Audrey let out a long exhale and closed her eyes, trying her best to calm herself. “Don’t do it again.”
“Don’t do what?” I repeated, squinting my eyes and pretending to think for a moment. “Oh! Say-,”
“Don’t say it.”
“I want you,” I said, looking at Audrey seriously this time and she was clearly annoyed at me right now as she pinched her temples and sighed. I wanted to say ‘I like you’ but thought against doing so because I wasn’t sure how Audrey would react since we never really made our feelings for each other clear. But if there was one thing between us that was clear as crystal, it was how much I wanted her so saying it out loud wouldn’t really make a difference.
“Julian…”
“I want you.” I repeated and Audrey let out a small whimper before shaking her head, turning her back and rushing out of the café, completely flustered. I laughed out loud and followed her out, ignoring the fact that she specifically told me that we shouldn’t come into the building together.
The moment I came into the building, I was immediately swarmed by her employees and I saw Audrey look back at me for a moment, before smirking to herself and leaving me to fend for myself. I chuckled to myself and ducked my head, maneuvering myself away from the crowd of female employees that gathered around me wanting to take a picture until the security helped me.
I was led to a room where the rest of the boys were and all of them weren’t surprise that I already looked a little tousled up. “You know we didn’t get that kind of warm welcome when we first signed up with W&R.”
Dylan was the one who made that comment and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. “We were barely known then, Dylan. We made a name for ourselves in the five years that we were with that label. Of course, the employees here already know who we are.”
“That and because our channel is even bigger than the last time,” Carlos pointed out. “The music we’ve made recently took the world by storm even more, Jules. You know that.”
The damage control that we thought of after W&R dumped us was to make a channel in the month that Audrey was my assistant. In a span of a month, we made sure that we uploaded music that could be enough for an entire album and who would’ve thought that our views would skyrocket right after the first upload that we’re back on the platform?
And to be honest, I did have Audrey to thank for that. She made sure that the music we recorded still sounded professionally recorded even when it was only done in our shabby recording studio at home. She also made sure that the music videos we made were edited professionally while she allowed Dylan and José to edit the cover videos we made.
Audrey made sure that even without a record label holding us afloat, we wouldn’t sink into oblivion.
“But really though, this place is insane. When you said that Finch Records was one of the first record studios put up in LA, I didn’t think they’ll be this big.” José kept looking around the room that we were in and shaking his head. “I wonder why they said that business wasn’t good for a while.”
As far as I knew, their business went down when Audrey’s Dad was still the one in position. There were many bad calls that he made, us being one of them and probably his biggest regret. It was one of the reasons why the board wanted us to be the band that Audrey pursued on signing up before she takes her rightful position and it was a good thing that everything turned out alright.
There was a knock on the door and Theo popped in. He was grinning at us. I think out of everyone, he was the most relieved that we signed the contract with them. “Guys, we’re ready. The media is already here and Audrey’s waiting for you at the venue.”
At the mention of Audrey, my eyebrows shot up. I wanted to tease her a bit but I knew that all we were going to do was sign for publicity and was also meant as a press conference. When it was announced two days ago that our band was going to officially sign with a new label, it was quite a shock for everyone which was why we decided to do it publicly and hold a press conference about it, to answer the questions.
Everything was all set when we arrived and the media quickly took our photos as we took our seat. Audrey was sitting right beside me and as I signed the contract, my hand was on her lap and I could feel her trying to swat my hand away but I held onto her thigh firmly. Despite the fabric of her pants separating our skin, I could feel the warmth radiating off of her.
Our new manager, Curtis, was the one who answered most questions of the press and there were some that the boys took turns answering and some that Audrey had to, despite how much of a distraction my hand was being. Not until a question was directed at me.
“Julian!” One reported said, his phone held up in my directions. “Fans have been wondering. You usually have a surprise song added into the album at the last minute. They’re wondering if it’s a love song.”
I leaned back on my chair and shrugged. “Why would they wonder that if I do tend to write a love song as the bonus track?”
“They’re wondering if there’s finally an inspiration behind the song.”
“Most of the love songs I write are inspired by my family and my brother’s romantic endeavors,” I replied coolly.
In my peripheral view, I saw Audrey squirm in her seat a little. I think she had a feeling of what the next question was going to be. “Will the new one finally be inspired by your own love story? If so, is there a girl that finally caught Julian Hudson’s heart?”
I could answer the question and tell them the truth about who really was holding my heart because she was right beside me. But I respected Audrey’s request earlier and knew that even if I didn’t mind the trouble that a controversy would bring me, that didn’t mean that she wouldn’t mind the trouble that it brought her. She finally just claimed her real position in the company and I didn’t want to ruin that for her by screaming to the world that I like her.
So for the first time in my career, I decided to compose my thoughts and actually think of how I should respond to the question so it didn’t drag anyone down. “If anyone’s watched or listened to a podcast interview I did a few weeks ago, I was asked if I was ever in love with someone and I answered that there’s this girl that stole my heart five years ago because of her voice.”
By now, all eyes were fixed on me and I knew that everyone was tuning in intently on what I was going to say next. “Over the month I realized, that I may be in love with the idea of her and how pleasant her voice sounded to me but if that’s all the reason I have to be in love with her, it’s too shallow. I’d rather be in love with her heart.”
“So does that mean you gave up searching for the voice that stole your heart?”
I was quiet for a moment and I wanted to glance at Audrey but decided against doing so because I didn’t want people to speculate. “Not exactly. Let’s say someone else stole my heart and surprisingly, certain things just fall into place at the moment you least expect them to.”
The following questions that they threw at me after that statement were ones I chose to ignore. All throughout, I wanted to stare at Audrey but on the occasions that I could glance at her, she kept a straight face as if my answer didn’t bother her the slightest. When the press conference finally ended, we were meant to transfer in the conference room for a meeting about the recording sessions, the album and evidently when we would do the tour. All of which, I decided to be late in.