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Adriana gave me a quick hug as she walked out of the apartment.
In an instant, all my exhaustion disappeared when I heard the loudest yet sweetest call to me I had ever heard.
“Mommy!” As if on cue, her voice reverberated throughout our small apartment, but a wide smile still managed to form on my tired face.
“There’s my girl,” I said as I walked into the tiny bedroom. She was sitting up in her bed, pushing her dark hair off her face. I perched on the bed next to her as she launched herself into my arms. I gave her a big hug, and though my body was aching from all the equipment and instruments I had to lug around all day, I didn’t regret squeezing the love of my life as hard as I could. Her laughter filled the cozy space.
“Mommy missed you so much, Luna!”
Her honey-brown eyes shimmered under our dim fluorescent light, and I could literally feel all of my worries and frustrations from today take the back seat. Right then and there, all that mattered to me was my little moon – my Luna.
“I had the best time with Auntie Ana,” she happily reported to me as I smoothed her hair and kissed the top of her head. “I practiced all of my numbers.” Luna was driven and determined and had a habit of making sure all of her tasks were done. She was a really amazing kid, and I didn’t quite know how I deserved her. I certainly wasn’t like Luna when I had been her age.
“Did you have a good day at work, Mommy?”
She curled up in my lap for a hug and all the memories from the day melted away with the smell of her strawberry shampoo.
“You know, I was really nervous about it at first. Sometimes new situations can make us nervous, right?” Luna nodded her head solemnly. “But it all ended up being okay. It was busy, and I had to move a lot of stuff around so, pfff… I'm tired! But the best part of the day is coming back home and getting to see you now.”
I dropped another kiss on the top of her head as she sighed and snuggled in more deeply. With one last squeeze, I gently moved Luna to her bed and covered her with the blanket.
“Well, it sounds like they sure do need you, Mommy, if they’re that lazy and need someone else to move all of their stuff around.”
A chuckle snuck past my lips as I grabbed Luna’s favorite stuffed rabbit from the floor and snuggled it under her arm. I thought about Damian in his sweatpants, clearly not ready to haul instruments around the studio.
“You know what, Luna? I think you might be right.” I switched on her nightlight and moved to the door. “You get some sleep, sweet girl. I love you so much.”
Luna was out like a light before I closed the door.
Chapter 5
Thalia
I’dneverworkedthisclosely with men before and it was fascinating.
“Dude, that’s such a weird way to do it though,” Damian said incredulously to Jackson. Gauging the environment of the state-of-the-art recording studio, a person could reasonably assume that they were arguing about how to approach a new song. Maybe they were experimenting with some different instruments or compositions. Hell, maybe Jackson was advocating for using a can of soda as percussion or a bass line.
That would be reasonable, right?
Because, what else could two professionals be doing here?
“Nah, man, it’s going to work,” Jackson reassured Damian as he closed one of his eyes to concentrate on aiming for the cup that was on the nearby table. With one swoosh of his hand, he threw a pen across the room, but it missed the cup by a mile. “Ah! That was so close!”
Damian scoffed, rolling his eyes.
“Close? I guess close like the moon is relatively close to Earth compared to Pluto.”
Yep, these two superstars – many, many awards between the two of them – were throwing pens in a cup for the past hour. It was an incredibly interesting case study in the male psyche, at least when they were bored and procrastinating.
It was my third day, and I was already pretty certain that Damian felt no urgency to finish this upcoming album. But I could have been totally wrong, because, also, I barely communicated with him in the last three days. Even though I was literally right here, in this room, with the two of them, all day, every day, he always directed his requests to me through Jackson.
And because I was not a bigger person, I did the same thing.
Damian took his shot and chucked the pen in the general direction of the cup one more time, failing to get any closer than Jackson.
“Alright, I’m done with this.” Damian blew out a sigh and I couldn’t fight the eye-roll. Luckily, he never looked at me. “Maybe we should get back to work.”
Jackson nodded and headed toward his equipment, but Damian plopped down on his sofa and started scrolling through his phone again. So much for productivity.
