Chapter 14

The next day came, and instead of going ahead with her usual work and shaking at the thought of the revelation she had last night, Bethany is going somewhere else, and she is waiting for her boss to come and fetch her from the lobby on the ground floor.

For the two of them are going to the studio, where the stars in the making are creating and honing their craft to showcase their talent through their music and being introduced to the mainstream media.

She is looking at her watch, waiting for the time to pass by, trying to avoid any eyes prying on her. It is the first day that she will accompany her boss towards the recording studio, checking on Lip n Hip, their company’s group, and trying to have their careers revitalized.

He is running late, Bethany thought to herself and sighed, giving up watching her wristwatch’s hands passing by the numbers to kill time. She looked to the ceiling of the lobby and thought of the behavior of Kevin compared to her bosses that came before him whom she served.

He is very different from them in how he behaves and thinks. It was as if he was a creep that makes her skin crawl when not understood properly. But she gets where he is coming from; he is trying to atone for the mistakes that he made and in return helps everyone along the way.

But she also knows that in doing so, there is a possibility that he will become empty in the end. Kevin is being too selfless and is risking his career on the line.

She just wished that she had the guts to say that, but she could not. Firstly, the fact that she is just his secretary, and secondly, Kevin has a lover that surely sees that his mistakes could spell the end of his position.

Surely Gwen sees that, right?

“How long have you been waiting?”

Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard Kevin’s voice. Bethany, startled, suddenly got up and fixed herself in front of her boss.

“I just arrived a couple of minutes ago, no biggie.”

Both of them then set their walk toward the studio where the group is already waiting for them.

She already fixed her mind to not interfere and let him see his mistake. And surely, along the way, Bethany knows that she will learn something from him and maybe have her perception of things changed the way he used to do with her during their high school days.

When they reached the floor as the door of the elevator opened, tens of employees immediately greeted them with their heads bowing for formalities. Kevin simply greeted them back with a smile and continued on their way until they reached the room by the end of the hallway where five people were waiting on them with excited smiles on their faces.

Kevin also had his enthusiasm back to them and smiled as he greeted them, opening their conversation by offering his hand to shake with them.

“You must be Hip n Lip. I am your CEO and will help you have your dreams come true once again.”

“So, we are going to hold the introduction first of ourselves first,” Bethany took charge of the talks between the two parties; one is the interested Kevin and the other are the ladies that seemed to be excited to have a talk with him while sensing that one or two of them have an interest with him personally rather than what they are about to do. “This is Kevin, our CEO.”

“Hi, I am Cindy,” their leader, the blonde one introduced herself and extended a hand to Kevin. He accepted it with a smile, and she was the one who led the introduction of her members. “This is Maggie, Lia, Kim, and Ai. We are Lip n Hip.”

The CEO and Bethany had a quick glance of all of the members from left to right and shook hands with them. After that, they sat down and already got down to business. The manager of the said group, Keisha Lazlo, entered the room bringing a couple of coffee. Bethany was quick to her feet and stood up, assisted the manager, and brought it to the girls that could not wait already to start their discussion.

“It seems that everyone is already here, we should start the talks already on your new song coming out… a comeback, if you could say it like that,” Kevin looked at their eyes and had a productive meeting with them while Bethany was taking notes at every word that they were saying through her tablet. It lasted for about twenty minutes, answering every question with precise, concise, but complete in detail with the manager adding some other information that will help him with his input and idea of what he is going to do.

After the talk, all of them remained silent and were sipping their coffee in silence. Bethany and Kevin had a discussion on how the minutes of their conversation went while the girls had a talk to themselves. It was then that their manager initiated a conversation with them, trying to be as discreet as possible from the ears of the CEO.

“Are you all okay?”

“Kind of, I have a positive reaction in our CEO now compared to our previous one,” Cindy replied, smiling small at Keisha. “Before, he would even talk down on us as if we are failures of the company that we are working with.”

“Yeah, I will drink to that,” Lia agreed with her leader, raising a hand in irritation at the previous boss. “He won’t even let us write our own songs, let alone hire a decent producer. How could he just –”

“I’m sorry, what did you say again?” Kevin interjected in their conversation, his attention caught by Lia’s raising hand earlier and overheard them.

Lia was suddenly ashamed of what she just said but repeated the things she uttered to Keisha. Kevin had no reply to what she just said, but nodded instead, understanding what happened and seeming to have a plan in mind by rubbing his chin.

Bethany knew about this expression since they were in high school. The look on his face when he rubbed his chin before and nodded, then wrote something on the pad. He would even finish early on their activities from class and go home early but earning a lot higher marks.

That is the kind of Kevin she knew before, and it seemed that he had not changed a single bit.

Cindy noticed the look on her face and instead of letting the others notice her gaze, she cleared her throat in a loud manner that caught everyone’s attention and turned to Kevin.

“What are you going to plan on that… statement that we gave you just now?”

“I think I will do the most convenient solution of all for this situation that you were roped into,” Kevin said to her with a confident sound in his voice. “We will hire a new producer and try to give you freedom on your skills in writing.”

The girls from the band could not contain their excitement and had their eyes sparkling in excitement, wanting to scream out of their couches and bring themselves to surround Kevin, but held themselves. Kevin, on the other hand, looked at Keisha, nodding to her.

“Can I have a minute?”

The two of them excused themselves and went outside of the meeting room. Before Keisha could even start asking him why they had to talk privately, Kevin already asked a question to her.

“What do you think are the styles of the girls when they are singing?”

Taken by surprise, she immediately thought of something until she remembered what they are capable of doing.

“They are all centered around powerful vocals and Lia and Kim can rap. But the company forced them to do cute and cuddly concepts like the other companies, and that ruined them in the first place.”

“That is the only thing I can confirm, I guess,” Kevin answered her and took his phone out, typing something already as he opened his messages. “I will make a request.”

“Request of what?”

“Request to the producer that I personally know,” Kevin smirked as he continued to type his message to the man.

“You are getting out of your way to help us,” Keisha replied to him, peeking at the ladies having a talk with Bethany inside the room through the window. “Are you sure about reviving their career at this point?”

“Of course. They just had a rough start, but I can sure that they can turn this around.”

The manager chuckled, turning to him, and crossing her arms. “It seems that hope is still alive for us.”

“As you should. I can’t help you if you don’t have hope in yourselves,” Kevin answered jokingly and was about to hit send when somebody called him. “Sorry, I just have to take this call.”

“I will have to go to the toilet anyway,” Keisha then excused herself and waved him goodbye. Kevin looked at the caller ID of the person calling him, and he immediately answered it.

It was Gwen.