Page 38 of The B Side

“How long has this been happening?”

Because the reality was that Darcy was not usually one to keep secrets or squirrel away information. When she was impassioned, when she was excited by something, Juliet usually knew pretty quickly.

“Since the Grammys?” Darcy answered.

Juliet's mouth fell open. “You’ve been working on this since the Grammys? For over two weeks?”

Might not be a long time to some people, but – again – for Darcy to have kept this close-lipped… it was something. She honestly couldn’t help but be impressed.

“I wanted to make sure it was real before I told you.”

Shelby leaned forward. “She’s been very persistent.”

Juliet laughed softly, still trying to catch up. “Yeah, that doesn’t surprise me in the least.”

Persistent. Stubborn. Two sides of the same coin, and they both described Darcy. She loved that.

Darcy scoffed in faked offense. “I was professional.”

Shelby raised an eyebrow. “Sweetheart, sent me two emails before breakfast.”

“That was just, you know, one morning.” Even so, Darcy shrugged, her cheeks blushing in a way they’d only do for someone like Shelby. “And I was excited.”

Juliet turned back to Shelby, that same excitement rising inside of her so swiftly, even though she tried desperately to push it down. Because she couldn’t let herself believe it if it wasn’t one hundred percent true. “You want to work with us? Really?”

“I do,” Shelby answered, simply.

Juliet’s chest tightened, her butterflies fluttering in her stomach. This was a dream. After the last couple of months, after trying so hard and needing to get on board with needing to self-produce their album…

“But – Honeyvine never works with established artists,” Juliet couldn’t help but state. Which was possibly stupid, because Shelby was sitting right in front of her, telling her that she wanted to work with them.

The entire reason Juliet had dismissed it as a possibility was because she didn’t think it was one. Shelby had started Honeyvine Records over five years ago, and she picked up small artists, usually women, who were trying to get traction in country, folk, Americana. But she’d been clear about the purpose of her label not being some big conglomerate; her target musicians weren’t big names.

Shelby had taken artists nobody knew, and she’d given them room to become artists instead of products.

“Darcy?” Shelby nodded to her, eyebrows lifted. “Why don’t you share the very impassioned speech?” She gestured for Juliet to turn her attention back to Darcy. “She makes a great case.”

Juliet wasn’t surprised by that; Darcy could be very convincing.

“While I know that I’m not really a new artist, and you definitely aren’t–” Darcy cut herself off, shaking her head. “I mean, if we want to get technical, re-forming We, The Romantics is turning it into a new group. So… new.” She waved her hands in the air. “But I know that isn’t really what you mean, by new artists. Yes, we have name recognition. We are definitely not artists Honeyvine would typically work with. But… working with us would be new.”

Darcy shrugged heavily, looking between Juliet and Shelby. Like she was selling Shelby on it all over again, her heart in her voice. “Because right now, we aren’t getting any takers. Maybe, one day, when things die down, a different label will pick us up? But for now, we’re on our own. And it’s entirely because we came out. No one wants to take the risk on us. And doing that is something different. It is sending a statement. We, especially you, Juliet, have worked so fucking hard. And you’ve done everything you were supposed to do, and you succeeded. Having these doors slammed in our faces… it isn’t how this should go. It’s not right.”

There was that passion Darcy was so known for. Juliet loved it.

“I know you’ve had to come around to the idea of us releasing something ourselves. I know you’ve gotten on board with it because you’ve had to. But I also know that’s not what you want.”

And Darcy was right. Juliet had only ever known traditional success. Producing their own album felt like the biggest step backwards. It felt like abject failure.

“If there’s ever anything I can do to make your dreams come true, Juliet, I’m going to do it,” Darcy somewhat paraphrased Juliet’s words back to her.

If Juliet hadn’t already been so in love with Darcy, she would have fallen right now. And it would be irreversible.

Her breathing felt a little choppy, and she – somehow – had forgotten that Shelby was in the room with them until she gently cleared her throat.

“I created Honeyvine because I wanted to bet on musicians when no one else thought they were worth the risk. And right now, I’d like to bet on you two. I’ve heard enough of the samples Darcy’s sent me to know that what you’ve been working on is going to be something worth the world hearing.”

Was she living in a dream?