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“Hey.”
She glanced up into Johnny’s soft expression and sniffed.
He dipped his chin and arched his eyebrows. “Whatever you need, yeah?”
She nodded tightly. “Yeah.”
He held her gaze for a beat. Probably trying to decide if he should force the issue or not. Finally, he gave a sharp nod and left her in her “office.”
It was an office and workspace and storage room all in one. It was littered with gutted equipment, unopened boxes, instruments that needed to be tested, and various other diversions.
It was a headache and a half to keep track of.
She needed to get it organized.
From down the hall came the distant sounds of male voices and heavy objects being moved.
Huh.
Johnny must’ve gotten a contractor to finally come in and work on the main-floor lounge.
It was about time.
She moved her wireless mouse to the other side of her computer so she could try to use it with her left hand. Did they have a left-handed mouse around here? Of all the useless boxes of wires and connectors Johnny brought in like they were precious resources, she didn’t remember ever seeing something as useful as a mouse in one.
She tried to open her email and missed the icon several times.
Blerg.
This sucked.
Stupid André and his stupid car.
In her email was a small video from Zara that had her smiling.
The pop star was on tour in Europe and so their schedules barely ever coincided. An email in the middle of the night was pretty normal.
The video loaded and Zara’s face filled the screen. “So, I’ve been working on that thing we started on at Christmas. By the way, tell your ma I need that sugar cookie recipe still.” She tugged on the eyelashes of one eye and removed the falsey. “So listen…” And she launched into a melody without words, her head bobbing along to keep time. “And nah nah nah, like that. Like he’s thinking about calling but at the last minute she calls him instead. And we can double back the chorus on the last round.” She pulled off the second lash and leaned into the screen so all Nikki could see was her nose and top lip. “What do you think?” Zara yelled.
End of video.
Nikki chuckled and saved it to her special “Project Z” folder.
She wanted to play it again and take some notes but that would have to wait until tomorrow.
The next email from Zara had come in a few minutes after the first. This one was just text though. It was some of the lyrics they had written that fateful night with more added to it.
Oh what a night that had been.
Unexpected phone calls, confessions, and so many sugar cookies.
She flexed her hurt hand in its brace and growled.
She couldn’t take notes.
But she could listen to it again.
She played the video and hummed along to the song that was taking shape. She knew exactly what beat she wanted to use and cued up the sound file.
