Spring, Month 2
Olivia couldn't help studying Jayden. Luckily he didn't notice and continued to push his grocery cart through the crowded lanes of the Wholes Foods as if, simultaneously, no one was watching him and everyone was watching him.
He smiled at anyone who made eye contact with him, especially the moms in expensive workout clothes. He stopped to chat with the young girls who dared to approach him and ask for a photo. And each time he introduced Olivia as his special friend.
Most of the young girls ignored her completely. Two had seen her cover of Jayden's song and one of them had glared at her like she had stolen her boyfriend. From the way the young girls worked hard not to squeal at the sight of him, Olivia had the feeling she had done just that.
But she didn't know Jayden. She knew who JJ Jones was, of course. Everyone girl over the age of ten did and Hank's twelve-year-old daughter, Carmie, had been an especially enthusiastic fan. She had been the one to suggest Olivia cover it in the first place.
She had first met Jayden in passing, literally. Only a few days before, Jon had been showing her around the label headquarters, showing her where she would be working on her album for the foreseeable future. As they had come back out of the studio, Jayden had passed by, pausing long enough to shake Jon's hand and give Olivia a once-over.
He was already moving when he smiled at her and said "Hey! Cover girl! I saw the video. Not too bad. I'm flattered. Really." And then he disappeared around another corner, off to see people way more important than her.
She hadn't given Jayden a second thought until after she had finished a logistics meeting and left before Jon could tie her down and discuss everything they had just gone over in minute detail with his entire creative team. Her brain was fuzzy with details and plans and dates and schedules. She was looking for her rental car, not quite remembering what model it was exactly or what street-side spot she had parked it on.
Jayden was leaning against one of the cars lined up along the sidewalk, casually, with his sunglasses shielding his face as if the car was his own. He smiled when Olivia met his gaze and she nodded in acknowledgment, continuing her search.
Her face turned bright red when she was looking in the opposite direction and hit the unlock button, the car underneath Jayden letting out a light beep. She forced a smile that did nothing to hide her embarrassment and approached the pop-star.
"Hey, Keller."
"JJ."
"It's just Jayden. Or Jones. Or JJ Jayden Jones if you want to be redundant."
"It's Olivia."
"Is it?"
"Pretty sure."
"We'll stick with Keller. A compromise."
"Sure. Can you get off my car?"
Jayden stood up and leaned forward, extending his arm in a mock bow as if he were presenting the car to Olivia as a gift.
"You're vehicle, my lady."
Olivia nodded and walked to the driver's seat. She paused when Jayden opened the passenger side door as if to get in.
"What are you doing?"
"When do you start in the studio?"
"Monday."
"Let me guess, you just spent all day nailing down every single detail regarding your album, spending hours in a board meeting with people you'll never see again."
"How did you know?"
"Great. You're right on schedule. And free tonight. I'm taking you out."
"Why?"
"Why not?"
"Did Jon put you up to this?"
Jayden's smile widened as if she had finally asked the right question.
"He thought you could use someone to show you around town?"
"And that's you, I'm guessing?"
Jayden looked over his shoulder in both directions.
"You don't see anyone else, do you?"
"Okay then. Let's go."
Once both seated and buckled in, Jayden directed her to the freeway. Olivia was chronicling every single detail in her head to replay to Dani the next time they would talk. She didn't believe what was happening herself and knew her sister wouldn't either.
A part of her was grateful for the distraction from the constant barge of information she had been fed over the last few weeks. She had an empty rented house waiting for her whenever she did head home and up until that point she had managed to spend every free moment talking to someone back home.
She had run her mom and Sue through every detail so far and she had been serenading Dani over the phone while she studied, listening to her complain about why she had to take an oceanography class when she was studying to be a lawyer, happy to have noises and people to fill the quiet.
She had even called her grandmother down at her nursing home in New Orleans. She was happy to hear her Grandma Flo go on and on about how they changed the texture of the pudding in the cafeteria. Her grandmother's soft voice sounded like home and helped ground Olivia, if only for fifteen minutes.
"I thought you were supposed to show me around LA."
"Is that what I said?"
Jayden feigned ignorance and smirked at the look of disbelief Olivia was shooting him.
"Or did I say Jon wanted us to be seen around LA? Those are two very different things."
Olivia had spent the first fifteen minutes following Jayden around the crowded grocery store, unsure exactly what his plan was. When it became obvious that he was, in fact, grocery shopping, Olivia started adding some of her own food to the cart.
She had planned on going sometime soon as she was running low of her limited stock at the house. She threw in chicken, boxed salads, yogurt, and whatever the healthy equivalent of American cheese was into the cart along with noddles made up of some kind of bean.
"Are you vegan yet?"
Jayden asked over his shoulder when they had stopped in front of the meat counter.
"What? No, I'm not. What do you mean, yet?"
"Great. Two of your best cut steaks, please."
The butcher behind the counter handed him over a heavy paper-wrapped package. Jayden then led them to the check-out counter.
Olivia helped load up the groceries as she felt awkward standing there while Jayden chatted with the check-out girl.
Olivia stepped forward to pay.
"Here, let me-"
"I got this, babe."
Olivia caught sight of the girl's eyes widening as she tried to focus extra hard on counting just how many apples Olivia had placed in their bag and what their serial number was.
Olivia already held the credit card Jon had given her for expenses in her hand as Jayden pulled out one just like it from his wallet.
With their food in neat paper bags, loaded back in the cart, Olivia headed for the sliding glass doors that would lead back outside. Jayden took the cart from her and directed her just past the exit.
"Dessert," he explained as he stepped up to the counter at the smoothie station.
"What are you thinking, Keller? Their mango-banana is killer but I'm also a big fan of strawberry-kiwi."
"Mango-banana sounds great."
"And one strawberry-kiwi," Jayden told the girl at the cash register. "We can share."
Jayden nudged Olivia and in response, she rolled her eyes. The girl writing down their order looked like she was going to burst, her hand frozen mid-stroke while she wrote down the orders on the smoothie cups.
With smoothie cups in hand, they finally headed for the parking lot. Just before they stepped through the sliding glass doors, Jayden leaned down to speak so only Olivia could hear.
"Whatever you do, just keep smiling."
"What?"
She looked up at him.
"Trust me, okay? Laugh like I just said something funny. Think about a funeral procession for a clown."
"What?"
The thought was so outrageous Olivia couldn't help but smile. The sound of cars and life beyond Whole Foods met them as they stepped out into the late afternoon sun. Mixed in with the ambient noise was the rapid clicking from somewhere far off.
"Mission accomplished."
Jayden nodded past Olivia's shoulder and she turned to find a small bank of photographers a hundred yards away, with giant cameras in hand, all pointed in their direction.
"You can thank Jon for that."
"Did you tell him where we would be?"
"I might have let it slip. Come on, I'm hungry. I'll grill if you make dinner."
Olivia drove them to the little bungalow Jon had set her up with, a small little white house on a quiet street, far from downtown. Olivia was grateful for the haven from what was turning out to be a very busy life.
"Aw. Home sweet home."
Jayden gave an exaggerated exhale as he stepped through the front doors.
"I haven't been here in ages."
"Did you used to live here?" Olivia asked.
"Of course!"
Jayden set his groceries down on the counter and started unloading as if he lived there, which, apparently, he had, at some point.
"The label owns this house. It's where they host all newcomers while things are getting figured out. A hotel's too stuffy and starts to get expensive after a while."
Olivia moved towards the family room at the back of the house, where a glass door led out to a wooden deck overlooking the back yard. She found clothes strewn all across the back of the couch.
"What the hell?"
Jayden followed the sound of her voice.
"Oh hey! Ava's back in town?"
"What? Who's Ava?"
"The label's go-to stylist. I figured she'd make an appearance sometime soon. Funny. I heard she had been working for Toni Sykes. Jon must have called her in specifically for you."
"So someone just let themselves in and dropped off a whole bunch of clothes? And no one told me?"
Olivia couldn't help shivering at the thought of someone else having a key to the house.
"I mean, yeah. This is Jon's place after all. Don't worry about it. Ava's cool and she's got a great sense of style."
"I mean, I did need clothes. It's so hot out here. I packed too many sweaters."
"And voila! Ava appears. It's like magic."
Jayden moved towards the deck.
"Oh hey! These lights are new! And you got patio furniture. Lucky! I'll grill steaks if you want to throw together something."
"All I know how to make is macaroni and cheese and a salad."
"Sounds like a well-rounded meal to me."
Olivia felt comfortable moving around the kitchen, small as it was. She missed having her mom and Dani there to chat with while she cooked but Jayden called out random comments on various improvements that had been made to the house since his time that she didn't feel too alone.
Jayden wholeheartedly approved of her pasta and the B-vitamins from the steaks helped soothe some of Olivia's fraying nerves after a very intense first few weeks. They ate mostly in silence except to offer each other compliments around mouthfuls of food.
The twinkle lights overhead had turned on automatically by the time they had finished and a brisk wind was running through the neighborhood. Olivia grabbed two of the throw blankets neatly rolled up and stored in a wicker basket just out of sight and tossed one to Jayden.
They sat looking out over the small yard, listening to the neighborhood around them. Someone nearby was blasting Mexican pop music and kids were out in the street playing soccer.
"You handling LA alright?"
Olivia tried not to let the shock show on her face at the first genuine thing Jayden had said to her all night. All else had been fluff, shallow, surface level, a facade for the sake of anyone who might be watching.
"Yeah. I mean, I think so. It's alright. It's a lot of details. I think I'll find my feet once I get in the studio. That sort of environment I'm at least a little familiar with."
"There's your first mistake."
"What? What is?"
"You're never going to find your feet. That's what this business is. A whole bunch of us swimming around, floating in a sea of details and engagements and contacts and more details. It'll make it harder if you keep trying to find solid ground. That doesn't exist out here."
"How do you find stability then?"
Jayden shrugged.
"I'll let you know when I find it."
Olivia let a minute pass before she spoke again.
"How long have you been doing this?"
Jayden sighed and seemed to sink further into his chair.
"Too long, it feels like. I was a songwriter first. I wrote with a whole bunch of different artists. I worked with Toni Sykes for awhile. And a few other names you've definitely heard of."
"How did you end up in the spotlight then?"
"Jon. I was freelancing, moving from artist to artist. It's not the most steady source of income. I could go from working in Amsterdam with Max Martin to being a barista in Brooklyn to pay rent in a week. It was always up and down. Jon knew who I was and approached me, wanted me to join his label. I said yes. He found out I have a half-decent voice and can rap my own stuff well enough. It's more profitable to him if I write and perform everything myself. So I became a performer."
"But you're not naturally."
"It wasn't what I went to school for, no."
They were silent again. Olivia felt she was sitting next to a completely different person from the one she had been studying in the grocery store. But then again, she was the only person around.
"What about you? What's your story?"
"I was born in-"
Jayden interrupted her before she could go further.
"Nope. Not that one. I'm sorry but I'm not that interested in the fact that you were born in a small rural town and learned to sing because your mom taught choir at the local church and you got around everywhere on your bike. I'm talking about your music. That story."
"Actually, I was raised right outside Boston, I got around everywhere by bus and my dad is a musician. He taught me the piano at seven and gave me my first guitar when I was five. I will give you the choir thing, though."
Jayden let out a light laugh.
"See? I wasn't totally off. Now. The real story. How did you end up here?"
"I think I'm still trying to figure that out."
"Give me your best shot, what you've pieced together so far."
Olivia tried to place in chronological order just how she had come to be sitting, in a cute little white house, in Los Angeles, having dinner with JJ Jones, one of the biggest male pop-stars there were.
"I didn't go to college and all my friends did. I suddenly had all this free time on my hands and nothing to be excited about. I'd always written songs. I figured I would start putting a few of the best together. I made an album I liked. I started finding places to perform. I created an open-mic night at the cafe I worked at and performed there every week. Suddenly different venues were asking me to play, festivals wanted me to fill their early slots, people were showing up at the music nights specifically to hear me sing. Then Jon showed up and here I am."
"Hmm."
Jayden nodded and accepted her story, no further questions required.
"What's he like?"
"Who? Jon?"
Olivia nodded.
"He's kind of a genius. He started the label out of his garage while in college, focusing mainly on the alt-rock scene-"
"I've read his Wikipedia page. I know all that. I mean, what is he really like? Other than mildly terrifying and seriously intimidating."
"You're just saying that because you're new. Stick around as long as I have and you'll see. He's seriously terrifying."
He laughed and Olivia laughed with him, aware that what he said wasn't a joke.
"At the end of the day, he's a businessman. And a brilliant one at that. He's an investor, putting money into people like us to reap massive returns. He'll get you where you want to go. Doesn't matter if it's stadium tours or the Grammy awards. He's in the business of making people famous and he's seriously good at his job."
Olivia let his words sink in, hoping they would start to fill out the silhouette of Jon she held in her head. They were only ever together to discuss business and strategy and details and schedules. She knew he was serious and driven but that was about it.
"Can I trust him?"
"He's the best music manager there is. Of course you can't trust him."
Jayden eventually let himself out, reminding Olivia that he knew the way. He said a quick good night and Olivia watched him disappear through the front door. Not for a single second that whole evening had he looked at her the way he had the moms at the grocery store. He had let the 'babe' title slip once but on purpose and in front of someone who would hear and understand exactly what he was trying to convey.
There had never been a single moment of romantic tension between them. The closest thing they had gotten to was a half-step over acquaintances. Olivia smiled at the thought that she might have just made her first friend in LA.
A/N:
Enter: Jayden.
Another character I just loved writing. He's up there with Dani.