Loving Mr.Swing

Chapter 9- Ugh

Brielle Woods POV
March 1991

Watch that riff, you're going flat towards the end," Devante' said nonchalantly for the 1000th time into the microphone on the other side of the glass in the studio.

I mugged him, while he shrugged and stared back at me unbothered.
I swear I couldn't stand him when he was in full business mode. His entire demeanor seemed to change.

We'd been working on the chorus of this song that I'd written for over 2 hours now and I was starting to get frustrated. Nothing ever sounded right to him. I swear he was such a perfectionist. He wanted everything to sound a certain way and if it didn't, he would make you go over it over and over until you finally got it right no matter how long it took. Hence why I've been working on just the chorus of this song for so long.
How we go from me recording the demo he showed Andre in one take to this ?

"De, can we please take a break? My mouth is dry and I'm hungry," I whined slightly rolling my eyes.

If looks could kill, I would've dropped dead right then and there. His perfectly arched eyebrows didn't help either.

In a way, the way that he looked at me just then also turned me on. I quickly pushed that thought away.

"We'll take a break when I say we can. The quicker you sing this part right, the quicker we can both be happy and move on," He said bluntly.

I jerked my head back in shock at the way he was talking to me.

He ignored my reaction and looked back down at the sound board and pressed a button, causing the music to start playing in my headphones again.

I know this nigga didn't

I ignored my cue to start singing and just stared at him with my arms crossed. He was not about to speak to me that way. I didn't care who he was.

Taking the hint that I wasn't going to start singing. He sighed, and stopped the music. Pinching the bridge of his nose, I watched as he closed his eyes and seemed to be counting to 10.

"Bri, come on now. I'm really losing my patience with you sweetheart."

"Well, how do you think I feel?" "We've been at it for hours now. You won't even let me stop to go take a piss. Then you're over here talking to me crazy and shit," I snapped.

I felt I was overreacting a bit but I didn't care. Devante' was really being a dick right now and I didn't like it one bit.

We stared back at each other intensely. Both too stubborn to look away first. After a few seconds, he finally looked down at the soundboard while licking his lips and then looked back up at me.

I watched as he got up and opened the closed door to the booth and walked up to me slowly. The smell of his cologne reached me first. It was a sweet, spicy scent that entered my nose and made me want to pull him closer.

I was trying to keep up the angry facade I had just seconds ago, but I could feel it slowly fading as I looked into his honey colored eyes as he towered over me making feel like a small child.

My heart skipped a beat when he gently grabbed my chin with his right hand so that I couldn't look away from him.

"I apologize if you think i'm being too hard on you. This is how I am with all my artists. I don't release nothing but the best. I don't rush either. I take my time and make sure that the sound is perfect. I'm not finna have my name attached to no bullshit, he said in his attractive deep voice.
"If you don't think you can handle the pressure... If you think this will ruin the friendship that we're starting to form, then i'll step aside and let someone else produce your album and I'll cheer you on from the sidelines," Devante' said sincerely.