“So, I’m told you already know the words to the song?”
Anna nodded enthusiastically, holding up her phone. “Your assistant sent over a file last night showing the lyric split for the duet, so yes, I’m ready.”
“Perfect. Let’s get started, then.” Eden turned and walked to the center of the stage, placing one hand on the microphone stand.
Anna looked around for a moment in panic. What was she supposed to do? The last thing she wanted was to look like an amateur in front of Eden Sands.
The woman Eden had been talking to when Anna walked in approached. “I’m Lora, the choreographer.”
“Nice to meet you, Lora,” Anna said, shaking her hand.
“Likewise,” Lora said. “Eden will begin with ‘Alone,’ then segue into ‘Never Too Late,’ where you’ll join her. Your portion of the performanceis relatively unchoreographed. You’ll enter from stage right when I give your cue and walk slowly toward Eden, meeting on this mark.” Lora gestured to a section of orange tape on the stage. “As the chorus begins.”
Anna followed as Lora led her through a quick run-through of the blocking for her performance. Then she was handed a microphone, and ... this was really happening. It had been surreal enough when Anna was nominated alongside Eden for several Grammy Awards. Performing with her was something Anna hadn’t even thought to fantasize about.
Her fingers trembled as she gripped the microphone.Be cool, Anna.She took her place offstage with Lora. The opening notes of “Alone” filled the room, and Anna watched transfixed as Eden began to sing. Her voice was rich and powerful, drawing Anna into the song. She’d seen Eden in concert before, but this was different ... so much more intimate. That tingling sensation in Anna’s stomach was back.
Eden strode to the rear of the stage, climbing a felt-covered hill as “Never Too Late” began. Lora turned to Anna. She counted down from five with her fingers and then pointed toward the stage.
Anna stepped out, microphone in hand, heart lodged somewhere in her esophagus.
“Your face is all I see,” Eden sang. “Close my eyes, and you’re free.”
Anna lifted her microphone. “It’s never too late for love. Never too late for second chances.” Her voice filled the room, her natural soprano coming in higher than Eden’s alto, and maybe she was projecting, but their voices seemed to complement each other nicely.
They walked toward each other as they sang, alternating lines during the verse. It was smooth ... too smooth? Anna fought her natural urge to shake things up, following the blocking Lora had shown her. She and Eden faced each other to sing the final line together. Eden seemed to look right through Anna, her gaze distant. “Never too late for love.”
As the music faded away, various staff and crew swarmed the stage, including Kyrie and Lora. Their expressions ranged from pleased topensive, but no one looked wowed, confirming the nagging feeling Anna hadn’t wanted to acknowledge. When she glanced at Eden, her jaw was clenched as if she knew it too.
“What did you think?” Eden asked. Her expression was neutral, but a challenge gleamed in her eyes, one Anna wasn’t sure how to read. Did Eden want her to speak the truth or lie to protect Eden’s ego? Anna’s response might make or break Eden’s opinion of her. That much was terrifyingly clear.
“Um.” Anna passed the microphone from her left hand to her right as she weighed her answer. An idea had begun to take shape in her mind, a way to shake up their performance, but it would mean scrapping almost everything Eden and her team had put together so far. Did she dare? Then again, she hadn’t made it this far by playing it safe. “Well, I thought it wasgood...”
A muscle beside Eden’s right eye twitched.
Anna lifted her chin. No going back now. “But I did have a somewhat crazy idea for how we could shake up our duet that might really get people talking on Grammy night, if you want to hear it?”
Eden slow-blinked, her expression hardening subtly beneath the polite veneer. Anna felt the shift like being blasted with arctic air, and fuck, had she really just suggested she knew better than Eden Sands? She wassuchan idiot.
“Tell me.” Eden feigned disinterest to cover her annoyance that Anna wanted to make changes to the performance. Until this moment, Anna had been exactly what Eden expected. Young, enthusiastic, and obviously starstruck by Eden, although she’d held her own during their rehearsal.
Anna had on red athletic pants and a black tank top with a rainbow across the front, her blonde hair in a high ponytail. She met Eden’s gazeunflinchingly, and Eden felt a surge of irrational anger that Anna had so easily voiced what Eden had been too afraid to acknowledge. She could barely remember a time when she’d been that fearless.
“This hill reminds me of the music video for ‘Daydreamer.’” Anna pointed to the felt-covered structure behind them.
That wasn’t even remotely where Eden might have expected her to take this conversation, and now Eden was at a loss. She gave Anna a look that said, “Go on.”
“It got me thinking,” Anna continued. “What if we performed ‘After Midnight’ together instead of ‘Never Too Late’?”
“Why ‘After Midnight’?” It was the title track off Eden’s latest album and had been a moderately successful single last fall, but she failed to see its relevance to their performance.
“Because it’s about how you become a slightly different person after midnight, right?” Anna said. “You’re more free to be yourself late at night when no one’s watching. What if we make a twist on that so the ‘after midnight’ parts of the song represent a younger version of you instead? ‘Daydreamer’ is the song that first made you a star, and in the video for it, you wore a green dress embellished with flowers and a blonde wig. It’s iconic. Everyone recognizes that look. What if I wear a similar dress for our duet? And I’ve already got blonde hair. I can represent past Eden, and our duet will be like you’re singing to a younger version of yourself.”
“You’re the younger version of me?” Eden tried to keep her tone neutral, but she wasn’t sure she succeeded. The gall of this girl to insinuate she was the next Eden Sands!
“No,” Anna said quickly, for the first time looking as if she regretted starting this conversation. “I would never compare myself to you. You’re a legend, and I’m ... I’m just the woman lucky enough to share the stage with you on Sunday night.”
“Your idea would involve a new song arrangement and wardrobe for you. Those things cost time and money, and the performance is infour days,” Eden pointed out. It was the truth, and yet Anna’s concept held water. It might even be great, as much as Eden hated to admit it.
