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“Who did you ask?” she said. Gloating would be petty. She would rise above.
Zach reeled off a couple of names, including Davis Lewis—not exactly a surprise that he’d said “no” given how notoriously picky the man was these days—and Chen Freakin’ Li.
“Chen Li turned you down?” Interesting. She would have thought Zach had just the right kind package of talent and platform to interest Chen.
“No,” Zach said. He folded his arms. “Actually he was interested.”
“You turned Chen Li down? Seriously?” No one turned Chen down, did they? The guy had a string of Grammy-winning artists and albums to his credit that was too long to list.
“I sent him a demo,” Zach said. “He did a mix.”
“And?”
His expression changed to a scowl so fast she almost flinched. “Let’s just say he had a different vision than I did.”
“Different?”
Zach didn’t answer. Instead he flipped open the laptop and then hit a button. The song that came out of the speakers was electronic and poppy. Catchy in a way but hardly what she’d envisioned Zach playing. She could barely make out the acoustic guitar buried deep in the mix.
“That’s the song?”
Zach shut the laptop, killing the music. “Yep.” His frown as he stared down at the computer could only be classified as disgusted. “At least it used to be.”
“So you said no?” She couldn’t imagine it was the direction Zach wanted to take.
“Yup.”
“Good decision,” she said. “I don’t know what sound you’re going for exactly but that’s not it.”
“You know better than Chen Li?”
She hitched a shoulder. “I know you. Look, I’m sure Chen can make songs that will be hits for you. The question would be, will they be songs you’d want to play for the next twenty years?”
“Based on a sample of one, I’d say no,” Zach said. He scowled. “Which kind of sucks. I loved what he did for The Scavengers.”
“Yeah, that was cool.” The Scavengers were another indie-edged rock band like Fringe Dweller. Their album with Chen had gone platinum. Which only made the mix he’d done for Zach even weirder. “But their sound is too much like Fringe Dweller. You need you.”
“And you know what my sound should be?” He sounded hopeful.
She shook her head. “Not yet. But I think I could help you find out.”
He smiled then. One hundred percent pure happy Zach. Happy with her. It shot through her like a lightning bolt. She blinked, but the image of him just floated in front of her closed eyes like it was burned there.
“I’d like that,” he said.
Three little words. They shouldn’t feel like a caress over her skin, should they? She fought the urge to rub her hands over her arms where the hairs were prickling with awareness.
Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. But it was too good a chance career-wise to pass up. She just needed to control the situation.
“Right. So how about you send me that song and then I can try some ideas. See if you like mine better than Chen’s.”
“How long do you need?”
To be ready for working with him? More time than they had. Maybe forever. But she was going to suck that up and ignore it. “A day or two.” She wasn’t going to rush this. Wasn’t going to screw it up. But she couldn’t take too long. Zach needed to hear what she could do working fast if he was looking to have songs ready for CloudFest. That was a tight deadline to finish songs, get them recorded, and rehearse a set. Not to mention finding the other musicians he’d need. He needed to know that she could get the job done. “You’ve only just started writing, right? So you have plenty to do in the meantime.”
Zach glanced around. “Yeah, I’m just settling in. Okay. A day or two sounds good.”
She looked around too. The sky outside was just starting to fade into sunset, the light around them warm and gold and growing darker. It made the studio feel even smaller. Like the walls were wrapping around the two of them, pulling them into a tiny private world. Too intimate.
