Ever since Drix and I had slept together, things had definitely shifted between us. Even without us labeling anything exclusively, we were acting like a regular couple. We’d already been staggering nights between our houses but now we shared a bed. Drix was a gentleman in public, opening my doors and making sure my hand never touched my card while in his presence. We kissed and touched each other like it was natural, and honestly, I liked it. The little random touches we sharedwere almost as good as the sex and the sex was life changing. I knew that even from us only having done it twice.
“Yeah, yeah, nothing. You better meet me home before I come take you out of that studio kicking and screaming.”
“And why aren’t you in the studio?”
Drix chuckled softly. “Every beat I agreed to make is made except what I want to contribute to Rome’s album but he’s been working with someone else too so he’s tied up enough for me to wait until the home studio is done being renovated.”
“You have a studio in your house?” I asked. “How didn’t I know that?”
“Yeah. I only use it when I work with Rome or to edit from the crib because I can’t have people just walking around my crib, but it’s basically in the basement. You’ve never had a reason to go down there.”
“Will I get wifely privileges to use the studio?” I wagged my eyebrows.
“I mean, it’s in yo’ crib, so yeah, Myome. You can use it whenever.” He chuckled. “Ay, I got to go. Rome is calling. I’ll see you when you get to the crib.”
“Okay.”
I hung up the call, tossed my phone back on my bag, got a drink of water ,and went back to practicing.
Even though Retta was being annoying, I consistently heard her telling me I needed to step it up, and as irritating as it was, she was right. Those were the same words my parents had thrown at me.
I paused choreo practice and sang through the track list we picked out. Then I stretched again since the back of my leg felt stiff. I wiped sweat from my face and slowly dragged myself up.
Immediately, I got lightheaded. I lowered myself to the ground and let my back rest against the mirror. I closed my eyes and focused on my breathing.
I yelped and my eyes flew open when I heard a bang then glass falling to the floor. My head jerked to the side and I watched with wide eyes while Drix walked into the studio and made a beeline for me.
He dropped to a knee in front of me, a bottle of water in hand.
I blinked a few times while he twisted the top off and offered it to me.
“You good?”
“Yeah. My head is just throbbing.”
“What did I tell you about rehearsing too much?”
I ignored his question.
“What are you doing here?”
“I told you I was going to come drag you out of here kicking and screaming and I still gave you an hour.”
“An hour?” My voice rose.
“Two. I gave you an hour from the time I got home.”
He offered me the water bottle which I gratefully accepted. I gulped more than half the bottle down then set it beside myself. I hadn’t realized how dehydrated I was until this moment. I exhaled and reached for my phone.
Drix wasn’t being dramatic. A little more than two hours had gone by since we’d spoken.
“I guess time just got away from me,” I admitted quietly.
“Don’t make that shit a habit,” Drix deadpanned and climbed to his feet.
“What? I have a curfew now?”
“Nah, but your body needs a break, Myome. The same way you take care of your vocals, you need to take care of every other part of yourself. If you can’t perform, your stock goes down significantly, especially when concert tickets for the upcoming album haven’t even been announced. You care about socialmedia and shit. You should know it takes one bad video of you fucking up to make them sales not move.”