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“So good to see you!” said Deborah sitting down after embracing her friend. “What’s with the hat? It’s hard to hug you with all this flamboyance in the way!”
“It’s a good crowd divider, makes you look bigger than you are.”
“It’s always calculations with you, isn’t it?” She shook her head. “Oh, there’s our girl…”
Harper turned and gazed at the young woman setting up, she looked very unassuming, when suddenly they locked eyes and she tensed. There was a challenge in the icy green eyes staring back at her, defiant and powerful.
Oh, I think that I may end up liking this after all, she mused to herself.
Esme took the microphone and welcomed everyone. As she said the name Harper Nightingale, the room became awash with little gasps and she turned to smile and take it all in as the applause started. It was all so delicious to her. She took a sip of wine and licked her lips to savor the flavors, but the end note was made bitter by those eyes when she looked back; not impressed, not intimidated. She smiled at her opponent and raised a glass as she took to the plate. This girl, with her conventionally edgy piercings and tattoos on her petite frame, her dark hair swept into a messy plait over her shoulder showing a buzzed undercut of hair…Who does she think she is?
Mia took a breath in, and the room went silent. Harper looked around briefly and noticed the patrons seem to lean forward. It occurred to her then that there were many people here who had genuinely come to see her perform and their excitement began to circulate through the others around them until a frenzy of anticipation seemed to make the air tense. Harper watched as the corners of the singer’s mouth raised into a smile as she held that moment for just a second more than was comfortable. The world itself seemed to warp to hear her. She’s clever, I’ll give her that, Harper he thought, putting her glass to her lips as the singing began.
The wine in the glass never made it further than touching her lips, as within a single note, Harper’s hair stood on edge and she began to tingle all over. Mia’s voice was rich and thick with power and emotion, and as she held that first note, she began to play with scales within it to create a harrowingly beautiful melody which called to her like a siren’s chorus.
“I have lived a thousand lifetimes, but this life is the desert in which time forgets me…” sang Mia.
Every syllable was a brush stroke, painting the grains of sand in Harper’s mind. She could feel the heat of a beating sun caressing her face, yet right in the middle of that heat, that cool stare held her, unmoving, like prey in a web.
“For when your lips touch mine, the hours pass by, millennia to minutes…”
She really was beautiful now that Harper really looked closely at her. Past her judgements, past the singing itself. Her lips were full and looked soft as peach flesh and at least twice as sweet. Her eyes when she sang lost the harshness of a glacial green and took on a much softer shade of green.
“I am full of you, overflowing oasis, submerge yourself within it…” she sung.
Harper gasped, her body was swaying of its own volition and the pinprick tingling all around her made her begin to salivate. She wanted this girl at any cost and would make her a star.
“Come to me…” As Mia sang this line over the track she had created, she extended a hand and beckoned Harper forward. Harper felt herself lean forward as she mouthed back the same command; she wanted her, not only as an artist, she wanted to get closer. The corners of Mia’s mouth curled upwards in an impish grin as she carried on singing, all the while never breaking eye contact.
“…my hallowed woman, I will carry you, safely to my sanctuary.”
The last note of Mia’s last song resonated in riffs across the room in acappella. By the time the song was finished, beads of perspiration began to tease the lines of Harper’s neck. The roaring applause broke the spell, and it was only then that Harper realized she was on her feet and had walked several steps towards Mia through the crowd, the remnants of her dropped glass being cleaned from somewhere behind her.
I think I may be in trouble with this one…
3
“You were phenomenal, just like usual!” said Esme in Mia’s ear above the applause.
“Can we get another big round of applause for the Indigo Lounge’s favorite star, Mia Cortés!”
Another wave of applause and stomping feet ran through the bar and for a brief moment, Mia found herself worried for the neighbors.
“I’ve prepared you a little celebration drink behind the bar as well as a chunk of the proceeds made tonight as my way of thanks.”
“What? Esme, you didn’t have to do that!”
“I know, but please, don’t protest. I’ve only been able to offer you drinks and little bits of the tip jar before, when you should’ve been getting paid to sing all this time in bigger venues. I consider myself very lucky that you have chosen the lounge as your stage.”
“And as my second home, you know that,” said Mia, squeezing Esme’s arm, “Thank you.” She kissed Esme’s cheek and started to squeeze her way towards the bar.
Getting anywhere seemed to take an age as every step she took, she would be taken by the arm and pulled into a group of people. Sometimes it was regulars she’d seen before who were so happy at the turnout and proud to be her original groupies. At other times, it was groups of music journalists or social media influencers who wanted to get the latest scoop on who Mia was and where she was performing next. Several people took photos with her and even Ruby cornered her asking her to sign her chest. Mia knew that Ruby was just doing it as a joke in honor of this rockstar reception, but she still indulged her after a very poignant eye-roll. As she talked with people and jested and joked, she felt a heavy set of feline eyes watching her. Every time she tried to find them, however, they were nowhere to be found.
By the time she finally reached the bar, she needed the drink more than anything and practically inhaled the sweet cocktail in one gulp.
“Being this popular is thirsty work,” spoke a familiar voice from behind her. She turned to be tackled by Deborah in a hug. “You were incredible, Mia! I mean, to me, you sounded as fabulous as ever, but the way you worked the crowd tonight was truly?—”
“Spectacular,” interrupted a rich velvety voice, deep and smoky.
