“Shh, you won’t need that. We’ve got everything you need inside.”

“Okay,” she says, casting a backward glance at the guitar case in her car.

“You’re gonna love it. Trust me. I’ve got a great set-up for you,” I say, opening the big glass door for her and ushering her down the corridor. “It doesn’t get much better than this. Twelve of the top fifteen number one singles this year were recorded here.”

“Wow.” Her breath rushes out in an awed gasp as she eyes the gold records lining the walls.

I stop and turn to face her. “It doesn’t get much better than this. There’s a six-month waiting list to get just half an hour in here.”

She smiles nervously. “How did you book it so soon?”

“A combination of persuasiveness, old favors owed, and threats. Not necessarily in that order.”

I continue walking and push through the control room door, holding it open for her as she steps inside slowly.

“Haley,” I say, as the three men milling in front of the mixing board stand up and come forward. “This is Baptiste,” I say, and the crisply-dressed, boyishly-handsome man swaggers forward and tips his baseball cap in a gesture that would look ridiculous if he wasn’t so naturally cool. “You probably know him already.”

“Of course,” she says, as if dazed, “you’re like on every record on the radio right now.”

“Business is branding,” he says, with a half-smile.

“This is Duke, a guy you definitely won’t have heard of,” I say, nodding toward the tall, skinny hipster with shoulder-length, lank blonde hair. “But he’s had a part to play in more than a few songs in the top ten for the past five years.”

“Pleased to meet you,” he says, shyly.

Haley nods in reply.

“And Dennis, the best engineer since Geoff Emerick.”

Haley’s mouth falls open as I invoke the name of the engineer who worked with The Beatles.

“Hey,” the short, grumpy-looking guy in plaid says nonchalantly.

“Hi,” Haley says, meekly, her eyes big as saucers.

“What do you think of the studio?” Baptiste asks, eyeing Haley with curious interest.

“It’s…” Haley looks around at the stylishly-designed equipment and trendy seating that fills the room, then glances through the glass toward the gigantic recording booth’s array of neatly-arranged instruments, pedals, and microphones. “It’s really…high-tech.”

“Wait til you hear the song,” I say, after the guys take their seats again. “It’s a guaranteed hit. It’s been knocking around for months, and the only reason it isn’t out already is the gigantic bidding war going on over it.”

“Um…thanks?” Her expression is slightly confused, but I figure it’s probably just that she’s overwhelmed. I grin.

“I did everything I could to get this song for you, Haley. It’s perfect. Dennis, cue it up.”

I watch Haley’s face as the music starts, a winding electronic melody that you can’t get out of your head if you hear it just once, a beat that drops with enough oomph to keep every club goer moving from here to Berlin, then a hook – sung by Baptiste on the demo – that no teenage girl on the planet could resist.

Baptiste, Duke, and I rock our heads to the impulsive, driving rhythm. Haley’s face barely moves. I gesture for Dennis to cut the music and put my hand on her shoulder.

“Haley…you okay?”

“Um…sure. It’s…catchy.” I’m not seeing excitement register on her face. She must still think she’s dreaming.

“Look, I know this is overwhelming right now,” I soothe her. “The studio, the song. It’s a lot to take in. Maybe you think this is like ‘the moment of truth.’ It’s okay to not feel up to it, but you’re in good hands here. These guys know what they’re doing, we’ve got autotune, we can alter some parts of the song if they don’t work with your vocal range.”

Haley covers her eyes with her hand. I lean in closer.

“It’s okay,” I continue, “really. Everything’s going to be taken care of. I’ve got the best stylist in Europe flying over tomorrow, and a handful of video directors throwing ideas at me. Maybe you can even help me pick out the best.”

Suddenly, Haley whacks my arm away from her shoulder with the speed and venom of a kung fu master, yanks the studio door open, and runs through it. I stand there for a second, processing what just happened, then turn to the guys, who give me nothing but shrugs.

“Give us a minute,” I say, then grab the door and go after her. By the time I get outside she’s already wrestling with the rusted door of her Datsun.

“Haley!” I call out as I move towards her. “You getting cold feet already? I’m telling you, I’ll hold your hand every step of the way.”

“That’s exactly the problem,” she yells. I’m confused. Maybe it’s just her nerves.

“What do you mean? Haley, those guys in there are the best in the game, like you could practically sleepwalk through this recording session. What the hell’s wrong with you?”

“Just stop talking!” She smacks the door and marches toward me menacingly. “What the hell’s wrong with you?!”

She shoves me right in the chest with all her strength. It doesn’t do much, but I step back out of surprise anyway.

“I actually believed you when you said you liked my music,” she screams, incredulous. “How fucking stupid is that?”

For a moment, I’m stunned. “I did like your playing. Why do you think I’m doing all this?”

She presses her hands to her temples and looks at me like I just tried to explain quantum physics in a single sentence.

“If you like my playing so much, then why are you doing everything you can to turn me into something I’m not?”

“Haley, it’s not like that.” I let loose with a winning grin that tends to get me where I wanna go. “I’m just trying to make everything as good as it can be. I mean, do you wanna make music or not? We’ve got an insta-hit in the making in there. This is gonna launch your entire career. I don’t see the problem.”

She gives me a cold stare, starts to speak a few times before shaking her head and taking a deep breath. “I do want to make music,” Haley finally says, sighing away her anger and replacing it with disappointment, “but not like that. If you can even call that making music.”

I stare at her, feeling all my work and effort slipping through my fingers.

“Look, Brando, you don’t need me. You just need a pretty face to go along with everything you’ve got going on back there, the pre-written songs and the electronics and the machines. I’m sorry, but that’s just not me.”

The rusted door opens this time, and she steps inside, revving and jerking the car out of the parking lot and down the road, taking everything I want with her.

Damn.

Chapter 6

Haley

“… And that’s when I ran out.”

“Oh God, Haley,” Jenna says, still holding a bemused customer’s change.

I look back at her and shrug, but I notice her tell. Jenna’s a good girl, and like all good girls she isn’t very good at hiding her feelings. She’s biting the inside of her lip.

“You don’t think I should have run out on him, right? You think I should have stayed, sucked it up, let those guys turn me into another radio-friendly clone?”

Jenna hands the guy’s change to him with a smile, checks that no other customers are coming, and turns to me with the same look my mother gave me when I found out she was the tooth fairy.

“Sit down,” she says, nodding to the stool behind the counter. I do as she says, and she leans back on the counter in front of me. “Look. When I was trying to make it as an actress – I mean a big Hollywood star, not the local theater plays and cheesy commercials and non-speaking background work I’m doing now – I was going through a lot of the same things you’re going through now. The pointless running around and grabbing at hopeless causes. The long, grinding anticipation and hard work leading up to a big audition, only to find there’s nothing on the other side. But I was nineteen; just smart enough to realize I had to work for it, and just dumb enough to have hope. Every day – every second – that passed without me doing something to try and make it felt like wasted time. Making it was all I thought about, morning to night, even in my dreams – especially in my dreams.”