Sasha led the group.
She was a promotion whore, and good for her for being that way.
If someone took a picture, she’d chase them down and give them a card and talk about us.
She had a dream of us being seen by the right person at the right time and over the course of a weekend we’d ditch the costumes, hit the studio, and have a song to release on a Monday that would change our lives.
Who was I to tell her that her dream was crap?
I had been the one who left home the moment I was old enough to do so. And I did what every other musician would do…
I did whatever it took to make it.
My version of making it was singing at any bar I could get into in Nashville, only to meet a fucking rock star and have him screw up everything I had ever worked for.
And when that blew up and I found myself on the side of the road in the middle of the night, I went west because the weather was nicer and there was a beach.
There was a lot more to the story, but the past was simply the past.
My present was in front of me.
A set of shiny, steel elevator doors.
Sasha on my left.
Rae and Jess on my right.
“I swear if we get laughed at once, I’m killing someone,” Rae whispered to me.
“How far up are we going?” I whispered to her. “Maybe throw someone out the window?”
“The glass in these buildings is really strong,” she said.
I looked at her. “You’ve thought this out…”
“No,” she said. “I slept with an architect not too long ago. His version of seduction was telling me pointless stuff about buildings and design. You know guys say when their dicks get cold, it shrinks?”
“Yeah,” I said with a smile.
“Well, that night, my stuff shrank.”
“Your stuff…?”
Rae shrugged her shoulders. “When he started talking numbers, I felt my clit turn and wiggle into my body, crying its eyes out.”
I snorted and laughed. “Your poor clit.”
As I said that, the elevator doors opened.
Two men saw me and heard me.
Sasha elbowed me.
Be professional.
I rolled my eyes and smiled.
The two men got off the elevator and the four of us got on.
Sasha hit the button for the fourth floor.
I looked at Rae.
She curled her lip and rocked her head back and forth.
We were both thinking the same thing.
Could someone survive the fall from a fourth story window?
We sang a melody of songs for a guy named Hank who was retiring. It was some marketing firm and as we stood at the front of the conference room singing, the more we sang, the more people filled the room. Everyone had their phone out. Hank smiled the entire time.
Then he gave a quick speech, cried a little, and that was the end of that.
The company party ensued and Jess, Rae, and I slipped away.
Sasha did her usual flaunting and flirting for a few extra minutes.
Then we were able to leave.
As we approached the elevators to get out of there, I saw a man standing in a suit with his arms crossed. Looking right at me. Like he was waiting for me.
My heart jumped into my throat.
I tried to be as casual as I could as I stabbed my finger at the elevator button over and over.
I knew it wasn’t going to make the elevator move faster, but still…
“Whoa, whoa,” Rae said to me. “Where’s the fire?”
I looked back at the man in the suit.
“Nowhere,” I said.
Rae glanced back.
“Ah,” she said.
“Stop,” I said. “I just want to get out of here. That was our last event for the day. I need a drink.”
“I bet he would buy you one,” Rae said.
“Not a chance,” I said.
“Here he comes, Abby,” Rae said.
I looked back again.
Shit.
The elevator dinged and the doors slowly opened.
Rae then made a really stupid move.
She grabbed my phone and tossed it away from the elevator.
I gasped.
“You’ll thank me later,” she said.
She hooked her arms with Sasha and Jess and the three went into the elevator.
I had to go get my phone off the floor.
And that meant watching the elevator doors shut.
By the time I got back to the button and pressed it, it was too late.
I had to wait for the next one.
And the man in the suit was just a few feet from me.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen this kind of attire around here before,” he said.
I looked down at my clothes. “This old thing? Found it in my closet this morning.”
He laughed. “You have a great voice.”
“Oh?” I asked.
My hand stayed near the elevator button. Every few seconds I pressed the button.
“I heard your voice out of the four,” he said. “You really command the room.”
“Right. Thanks.”
“I’m not trying to hit on you,” he said.
“Oh. That’s good.”
“It is?” he asked. “Are you rushing home to your boyfriend? Fiancé? Husband? Lover?”
I crunched my eyebrows together. “That’s kind of personal.”
The man smiled and rubbed his forehead. “Sorry. Look, I’ll be honest. I’m always on the lookout for great voices. I don’t work with that marketing company. I’m independent. I handle commercials, voiceovers… and, yes, I might have another reason to talk to you…”
Every muscle in my body locked tight.
No, no, no, no… not here… not right now… not like this…
My eyes moved around, looking for cameras.
If there were cameras then that meant nothing-
“I think you’re beautiful,” he said to me.
“What?” I asked.
“You’re beautiful,” he said. “Even with that attire. So I have to see you in something else. Or nothing at all…”
I forced a smile and the elevator next to us opened.
“I have to go,” I said. “Thanks for the offer. I’m under contract. In more than one way.”
I dove into the elevator and the doors started to shut.
When I got down to the lobby, Rae was waiting for me.
She opened her arms. “Well…?”
“I’m going to throw you out of a window,” I said.
“For what?”
“Are you kidding me? That sleaze ball?”
“What happened?”
“Oh, come on,” I said. “He tried to tell me he looks for talent. Then, that I was beautiful in these clothes, so to him I would be even more beautiful in something else… or naked.”
“So he gets to the point,” Rae said. “You could use that.”
“Excuse me?”
“You can’t just give some good-looking guy the time of day?” Rae asked.
We walked to the front door of the building.
“That’s my decision to make,” I said.
“You need to enjoy yourself once in a while, Abby,” she said. “Get out there. Have some fun. You take this gig way too seriously.”
“And you just tell people you sing in an all-woman quartet?”