Page 7 of Call and Response

She sucked her teeth. “Blogs? You’re ten years late.”

“You know what I meant, girl.”

“Do I?” Turning back to me, she smiled. “This is exciting. Are you excited? I didn’t even know Audra sang. How does she sound?”

How indeed.

Definitely not something that should be a question in my mind. At least, not if I was making good decisions.

“Uh… she sounds good,” I guessed, trying to sound more certain than I felt.

Audra was pretty major in the industry, major enough to have mega-stars in The Heights tonight for the concert she’d curated. Surely she wouldn’t get on stage and embarrass herself by not having the voice to back up her presence.

There wasn’t that much misplaced confidence in the world.

Right?

Anika and Royal exchanged a look. Clearly neither of them believed I knew what the fuck I was talking about, but they were nothing if not supportive since I’d been back in town.

“I’ll shoot Troy a text and see if he can squeeze you in. Quickly, because doesn’t the concert start soon? Like… real soon? Like… is there time for a rehearsal soon?” Anika asked, glancing at her watch.

“I’m supposed to be meeting her at the rec center in two hours, more like an hour and a half now,” I corrected myself after my own time check. “Her set is a bit later, so I think she wants to run through some things first.”

“Good.” Royal nodded. “Give you a chance to shake the cobwebs off.”

I frowned. “What cobwebs? I’ve been fine performing with Ky.”

“Eh. You’ve been a little pitchy,” he argued. “Why you think Ky ain’t ask you to perform with him for this?”

“Kiss my ass.” I chuckled, getting off that topic as I finally broke out of my semi-frozen state.

I had to get out of there.

Anika let me know Troy actually could squeeze me in for a quick lineup between appointments, so I popped by there first, then rushed my ass home for a shower.

And clothes.

What the fuck was I supposed to wear?

No time to dwell on it.

I grabbed the kind of thing I would wear any other time I was getting on stage—jeans, fresh tee, clean sneakers, a chain. As soon as I was ready, I left.

I couldn’t give myself time to think about it too much.

I had to keep moving.

Before reality caught up to me.

The closer I got to the park where Harmonies in the Heights was being held, the louder the music got. The concert itself had already started, so the journey was thick with people heading there.

It was noisy and festive.

Perfect to keep me out of my head.

I got myself to the venue with no issues and headed straight for my meeting spot with Audra, which turned out to be a large conference room set up like a mini soundstage. The level of security I had to get through made much more sense to me than how solitary she’d been at the coffeehouse.

Maybe since the average person might not recognize her on the street, it was easier for her to be incognito.

---