Whitney quickly pulled away from Charlie feeling her cheeks burning with humiliation.  He cleared his throat as he excused himself and left the room.  Bianca took a few slow steps closer to Whitney and leaned her hands on the kitchen counter. 

“Well, well,” she said, with the same grin she had entered with.

Whitney cleared her throat.  “Bianca-“

“-Save it.”  She put up her hand, “It wasn’t what it looked like?  That was the line you were going to give me, right?  Please.  Actually, I am pretty impressed.  I didn’t think you had it in you.” 

 Whitney stood silently with her lips pressed together.  She wanted to say something, but knew she had no real defense.

Bianca pressed on, “I’m pretty sure if JC found out about this he’d be a little disgusted with you – since Charles is married and used to be your boss. Oh, don’t worry though.  I’ll let him think you’re still his innocent little assistant.  This will just be a secret between us – just as long as you stay out of my way.”  She moved past her and made her way to the studio.  Whitney felt her stomach lurch as she struggled to come up with a way to fix this situation.  She attempted to compose herself and slowly made her way back down to the studio, reluctantly joining the rest of the group.  

Charlie stood up from his seat.  “JC, it was great working with you today.  Whitney can keep me up on the details and I’ll plan on seeing y’all in Tennessee.”

JC stood up and shook his hand, “Thanks, man, I’m really excited about this, too.”

“I’ll see y’all later,” Charlie said as his eyes flicked to Bianca before heading up the stairs. 

“Any luck?” JC asked.

“Hmmm...?” Whitney raised an eyebrow at him. 

“Did you have any luck at setting up something with the rest of the band?  Did you get in touch with Dave?”  He looked at her curiously, studying how distracted she seemed. 

“Right, sorry.  I wasn’t able to get a hold of Dave, so I texted him.  He is usually pretty quick to respond.  In terms of scheduling, I would say we could probably set something up in about 10 days or so.  How does that sound?”

JC smiled, “That sounds great.  Moving forward on this as quickly as possible feels right.”

“What is this I hear about Tennessee?” Bianca asked.

 “Oh, we’re going to meet the band there to work on recording the song,” he said, as he kept his focus on the computer screen in front of him.

“We?” she perked up.

“Well, Whitney and I,” he said, finally looking up at her.

Bianca’s eyes shot to Whitney with an icy stare.  “Well, that sounds like fun.  It’ll be like a vacation for you two.  You know, I could probably take a few days off and-“

JC shook his head, “It’s not a vacation at all, Bianca.  It’s a work trip – work only.”

Bianca sighed, “Okay, fine, forget it.”  She noted that he had his attention back to the computer, fiddling with different levels.  “So, are you going to change?”

“Hmm?”

“Are you going to change your clothes before we go to dinner?” Her tone was flat and her bottom lip jutted out. 

He finally refocused and turned in his chair.  “Oh, dinner.  Listen, Bianca, I am so sorry, but I have all of this work to do on this song and now that I am making some progress I really just want to chip away at it tonight.”

She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes.  “So, let me get this straight.  I showed up here dressed like this,” she motioned to the tight mini dress she was in, “But you’d rather stay in and play with your computer?”

Whitney desperately wanted to disappear, especially at the potential onset of a Bianca tantrum.  She also knew that JC would give in and end up taking Bianca out to dinner.  Knowing Bianca knew her secret was driving her insane and it had only been a matter of minutes.  There was no telling when that time bomb would go off.  JC spending time with Bianca made her nervous, but Bianca being in a rotten mood scared her. 

JC sighed as he scratched the back of his head.  “I guess we can go to a quick dinner, but then I am coming right back to the house to work.” 

She smiled as she moved towards him, resting her hands on his shoulders.  “Just dinner is just fine.  Now, why don’t you change?  Maybe that navy blazer…”

He reluctantly stood up from his chair.  “Whitney, you can head out.  Thanks so much for everything today.”

She nodded, “Of course.  I’ll keep you updated once I take care of the travel plans.”

He smiled, “That’s great.  Have a good night.”

**

Charlie had been too spooked by Bianca earlier to come over and spend the evening with Whitney.  Even though she had wanted to spend time with him, she was enjoying a quiet evening at home alone.  The stress of the events of the day had worn on her and she just wanted to decompress and relax.  She had settled into the sofa in her pajamas and put a movie on.  She sipped on a cup of tea and pulled her throw blanket over her.  She had finally found the perfect position for her legs and was completely comfortable when she heard a knock at her door.  Charlie.  She put her mug down and sighed as she moved out of her perfect position and headed to the door.  She let out a small yawn before opening the door. 

Her eyes widened.  “JC?”

He smiled nervously and started to ramble.  “Hey, Whitney.  Sorry to just show up like this.  I hope this is okay.  Were you awake?  Right, it’s only 9:30 so I am pretty sure you were. But I should have called ahead of time anyway.  Maybe you are one of those people that go to bed early.  You seem like you could be disciplined like that.  I have trouble with my sleep cycle so I am always tired and…”

“Um, JC?  Slow down…” she smiled, motioning for him to come in.

“Thanks, sorry.  I hope that it’s okay that I am here.  I was at dinner, but all I could think about was finishing the song.  I was really hung up on the chorus and I think I finally cracked it and you were so helpful before I wanted to run it by you.  I won’t really be able to go to sleep tonight until it’s done.  Is that alright with you?  I can pay you over-time.  It seemed like a really good idea at the time to swing by here on my way home, but now that I am here and you’re in your pajamas I feel a little ridiculous.”  His cheeks had turned red as he took in the blanket and the mug of tea by her sofa and feared he had disturbed her.

She smiled, “Of course you can.  Do you want something to drink?  There’s hot water.”

“Some tea would be great.”

She slipped into the kitchen and pulled a mug down from the cabinet above the sink.  “Green tea okay with you?” she called out to him in the other room.

“That’s great.”  He stood in place in the living room as his eyes wandered the space, taking in everything.  He had never been to her place before and was overwhelmed with curiosity as his eyes trailed her bookshelves and her movie collection.  It was a warm and inviting apartment and he immediately felt comfortable.

She returned to the room and handed him a mug, making her way back to her spot on the sofa.  He thanked her and placed the mug on the side table and settled on the opposite end of the couch.  He pulled his small journal out and flipped it open.  “Alright, so I know that I want the chorus to end with When you’ve got a good thing, but I am having trouble getting there.”

She nodded, “Sure, what do you have for it so far?”

“So baby, hold on tight

Don’t let go

Hmmmm hmmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm

Hmm hmmm hmm hmm hmmm hmm hmmmm

You’ve got to know

When you’ve got a good thing.”

She smiled, “I like it.  I’d say you might want to make you’ve got to into you gotta.”

“Right, that’s good.”  He took a sip of tea and smiled at the warmth. 

She continued, “Alright, so the part where you’re stuck should be describing what needs to be held on to.  It’s whatever the good thing is.  So, what do you think it is?”

He closed his eyes, trying to think of an answer while he hummed the melody quietly to himself.  “Hold onto the love we’re making.  That’s it, that’s perfect! 

So baby, hold on tight

Don’t let go

Hold onto the love we’re making

Now I just need to rhyme the next line to wrap it up.”

He pondered, “This is a love worth taking.”  He made a face, “No…”

“How about waking?  Shaking?”

He grinned, “Yes, shaking!  When the ground starts shaking.  ‘Cause baby when the ground starts shakin’.”

“Do you think that works?”

He nodded eagerly, “Yes, I think that’s locked down, now.  So the chorus will be

So baby, hold on tight

Don’t let go

Hold onto the love we’re making

‘Cause baby when the ground starts shakin’

You gotta know

When you’ve got a good thing.”

She smiled at his excitement, “I think that sounds amazing.”

He grinned, “I’m so glad that it’s coming together.  I promised myself that I’d finish the lyrics tonight so I can work on the melody tomorrow.”

“Well, I’m glad you kept to your timeline.”

“Thank you so much, Whitney.  You’re pretty good at this.”

She tucked her hair behind her ear as she brought her mug to her lips, “Glad to help.”

He closed his notebook.  “Alright, well thank you for letting me barge in on you like this.  I’ll leave you to the rest of your evening.”

“If you want, you’re welcome to stay.  I was just starting a movie and I’m sure you could use the relaxation after all that work without any sleep.”

“Are you sure?”

She nodded, “Of course.”

He smiled and settled back into the sofa.  “That’d be great.” 

**

About an hour into the movie, JC had passed out cold.  Whitney smiled to herself as she watched him fall into a deep sleep.  She was glad he was finally allowing himself to relax after overextending himself.  She waited until the movie had ended and then stood up and turned the television off.  She surveyed him one more time and slipped the throw blanket over him. 

“Goodnight JC,” she whispered as she headed to her room to go to bed. 

**