Page 37 of Without You
“This must be pretty important for you to want to meet on such short notice in the middle of the night,” Bob said when he came in. He wore a plaid shirt and his hat turned backwards. “I did the usual set up for you.”
Terrence sat beside him. “This is gonna be a little different.”
“You don’t want the Boomer joint?” Bob asked, referring to the track Terrence listened to during the last studio session.
“Nah, I want the other one.”
Bob frowned. “Wait… You mean the slow one?”
“Yeah, that one.”
Bob shook his head. “A’ight.”
He ran the track and Terrence closed his eyes and absorbed the beat. This would definitely do.
Minutes later he was inside the booth, hand on the mic, recording what he considered to be one of his best songs. Title: Without You.
When he exited the booth, he listened to the replay with Bob. At the end of the song, the engineer nodded appreciatively. “That’s hot. And you nailed it on the first take. Maybe we should send this one to the record company, give them an early taste of what’s to come.”
Terrence stood. “I’m not sure I’ll put this on the album.”
“What? That shit is fire. The ladies are gonna love it. It could be even hotter than ‘Wearing My Ring.’”
“We’ll see.” No point in explaining that it was personal and not for public consumption. He didn’t know why, but he’d felt compelled to record the song anyway. “Send that to me after you clean it up.”
“Okay.”
“Tonight.”
“I got you.”
“Thanks, man.” He tapped Bob on the shoulder and left the building.
Not happier, but satisfied.
17
Who could be calling at this hour?
Charisse didn’t know the exact time, but she knew it was late because she went to bed at ten o’clock after talking to her mother for an hour. She must’ve been asleep for at least a couple of hours because her body carried the ache of being disrupted from deep sleep.
She squinted into the darkness and reached for the phone beside the bed. It stopped ringing.
She flopped onto her back and groaned. Whoever had called, they could leave a voicemail and she’d check it in the morning.
Except, the phone started ringing again. Annoyed, she slammed her hand on the offending electronic device and stared at the screen.
Bo?
She answered. “Hello?”
“Oh, thank goodness!”
“What’s going on?”
“I hate to ask you for this favor, but I tried to reach Kamisha and she’s not answering her phone. I don’t know who else to call. It’s about T.”
Wide awake now, Charisse sat up and gripped the phone as she waited for him to continue.
