"Ooooo! This beat is HARD." I say to Flex who has his eyes closed seated around the soundboard, face mean muggin because the beat feels so dirty.
It's been a while since a beat has made me feel this excited.
"I told you I got you man, damn." Flex complains as if I didn't know his talents and abilities.
"I know but this shit is crazy!" I pace the studio. "Nah, I'm writing to this right now!"
Flex laughs and starts the beat from the top.
"Let me get in the booth. Run that back for me." I say feeling like a kid in a candy store. I put the headphones on and go real close to the mic, I spit some lines I had pre-written. I had so many bars memorized and on my phone, just waiting for the right beat to come along. Something that fits exactly. Flex knew me like the back of his hand. I knew he would create something I would love but I couldn't put my pride aside back when we were still fighting.
"Ooooo. This shit fire." I say into the mic. I see Flex's smile outside of the booth.
"Ima put you to work now that I have you back." I tell him as I let the intro play out.
"No you not, I got a whole wedding to prepare for." I hear his voice in my headphones. It makes me smile, the thought of this beautiful wedding so closely approaching.
I record the first and second verse of the song using pre-written bars. It ends up taking a 30 minutes to get the perfect takes with the proper delivery. As soon as the verses are done, Flex plays it from the top.
"That's fire." Flex says serious. "No hook?" He questions.
" I haven't thought of one yet. " I answer.
"Title?" Flex questions, staring at the computer.
"Shit, I don't know." I answer.
"Shit, I don't know' it is." Flex types on his laptop. I breathe a laugh.
"You wanna keep working on this one? I have other beats I want you to hear. " He questions.
"Nah, I'm hungry and I told Chanel I would get her and take her to dinner." I say setting the headphones down on the mic stand and heading out of the booth and into the control room. I watched as Flex ended the studio session and saved the files.
"I emailed you what you just did, in case you wanna listen and figure a hook out later." He says, clicking away at his computer.
"Iight thanks." I walk over to one of his Grammy plaques on the wall. The bright silver record in the glass case hangs majestically, giving a certain feel to the entire room. Something elite.
"What are you doing now? Do you want to come eat with us?" I ask sincerely.
"Aww, you must really love me again. Inviting me to crash your dinner date." Flex smiles widely.
"You're always welcomed... or you are now anyway." I chuckle.
"I would love to. But, check with the Queen if it's okay. You know how she get when she want you all to herself. I never seen someone so grumpy." He adds, responding to an email.
"Yea, that's my baby." I shake my head.
Before I can look for my phone, it begins ringing in my pocket.
"Speak of the angel." I say staring at Chanel's name.
"Baby." I answer the phone.
"Baby." She responds but she sounds out of breath and a bit rushed. "I'm going to have to cancel our dinner plans. I'm still at the magazine shoot. We had to redo a few shots because I spilled coffee on the designer dress." She trails off and I sigh deeply.
"Jesus. Them white people gon kill you." I laugh.
She chuckles and tries to explain but gives up and accepts her clumsiness.
"Well, did you get to eat anything?" I ask concerned.
"No, not yet. I was waiting until I saw you for dinner. You know they like us looking pretty skinny for these shoots." She responds.
"Me and Flex will bring you some food." I say softly. "Get back to work."
"Thank you babe, I'm starving." She sighs happy.
"I love you, I'll see you soon." She adds.
"I love you. Send me the address." I answer.
The call ends and I look to Flex.
"Well, I guess it's just us." I shrug.
"Hmm, she probably did that on purpose." Flex shakes his head and grabs his keys. His head turns left and right as he looks around the room. His eyes finally land on his Gucci sunglasses. He picks them up and throws them on. I shake my head.
"Did it on purpose so we could spend time together?" I question seemingly.
"Hell yea. I don't put it past her." Flex laughs hearty.
"You probably right." I say in slight realization. "She definitely spilled coffee on a designer dress she was supposed to be modeling."
"Sounds like her too." We both chuckle.
We walk out the studio and Flex stops at his receptionist desk. Sitting there is a light skin, soft eyed young lady with curly black hair. She looks to be in her early 20s and she wears a black hoody with the Flex studio logo on it. Her long nails type away on the keyboard.
"Nessa, I'm going out for lunch and later I have my suit fitting again." Flex starts and the girl looks up at him, nodding slightly. Flex turns to me - "Because you know I been losing weight." He finishes.
He did look to be a little smaller and more muscular but I thought it was just because I haven't seen him in a while.
"Okay, I'll let the artist know. You were supposed to meet with him here at 4 pm?" The girl said.
"Shit, completely forgot about him." Flex pulled out his phone and scrolled through his contacts. "What's his name again?" He said to the receptionist.
"Uptown. The one from Chicago" She said seeming to look through an email.
"Can I meet with him tomorrow?" Flex questions.
"No." Her curls shake as her head moves. "He goes back to Chicago tomorrow." She warns.
Flex sighs loudly.
"Send me his number, I'll call him real quick right now." He motions to his phone then steps in his office and closes the door. He gestures for me to sit tight for a minute. I hear my stomach grumble and so does the girl.
She chuckles.
"Hungry?" She questions.
I breathe a laugh.
"You heard that." It was more of a statement than a question.
"I did." She smiles as if to be embarrassed for me.
"My name is Vanessa." She stretches out her well manicured hand.
"Prodigy." I shake.
"I know, I'm good friends with Chanel." She answers.
"Oh, yea? That's cool. How long have you been working for Flex?" I question. She looks uneasy or embarrassed.
"Hmm, 3 years. Before I graduated college and still here..." She trails off.
I chuckle. "Why do you seem upset about it?"
"Wasn't expecting to still be here 2 years after college, guess it's starting to weigh on me a bit." She laughs nervous.
"Well what would you rather be doing? Most people would kill for this job." I take a seat in the couch across from the desk.
Vanessa clicks away at something on the computer.
"Well I was a Business major with a concentration in Music management and I really just want to manage artists...like big artists." Though she seems excited about this topic, her voice seems monotoned.
"Well you gotta walk before you run, right?" I shrug.
"Not necessarily. No." She comments.
"Then tell me your next moves. How will you get to where you actually want to be?" I encourage her.
"Can I be your manager?" She questions, sitting up in her chair.
I laugh loudly.
"Absolutely not."
She chuckles.
"Worth a try." She looks down with a smile.
"Nah. I'm playing. Flex is actually going to let me manage the artist coming in today. Kinda why I was so hell-bent on them meeting." She says.
We both look at Flex who is still on the phone, we can't hear him but his hands are moving around with each of his words and he's standing and walking from one place in his office to the other.
"So this is kinda like a trial run for you?" I question.
"Exactly." She remarks.
"Well good luck.. don't fuck it up." I taunt.
She laughs.
"I think I like Chanel better." She shakes her head.
"People usually do." I comment.
My stomach grumbles again and I sigh turning my attention to Flex. His eyes close on mine and I signal for him to wrap it up.
He opens the door to exit his office, still on the phone.
"Okay man, I'll see you at 4 sharp. Look forward to it." He says into the phone.
"Vanessa will also be there, i'm interested to see the ideas you've been discussing." Flex is silent as the other end of the phone chimes. "Yup, alright sounds good. Alright. See you soon." He finishes.
"Okay, sorry about that. Let's had out, we only have an hour to eat. I hope that's alright." He says to me.
I shrug. "That's fine, I thought I was bout to eat by myself."
"Thank you Nessa. Ima see you both at 4. Make sure you got all the paper work ready. There's some lines in the contract he changed. Look them over, see if you're okay with those terms. I know you want to start by getting 20% of whatever he makes but this is your first client, I think starting with 10% would be more fair because he's kind of like your experiment." He says to Vanessa.
"But I wanted that extra cash. You said it's likely he wont be making anything at all the first few months." She complains.
"Why you actin like I don't pay you lil girl?" Flex questions jokingly.
"There's no such thing as too much money." She smiles charming.
"You and my wife been talkin?" Flex questions as he holds the door to outside open for me. "I see you at 4." He finishes.
"Nice meeting you Vanessa." I wave as we head out.
"Nice of you to give her a chance at things." I say proud of the person Flex is.
"Everyone deserves a chance, at least." He comments low.
We get into the car and it only takes a few minutes to drive to one of Flex's favorite Mexican restaurants. We ordered beers and burritos and a to go grilled chicken burrito with pinto beans, brown rice, cheese and mixed vegetables for Chanel.
It's quiet as we stuff our face, we both hadn't eaten all day. I could imagine how hungry Chanel was. After Flex finishes his burrito he wipes his mouth and looks up at me, eyes daring.
"What?" I question looking at his mischievous smile.
"Best man. Hows it goin?" He laughs and dabs me up.
I smile unable to hide my excitement. I've never even been to a wedding, let alone been such an important part of it.
"I'm honored." I say, taking a sip of my beer.
"I'm honored you took me back." He says like a happy girl friend reminiscing.
We get another beer after finishing the first, way too fast.
"You like my son, you know that?" Flex says half way through his second beer in one gulp.
"Yea, yea, shut up." I retort.
"You are. " He's quiet for a second, no smiles, no jokes.
"You're my son Trev. I promise not to do no dumb shit to push you away from me again cause that shit hurt." He scratches the top of his eyebrow, stressed.
I watch him close. Hanging on to each of his words.
"I'm not going to get too into it, I know you like to act like a macho man and run away from your feelings. But those months without you talking to me really fucked me up. I don't think I could have had a wedding without you there, I couldn't have done it being on the terms we were on."
I take a deep breath, as Flex is the only Father figure I've ever known and the only one that's loved me in this way.
I take a big gulp of my beer.
"I'm here now, we ain't gotta revisit allat." My voice is shaky. I clear my throat.
Flex smiles and sits up. His dreads playing in his left over food.
"Damn right you here now. And we bout to make some fuckin hits. I need you on your A game the next 4 months. I'm planning out two single releases for you, one with the beat you started on today and one more banger. Those two releases should hold you over on the charts while I live my married life after the wedding."
I smiled big seeing how happy he was, every time the wedding was even mentioned.
"I can't wait for this wedding. Two of the most important... most annoying people in my life bout to join in harmony-" Flex laughs loudly- "and congregate as one annoying force" I finish as Flex chuckles.
It's quiet before he speaks again.
"I invited Pookie."
My beer stops in the middle of my throat, the smile on my face slowly disappearing.