A Dream for Two (6 page)

***

Elise shivered slightly on the stoop which led up to her apartment building. Dylan was beside her, holding her guitar case. She wanted to invite him in but there were already two people sleeping in there, it would hardly be private.

“I have like, the most populated apartment in New York,” she explained.

“It’s okay,” Dylan placed the guitar case by his feet so that he could wrap his arms around her. “I can wait.”

She leaned into his chest and savored his scent. He smelled of cologne, cinnamon and ambition.

“I’m glad your band got signed,” she mumbled dreamily into his chest.

“I’m glad you got signed.” He lifted her chin and tilted her face up towards his. They kissed and it was deep and passionate and turned Elise’s legs to jelly.

“God, I wish you could come up,” she whispered when they eventually parted.

“Me too,” Dylan agreed, resting his forehead against hers. The night was so cool that their breath was misting before them.

“You should get inside, it’s cold,” he told her sadly.

“You keep me warm,” Elise smiled coyly.

They kissed again, for even longer this time.

“You’re a tough woman to walk away from,” Dylan sighed, still holding her tight.

“Dylan?”

“Yeah?”

“No matter what happens with our record deals, know that nothing will change between us.”

“I hope not.”

“It won’t!” Elise insisted. “I know it won’t.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I love you.” The words slid easily off Elise’s tongue. She loved how they sounded now that she had breathed life into them. She did love him. She’d loved him since their first kiss.

“I love you too,” Dylan replied sincerely, stroking her cheek tenderly.

“Aww, you two are so cute!” a voice chortled from above them.

Blushing, Elise looked up as Dylan’s grip tightened protectively around her. Gloria was hanging out of their apartment building, smiling broadly at them.

“Hurry up and get your ass up here!” she playfully ordered Elise. “I’ve been waiting forever for you to get in and debrief me on your night!”

“Duty calls, I suppose,” Elise joked. Dylan kissed her softly on the lips.

“Come on!” Gloria insisted. “I’m freezing my ass off with this window open!”

“Nice to meet you,” Dylan waved up at her as Elise began to ascend the final few steps of the stoop.

“You too!” Gloria waved at him. Then she averted her gaze to Elise. “Oh my God, he is totally hot. I can see why you’re crushing on him so hard!”

 “I’m right here!” Dylan pointed at himself and smiled.

“Do you have any brothers?” Gloria called to him. “Older or younger, I’m not picky!”

“Sorry, no brothers.”

“Cousins?” Gloria asked hopefully. Dylan laughed and waved as he sauntered down onto the sidewalk.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he told Elise, holding her intensely in his gaze.

“Yeah,” Elise had to prop herself up against the door as her legs were still jellified from his kiss.

“Tomorrow.” She instantly hated tomorrow for being an entire day away, it already felt like an eternity.

“Make sure you call Jake,” Dylan reminded her. “Sometimes opportunity only knocks once, you don’t want to miss it.”

“I’ll call.” Elise unlocked her front door and entered her apartment building. She realized with a shiver that it was just as cold inside as it was outside. But she didn’t care. She sighed wistfully as she leaned back against the door. The interest from Cloud Records was great but it paled in comparison to Dylan’s declaration of love. When Elise fell asleep, she was thinking solely about him, not even sparing a thought for the meteoric deal she was about to strike with one of the country’s biggest music labels.

“I hope you don’t enjoy daylight,” Jake quipped as Elise handed the signed contract back to him.

“Daylight?” She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and tucked a stray bang behind her ear.

“Yeah, because for the next month or so you’re going to be locked away in the studio recording your debut album.”

“Oh,” Elise laughed lightly though she was a little perturbed with how she could produce a whole album in just a month. She had six songs, seven at a push, which she’d written herself. But she’d need at least three more.

“You’ll be working with some of the hottest producers,” Jake continued, his eyes twinkling with excitement.

“Here at Cloud Records we want to give you the best possible sound we can. We’re billing you as the next Claire Parry.”

“Wow!” Elise breathed. Claire Parry was a huge pop star who wrote her own songs, went on world tours and always topped the Billboard charts. Elise, like most other young women, adored her stuff and idolized her. To even hear her name in the same breath as Claire Parry’s was overwhelming.

“I know it might seem like everything is moving quickly,” Jake sympathized. “But that’s how it is in the music business. You don’t stay hot for very long so we have to act quickly to get an album out there while you are still generating buzz.”

“I’m generating buzz?” Elise still couldn’t believe it all. She knew that her songs were going down well at the open mic nights but beyond that she doubted anyone had even heard of her. Her biggest fan was still her grandmother.

“You leave that to us,” Jake grinned. He was a natural salesman. “We’ll make you a star, you just focus on making great music.”

“Okay,” Elise nodded eagerly. “So when do we begin?”

***

Two weeks later and Elise stretched in the black leather chair and yawned.

“You can’t be tired already,” her producer, Antony, commented. He had black dreadlocks and a slight Jamaican accent.

Elise glanced at her watch.

“It’s two in the morning,” she groaned. “How can you not be tired?”

But she knew how Antony evaded the fatigue she was feeling. It was evident by the empty cans of Red Bull stacked up around him.

“We’re in the race now,” he chuckled to her. “We got to finish this ’ere album. I need you back in that booth laying vocals for ‘Leave Me There.’”

Elise picked up her nearby bottle of water and drank thirstily from it. She’d never sung so much in all her life. Every day at eight a black city car picked her up and whisked her straight to the recording studio where she often stayed until three, sometimes four in the morning. She was operating on barely any sleep and was beginning to look and feel like a zombie.

Antony was kind, he let her nap on the sofas in the studio when he didn’t need her input or her voice. But it was intense, much more intense than Elise could ever have anticipated. So much had changed in such a short space of time.

After her first day in the studio she was taken back to a part of the city she didn’t recognize. Here, apparently, was her new apartment, purchased courtesy of the label. She finally had her own place, with private bedroom, stylish modern kitchen and vast open living area. It was fully furnished and beyond amazing. When Elise saw it she couldn’t wait to have Dylan come around but she’d yet to find the time. When she wasn’t locked up in the studio she was sleeping. But Dylan thankfully understood as his band was currently going through the exact same thing, locked up in a different studio on a different side of the city.

“Can I just have five minutes?” Elise asked Antony, yawning.

“Five minutes,” he held up five fingers to her. “That’s it.”

Elise moved over onto the sofa and lifted her cell phone from her pocket. She pressed the speed dial for 1, which was reserved for Dylan.

“Hey,” he answered after the sixth ring. His voice sounded groggy as though he’d been sleeping.

“Sorry, did I wake you?”

“Huh,” she heard him knock something over. “Dammit. Urgh, yeah.”

“Sorry,” Elise repeated, feeling dreadful. They both had precious little time to sleep so she hated to disturb any rest he was able to have.

“Yeah, we got back at midnight as we killed it on a couple of tracks,” Dylan explained, sounding a bit more awake.

“At midnight?” Elise felt her heart sink in her chest. That was over two hours ago. Why hadn’t he called her when he got in? They were supposed to speak to one another every night before they fell asleep, no matter how late it was.

“I know I should have called,” Dylan instantly apologized. “I meant to, I had my phone out and everything but I must have just crashed the moment I got in bed.”

Elise understood how it could have happened. Lately she feared she might fall asleep while recording a song. The moment she was left alone she’d close her eyes and instantly be in a deep sleep.

“This is all so intense,” she sighed. “I’m still at the studio.”

“Still?”

“Yeah, I’m struggling on this one song, ‘Leave Me There.’ The vocals need to be quite raw and heartfelt and well…I’m just too exhausted to deliver.”

On the other end of the line she could hear Dylan’s deep, slow breathing.

“Dylan?”

“What?” he jolted back awake. “Shit, sorry, baby. I’m just so tired.”

“It’s okay, get some rest.” 

“Go kill that track,” he told her. “I know you can do it.”

“I love you,” Elise whispered to him, holding the phone tenderly to her ear, savoring the sound of his voice.

“I love you too.”

***

Elise wasn’t sure if it was speaking to Dylan or just her own determination to get into bed and rest, but when she went back into the recording booth she sang ‘Leave Me There’ better than she ever had before. She fueled each line with all her emotion so that at the end she physically wilted against the microphone, completely drained.

“That was it!” Antony gushed, speaking to her from the other side of the glass. “You nailed it! We’ve got a hit record right there!”

“Great,” Elise sighed. “Can I go home and sleep now?”

“I should think so.”

***

Elise was being rewarded with a rare day off which meant she could sleep late into the day. She awoke at one in the afternoon to the sound of her front door buzzer screeching across the tranquility of her apartment. Groaning, she pulled herself out of bed, wrapped her pink terry cloth robe around her and hurried over in bare feet to the front door. She had a video phone so she could see whoever was calling her. She looked at the screen but the caller’s face was obscured by an ornate bouquet of flowers.

“Who is it?” Elise pressed a button and spoke.

“Delivery,” the caller replied gruffly. Elise rolled her eyes and pressed the button which opened her door.

“Okay, come on up.”

Moments later there was a brisk knock at her front door. Elise opened it and saw the same bouquet of flowers, only more vibrant now than they had been on the screen. But as beautiful as the flowers were, it was the person behind them she was interested in. She spotted the leather sleeve and instantly knew it was him. She pushed the flowers aside and grinned in delight at Dylan.

“Hey, beautiful,” he purred sexily at her. “I thought I’d come and surprise you, and reward you for making a hit last night.”

He handed her the flowers and entered the apartment.

“So this is your new place?” He looked around approvingly. “It’s awesome.”

“Yeah,” Elise shrugged modestly. “It’s just nice to have my own bedroom now.”

“Own bedroom?” Dylan arched an eyebrow in interest and Elise blushed.

“I should put these in water.” She hurried over to the kitchen and turned on the cold water faucet.

“I didn’t know you were off today,” she called back to him as she placed the flowers in the sink to keep them fresh. She didn’t yet have a vase within her apartment.

“I’m not,” Dylan shrugged. “I managed to procure a prolonged lunch break.”

“So you’ve got to go back after?” Elise couldn’t conceal her disappointment. She’d been hoping they could spend the day together relaxing in her apartment, curling up on her sofa watching movies and eating takeout.

“Yep, ’fraid so,” Dylan eyed her sadly. “We’ve still got three tracks to lay down by the end of the week.”

“Well, I appreciate you coming to see me,” Elise went to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Even if just for a little while.” She leaned up towards him and softly kissed him on the lips.

“I’ve missed you,” Dylan told her sincerely, stroking her cheek.

“I’ve missed you too,” Elise rested her head against his chest. “Have you at least got time for me to go shower? I feel like a tramp because I just got up.”

“Sure.” Dylan removed his jacket and headed over to the sofa, across from which was hung an impressively large TV.