A One Night Stand Turned Complicated

Chapter 6

Alice kept yelling, even as they reached Camille's apartment and headed inside.

"Camille! Why are you being such a b***h?"

Camille ignored her and headed towards her room.

"Camille! What did I ever do to you to deserve this?" came Alice's shrill voice as Camille closed and locked the door behind her.

Alice was right though. What did she ever do to deserve such a sister? The guilt was pounding steadily through her as she ran a hand through her hair.

Camille felt disgusted.

In the end, she was just like Jace. No better after all.

Her sister would never do this to her.

She ran a hand down her face.

She would need to fix this.

But how do you make up for kissing your sister's boyfriend?

"You're just jealous and I'm sorry that I ever asked you for anything!" Alice yelled through the door.

Camille heard footsteps retreating and then a slam.

Camille sighed, it wasn't like she could exactly go and tell Alice the real reason she had dragged her away from her boyfriend. That would only worsen her case and it was already bad enough.

She took a shower, and tried to remove the feeling of hands off her body, particularly his. Camille brushed her teeth and went to bed, knowing it was going to suck to wake up tomorrow and get to work.

Why did she have to work the Saturday morning shift?

~0~

Her alarm clock sounded and her eyes flickered to the numbers. '7:00' flashed on the screen. She groaned as she stretched and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. She hurriedly got dressed and headed to work, making sure to be quiet as to not wake Alice. She wouldn't be able to handle round two of her sister screaming at her.

Camille decided she would have to make it up big time to Alice. Along with making up some lame lie for why she did what she did, a shopping spree was in order. She knew it would never be enough, but it was a start.

As she pulled up to Lucy's, she instantly became suspicious as she saw Chanelle outside, waiting for her. She turned off the car and walked towards her.

Camille realized Chanelle was nervous as she watched her friend fiddle with her work blouse.

"Chanelle, what are you doing?" she asked. Chanelle's eyes flashed to the phone she had in her hand.

"Nothing. Just waiting for you."

Camille raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

Chanelle took a deep breath. "Because I was speaking to Stephonne and he would like to speak to you."

"Okay…..why?" Camille asked, still on her guard.

"Well Cammy, you know that Generic Flames is a great band… and they deserve to be noticed…don't you think?"

Camille didn't like how her friend was acting. Chanelle was usually assertive; she didn't beat around the bush. However, she was doing it now.

"I guess so….why?" Camille saw that Chanelle was getting upset with all her questions. She didn't care though, she was getting annoyed with her not really answering.

"Well I was speaking to Stephonne and he’s interested in them. And he has a favor to ask of you." This favor must have been huge if it got her friend nervous to ask her.

"What’s the favor?" she asked, skeptically.

"I'll let Stephonne tell you himself." Chanelle handed her the phone.

"Stephonne? Please tell me what has Chanelle acting like this?" She heard his deep, husky laugh in response.

"Well you see, apparently she's afraid that my request may send you off your rockers….or something like that." Her interest was now piqued. What was this big favor?

"Ok what is it?" she asked.

He paused. "Well you know that I'm in New York right now and should be back in a week or so?"

"Yes…."

"Well there's been a change of plans and now I have to head to California instead and won't be back for at least another two weeks, maybe more,” he sighed. “Such is the life of an A&R."

"Oh…does," she looked at her friend intently before lowering her voice, "she know?"

"Not yet…I'll tell her after we’re done talking."

"She is going to kill you," Camille told him. Chanelle raised an eyebrow then, curiosity written on her face.

He sighed dejectedly. "I know…anyway back to the point at hand."

Camille waited for him to continue.

"Because of this change in plan, I won't be able to see Generic Flames myself, for at least a month."

"Okay and what does that have to do with me?" Camille said, starting to realize there was actually a big plan her friend had cooked up for her.

"And so my favor is for you to record them,” he said.

Camille blinked. "What do you mean? Like record their shows?" she tried to clarify.

"I mean more than that. I want you to record their shows, yes, but also record them in practice."

"What? Why?" she asked and looked at her friend who quickly averted her gaze.

"Well, I need to see how they interact with each other. How well they complement each of their styles. How well they get along. You have no idea how many bands break up because they can’t actually get along behind the scenes,” he said. “You can really tell a lot about a band by just seeing them in practice, and it would give them a great advantage over the other bands I’m scouting," he explained.

"But isn't that against the rules? Like cheating or something?" Camille said.

"No. It would be like their promotion package," he paused, "So will you do it?"

Camille thought about it. "Anything else I need to know?"

"Oh. I need you to get around 36 hours worth of footage, if you can."

Her eyes widened at the number. "Why so much?"

"Just to guarantee that they’re not just faking for the camera, and to help me ensure I am making the right decision. You can't really keep up a pretense that long. I want them to be as real as possible with their talent. So no editing of the tape,okay?"

"And what do I get for doing this?" she asked, playfully.

He laughed. "A sense of self-gratification? Anything you want?"

She grinned. "Anything?"

"As long as it's within reason. C'mon Camille, think about how you'll be helping a band from your area become famous. Plus you’d be helping me. You know I’m always on the hunt for an incredible group and this next round of talent could even get me a promotion,” he explained “So will you do it?"

She was silent as she contemplated her decision. Camille now knew what her friend had done. And she didn’t like it one bit. But still, she didn’t want to stand in the way of anyone’s success.

"Fine," she told him, reluctantly.

She could almost see the smile on his face. "Great. Thanks Camille."

"No problem, Stephonne. You're lucky Chanelle loves you."

He chuckled, before he said seriously, "Yeah, I know I am."

"Don't get mushy on me. I'm handing the phone back over now."

Before he could respond, she gave the phone back to a smug looking Chanelle.

She said a couple of things to him before hanging up.

"I'm going to kill you," Camille told Chanelle.

Chanelle smiled. "You may want to do that now, Cams, but later on, you'll thank me."

"Is this before or after your funeral?" Camille was still upset at the way her friend had ambushed her.

Chanelle grinned sheepishly. "Before….?"

"You better hope so."

“Are you going to explain to me why Stephonne is now just interested in Generic Flames?” Camille asked her friend suspiciously. “He could’ve always scouted them before.”

Her friend shrugged sheepishly. “Well I don’t know about that. You know he’s always traveling all over the place. And besides I didn’t even really know they existed and I live here.”

“More like you never cared to know,” Camille mumbled.

"Whatever, girly," Chanelle dismissed with a wave of her hand. “Anyway, now all you have to do is call Jace and tell him," she said excitedly.

"What?" Camille said. “Why me?”

“Because I’m not doing it and someone has to tell the band,” Chanelle smiled innocently.

“You’re evil,” Camille glared before she realized something, and smiled. "But actually I don't even have Jace’s number."

“I do." Chanelle grinned.

Camille gave her friend a look. "When did you even get his number?” she asked. “And why are you doing this to me Chanelle?”

Camille had been serious about never seeing Jace ever again. And now this.

"I'm not doing anything to you, sweetie. By the way, stop being so dramatic; after all that’s my department." She ignored her friend.

Camille sighed, hoping some excuse would appear out of the air.

Then she glanced at her watch and saw it showed '7:45'. Perfect. "Chanelle be reasonable. Isn't it way too early anyway?"

Chanelle dialed a number on her phone before handing it to Camille.

"He'll forgive you when he becomes famous. Now stop looking for excuses."

Camille sighed again as she realized she couldn't win against her friend and took the phone from her. Chanelle grinned and headed inside.

"Hello?" he answered, his voice husky with sleep. She sighed. She could do this.

"Jace?" she started hesitantly.

Silence.

"Camille," he said, there was no surprise evident in his voice. He sounded arrogant, as if he expected her to call. That pissed her off. She would clear that up.

"Listen, this has nothing to do with last night," she said coldly. "We need to meet somewhere.”

Jace seemed to understand that the situation was serious because he just asked, "Where?"

"Can you meet me at Hal's at about 12 o'clock?"

"Fine," he responded then paused for a moment. "Camille you aren't pregnant or anything?" He sounded calm, but she knew he must have been panicking.

She laughed, dryly. "And if I were?"

Silence.

"Then if you chose to keep it, we would have to get married so I could take care of the child properly."

Camille's eyes widened in shock. "Listen, this isn't the eighteenth century. You wouldn’t have to go through such drastic measures."

"But I do. Or else my family won't accept the child," he told her plainly.

"Just what kind of family do you have?" she asked mockingly.

"A very traditional one," he said dryly. Camille cringed as she realized that Jace took his family's beliefs very seriously and she may have just offended him.

"Well good to know you would own up to your responsibilities. But no, I'm not pregnant."

She heard a sigh and smiled. So he was panicking after all.

"Okay, great. Then can you tell me why we need to meet at Hal's?" The relief was palpable in his voice as he spoke. A part of her was glad that she had made him panic. He seemed to have no remorse about anything otherwise.

She hoped he still had a huge handprint on his cheek.

"I'll explain everything when we meet. Also can you call your band mates and ask them to come as well."

"Anything else you want to add?" He asked, suddenly sounding cocky. She guessed he wanted her to mention last night.

She wouldn't give him the satisfaction.

"No. Can you just do what I said?" she responded, coldly.

"Fine," he said, simply. Then she heard a click.

Camille looked at the phone with a grimace. It wasn't that bad, she thought.

Chanelle was waiting patiently for her when she went inside.

"You owe me. Big time," Camille told her as she dropped the phone in her hand.

Chanelle laughed. "Yeah, yeah. You say that now, but soon it'll be the other way around. And unlike some people, all I want is a thank-you," she said, with a flip of her hair.

Camille sighed and pulled a hand through her hair. What did she get herself into now?

All she knew was…Alice wasn't going to like this.