No Strings

Half Date

"I agree. I'm tired.." she gets under the covers next to me, but not close to me.

She won't want to cuddle, and I don't want her to either. It'd be too serious and I don't want to scare her off.

I turn off the lamp on the end table next to me.

"Goodnight.." I say, my eyes adjusting to the room's darkness. I can't see much, but I can feel her warmness next to me. She's very close, actually. "What're you-"

I start to ask what she's doing, but then she kisses my lips. I'm getting a goodnight kiss, I think. It doesn't last very long though.

"Goodnight Lana." She moves away from me again and gets comfortable on her side of the bed, leaving me swooning over her on mine.

"Night.."

————————

"Alright so.." I unlock my studio door, letting us get inside to escape the merciless Los Angeles heat. Today is hot. And so is Marina. "Welcome to my studio."

"Very impressive.." she walks in ahead of me. I shut the door behind us.

My studio is very pretty. It's modern and predominantly black with glossy accents. It has a mini bar area where I can keep snacks, a couch, a TV, but most importantly, it has big high-quality speakers and a beautiful recording booth.

All of my equipment is the best I could find. I feel like I deserve it after just making music on the bare minimum of equipment I could afford. My managers helped me choose it and paid a little of it off, so that they can use it too.

But today, Marina and I have the place all to ourselves.

"I'm glad you like it. Let me show you the booth.." I let her into the room. The walls are cladded with soundproofing, making for beautifully clear sound quality. I'm very proud of it.

"Wow" I watch her look at my equipment close up, gently touching and inspecting it. The way she touches things is hot, I like the way she uses her fingers. It's hard to describe. "This is very nice set up."

"I got your approval?" I tease, she smiles

"You certainly did.. I bet this cost you a lot of money, though."

"Like I said last night, I think it's gonna be pretty beneficial. I can record here myself and rent it out to other artists in LA, so I'll make my money back. Plus my managers paid some of it off for me as well."

"Things seem to work out very well for you, don't they?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" I ask, she raises her shoulders a little

"You just always find a way of making things work. I'm jealous." She explains, I smile

"You're so wrong. Things hadn't always worked out so well for me."

"I know, you've had it hard." She replies

"How do you know that?" I ask. I haven't talked much about my past with her.

"I've googled things" she admits, I laugh

"Oh really? You're a big fan, huh?"

"I suppose.." she smiles "I googled you a while back. I wanted to know what I was up against."

"And what did you find?" I lead her out of the recording booth and take her to the couch. I want to sit close to her. She's hard to stay away from.

"Your childhood, your family life, your real name, lots of things." She pauses "Do you like people using your real name?"