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“Ouch. So, not to be disrespectful glazing over what happened to her, but that’s not what I wanted to talk about. Looked for you because of those songs.”
“What do you mean?”
“I played a couple of your songs for my band and gotta tell you, we loved ‘em. Kept practicing while I tried to track you down. We’ve played two of those songs you wrote a bunch of times. Though we never sing it out at gigs or anything. Just when we’re jammin’. I’m not about to steal your song. We’ve been calling them Mystery Girl one and two because the tape was unmarked.”
She stared at him, not replying.
He went on, “If I hadn’t found the tape the day I read about Kailey in the paper I might not’ve even remembered where it came from, who was singing. We’re on tour with Gorge.”
“Congrats. That’s great news. Good band,” she said.
“Meh. South Dakota’s version of Nickelback. But whatever. Not gonna turn down our shot, you know?”
I laughed. I agreed with his opinion there.
“Hey, I like Nickelback,” a waitress said, walking by.
“Hey you,” he greeted, eyes moving over her body with heat.
“Hey back,” she said coyly. “Sorry,” she looked at us. “didn’t mean to interrupt. Welcome back, Gia.”
“Thanks Jordan.”
“Anyway,” Chase continued, watching Jordan’s ass as she walked away, “Gorge’s drummer heard us playing part of Mystery Girl song two on the bus and wanted us to play it from the top. Told him we didn’t have permission yet. He told us we should put it on our new album. When the tour’s done, we’ll record that album. I would fuckin’ love to record both of those songs. Can you stick around after this? Can we talk about that? I’d have to run it by my record company but thinking it might be a good option for our first single.”
Coco put the next vodka and orange juice down.
Gigi broke from my hold to get her drink and shakily lifted the glass and took a sip. A big one. Too big, so she started choking.
I patted her back and gave her neck a reassuring squeeze as she recovered.
“Um… okay,” she said after swallowing.
“Your band practices with her songs,” I said.
He looked at me.
“Jesse Garcia. Gianna’s man.” I held out my hand.
He shook it. “Good to meet you, Jesse. Yeah, we do. We don’t let anyone hear. Never play ‘em when anyone outside of the band is around other than that one time the drummer from Gorge heard. Been hoping to find your woman so we could change that.”
I looked at my girl and a smile spread across my face before I looked back to the singer. “Can you squeeze one of them into your set tonight? I’d love to hear you play one. Wouldn’t you, baby?”
Gianna squeezed my bicep. Her eyes were wide.
Chase shrugged, eyes on her. “Can we play one of them tonight? It’s her song, so…I mean my band would be fuckin’ stoked. Our version has a little reggae twist to it, but it’s your song, Gianna, so without contracts or any shit like that we should probably-”
“Do it,” she invited. “Don’t introduce it as my song, though. Okay?”
“Yeah?” He looked surprised. “It’s not something you sing when you’re doin’ gigs?”
“No gigs.” Gigi threw back a shot that had been put in front of her.
After she recovered from the shot, coughing a couple times, she chased it with a sip of her vodka and orange juice, then said, “I’ve never wanted to sing my songs on a stage. I did this tonight as a favor. I love writing songs but not so much with performing them. Kailey talked me into that demo tape, but I never did anything with it. I had no idea she gave you one.”
“She harassed me like crazy to give it a listen. She was a big champion of yours.”
Gigi bit her lip and stared for a second, looking like she was beating back emotion. Finally, she said, “This might be the four drinks I had before I went on stage and the few I’ve had since, but… I’d love to hear you do one.” She shrugged. “Or both. Whatever.”
He leaned in and asked, “You write a lot of songs?”
“I’ve written hundreds,” she advised.
“See, songwriting is where I struggle. Me and my band member Jer write together but… maybe the three of us could sit down. Let’s talk after the show, okay?”
She nodded. “Sure. I’m not very good at songwriting either.”
“After listening to that demo and playing two of those songs for the better part of the last few months, I disagree. Couple other songs on that tape were special, too, but the two we play feel like us. They have our little spin on them, but your lyrics are awesome. Been sayin’ a while that one of those other songs would be right up Pink’s alley. Another one I could hear someone like Carrie Underwood doing.”
