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It was evident to me that he was very upset, but I was lucky to have such understanding parents. Not everyone did.
I leaped out of my seat and hugged my mother. I'd been so afraid, and I could tell it would take them time to come around to the idea, but this would be a good first step.
“Please don't lose your way.”
“I won’t, Ma.”
I then hugged my dad. He rested his palm on the back of my head, pulling me closer. “You are all we have, and you are the best thing we ever made. Please be careful when you go to the land of the wolves.”
“Yes, Dad, I will. I love you.”
Thank you.
Chapter thirteen
Ronald Razor’s POV
Todaywastheday.We all gathered at the studio to hear the first three singles in Maryam's first album. Maybe if I was younger, I would have been more unsure about the quality of the singles, but after my first few videos, I became more comfortable with these moments. I even invited one of the board members who liked to call himself a music enthusiast but he declined, not caring about hearing it. When it came to our company, most of the board members were businessmen and focused on other things. They liked ones and zeros and money, the stock market, etcetera. I also cared about those things, but my focus was on music, so they let me have free reign if I brought profit.
Yet. Why did I still feel uneasy? Why did my body feel alien at this moment? What made me nervous?
Her. Maryam.
Being here felt like a momentous occasion, but I could not spend it with her or encourage her because of everyone here. Gale, Drew, and three others who helped work on polishing some of the lyrics were between me and her.
Interestingly, Maryam didn't allow them much freedom in changing the lyrics. She was very particular about that which I understood.
Every inch of my body wanted to turn to her and comfort her because I could feel her from the corner of my eye. And when I initially glanced at her on entering the Studio, she looked frazzled. Since then, however, I haven't looked her way. No way I would interfere with her moment by arousing suspicion between the two of us and what we had going on. Who knew if others had already begun to suspect? This could be me being paranoid, perhaps, but in cases like this where thousands and even millions of dollars were at stake as well as the lives of several people and their livelihoods, I needed to be paranoid.
"You ready?" Gale asked me. I nodded with a faint smile. He turned to Maryam, and I followed his gaze, finally seeing her. She looked calm, but I saw her tell. The biting of her nails, Carmen holding her hand to stop it from vibrating, and the way she couldn't stand still… constantly moving from side to side.
She hummed and nodded in affirmation, giving him the green light to play the first track.
Gale played the track. This would be the first time the full musical production team all listened to it together and it would be pretty much the final track. I'd already listened to it in private, of course, because she played it for me and even sang it a couple of times in our room. The song was titled Far Away and had a very simplistic element to it. We tried our best to add a few upbeat areas here and there to make it. l more commercial. The Billboard top songs these years had been very disappointing, to say the least. People cared more about beats than lyrics, so we had to remind Maryam of that. The beat was a bit different than what she usually worked with, but she adapted. You're not going to have everything you want; that's what diplomacy is all about. We had to let go of some of our ways as well to accommodate her and her artistic vision.
Listening to the song, I couldn't help but feel proud of my baby. I glanced at her for a second before anyone could notice. To my surprise, she kept looking at everyone else, including me. It looked like she got worried people might not like it which confused me since most of us here had listened to it. We had all individually greenlit the song as the first one after she told us it would be the starter to her album. Even last night, Maryam sounded pretty chill. I guess the feelings of fear inside hit her at the moment of truth and came bubbling to the surface.
Gale went on to play the other two and everyone's input was pretty much the same; slightly different from our usual M.O. but fantastic. Carmen chimed with spunk, while Mary still looked a bit shy.
"So man, what do you think? What are you going to tell the board?" Drew asked, giving me a suspicious look. Why did he look at me that way?
"I think it looks-"
"Tell her." He stopped me halfway.
Why did he want me to talk to her directly? Now, things have become awkward. My feelings were all over the place and I needed to act calm. But how do you act calm when you're trying to not bring attention to the fact that you are having a relationship with this woman?
"It's good. I like it," I said, but it came off weird, and an awkward bout of silence followed.
"Sure," Carmen responded, alternating looks between Maryam and I. Dammit, I shouldn't have responded in an unconvincing manner. I'm sure Maryam was eager to get out of here.
"All right, I think we've heard it all. Ronald and I need to talk about a few more things about the board, so if you'll excuse us…" Drew wrapped his hand around my back and guided me out of the studio.
"Sure thing, man. We've got things covered here," Gale replied.
Thank God. I stole one last glance at Maryam when I felt nobody was looking, basically apologizing with my eyes.
We left the studio and continued to smile while walking through the sea of workers to my office.
