Page 101 of A Country Kind Of Love
“What? That I was having sex with my girlfriend? I’m sure that will go down a treat.” Peyton cringes.
“No, that you had sex, ended up in the ER due to reasons you’d rather not discuss... herpes... and that’s why you’re late.” He lifts his hand to his face to stop the unfavourable word travelling around the apartment.
“I’m not telling the boss of the record label that I have herpes.” Peyton shuts the doorbehind them.
“It’s fine we’ve got time to think it through. I’ll call Shonda’s assistant,” Jesse yells through the door.
?
They arrive at the record label shortly after 11 a.m. Jesse called ahead. Shonda is expecting them. Peyton is thankful she isn’t in this alone. That would be super embarrassing—more so than italready is.
“Let me handle this,”Jesse says.
“It is nice of you to finally join me. I really hope this isn’t a true reflection of your character, Miss Harris.” Shonda has her back turned to admire the view, or just for dramatic effect. Either way, Peyton thinks she lookslike a boss.
“Absolu—”
Shonda interrupts her. “MrClark...”
“You can call me Jesse, ma’am.” He sounds like he’s addressing a police officer.
“I suggest you do a better job at keeping your clients in line if you want to remaina manager.”
“Yes, sorry about that. We had a pipe burst at home; it was a whole big thing, water everywhere. That’s why Peyton and Cleo are wet. They tried to stop it, but they didn’t know where the main pipe was located, so I came home from helping my next-door neighbour with her shopping like I do every Monday morning, and...” Peyton looks at Cleo in disbelief.
Ishe for real?
“Boom! It’s a whole thing. There’s water an inch high in the bathroom; it’s leaking through to the kitchen, and—” Peyton elbows himin the ribs.
“Anyway, the plumber is there now, but we lost track of time.”
Shut up, shut up, shut up. Peyton knows they’re screwed. Shonda probably has a spy cam attached to anyone associated with her. It’s written all over her face. She knows they’re all hungover. Despite spraying gallons of perfume and aftershave between them, they still smell like a brewery just walked intoher office.
“You’ve had quite the morning. If you’d have let me know I could’ve sent over our in-house plumber.”
“Don’t worry the landlord is very efficient,” Jesse answers.
“And there was me thinking you’d just got wasted all weekend and slept in.” Shonda chuckles.
Cleo bows her head. Peyton looks up at Jesse; he’s visibly sweating, but that could be on account of the leftover pizza he ate for breakfast.
“No... if only,” Jesse scoffs.
Shonda gestures for a new face to join them inher office.
“Did she really just buy that?” Peyton whispers to Cleo.
She shrugs.
In walks a five-foot-five blonde with pink streaks in her hair and giant gold hoop earrings. Below her flawlessly primed eyebrows her eyes are set back like glowing flames. Peyton thinks she’s beautiful. She has precise features; her expression changes from a thoughtful stare to a smile of pleasant friendliness.
“This is Alisha; she’s one of our best music producers. She’s worked with all the new up and coming country singers. You won’t find an artist on the country music charts right now she hasn’t worked with.” Shonda introduces Alisha like she’s one of her prizedpossessions.
“Hi everyone.” She makes eye contact with each of them but lingers a moment when she settles on Jesse. She is just his type, Peyton thinks.
“Alisha is here to support you with the recording process from start to finish. Alisha, why don’t you give them a breakdown of what it is you’ll be doing.” Shonda sits back in her luxurious leather desk chair; it probably cost more than Peyton’s college tuition. She hopes it at least massages her ass or something.
“My job is to bring your vision to life and guide your sound the right way. Peyton, you’ve probably got hundreds of songs, right?”
