Page 78 of Ravaged By Lust

I watch her from the doorway. I can’t do anything else but smile goofily at her the entire time she sings that song in the most heartfelt way.

I take a glance around the boardroom. She is most definitely blowing the socks off these stiff suits.

She is amazing, just as I’ve always known she is since I first snuck into her bedroom all those years ago.

She’s talented.

Beautiful.

She glances at me, mid-song, and smiles.

And I mouth back. I don’t lose.

She blushes at that.

She’s my girl.

35

CHLOE

Immediately after my performance in front of the boardroom of executives, I am offered a record deal with Mickey Miller on the spot.

It’s beyond my wildest dreams.

Mickey Miller literally walks up to me, shakes my hand, and proposes it right then and there.

“I’ll have my assistant call you in the next few days to arrange a meeting to formalize everything,” he tells me, his fake-tanned hand strongly gripping mine. “It’ll be good to work with you, Chloe Stoll. I see a very… rewarding future in store. For the both of us.”

And that’s why he gets paid the big bucks.

“Get the assistant to call my lawyers,” Bishop tells the producer, butting in with that confident charm of his. “They’ll look through it all, if that’s okay with you, Chloe?”

I just nod. I’m still in shock from what Mickey Miller is offering me. “Sure.”

The powerful producer smiles. “You were good today, Chloe,” he says. “Keep that up. I’m expecting great things from you, young lady.”

When he leaves, the rest of the executive team follows him out. Bishop and I are alone in the boardroom.

I wait until they’re definitely out of earshot before squealing.

“Wow,” Bishop exclaims to me. “Mickey Miller said that you’re good. That’s incredible, coming from him.”

“It is?”

“He never says anything like that.”

“Okay. Holy shit, is this real?”

“It is,” Bishop says. “Eat it up. Welcome to the big leagues.”

“Everything I’ve ever worked for,” I whisper. “All those long hours practicing on my own… not thinking anyone would hear a single note from me…”

“You really do deserve all this,” Bishop says.

I look around the boardroom, and then at my guitar resting against the wall. If I really do take up this offer, then my dreams will come true. All those years of imagining.

And yet… it doesn’t seem real. I’m not as ecstatic as I thought I’d be.