It was just another day at work. Phone calls with artists, phone calls with advertisers, meetings with reps, more meetings with executives. By lunch time, Brody seriously needed time to himself. Usually he’d eat in the cafeteria with everyone else–he was a people person after all– but today he just needed peace and quiet. Even if it was for just an hour, he’d take it.
He was just digging into his salad when the sound of somebody singing drifted into his office. At first, he didn’t think anything of it. Kevin was always listening to new artists and would sometimes forget to hit pause before going to lunch. He listened for a minute, thinking whoever was singing was a wonderful singer and the A&R department did a great job nabbing her. Deciding he had heard enough, he stood up to shut his office door when he saw someone sitting at one of the desks in the far right corner.Â
That was strange, he thought to himself. Nobody stays in the bullpen during lunch, not even the interns. Leaning against the door frame, he crossed his arms and watched the woman. He’d seen her a few times in passing but never paid much attention. She wasn’t one of his interns so he didn’t know much about her. What he did know, however, was that she was the source of the beautiful singing voice and that she had no idea he was there.Â
He grabbed his “quick thoughts” notebook–something the CEO had recently enforced for all upper and middle management– and quietly walked towards the woman. He stood behind her and flipped open the notebook, jotting down a note about her then loudly snapped it shut. Stepping up beside her desk, he leaned on the divider and smirked.
“I know we have a lot of talented people in this office but no one told me we had a singer amongst us.”
Lunch break usually meant an empty office, with almost everyone opting to head to the cafeteria and stuff their faces with green juices and vegan burgers. Marley preferred staying in and eating whatever sad sandwich she had packed the night before. She didn’t mind it, really, and even if she did, it wasn’t like she was invited to go out with the staff. She was a measly intern -- a girl struggling to get her name out there in the music industry. Every label she’d spoken to had turned her down without giving her demo a fair listen, so she resorted to interning, though it wasn’t exactly her dream job.
Her desk was tiny and packed into the far corner of the room, away from the important people. She had already responded to every email and phone call that she’d been ordered to, so she was scrolling through Buzzfeed when she decided to pull up Spotify and tune in to her favorite playlist. Before she knew it, she was singing along to a ballad and taking a quiz to determine which Disney princess she was based on her favorite breakfast options.
“Seems like a part of me will always have to lose. Every single time I have to choose. Swore that it felt right, but was I wrong? Is this where I'm supposed to be at all?”
Sleeping Beauty? Seriously? She always saw herself as poor of a Belle type of girl. Next up was a quiz to tell her what age she’d meet her soulmate by based on her zodiac sign.
“If I could go back and change the past, be a little braver than I had, and bet against the odds. Would I still be lost? Even if I woke up in my dreams would there still be something I'm missing? If I had everything would it mean anything to me?”
Twenty-five? Yeah, right. That only gave her nine months to find ~the one~.
As soon as she noticed a presence in the room, she tore her earphones out and flushed a bright red. Whoever was there had definitely heard her singing and was probably approaching her to tell her to shut up and get back to work. “I--” she began, though as soon as she saw who it was, she closed her mouth. It was one of the marketing directors that she’d never spoken to, but had heard great things about. She didn’t even know his name, but the smile on his face made her stomach turn with nervousness. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know anyone else was in here.”
