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“It’s really really real,” joked Harper. “Once you impress them, there will be no more small-town bars unless we are hosting exclusive intimate gigs for premium ticket holders. Your life could be about to change dramatically. Do you think you’re ready for it?”
Mia’s face changed a little, that confident cheeky Mia from when she was on stage glinted in her eyes and her mouth became bold, a dazzling smile flashing Harper’s way. Harper caught herself from staring and tried to smile naturally back, despite the somersaults her stomach had started doing upon seeing it.
“Let’s get started!”
Inside the studio, a technician introduced himself and showed Mia where everything was and explained how the performance set would work. By the time she was brought back into the observation area where her audience would be, the judges in question had arrived. All the women looked very different from Harper, but no less imposing. Jennifer was a blonde bombshell drawn out of a Beverly Hills housewives show—with a small handbag dog included—but she had the dark brown eyes and piercing gaze of a deeply intelligent woman who was putting on an act.
Paulina looked much like Mia, petite in frame, tanned olive skin with European features and dark hair and eyes. Her face was the kindest of the four women, even that of Harper, but she was a little older perhaps, and something about that age added a wisdom and gravity to her voice when she introduced herself. Lilian was a tomboy with her hair in tight braids to her head and looked as though she could have been a distant relation of Harper’s in their facial features. She was the shortest, but what she lacked in height, she made up for in muscle. Mia was fairly certain that she could pick her up and throw her a good few feet, but she didn’t want to annoy her and find out. After brief introductions, Harper walked Mia into the studio.
“You handled yourself well in there,” Harper said, her hand gently on the small of Mia’s back leading her to the mic. “Not many people keep their composure as well as you did when meeting the big four of the LA music scene.”
“In all fairness, I didn’t know they were…I’m glad now that I didn’t”
Harper laughed. This young woman was somehow so honest and awkward, yet so confident and powerful, the enigma of the opposites was alluring to Harper. At the mic, Mia turned to face Harper and Harper rested her arms on Mia’s shoulders in a conspiratorial brace.
“Just do what you did yesterday and you will have absolutely nothing to worry about. I’ll be on the other side of the glass,” she whispered. Harper paused and gently bit her lip. “If it makes it easier, you could just sing as though it’s only me watching.”
Harper watched Mia gulp. Had it not been for the audience clearly analyzing every move both women made, she would have liked to maybe lean closer and see if Mia did the same. Mia nodded and the confidence came back. Harper groaned a little internally and resisted the temptation to pull Mia in, instead she offered a wink and then made her way back in the observation room to join the other women.
“How was Felicity?” mocked Lilian.
“Oh, fuck off, Lil…” sighed Harper, all of them giggling like schoolgirls.
“Whenever you’re ready, just give us a thumbs up, Mia, and I’ll start the track,” said the technician to the earphones now over Mia’s head. She nodded, closed her eyes and began to take a few deep breaths. Harper moved aside a messy jumble of audio wires atop a speaker and hopped on top to smugly sit back and watch history be made; she really wanted the other women to eat their words on this one. When Mia opened her eyes again, they were the eyes of the predator Harper saw the night before. The creature who fed on the devotion of her fans and who drew on their adoring worship to further her power, she was a catalyst just waiting for the right elements to allow her to explode into life. Mia raised her hand and held her thumb out in an elegant defiance of the silence that had fallen on the studio, the track began.
The song she was recording had no introduction, so the countdown of beats to start was signaled by a metronome ticking, at eight clicks, the track would start. Harper settled herself in for the show and watched as like the night before, the assembled party felt themselves drawn into Mia’s pull. With each tick, the three other women and the technician leaned closer to the glass. Tick-Tick-Tick. As the countdown neared its end, both Harper and Mia began to smile at each other, a secret of what was yet to come that only they knew. On the second to last tick, Mia took in her breath and held it, her eyes closing once more. Harper watched her features soften in the moment before release: mouth open, eyes closed, head back and her lower lip quivering slightly; Harper leaned forward now too, but for a different reason, she decided she wouldn’t mind seeing that exact face beneath her, a different kind of tension in the air between them.
Mia unleashed her voice through the mic and everyone, bar the technician, almost jumped back in surprise at the power. Harper jumped for a different reason, the speaker on which she was sitting was connected to Mia’s voice and her low powerful voice vibrated from beneath her. She looked from the speaker to Mia and the corners of her mouth curled into a smile as she sang. Does she know how much I really love this? asked Harper to herself. As if in answer to her question and in answer to the seductive beat of the song being recorded, Mia began to sway her hips slightly, allowing her hands to flow in the air around her in the strong deliberate moves of a Spanish dancer. As she did, Harper felt herself being wrapped in the invisible threads that Mia was weaving, pulling at different parts of her body—her chin, her wrist, her lips, her collar bone, her breasts, her thighs. Mia held a low note, longer than she had the night before, and Harper felt the tremor caress her body like a wave. One wire in particular was caught under her leg and quivered like a violin string being played. She couldn’t believe how this girl could make her feel. She couldn’t believe how attracted she was to her.
“She really is incredible,” said Jennifer suddenly, looking to the back of the room where Harper sat. “I take it all back, Harper.”
Harper tried to compose herself and nod, a Herculean task against the waves of sound that threatened her façade. As soon as Jennifer looked back, she slumped a little and locked eyes again with Mia. Her lips fluttered as she sang a trail of beautiful notes. Harper began to picture those lips running down her neck, opening and closing, leaving a trail of heat in her wake. Mia began to caress the curves of the mic’s body and the length of the stand lightly like the bends and valleys of her own body’s landscape. She has to know what she’s doing to me, look at that smug smirk…she huffed out as a wave crashed over and inside her and incredulous laugh on her lips…the audacity.
“Harper, I will let you slap me if I ever doubt you again…” said Lilian, her mouth still hanging open in disbelief as it had from the moment Mia had started.
“Never in my forty years in the industry have I seen a person start their journey with such potential. She really was born to sing,” said Paulina in her whisper-soft voice. Her approval was the hardest to win by far and she was visibly starstruck.
Jennifer came up and patted her on the back, and noticing the bumps along Harper’s arms, laughed.
“I totally get it, Harper, I have goosebumps too. If I wasn’t already happily married, I may be trying to win her favor as well.” She then winked at her before adding, “But she couldn’t keep her eyes off you, so I think she already has a conquest in mind. Stay professional though. She’s young enough to be your daughter.”
When Mia rejoined them all in the viewing room, the other women and the technician surrounded her immediately with praise and questions. With the skill of a celebrity many years ahead of Mia, she navigated the conversation beautifully, and within a few minutes everyone was satisfied she was the real deal.
“You can absolutely go ahead and offer her the contract, Harper, she’ll be in good hands with you,” said Paulina as the three headed for the door. “She is your project to promote as you see fit, we trust your judgement on this. Keep us updated and congrats, Mia.”
“Thank you, ladies, I’ll see you in the office.”
“I’m also going to get started right away on the desk to get the best out of Mia’s voice and the track,” twittered in the technician as he was already heading into a different part of the building. He popped his head around the door quickly with a wave to Mia and added, “You have a key to get out already, don’t you, Harper? Can you lock me in after you leave? I may be here a little while.”
Harper nodded with a smile, she was already a big fan of how efficient people wanted to be for Mia; it certainly made her work easier. Once the mouse-like technician had scampered away, laptop in hand, the two women were left alone.
“I need to watch myself around you it seems,” said Harper with a smirk.
“I’m not sure what you mean,” said Mia, a teasing note in her voice.
“Uh-huh, I’m sure… the eye contact, the gestures. Are you trying your best to tease me?” Harper began to stalk around her in a little circle, like a predator uncertain whether she should pounce.
“Well, I can’t deny it actually. But, did you, uh, like my music though?” Mia coughed a laugh a little on the word like, which made Harper close in.
