The Bad Tour(ture): 2nd Edition

Chapter 18 - Happy

"Oh my God Michael!" I yelled to him with a hint of laughter.  I was freaking out as the beautiful gates slowly opened to welcome us inside.

"What's wrong?"  He didn't seem to find any problem in our situation.

"Why didn't you tell me I was going to be meeting your family today?"

Michael laughed and slowly pulled up inside the gates.  "You're not here to meet them; you're here to record in my studio."

He was trying to put my mind at ease but at the same time I thought it would be kind of rude for me to just use the studio and not say hello to anyone.  I looked down at my ripped shorts.  "I'm inappropriately dressed for this occasion."

"You look fine.  You act like you never seen them before.  You met them in Tokyo."

"That was a 'hi, nice to meet you.'"

He sighed as we got closer to the house.  "Baby?" he called rhetorically.

I looked at him stunned to hear him sweetly call me by that name. 

He kept his eyes straight ahead on where he was going to park his car.  "Most of my family doesn't even live here anymore.  You have nothing to worry about.  I don't even think my parents are here right now."  He pulled up in a corner, next to a door I imagined would lead us into the studio.  He removed his baseball cap and placed it on the dashboard.

"Are we going to go inside and say hello to your family?" I asked nervously.

He chuckled at my worries.  "The only thing I want you focused on right now is music."  He stepped out of the car and I just sat there thinking.  I looked back at the house.  My surroundings were all so beautiful. 

And I used to think my house was something to talk about.

My car door opened and Michael stood there smiling.  He extended his hand out towards the studio door.  "Are you coming?"

"Sorry," I said with a half-smile.  I grabbed my backpack and stepped out and he shut my door. 

He grabbed my hand and led me inside the studio.  He turned the light on and shut the door behind me.  It was bigger than I thought.  "Wow, this is pretty nice."

"Thank you," he said looking around the room himself.  "What do you have in your bag?"

"Oh," I said reaching over my shoulder to set it down in a chair.  "My songs and some snacks."

"Oh, you thought I would starve you."

I laughed at him and shook my head in argument.  "Just snacks."  I turned to him and placing my hands on his arms, I propped up on the tip of my toes to kiss him.

"No heels today," he joked.

"No heels."  I was only 5'3" and he about 5'9" so the difference was obvious.

Michael wasted no time putting me to work.  He was just as much a perfectionist in the studio as he was on stage.  It didn't feel like I was making a demo.  He handled everything like we were making a studio album and the deadline was in 24 hours.  We were doing four songs for the tape, two in Spanish and two in English.  He lyrically changed the English songs just a little.  The Spanish songs were all mine.  He gave me a guitar and made me sing Pienso En Ti.  I didn't really want to at first because the song was very personal to me but he said to me 'those are always the best ones.'

We were stuck in there for hours.  The lovey dovey make-out sessions I was looking forward to wasn't happening.  He was all business.

As we wrapped up the third song, Pienso En Ti, he asked if I wanted to take a break.  Of course I did.  He was really working me.  I stepped out of the booth and walked over to him.  I stood next to him as he stayed put in his chair.  He put his hand on my bare leg.  "Would you like something to drink?"