The Duet(8)

“I’d be happy to collaborate with Jason. Just let me know when and where I need to be to get the job done.” I paused and looked right at Jason as I nailed home the last sentence. “Some of us are professionals.”





Chapter Three





Oh my God, if I hadn’t been wearing that ridiculous shirt and chewing on glitter gum, that exit would have been so badass. Like, James Bond explosion badass. I hadn’t turned around as I exited the glass conference room, even though I was only 50% sure the meeting was over. They could have had other stuff to talk to us about, but I just went with it. They could email me about the details later. Sometimes, you gotta work the moment for what it is.

“Wow. I think you’re making the whole thing sound much cooler than it actually was,” Cammie said over the phone. I’d called her from the car the instant I’d left Global Records.

“No, seriously. I could hear slow motion applause as I was waiting for the elevator,” I told her as Jerry headed toward a downtown coffee shop. Last week I’d made plans to have coffee with an old friend from college, so even though I wanted to crawl back into bed and nurse my hangover, I didn’t want to cancel.

“So they applauded you as you stood waiting for the elevator? Why? That’s not even that cool.”

“Whatever. Let’s go back to the shirt issue and the fact that you can’t buy me gag gifts and then hang them up in my closet and expect me not to wear them to important meetings on accident,” I said, not truly that angry with her. If the situation had been reversed I would have been rolling in laughter over the entire thing.

“It was part of a costume! You should have thrown it away after you got home. Also, I figured that the text would have been large enough for your brain to inform you not to wear it to an important meeting with your bosses. Just saying.”

“Oh, Cameron, you are just so funny at 10:00 A.M. in the morning, but I have to go. I need to confirm that Grayson is meeting me for coffee in like fifteen minutes.”

There was a pregnant pause across the phone line before Cammie responded. “Grayson Cole?”

I laughed, “Is there any other Grayson that I’m friends with?”

She grunted, “I don’t know, there could be.”

I stared out the window as the streets flashed by. Luckily, Jerry no longer had to drive like a maniac since I was right on time for coffee. “Do you want me to come pick you up? Do you have a free period?”

“No!”

I pulled my phone away from my face to glance at the screen, wondering why her reaction was so strong.

“Why not? Do you have class?” I asked.

“Yes, I have my Advanced Design class in an hour.”

“Okay, well, I still think it’d be a good idea for you to meet up with Grayson soon and go over career opportunities. It’d be silly not to use him. I mean he owns his own architecture firm.”

I heard random street sounds on the other end of the phone line - cars rushing past and then the sound of a metal door opening and closing. Finally, Cammie replied, “I know. I just don’t think Grayson likes me very much and maybe I want to make it in this world on my own without relying on my big sister’s friend to get me a job.”

She had a point, even though I didn’t necessarily agree.

“Okay, well, I’ll bring it up to him during coffee and I’ll see what he says.”

“Oh, whatever. I have to go; I’m going to the studio before my class. I’m behind on this final project.”

“Love you,” I said.

“Love you, too.”

I looked down at my phone, thinking of Cammie in her college classes. Sometimes when she talked about her finals and her course work, I felt a pang of envy. I never went to college. It was never really an option for me. After our parents died when we were young, they’d left Cammie and me a small fortune. Most of it was tucked away in a trust, but after high school, I’d used some of it for voice lessons as well as a slew of dance classes. I’d worked my ass off, knowing I only had a few years to really make a name for myself before a newer, hotter singer would be vying for my same spot.

The hard work had paid off when an executive at Global Records had seen a video of me singing one of my original songs. My fate was sealed and college was pushed aside for good. I jumped straight into recording my first EP. I wrote every song and helped create most of the music to accompany the lyrics. I was so proud of that first album, mostly because I’d done it on my own. With the money I made from that record, plus all of my subsequent ones, I’d never needed to touch the money in my parent’s trust again. It was all there, waiting for Cammie to use it to follow her dream, just as I’d used it to follow mine.