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After some wrestling with the video file using her left hand, she played it on top of the beat.
Yeah.
That would be cool.
She typed out a quick message to Zara and attached the beat file.
But she hesitated before hitting send.
It was a lot—this next step.
So much more than recording a track for someone, or giving a few pointers to an artist, or mixing an already complete song.
Sending this file would be saying, “Yeah, I’m ready for the next step, win or lose.”
And she wasn’t sure she actuallywasready for that step.
Especially the win.
The lose was easier to anticipate.
But what if she got everything she ever wanted?
Overwhelmed, she saved the message to her drafts and sat back in her chair.
After a couple hours of struggling to text and email with her non-dominant hand, she got up to go find more ibuprofen and check with Justin to see if Chase had called in.
As far as she could tell, the young audio engineer hadn’t shown up for work.
Again.
She left her office and turned down the hall that went deeper into the studio. The control room for Studio X was empty, which was where Justin usually worked during the day.
She wound her way through the halls to the downstairs lounge where loud voices leaked out.
Ugh. She should have found the ibuprofen first.
Why did the skin around her ears hurt? What was that about?
Memo to self: don’t get hit by cars anymore.
She turned the corner and stopped in the open doorway of the lounge. Her gaze skated over the backs of those she didn’t recognize and landed on Justin. He was sweaty and grunting as he hauled an amp out of the storage closet at the far end of the room.
The lounge was normally a disaster.
But this was so much more.
Guilt sliced through her momentarily before she shoved that aside.
Yeah, maybe she could have gotten to this sooner and then Johnny wouldn’t have had to pay someone else to do it.
But that would mean having a lighter workload, and she was excited about the studio’s full calendar.
Guilt be damned.
“Justin, have you seen Chase?” she asked.
Justin set the amp down and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. “Nah. He didn’t call either.”
