I pulled up in the lot of the restaurant and jumped out of my car, making sure to lock it behind me. I could see Aston already waiting at the front door. He’d changed out of his clothes from the night before into something a bit more beachy, and he was wearing his ray bans.
“Hey,” I said walking up to him.
“You sleep ok?” he asked as I lead him into the restaurant.
“Well enough,” I shrugged.
We waited to be seated, and were subsequently led outside to the terrace seating overlooking the boardwalk and the beach. Scanning over the menu I ordered my food and then we waited for awhile, chatting about the weather and other mundane small talk. Eventually our food was placed before us and we dug in. After awhile I noticed Aston looking intently at me. I stared back.
“So?” he asked with an arched eyebrow.
“So what?” I asked, confused.
“You were going to tell me why you quit Mosley while I treated you to lunch.”
I sighed deeply and placed my silverware down. How on earth do I put this? I had no idea what to say, just thinking about it made me so mad.
“Babe?” asked Aston.
I looked up and caught his eyes with my own. The look he was giving me was so sincere, almost worried.
“I didn’t quit,” I said finally.
“But… When I went there they said you weren’t there anymore. As of recently too if I remember…”
“Wait what?” I asked, shocked. “You went there?”
“Yeah, yesterday. I went there looking for you in the afternoon, I talked to the receptionist and she said you’d left the company. And then later she told me on the sly that you were DJing…”
“Oh,” I said. Made sense really. I’d been confused about how he knew since it was so last minute and hadn’t been publicized. And telling him later sounded exactly like something that Molly would do.
“So you didn’t quit, but you aren’t working there…” said Aston as he tried to piece it together.
“They didn’t renew my contract,” I sighed, cutting him off. “I was essentially fired, but in nicer words.”
“What why? That’s utter madness!” he said, a look of anger now crossing his face.
“They said my sound didn’t fit or some other bullshit,” I muttered, picking up my fork again. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes.
“Aww Jess, I’m sorry,” said Aston, coming around the table and kneeling in front of me. “Come here,” he said, pulling me into a tight embrace. I just sat there and cried into his shoulder for a few minutes before pulling away. As comforting as it was, it was super awkward to be sat like that at a restaurant.
“Thanks Ast,” I smiled, wiping my tears away and pushing him back towards his seat. For the next while we chatted about his band, and I could tell that he was treating me as if I was some fragile creature that was about to break.
After finishing we wandered down onto the beach, looking for an ice cream stand. We walked in silence for awhile, before Aston broke it.
“So what you gonna do?” he asked quietly.
I stopped in my tracks and stared at my feet. “What can I do?” I asked.
“What do you mean? Jess, you just spent three years working at one of the best production companies in the world. You can do anything now.”
“I guess,” I muttered, kicking the sand.
“Are you serious Jess?” he asked me. “You’ve got so much talent, and now a backlog of songs to prove it. Fix up a new demo and start sending it out! I bet you get a bite on it in no time! Why do you always need someone to push you to do these things?”
I pushed him out of my way and stalked up the beach a bit, but to no avail as he followed me. I could feel the anger about this whole thing rising up, ready to explode.
“Maybe no one wants to work with me,” I yelled. “Maybe that’s why I got fired. Maybe I wasn’t getting any bookings and they decided I was a waste of time. It’s not like I was making any music I liked! Just shit. Total shit. All I worked with were stupid pop rock bands from rich neighborhoods whose parents put up the money for the studio time. There was nothing real about it! So yeah, maybe it does take a little bit of pushing for me! This industry can be really shit, and sometimes I think that I don’t want to be a part of it.”
“But you’re amazing,” he said, trying to come closer to me, but I pushed him away. I was a barrel of emotions today, finally hitting that tipping point. “Sometimes it takes a few tries to make it to where you want to be. But you can’t just give up.”
“I guess not…” I sighed as it finally sunk in. I really did love my music, I just hated the politics of the industry. Why did it have to be so cutthroat?
“There’s the ice cream,” said Aston out of the blue. “Race ya?” he said, and then he flashed me his heart wrenchingly gorgeous smile and took off. I just stood there staring at him, my knees absolutely weak. Why was he the only person in the entire world that believed in me like that?
