friends to lovers | duke dennis

ten

this just hit 10k so i had to drop a chapter for you guys. thank y'all so much for 10k reads. i dead did not expect this book to do this well. enjoy and exuse any types - naomi

Renée

Renée is currently sitting in the studio, writing in her songbook. There was an instrumental beat playing in the background that she had made while she wrote whatever came to mind. As she was jotting down lyrics, she heard the door open. She turned toward the door and smiled, excited to see Duke.

"Hey, whatchu doing here?" Renée smiled, walking over to hug Duke. "I know your ass hungry so I got you some food," Duke said, holding up a bag of food. "You got me Chic-fil-a?" Renée jokingly asked, grabbing the bag of food from his hand. She danced excitedly as she walked towards the table and sat the bag down, grabbing the food from inside.

"Thank you," Renée smiled, placing a fry in her mouth while still dancing but now in her seat. "Of course," he lightly smiled at her when she did the same dance when she was excited to eat. He sat down next to her in front of the equipment.

"Can you like make a song from the top, type shit?" Duke asked.

"Like making a beat?"

"Yeah," Duke clarified.

Renée nodded, "What, you want me to make something?" Duke nodded. "Make a rap song," Duke suggested. Renée laughed, thinking he was joking expecting him join in. But she couldn't help but think that he was deadass by the look on his face. She had a deadpan expression on, "Stop playing with me nigga." 

She grabbed a wipe out of her purse to wipe her greasy hands. "I'm serious, I wanna hear you rap," Duke said, pulling out his phone. He tapped away on his phone, then a rap instrumental played through the speaker.

"Come on," Duke encouraged her, nodding his head to the beat. Renée is contemplating if she should rap, or at least attempt to.

"Alright, alright," Renée gave in. She nodded her head, matching Dukes' pace, trying to catch the beat. She facepalmed her face while shaking her head, feeling embarrassment creep in before she started.

"Uhh...I'm with Duke in the stu rapping on this beat, he a nice a guy came and bought me some good eats," Renée rapped. Duke slowly inched his finger towards his phone to pause the instrumental.

"That shit.....was ass," Duke busted out laughing while he slowly slipped out of his seat. Renée mushed his head, making him fall to the ground and causing him to laugh even harder. This is the laugh where no sound comes out, and Renée couldn't help but join him.

"Stop it," she dragged. "Alright, alright. It wasn't that bad," Duke said.

He got up, wiping the tears from his eyes, and pulled up his chair next to Renée.

"Go 'head," Duke softly pushed the chair Renée was sitting in towards the soundboard. "Pretend I'm not here."

Renée picked up her songbook and flipped to the song she was currently writing. She glanced at it for a few seconds before flipping to another song. She had already come to terms with liking Duke, but the way her hand had a mind of its own while writing those lyrics scared her. She pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind and flipped to a song she started a few weeks ago.

"I'm gonna do this song I didn't finish writing," Renée mumbled, looking at a half-written song titled "Wanna Know."

"I already have a melody and beat in mind," Renée mumbled, rolling over to the computer and pulling up the program she was going to make her song on.

Duke couldn't help but admire Renée, just her being in the zone and doing what she loves was very sexy to him. The way her eyebrows furrowed when she was concentrated, the way she smiled when she came up with something.