with my dick get in the way.

“I don’tbelieveI’m into feeling like I’m dying, so I’ma need you to explain,” I told her, taking a seat at the counter. “I need fine detail on what that means.”

She laughed. “It’s my dramatic way of letting you know… I like to dig deep in writing sessions like this. If you weren’t a writer too, it would be different, but since you’ve got chops too, there’s no reason for shallow music. If we can get beyond the surface, we can make magic, but… it's not always comfortable.”

I nodded. “Okay. I get you. But… I haven’t been able to pinpoint what you asked. I was supposed to be figuring out where I was, so we could use it as a jumping-off point.”

“I wasn’t expecting that anyway,” she said. “I would’ve been shocked if you had something to spout off to me.”

I frowned. “So then why…”

“To get you thinking.” She shrugged. “Even the fact that you couldn’t get a good footing… It’s a starting place. Like… okay, let’s do this… I’ll sing a line; you sing a line. Whatever comes to mind. We’re freestyling, okay?”

I shook my head. “Nah, I don’t know if—”

“Don’t knock it till you try it,” she insisted. “And I don’t want to hear you can’t, ’cause I’ve performed with you now. I know how fast your brain works and what you come up with on the fly.”

“Yeah, lyrics I’ve already heard.”

“Don’t sell yourself short. Just… roll with me please, damn.” She giggled and I shook my head.

“I… okay. Why the hell not?”

“Exactly.” She nodded. “Why not?”

A moment later, she had her laptop out, open to her production program of choice. She started up an instrumental track, letting me know it was set to loop before she cracked the spine of her own fresh notebook and clicked her pen into a ready state.

“Remember,” she said. “First thing that comes to mind.”

I nodded.

I wasn’t ready at all, but again…why the hell not?

“I can’t figure out what the fuck I’m doing,” she sang, then looked at me expectantly.

Shit.

“Uh…everybody around me is moving?”

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