Chapter One Second Chances
"Gabrielle!"
Hearing her name barked across the office, Gabrielle Lewis groaned, reluctantly lifting her head. Wincing at the bright fluorescent lights over her cubicle, she reached to rub her throbbing temples as her supervisor stormed towards her. With a wary glance at the clock she realized it was already noon, though it seemed as though she had only just gotten to work.
"What do you mean, coming in this late without so much as a call?!"
“Gabrielle seriously,” Her supervisor, Ron, ran a hand over his partially bald head, “Do you even realize how many times in this month alone I have had to talk to you about being late?” He sighed, “Did you get the song done for the new talent? The song I asked you to write three weeks ago?”
Gabrielle sighed, as she started to ruffle through the mounds of paperwork on her desk, “Uhm, I had it right here, I swear. What does it matter anyway, that girl can’t sing for shit!”
Ron’s eyes rolled back in his head, “I’ve had just about enough of this Gabrielle. You know how important your work is, and you should respect yourself enough to know how talented you are and how artists request you to write their songs. You can’t even get one written! Come see me in my office later…” He looked at his watch with a sigh. “Around one. I’ve got a deal for you.” He walked away and Gabrielle rolled her eyes, muttering a string of curse words as she quit her search for the song she hadn’t even started.
"So I've got time to run out for a quick lunch?" Gabrielle called after him, shoving a stack of papers into a drawer. Her eyes narrowed when she saw the half-empty bottle concealed behind a box of staples, and instinctively reached for it, though Ron's next words stopped her.
"As long as you're fucking sober when you get back…"
Rolling her eyes, Gabrielle slammed her drawer shut, patting her pockets to check on her cash situation. Wrinkling her nose when she saw one crumpled bill, she decided a bag of chips and soda in the break room was what she'd been hungry for.
Walking past the rest of the staff, who were all busy at work on songs of their own, she couldn't help but shake her head at their stupidity. It was only through her family that she had landed what she referred to as a boring job. Ron, her mother's cousin once removed, had given her a spot in his songwriting firm as a favor.
Favor. Gabrielle snorted at the thought, helping herself to one of the donuts lying on the counter in the staff room. Looping it on her finger, she purchased a bottled water and small bag of Doritos before heading outside to enjoy her lunch break in peace. Leaning against the concrete wall, she hastily lit a cigarette, wondering what kind of deal Ron had in mind.
"If he thinks I'm going to suck his dick just 'cuz he didn't fire me, he's got another think coming," she sighed before heading inside, belatedly remembering to put out her cigarette. Pushing it into a dying potted plant, she burst into Ron's office and flopped into the empty chair. "What's crack-a-lacking?"
Ron looked up from his stack of paper work, shaking his head. “So do you want to hear the deal or not?”
Gabrielle sat back in the chair, crossing her arms. "Why the hell not…”
“First of all, we’re going to have to get rid of that mouth of yours. And secondly, here is my deal for you. We got a request in from a Mr. Brian Littrell, you may have heard of him, one of the Backstreet Boys? 78 million albums?”
“Uhm you mean the Backdoor Boys?” She laughed, remembering the “gay” reference she’d heard in a bar one night.
Ron, obviously not impressed with her joke, raised an eyebrow and continued, “Anyway, he’s going solo and needs help on a few songs for his album. So,” He stood up and leaned against his desk, “I’ve decided that as a challenge you are going to be that person.”
Gabrielle shook her head, holding back a laugh, “So you want me to write some pussy pop crap for this hotshot?”
Ron laughed softly, wondering what her reaction would be to his next statement, “No, it's actually a Christian album.”
Gabrielle burst out laughing, “And you think I’m the person for the job? “ This had to be a joke; he couldn’t expect her to write a Christian song, let alone with some geeky pop “king”.
“Yeah I do. You see, you do this, or you lose your job. Simple as that. And to say no to this would be saying no to cold hard cash Gabrielle. Besides, I think it would be good to get a taste of what he wants these songs to say. Maybe it will help you clean up your act.”
“My act is just fine Ron--”
“Let me remind you of last Wednesday when you told one of our clients to, quote, ‘Fuck off you selfish bastard.’ Its time for something to change.”
Gabrielle sat up, immediately on the defensive. "He was a selfish bastard, Ron! The fucker wanted me to change the entire damn song for the fifteenth time! I'm not some damned trained monkey—"
"If a client isn't happy with a song, we make changes. That's how it goes, Gabrielle. Now I think it's time you go clean out your desk," Ron suggested, returning to his chair.
"Clean out my desk? I'm fired?!"
"No. Tomorrow morning you're flying to Tampa to join Mr. Littrell. Seeing as how you'll be writing songs for him, he thought it would be a good idea if you spend time with him so you would know who he really is. You'll be going on tour with him and the Backstreet Boys—"
"You've got to be fucking kidding me—"
"And if he calls me with one complaint, that's it, Gabrielle. I don't give a damn if you are my cousin's only child, I can only take so much. One complaint, and you're back in that crack house where I found you," Ron warned, tossing a brown envelope at her. "There's your flight information, hotel reservation for tomorrow night, and your pass to get backstage. Mr. Littrell will be expecting you Thursday at four o'clock at the arena."
"Fan-fucking-tastic," Gabrielle grumbled under her breath as she left his office.
*****
AJ twirled the keys around his fingers as he entered the New York office that next day. He had stayed up most of the night trying to figure out what to put up for the website. He wondered again why he had decided to do this. Didn't he have enough on his plate? He wondered as he knocked softly on Johnny Wright's office door.
Johnny's head shot up from his computer. "Hey!" He smiled as AJ walked in, slumping in the seat across from his desk.
In response, AJ yawned loudly. "'Sup?"
Johnny laughed softly. "Rough night?"
"Yeah, rough night. I stayed up most of the night trying to come up with ideas. Turns out, I don't know the first thing about making a website." AJ set a stack of papers on Johnny's desk.
Johnny raised his eyebrows, impressed. "Wow, man, I didn't know you had it in you. Well," he leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his stomach, "I've got some good news for you, I hired someone to help you with the website. When I say help, I mean actually do. She's going to take over most of the work for you."
AJ laughed, "You mean to tell me I stayed up and did all that work for nothing?"
Johnny smiled, "No of course not, she's going to need all those notes so she can come up with something you guys will all like. She's actually going to be here in a few minutes. Sweet girl, shy as hell though."
AJ nodded, "Well, this sure takes a hell of a lot of weight off of my shoulders!" He stood up, going to leave as Johnny stopped him.
"Where are you going? You've still got to help her with the site."
"But… But you said she was going to—"
"Don't you think you could stick around and at least say hi to her? After all, she's going to be on the tour, the least you could do is be a gentleman—"
"Fine, fine. What's her name?" AJ asked as he flopped back down in the chair.
Johnny reached for a sheet of paper on his immaculately kept desk. "Lucy? No… Lucy is short for something, I've got it—"
"Mr. Wright?" a soft voice called from the other side of the door.
"Come on in, Lucy," Johnny replied, already getting to his feet. Shooting a glance at AJ, he motioned for him to stand as well.
Rolling his eyes, AJ stood, masking a yawn behind his hand as the door pushed open and a young woman entered the office. Immediately his hand dropped, his eyes lighting with recognition. "Hey, it's you!"
Large brown eyes appraised AJ for a moment, the most tentative of smiles touching the pleasant features of the young woman in front of him. "Yeah," she murmured with a nervous glance at Johnny.
"You know each other?"
"No, we—"
"She fell outta the elevator yesterday. Scared the be-Jesus out of me," AJ laughed, offering her his chair. "You sure you didn’t hurt yourself? I mean, you took quite a spill—"
"I always fall, so I'm okay," she murmured, keeping her eyes on the floor as she moved to sit down. Though she glanced up at him as he sat next to her.
"Right… Lucy, this is AJ, he's the creative consultant for the website. He's already gotten together quite a few ideas, and I've seen what you can do," Johnny assured her, motioning to the folders AJ had thrown onto his desk. "AJ, this is Lucia Romano. She's going to be following you and the others around like a lost puppy for the next few months."
"Sounds like Heaven," AJ whispered to himself, covering up his statement with a quick cough. Deciding his work was done, he hopped to his feet. "Sounds good. So I'll see you in Tampa, I guess? Nice to meet you, but I really have to run—"
"You're flying to Florida tomorrow, right?" Johnny asked.
"Yeah of course," He smiled as he lingered at the door for a moment, "The rest of the guys are too right?" He chuckled, turning his conversation to Lucy, "Wait 'till you meet the rest of the guys. Crazy bunch, well at least Brian and Nick are, Kevin just kinda sits there with those eyebrows of his. And Howie, well he just takes in everything. But anyway, I'll see you later then." He left the office and headed down stairs, gently laughing to himself at the wide eyed look Lucy had given him once he started rambling.
Johnny smiled politely at Lucy as she shuffled gently through AJ's stack of papers, "Interesting character isn't he?"
Lucy looked up, blushing slightly, "Oh...yeah he's very nice." She nodded, cocking her head at the strange drawing she had found on one of his papers. She hoped to God he didn't want to put that on the website.
"I hope you won't mind spending some time with them for the next couple weeks. It gets a little crazy, but I think you'll find you're place. So you're still up for it aren't you?"
Lucy nodded again. "Of course, sir."
Johnny laughed. "No need to be formal with me sweetheart, you can go ahead and take those papers if you want to go over them. God only knows what's on them."
She smiled standing up and straightening her knee length skirt. "So I'll see you tomorrow at the airport then?"
"Yes, I'll be there earlier then the rest of the bunch but feel free to show up whenever, as long as you make the flight. You have the list of everything you're going to need right?"
"Yes, I'm actually all packed," she said softly holding the papers close to her chest.
"Oh wow, well that's great." He stood up and shook her hand. "Nice to see you again Lucy, take care."
"You too, Mr. Wright." Lucia smiled as she started to walk out of his office.
"Lucy, just call me Johnny alright?"
She nodded and, with a small smile, "Johnny."
Author's Chapter Notes:
Just wanted to thank y'all for the great reviews. :) When one of us has time, we'll start responding to the reviews. Thanks again! ~~ Abbey & Jo
