Chapter 13

Alex and Hyacinth are fiddling around with something on the sound mixing desk, so I sit and observe.

Hyacinth is a new hire to our team, the label deciding that they could get us an extra hand in the studio. She's essentially a trainee tech at the moment, but she's pretty good at what she does. She smiles sweetly at Alex, her chestnut eyes lighting up as she learns something new. She has an adorable innocence, and I think Alex wants to dote on her a little.

They finish up what they're doing and ask me to head back into the sound booth. I lay down a few different recordings of ad libs for a track we have been working on all day. I think it's starting to come together now, though. Especially once Alex does some post-production magic on it. I'm excited to see what they've learned from Addison too. They met up earlier in the week, bringing along the ever eager Hyacinth.

Once they're happy with the takes, I send Alex and Hyacinth off early. That way I can use the last bit of studio time we had booked to work on a piece I'm writing. To be honest, I'm struggling with the pressure a bit these days. Clearly, the label are putting more time and money into me. With the super nice parking space, and the new sound tech. It's nice and all, but the more that they invest in me, the more pressure that I feel to perform at my best.

All that to say, I've been working a lot harder lately. Since the studio opened a week ago, I've been in every day, working on my album and trying to make it perfect.

I sit down at the beautiful piano now and gently run through a few scales to warm up. Clipping my notebook to the stand, I read through the lyrics I already have. I start to play through different chord progressions, singing against them and trying to find a general tonality for the song. Once I'm happy with the key signature, I really get to work.

I'm pretty deep into the song after a bit of time has passed, but there's this one part that I can't seem to get right.

"Stop trying to resolve it," I jump at the sound of Sebastian's deep voice over the intercom. "Try a G minor instead."

I look behind me to the producers seat, and sure enough, there he is. He looks so much larger behind the mixing desk than tiny Alex does.

"Stop looking at me and just try it."

I sigh, who let him in here? I do try what he says though, because it's a good idea. I play it once without singing and the effect is beautiful. Then I try it again, singing my line over it.

"Perfect." He says over the intercom again. "That line is really beautiful, Flora.

"Can I come in?" He asks.

I nod and watch as he makes his way to the door to the booth. He comes in and pulls up a chair. Leaning forward, his forearms rested on his legs, he looks at me and speaks.

"You've run over into my studio time. But lucky for you, Addison isn't able to make it today. So I wouldn't be doing any recording. I can stay and help you, if you like. Or I can fuck off and leave you to it."

I think over it. While I want him to leave me be, I do need his help. He did something great there and I want this song to be perfect.

"You can stay," I tell him, my voice coming out softer than I mean it to.

He nods, standing up and looking over my shoulder at my notes. "Can you play and sing that line again? I think I have an idea."

Sebastian sings against me this time when I play. The harmony he chooses fills out the sound so well and I want to cry with how much better it sounds.

"That sounds amazing," I tell him as I jot it down in my notes. "God, I'm so shit at this. You came in here and made this better in like two minutes than I would've in hours."

He hand rests on my shoulder briefly, before he quickly pulls it away. "I wouldn't have had anything to work on if you hadn't written it in the first place. Don't be so hard on yourself, Flora. You make great music already, and you will continue to make even better music. Let it happen."

Sebastian moves around behind me. I turn to see him picking up a guitar and move back in his seat.

"Play me what you have so far, from the start. Talk me through it and I'll add in what I can."

We end up working for a couple hours. It's all business, but I did catch myself staring at him sometimes.

When he pushes up the sleeves on his Henley shirt before playing. How he ties back his hair before writing in my notebook. How he then places the pencil in his teeth to try something new on the guitar again.

It's intoxicating.