AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It had been three days since he’d left the loft and she hadn’t heard from him. Not a text, not a phone call, nothing.
But they’d had such a great time together so she didn’t think he was avoiding her or anything.
Right?
Unless that entire night had gone differently for him.
The memory of him throwing his head back laughing washed through her and she smiled. No. It hadn’t just been her. He’d had a good time too.
She gathered her bag and headed to the back entrance of the studio.
“Who’s there?” Nikki called down the hall.
“Sabine Debois,” she replied.
Nikki was the studio manager. Or at least that’s what Sabine had deciphered after months of casual observation. She was blonde, perky, high energy and if Sabine was correct, she was a secret genius hiding in plain sight. But they hadn’t interacted much, so Sabine couldn’t be sure.
Nikki came around the corner, eyebrows furrowed.
“Your last name is Debois?” Nikki asked suspiciously.
“Mm-hm.”
Nikki eyed her up and down. “Do you have a brother?”
Shock must’ve radiated on Sabine’s face because Nikki pressed her lips into a grim line.
“Do you know André?” Sabine asked.
Nikki’s pale cheeks flamed red. “No.” She took a deep breath. “Can you help me with something for a second?” She turned and went back from where she’d come.
Sabine followed her, more curious about why she’d obviously lied about knowing André than anything.
They went down a hall and then through a door that opened into a huge room with thirty-foot ceilings. The windows at the top let sunlight in and filled the recording space with warmth.
A drum kit was set up in the center and other instruments were scattered around the perimeter in various stands and cases. Sabine took it all in and quickly followed Nikki up the metal staircase.
That led to a smaller room with leather couches and a bank of sound engineering equipment against a glass wall that overlooked the larger room they had come from.
“Can you snap your fingers?” Nikki asked, fiddling with equipment Sabine couldn’t begin to identify.
“Y-yes.” Sabine set her bag on the couch and took off her coat.
“Great. I have this track that needs a little something extra and the dude’s finger snaps are entirely too aggressive. Johnny thinks that I can just soften it in mixing—and he’s not wrong—but the less I have to mess with, the cleaner the sound in the end. Okay.”
Sabine followed Nikki’s instructions and snapped her fingers near the microphone in time with the backing track Nikki played.
It probably didn’t take more than five minutes but when Nikki added it to the song she was working on, Sabine got a rush hearing her fingers mixed into it.
“That’s so cool!”
Nikki grinned and flipped some switches then made some notes on a tablet.
“That is all I need from you, teach.”
Sabine gathered her things and hesitated by the door. “How do you know André?” she finally asked.
Nikki flinched but didn’t turn around. “I used to know him. A few years ago. But I don’t know him anymore.”
