No, no, no. This could not be happening. Why now? Why here? Just why? The last thing I wanted to do after a stressful morning was come face to face with the ghost of relationships past. What the hell am I gonna say to him? What is he doing here? I wish I had time to run. Why’d he have to see me so quickly? What to say? What to say?
"So, what’s up?"
"What’s up? It’s been 2 years and you ask me what’s up?"
"Just trying to make conversation. Besides, what’s there to say?"
"I don’t know. How about, ‘hey AJ. How have you been since I left you with only a Dear John letter and a hangover 2 years ago?’"
"Okay, ‘Hey, AJ. How have you been since I left you with only a Dear John letter and a hangover 2 years ago?’"
"Just peachy," he replied sarcastically. "Can we please be serious for a moment, Sky?"
"Fine. I’ll be serious. You weren’t hungover when I left you. Not even slightly buzzed. You were fully conscious of everything that happened that night."
"Too bad I have no idea about what happened the morning after," he grumbled.
"Look, I’m no happier about this reunion of sorts than you are. But I hardly think the lobby of a recording studio is the place for this conversation." Indigo Skylar Matthews was on her lunch break when she ran into her ex in the lobby. She was already nervous about some big surprise her manager had for her.
"Speak of the Devil," she thought, "here comes Kelly now."
"Indigo! You ruined my surprise."
"What?"
"The Backstreet Boys. I see you’ve already met with them," she gestured towards AJ.
"What? Okay, it’s explanation time, spill it."
"Well, the Backstreet Boys came looking for some producers to use on the upcoming album and they had heard your work and thought it was good. And I know how much of a fan you are, so I decided to make this a surprise for you. This back fired on me how?"
"Hold on," AJ said, finally joining the conversation, "you’re Midnight Rose?"
Indigo sighed deeply, "In the flesh."
/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+
Indigo frantically pulled her manager, Raquel Soledad Martinez, into an empty conference room.
"Kelly, there’s got to be a way to fix this. I cannot work with them, with him!"
"I thought you were a huge fan or something, what’s the deal here? I expected gratitude, not this."
"Do I really have to say?"
"You’re asking me to get you out of the biggest opportunities you’ve ever gotten in this business and you think you can get away without an explanation? Oh, no, you dish, and you dish now."
"I’ve met the guys before."
"I think that’s obvious, what’s the rest of the story?"
"AJ is my ex." She ignored Kelly’s open-mouthed expression and continued.
"We dated for almost 3 years before…before things got…difficult and we broke up."
"You mean all this time you knew these people you watched me drool over and you didn’t say a word! I thought we were friends."
"We are. But I want to forget that part of my life. Please, Kelly, can we just drop this for now and figure a way out of it?"
"I don’t see how. We signed the preliminary contracts that say we have to at least meet with them."
"So, you’re saying that I meet with them and then just say I decide that I can’t work with them?"
"Exactly."
Indigo threw her arms around her best friend, "Oh, Kelly, you’re a life saver."
"You better believe it."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Brian, Nick, Kevin and Howie were laughing and joking in the client’s conference room when AJ came bursting through the door.
"Woah, there tiger," Howie exclaimed, "who lit a fire under your behind?"
"It’s her."
Kevin coughed, "think you could be a bit more specific here?"
"Midnight Rose."
Brian perked up, "You got to meet her? What’s she like? Why won’t she use her real name?"
"You guys remember Sky?"
"Sky?"
"Yeah, Indigo," Nick rolled his eyes, "we remember. You haven’t been in a serious relationship since. What about her?"
"It’s her."
"Oh, great, we’re back where we started. You’re babbling, AJ, get to the point already."
"It’s her. Indigo is Midnight Rose."
A hush fell across the room and none of the guys knew what to say.
"You’re joking, right?" Howie asked.
"Yeah, I mean, AJ come on man, for the first six months you saw her in every city we went to."
"This is different."
"You say that every time."
"Well, I hardly think holding a conversation with her in which she affirmed that she was Midnight Rose qualifies as an illusion." The silence returned momentarily until Kevin asked the question no one had even thought of.
"So, um, what do we do?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, do we still record with her?" Howie scratched his eyebrow " I don’t know. What’s everybody thinking about this situation?"
"I say we vote on it. See where everybody stands."
Nick folded his arms and said adamantly, "I say we drop her."
"Damn, Nick. What got you so pissed off?"
"She left two years ago without a word, and now she just pops back up? There’s got to be something that she wants."
"She didn’t know ahead of time that it was us," AJ said quietly from the doorway, "it was supposed to be a surprise from her manager."
Brian smirked, "Some surprise. So what’s going on in everyone else’s minds?"
"I’m all for it," Kevin piped up, "Her stuff is good, we can all hear that. We’re all professional adults, I’m sure we can put aside our differences."
"I’m with Kev. Brian? AJ?"
"I’ll go for it. We wanted to change things up on this album and I think she can do that for us. AJ?"
"I don’t know. On the one hand, I’m mad at her for leaving. On the other, she’s a damn good producer that I’d love to work with."
"Professionally or romantically?"
"Nick!"
"No, Kevin, it’s okay, he deserves to know." AJ turned to Nick, "For sure, professionally. A part of me – a big part of me -- still hopes for romantically, but I’m not going to push."
"So, what’s our position?" Howie asked.
"4 to 1," AJ reminded him, "We’re in."
"Have any of you considered that she may not want to work with us?"
"What do you mean, Rok?"
"If she ran away, who says she’s ready to deal with us again? We can’t just bombard her with all this. I say one of us talks to her one-on-one and hear what she thinks."
"He’s right. She might take off like some kind of scared deer if we gang up on her," Kevin pointed out.
"So, who’s gonna do it?"
"She won’t talk to me," AJ answered.
"I don’t want to," Nick grumbled.
"I’m not good at that kind of thing," Howie replied.
"It’s down to the Kentucky cousins."
"We can both go. Whenever one of us gets stuck, the other can offer moral support."
"Sounds good to me," Kevin answered, "Let’s see if we can find her."
(*(*(*(*(*(*(*(*(*(*
Indigo was on the phone when Brian and Kevin came to her door. She signaled for them to come in while she finished up her conversation.
"So, what can I do for you guys?" she asked after she had hung up the phone. Kevin groaned, "Oh, cut the crap, Indi. Come here."
The three embraced in a tight group hug, chorused with ‘I missed you’ and ‘It’s been so long.’
"We didn’t miss you that much," Brian said jokingly when the hug lasted too long.
Indigo rolled her eyes, "Of course you didn’t. That’s why the two of you have me sandwiched like a piece of ham in a sub."
"You’ll have to forgive my hick cousin. He doesn’t know how to show his emotions other than to slam his toe on the side of a pick-up truck."
"Hey!" Brian protested, "That’s not true!"
"Of course not Brian, you can also yell when the beer at a superbowl party is too warm," Indigo teased.
"Damn straight!"
The three old friends laughed heartily as though time had never separated them.
"Okay, you two. I know you didn’t come here just to swap country bumpkin cousin jokes, so what’s the deal?" Brian and Kevin shifted uncomfortably and looked at one another, each imploring the other to begin. Kevin quickly grew tired of the game and began the conversation.
"Well, you see, the thing is, we, that is, you Indigo, and us, that is the five of us, specifically AJ, we didn’t exactly part on the best of terms. And you see, we, the Backstreet Boys, wanted to have you, Midnight Rose, produce a new song for us on the album, but we had no idea that you, Indigo was you, Midnight Rose. You feel me?"
"I think I took a wrong turn at ‘best of terms’ but I’m back on track now."
"I think what my currently illiterate cousin is trying to say is that we have a history that could get in the way of us creating a high-caliber track."
"Is that what I was saying?"
Brian patted him on the back, "Yes, Kevin, trust me, it was."
"Look, I couldn’t agree with the two of you more. That’s why I was going to suggest that you guys find a new producer."
"No! See, you’ve got it all wrong. What we came here to tell you is that we know that there’s some friction between us but we still want to work with you."
"Basically," Kevin added, "We came here because we heard great music from this really talented producer that we came 500 miles to work with and even though there may be a few bumps along the way, we still want her to help us make some beautiful music."
"And what do the other three of your species think of this?"
"We voted."
"Oh!" Indigo exclaimed, "the good old 4-to-1. Who voted against me? AJ?"
"Actually, no, he agreed with us. Nick’s the one who’s still a little bitter."
Indigo was about to say something when her phone rang and she went to answer it.
"Hello?…Yes, this is her…Yes…What’s wrong?…She did?…Of course, I understand…Yes, I’ll be there in about 15 minutes…Thank you so much…Okay…Bye bye."
Brian looked genuinely concerned as she hung up the phone, "Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, um, sure, everything’s fine, I just have to -- that is, I have some business to take care of, and I need to leave now." Kevin noticed that she appeared flustered, "Well, since you need to go, think about what we said and we’ll be back tomorrow to find out your decision."
"Sure, okay, just talk to Lucy out front so that she can give you an appointment and work on Nick for me. This is going to be difficult as it is, if I decide to do it, and him not wanting me there will only make things worse."
They all said their farewells and shared one more hug before Brian and Kevin departed on their way. As soon as the boys had left, Kelly came bouncing into the room.
"I just saw Brian and Kevin leave. What’d they have to say? Did you tell them you didn’t want to work with them? Are they as hot as they seem on TV? Are you still gonna produce the track? Is AJ mad at you? Come on, tell me, tell me, tell me!"
Indigo rolled her eyes playfully, "And they say Dominicans talk fast? But, to answer all of your questions at once: they were asking me to stay on the project, yes I did, yes they are, maybe I will, and I don’t know. There. Are you satisfied?"
"Wait, one more. Why are you leaving?"
"The daycare just called, Lia got a nosebleed and they want me to take her home so she can rest."
"Oh, poor baby. Do you have anymore appointments for the day?"
"No, remember, you cleared my schedule in anticipation of my ‘surprise’."
"How was I supposed to know you had issues?"
"It doesn’t matter now. Just do me a favor and make sure Lucy schedules an appointment for them tomorrow."
"For what?"
"That’s when I have to give them my decision."
"Which is?"
"I’ll burn that bridge when I get to it."
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