Chapter 4

4

M ia had thought she had dreamt the whole thing the day after, mainly due to the throbbing hangover she was nursing. People had bought her drink after drink until unholy hours of the morning when she stumbled into a cab and took herself home. She had woken up to herself face down on her bed. The only thing she remembered was her filthy dream about Harper Nightingale. The thought of Harper dominating her mind and body caused hungry shivers down her spine.

"No, I have to be professional," she said to the empty room, "this could finally be my big break and I don't want to ruin it by messing around with my new agent."

The concept of an agent was dizzying to her, even just saying it out loud. Especially someone with the reputation like Harper. The years spent singing open mic night may finally be behind her and her dream was a little closer. But then a niggling thought crossed her mind, how was Harper going to contact her? She didn't remember giving her number out.

The day passed in an anxious blur. She spent the first half of the day writing some new songs and uploading finished recordings to her blog. She recorded them herself, so she had to make sure her noisy upstairs neighbor was out at work before recording, or the tracks might have the unplanned percussion of elephant footsteps over her voice. In the early afternoon, she called her family back in Spain.

"Mi amor, como estas? How are you?" said the video of her mother's chin from over the camera.

"Mamá, lift up the phone, I don't want to talk to your chin!"

"Ay! This estupid phone, it never does what I want…"

"Podemos hablar en espa?ol, Mamá, es más facil," Mia laughed at her mom now showing her her forehead instead.

"No, I have to practice, if I no use, I forget. I have no one else to call that speaks English!"

"Okay, okay!"

"Vale, tell me, how did Mike's night go?"

"Open-mic night, Mamá, and it was incredible. It wasn't even an open mic night in the end, just a one-woman show performed by yours truly!"

"Who is Jors Truli? A rapper?"

"No, Mama! Es una expression ingles, it means I was the only performer, the show was mine. I have been scouted by a music agent, called Harper!"

"Ay Dios! My baby is a star! I always knew…you are like your mama, no?"

"Ha! Claro Mamá, you are the biggest star I know."

"Are you saying I am fat?"

"No!" Mia slapped her forehead in exasperation. "Don't worry…but yeah, it could be something really good for me. I think Harper is going to really help me to get where I want to be."

"I am so happy, amor. Don't you let this man take advantage of you! I know you like women, but men can be pigs and think they can do what they want."

"Well, Harper is actually a woman…" Mia felt sheepish saying her name again to her mother, as if she was already introducing her.

"Oh, I understand. She's pretty, no?"

"Beautiful, but that's not the point?—"

"Haber, amor…listen to your mamá. This Harper may be beautiful, but don't let your feelings mess up a chance if she is as good as you say."

"Sí mamá, lo sé"

"You are a smart girl, got your brains from me. Just don't waste it by thinking with your heart like your father."

"But that's how he met you!"

"I know, he's very lucky…but he left his job to move to Granada. I adore him, but he never had the same passión for work after. O sea, just keep your dreams in mind my love."

"I will Mamá…"

"Ojala que sí. Anyway, when will you sign your contract?"

Mia checked her phone for messages, missed calls and emails and still saw nothing from Harper. She began to get a sinking feeling in her chest and tried to hide it from her mother.

"She said she would send them over later, so once everything is signed and sorted, I'll let you know."

"Hmmm. You make sure you get that nice Deborah to check the contrato when you get it, she is smart with these things."

"It's okay, Mamá, Harper is Deborah's friend from college, so she can be trusted." Mia almost regretted saying it the moment she did.

"From college! Pero Deborah is older than you, no? She is fifty or something, es nearly the same age as me!"

"Mamá, you are sixty…"

"Ay! No me digas eso! I don't want to remember…pero she is around fifty? You don't have that complejo de Edipo, do you?

"Mamá! I do not have an Oedipus complex!"

"Well, I don't know, don't shout at your mother!"

Mia wanted to crawl into a hole, which was much the same level of embarrassment she usually felt talking about girls with her mom, but she was making it so much worse than usual.

"Mamá, I have to go. I need to go to the lounge; I promised Esme I'd help her with something."

"Hmmm, okay. Keep safe, mi amor, and don't let this woman mess with you, or she will mess with me!"

"Okay Mamá, Adios, te quiero mucho!"

"Y tu amor…" and Mia hung up.

She figured she'd likely get lectured about hanging up early the next time they spoke, but for now she didn't care—that was a future Mia problem. Mia scanned through her emails and messages again and upon seeing nothing again, she decided that going to the lounge might not be a bad idea if only to take her mind off the waiting for a while.

When she arrived, it was like the whole of last night hadn't happened, which made Mia begin to worry that maybe the whole thing had actually been a dream after all, until a group of people at a nearby table cheered when they saw her and called her over.

"Hey! You survived the night after all those drinks then? Didn't need your stomach pumped?" said a guy with black hair and eyebrows died pink.

"Uh hey! I don't really remember anything of last night, but as far as I can recall, I don't think I had a trip to the hospital."

"You don't remember us, do you?" said a handsome black guy with his arm around Mr. Pink Eyebrows.

Mia shook her head apologetically, at which the three guys started laughing.

"Remind me to have whatever cocktail of drinks you had next time I wanna forget an ex…" said the final guy, a skinhead guy with three nose piercings and a t-shirt that read sorry ladies, I suck dick on it.

"I feel like I should remember you guys, you're quite hard to forget."

"I know, how rude of you!" said pinky again, "I'm Stefan, this is my boyfriend Taylor, and the walking pin cushion over there is Ricky."

"Hey! At least call me a glistening jewelry box or something!"

Stefan just laughed as if this was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard and Ricky got up to play fight him.

"Sorry about them," said Taylor, "we came to you after Harper had left and told you that we are musicians as well, and if you ever want to record something to live music, just let us know."

Mia did vaguely remember something about that, but it also sparked the memory of gushing to one of them about Harper and how incredible she looked for half the conversation. As her cheeks began to feel hot again, she felt a strong vibration from her phone and realized she was being called. She saw the unrecognized number and took a deep breath before answering.

"Hello again, Mia," came the silky voice of Harper like a summer breeze down the phone line. Mia sat down without even registering it, and the three men around her all paused feeling the tension coming from her.

"Uh…Hello Harper."