“Ready to hit the clubs then?” I asked, getting us out of this slightly touchy subject.
“Yeah, let’s go dance,” said Aston, perking up a bit.
We walked out of the bar and down the beach, towards a group of clubs that I knew. This time Aston wasn’t shy about it, he grabbed my hand and linked our fingers together the second we started walking, causing me to smirk a bit.
“Mind if we stop for a second,” asked Aston as we came up on a little store with a cash machine.
“Sure,” I said, standing to the side while he got some money out. I pulled out my phone and noticed a text from my housemate Holly. I flicked it open, expecting it to be something snarky about me being out with Aston, but instead saw [Call me as soon as you can, its urgent.]
“Hey Ast, I gotta make a quick call,” I said stepping away a bit and ringing Holly.
“Jess!” she said after only one ring.
“What’s going on?” I asked, worried.
“Sorry to freak you out, but you needed to hear this,” she said.
“What is it?”
“So Tinie Tempah’s manager called Mosley today. They want to do a studio version of that demo you did with him a few months ago. Remember it? They mentioned something about it being a single.”
“What??” I asked, slightly shocked. I was expecting some bad news, not that one of my songs was going to be released to mainstream radio. None of my songs with big acts had ever made it as a single. Hardly any of them even made it on albums!
“So obviously this is a bit complicated, had to do some talking on the down low because you don’t work with Mosley anymore. Basically, they want to fly you out to a studio in New York so you can do the track. They said they’ll provide all of the equipment and everything, they just want it to be you that works on it in the studio. And then they’ll cut you a check individually, no middle man.”
“Am I even allowed to do this?” I asked.
“Yeah, I looked into it. Mosley doesn’t have any rights over the demo, so you are free to do with it what you want.”
“Wow. When do they want to record?”
“So this is the tricky part…” she started. My heart fell a bit because I knew it was going to be inconvenient. “They’ve already got you a seat on a flight to New York tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” I asked, my voice-slightly raised. “But…”
“They said they want to get it done the sooner the better… Obviously if tomorrow is a problem you can call them up and work something else out, get the ticket moved back. But they were very excited about this! And they’re on a tight deadline!”
“Wow, well I don’t know about tomorrow,” I said, looking across at Aston who was stood a few meters away, playing with his phone. He was only going to be around a few more days, surely I could put this off until he left? Wow, was I even thinking that?
“Just think about it ok Jess, this is huge,” said Holly.
“Yeah, thanks Holls. Really, you don't need to be looking out for me like this. You could lose your job.”
“That’s what friends are for! Congrats on this by the way, its huge.”
“Sure is,” I said.
“Now get back to Lover Boy,” she laughed.
“Shut up…” I sighed before hanging up.
I walked back over to Aston, who looked up from his phone immediately, a look of worry on his face. “Everything ok?” he asked.
“More than!” I said with a bright smile on my face.
“Good,” he said, grabbing my hand and leading us further down the beach.
“You aren’t going to ask about the call?” I said after a few minutes.
“I didn’t want to intrude…” he started, but I cut him off.
“Ast its huge!” I grinned. “I’m going to go produce Tinie Tempah’s new single.”
“Woah what?” he said, stopping in his tracks and turning to me, a grin coming across his face too.
“I know!!!” I squealed. Before I could even think, Aston had grabbed me around the waist and spun we around. As he placed we on the ground he left a sloppy kiss on my cheek.
“Congrats babe!” he said. “Now let’s go celebrate!”
As we neared the clubs I felt slightly guilty, not telling him some of the details. Like the fact I was meant to fly out tomorrow. I was going to try my hardest to get it pushed back a few days, so what was the point?
