Page 13 of Belonging to Them
“That’s great advice, thank you.”Nothing I haven’t heard before, but somehow, Helena’s earnest gaze makes me take it even more to heart than I did when I was attending the university.
“Now for the fun stuff,” she says, grinning.“Let’s talk about your career.Where do you see yourself going with your music?”
“If I could earn a living from it, that would be great,” I say.
She wipes her mouth on her napkin while eyeing me carefully.“You aren’t thinking big enough.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve got the whole package,” she says.“Most importantly, the talent.Your voice is good and will get better with coaching and practice.Your music is outstanding.And it’s terrible to have to say this, but looks matter—and you have good looks.”
“Thank you?”I squeak.
“You’re welcome.So I think you can more than make a living at this, although we’ll start there, because it’s an excellent goal.To do that, you’re going to need to hustle, especially at first.Any other jobs you have, you’ll need to quit.”
“Wait, what?”
“You live with Sebastian, don’t you?”
“Well, yeah?—”
“So you’re not needing to pay rent.And your channel on VideYou has enough subscribers to be monetized…” She takes her phone out and jabs the screen a few times.“By my estimate, this is how much you’ll be pulling in monthly for the next few months from VideYou.”
I look at the number she holds up.“That’s accurate, at least for the past two months, which I haven’t been paid for yet.”
“Right, their whole ‘sixty days from pay period to check’ thing,” she grumbles.“I hate that.Anyway, you need new songs, and lots of them.I think quitting your day job, while you’re on the brink of taking off, makes perfect sense, especially because you have the safety net of Sebastian’s income.”
“I don’t feel right about that?—”
“You don’t want to seem like you’re sponging off of him.Honey, if you play this right,youwill be out-earning him within five years.”
I scoff and look away, shaking my head.
“I’m not kidding.Look, Ella.I know it’s a leap of faith.I know it’s hard to believe in yourself so strongly.But from what I understand, you’ve been at rock bottom before.”
“How do you know that?”
“I looked you up.You dropped entirely off of social media two years ago, and dropped out of a prestigious arts school.Shit happened, I get it.It might happen again.But you also have a chance to seize greatness.I believe in you…but I can’t make you believe in yourself.”
“Can I seize greatness while I keep my job at Maids in Heaven?”I ask.
“Of course,” she says.“And it would make perfect sense to keep that job while you build up your repertoire to see if you’ve got what it takes.But we can already see you’ve got what it takes—your followers on VideYou are proof of that.”
I don’t know what to say.The idea of quitting Maids in Heaven isterrifying.It’s my safety net.Bad enough I already quit Bartleby’s.
But Helena’s watching me, with so much faith and hope in her eyes, it starts to make me wonder if it really cool be possible.
My dad always told me that big decisions could wait.Anything worthy was worth waiting for.So I give Helena a little smile and say, “I’ll think about it.”
“That’s the most I can ask you to do,” she says, nodding in encouragement.“Call me if you have questions.Because whether or not you quit your other job, I would love to be your agent.I’ll have a contract emailed to you tonight that you can look over.Take all the time you need to consider it.”
Despite my fear of quitting my cleaning job…holy shit!I can’t stop smiling.Helena Tran wants to be my agent.
FOUR
Kingston
My phone buzzes with a text from Ella.Hey, I need to talk about some career stuff.Do you have a minute?
