“He told me something similar.” I picked up my piece of toast and took a bite.
“Believe him,” Chandler said. “As long as you respect him, he’ll respect you and we can keep this thing going for as long as we both need.”
“That’s the plan.” I nodded.
“Good.”
Chandler exhaled and took another drink of her smoothie. I took a drink of mine in response.
“So, what are you and the team working on?”
“Today?” I asked. “Endurance. We’ll be singing, rapping, and dancing all morning.” I looked at the time on my phone and immediately started eating a little faster.
Chandler must have noticed I was now rushing because she didn’t ask a follow up question. She went back to tapping on her phone for a few minutes before a call came through and she excused herself from the room.
I finished eating, washed my plate and cup, grabbed a water bottle from the fridge, and glanced at the magnetic calendar on Drix’s fridge. I plucked up the dry erase marker and wrote him a quick note.
Thanks for everything. I’ll bring your car back in one piece. Promise.
I drew a heart then scribbled my name beside it and headed out.
I picked the first keys my hand touched and was thankful they were for his little sports car instead of his truck or the bigger car. I loved small vehicles because despite the fact that I’d gotten my license as soon as I was legally able, I didn’t trust my parking to save my life and driving someone else’s vehicle was already stressful enough.
The car was cleaner than I expected and there was a charger already plugged into the middle console with an adapter for three different phone types.
I connected my phone to the Bluetooth then backed out carefully and hit the road.
When I walked into rehearsal, Charm was still sitting on the stage stretching and Retta was walking through an eight count while our choreographer sat in front of where we would line up. I quickly walked over to Charm and collapsed onto the ground in front of her to start stretching.
“And where have you been, ma’am?” she teased.
“I fucking slept in,” I groaned.
“Late night last night?”
“Something like that.”
“Doing what?” Retta looked back at us.
“Whatever the fuck I want,” I snapped then looked back at Charm. “I was at the studio till four this morning with Drix.” I stretched to the right.
“You got him to cut a track?”
“No. Hell no. That man is not getting on anyone’s track.” I giggled. “He was producing for Trapp.” I switched to the left.
“After the shit that went down outside of his party?”
“Yeah.” I shrugged. “I guess Trapp was cool with getting his ass whooped.” I leaned to the front and took a few deep breaths before sitting up again and pulling one of my legs.
“So, what happened after the studio?” Charm asked.
“Nothing. We went back to his place and went to sleep.”
“In separate beds?” Retta asked.
I shrugged and stretched my other leg.
I would have told Charm we slept separately without a second thought, but I wasn’t telling Retta that kind of information, especially when she was fishing for it.