Love and Loss

37. Me, Some Wine, And a Jaccuzi

10:06 pm
Los Angeles, CA
Deija

"I'm so sorry, y'all." I spoke, as I rushed into the small studio Jas had booked us for tonight. I dropped my purse on the couch closest to the door, while pulling my jacket from my arms. "Traffic was fucking crazy. How the hell a fifteen minute drive turn into forty-five?"

"That's LA traffic for you." Jas chuckled as she stood from her seat, pulling me into a hug. "You all good though, I got us booked all night."

"Word? Oh we lit, then." I stuck my tongue out, dancing a little bit.

"Lit, fasho." Jas nodded, before pointing behind her back to the other person in the room who was silently watching us. "This is Ali, our engineer for the night. He real dope, he even produced a couple of tracks on Namiko's last album."

"Real shit." I nodded, reaching my hand out to his. "I'm Deija."

"Nice to meet you, Deija." His pink lips curled into a smirk that I'm sure had a lot of girls weak in the knees, but not me.

"Here his fast ass go." Jas rolled her eyes, slapping him on the shoulder. "Nigga can't ever just play the damn beats."

Ali smacked his teeth, "Man whatever. You jus' a hater." He waved her off.

"What could I possibly hate on?" She scrunched her brows, genuinely looking confused.

"Jas." I broke into laughter. "I can't with you."

"I'm askin' a serious question." She looked between Ali and I. "I'm just tryna see what I missed."

"All yo homegirls hittin' my line, that's what you missed." He said, before turning in his chair to look at me. "So, I heard you was lookin' for something more soft and melodic?"

"This nigga." Jas smacked her teeth, choosing to sit back down in her seat and just let him have that one.

I nodded, "Yeah, but I also want a nice beat in there. Something people can really feel. My lyrics are one thing but they need to feel what I'm feeling, you know?"

"I got you." He nodded, swiping through different files on his lap top. "I got a couple beats I'mma play for you. Let me know which one you feelin'."

"Okay."

Pulling one of the chairs back from under the table, I took a seat, waiting for the beats to start up. He hit play on the first track and as the melody began to flow threw the speakers, I immediately knew it wasn't what I was looking for.

"Nah." I shook my head. "It's nice but not what I want."

"Respect. Aight listen to this one."

The next beat that played was better. It had a soft beat with a nice melody but it had a lot of soul and that wasn't what I needed for this song.

"Nah, not this one either." I shook my head again. "It's nice as fuck, but it's missing something."

"Like what?" He asked.

I drew in a breath, trying to pin point what I felt was missing from the beat.

"It's a piano in here?" I asked.

"Yeah." Jas moved from in front of where it was. "You bout to show us somethin'?"

"I just want to try something out." I chuckled, moving my chair closer to wear the piano was placed. "Okay, play the beat again."

He pressed play, allowing the beat to consume the room. I took a second to listen to the rhythm again before my fingers started pressing keys and whatever I was doing sounded good. I kept it up, my head nodding to the music flowing through my ears.