“Do I look like I watch musicals?” Derek rolled his eyes and shoved an egg roll in his mouth.
“We should definitely use the musicals we did. So, Wizard of Oz, Grease, and West Side Story,” Adrian said.
“That’s only three songs. What if we did each song from a different musical? There’s plenty to sample from. Little Shop of Horrors, Rent, Hairspray, Oklahoma!, Chicago. Oh, that would be a fun one!” Cleo scribbled furiously on her paper.
“I like that idea. We should definitely try to get the rights for big ones that most people could identify. We’ll have to call and see what ones we could get,” Mark told them.
“On it,” Adrian said, tapping on his phone and putting it to his ear. He smiled at the group and walked out of the room.
“Sam, hey we have an idea,” he said as he left to talk to their manager.
“Mark you are a genius,” Cleo exclaimed. He beamed. “I can’t wait to start singing some of these. My mind is just flooding with ideas.”
“Ooh, Hedwig and the Angry Inch. That could be a fun one. Should we do ‘Sugar Daddy’ or ‘Angry Inch’?” Derek suggested, wiggling his eyebrows. Mark choked on his noodles while laughing.
“Only if you dress as Hedwig,” he told him. Derek tilted his head as if considering it. Cleo gasped and we all turned.
“Oh my God. Are we going to do costumes? We’ve never done that before.”
Mark and Derek both shook their heads furiously. I leaned against my husband and kissed his head.
“That would be cute. You guys should dress up,” I teased. He glared at me to shut it before it ended up a thing. Too late, I told him with my eyes. The gears in Cleo’s head were already turning.
Adrian returned a moment later smiling.
“Sam is going to look into it, but he likes the concept and thinks that we can get permission for enough to make 15 songs. Have we started picking individual songs yet?” He came back to the counter and looked at everyone's notes. Cleo shook her head.
“No, but I think our first single should be from West Side Story. I really think we should do ‘Maria’.” The room fell quiet for a beat.
“Makes sense,” Adrian said hesitantly. “Who’s gonna sing it? Could we turn it into a duet?” Cleo blushed and her eyes darted away from his and then flicked over to Derek. Adrian saw and his eyes turned hard. “No. This is bullshit.”
“What if Derek did it?” All three of the men's eyes bulged and after a pause they all started talking over each other. I sighed. They were going to spend the rest of the day and at least part of the evening figuring this out. I kissed Mark’s shoulder and told him that I was leaving. He frowned and apologized.
“I’m sorry babe. I know it’s boring to just sit and listen. How about when I get home tonight we catch up on TV?” He kissed me quickly and as I started out of the room Adrian shouted after me.
“Hey! Are you still good to start watching Rocky this week? His first appointment is tomorrow. I nodded and blew Mark another kiss before leaving him to argue with his friends.
I went home, let the dogs out, and then plopped my butt on the couch. Man, I really needed to get a hobby or friends or something. This was ridiculous. I was my own person. I couldn’t keep being just someone’s wife. Beau jumped up and snuggled into my side. Bonnie followed a beat later and plopped her head on my ankles. I guess having Rocky around would be nice. He was still so little though. He’d probably just sleep most of the time. Thinking about sleep, I closed my eyes and decided a nap couldn’t hurt.
I woke up to my phone ringing on the coffee table. It was on vibrate, so the rattling against the glass was noisier than if it had been turned on high. I grabbed it quickly and squinted to look at the screen. It wasn’t dark out, but my vision was still blurry from sleeping.
Stacie was calling me. I answered it with a groan.
“Hello?”
“Renee? Were you sleeping?” I sat up, disturbing the dogs. They yelped at me, but I shushed them.
“Just taking a nap. What’s up? What time is it?” I asked.
“Almost five. You wanna go out with a few of us old timers? Dinner, drinks, and maybe some karaoke,” she teased. I considered it for a moment. Looking around, I knew that I was alone. I would have heard if someone had come in. My options were to go and have fun or sit around bored out of my mind.
“Sure, what time are you thinking?”
“In about an hour. Do you want someone to pick you up?”
“Yeah, that will work. Just call when you are on your way,” I told her.
“I can’t. I’m already picking up Emilie and Jordan. I’ll see who has room and have them get you. I have to get showered. I’ll see you soon,” she hung up the phone before I could protest. Not that I had any reason to. She said old timers, so they were all my old friends.
