Her Bundles Of Joy

“I guess I’ll meet her another time. Are you ready to start?” Nicole nodded in response. “Okay, so let’s go. Break a leg!”

Brandi walked towards the director and gave him a tight hug. Nicole figured they probably already knew each other from past projects. The man started yelling orders and the crew began moving around. Nicole was instructed to stand by Brandi’s right side, slightly behind the singer. It was her first time behind a camera and the young dancer couldn’t help feeling extremely shy. Nicole closed her eyes and mentally counted to ten. Doing that always helped her calm down in nerve-racking situations.

Get over yourself, Nicole Carter. You can’t mess this up.

“Let’s rock this sh*t!” Brandi cheered Nicole and the other dancer.

Putting on a confident smirk on her face, Nicole held her head up high.

“Let’s do this,” she whispered to herself.

*****

“Holy crap, that was exhausting!” Brandi exclaimed as she laid on the tile floor.

Nicole was crouched down next to the singer, trying to catch her breath. Their dance routine wasn’t that physically demanding, but the director had made them shoot it over and over again until it was perfect in his eyes. By the second time they shot the scene, Nicole was sure they’d gotten everything right, but the Asian man wanted every little detail to be perfect, so they repeated the choreography several times. A one-minute-and-a-half long video had taken almost five hours to film. Nicole wondered if this was how life in show business was like. Hours and hours of work nonstop. Brandi was probably even more exhausted than Nicole was. In addition to the dance routine, the young dancer also had to shoot a commercial for Campbell Brothers and the director hadn’t been less of a perfectionist then than he was being with the dance part of the commercial.

“I’d literally eat a whole pizza right now,” Nicole breathed out. Brandi turned her head to stare at her.

“Preach. Let’s go? There’s this amazing pizzeria not far from here.” As if she could sense Nicole’s thoughts about how expensive pizza in the Upper West Side would be, Brandi continued. “My treat, of course.”

“You don’t have to,” Nicole declined the offer.

“I want to. Remember I said I’d love to talk to you after we were done shooting? You won’t deny Brandi Harris a wish, will you?” The singer finished in mock-cockiness.

“How dare I!” Nicole gasped. “Denying something to Brandi Harris, the one and only queen of R&B in the 21st century?”

“So you’ll go?”

“Do I have an option?” Brandi shook her head. “There you have your answer. I’ll go. But I can’t stay out too late, I have to work early in the morning.”

“That’s fine. I’ll have someone drive you home, is that okay? Depending on where you live, a ride can save you a lot of time.”

“I’d love that, honestly. I live in Brooklyn, so it’s quite the journey to get home.”

“Cool, let’s go then,” Brandi grunted as she stood up, which made Nicole chuckle. “Don’t laugh! I may be young in age but I have an old person’s skeleton.”

Nicole shook her head, amused. “If you say so.”

“Brandi Harris, it’s a pleasure to have you here at Campbell Brothers.” Both women turned around to see the person who had just approached them. Nicole felt as if the air had escaped her lungs when she saw the man standing before her.

Good Lord…who is this?

Whoever he was, he was sincerely one of the most handsome men Nicole had ever seen, and not many guys had caught the young dancer’s eye like this one did. Blonde hair parted to the side in a style that just screamed Ivy League, long curved nose, thin lips, and a pair of the most striking blue eyes she’d ever stared into. His straight posture and dark blue expensive-looking suit indicated that this man was probably one of the top dogs around there.

“Sorry, I don’t think we’ve met. You are…?” the singer asked, her face expressing nothing but genuine confusion.

“Where are my manners!” The man chuckled. He removed his hand out of his pocked and extended it towards Brandi. “I’m Evan Campbell, director of Marketing.”

Campbell, huh?

Brandi shook the blonde man’s hand. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry that I didn’t recognize you, Mr. Campbell.”

Evan shrugged. “I don’t blame you. I prefer to remain behind the curtains dealing with the paperwork, so my assistant usually handles face-to-face meetings. Today I decided to make an exception because I couldn’t miss the opportunity to meet you, Ms. Harris. I was very delighted when I was informed that you’d accepted our offer. The expectations for this project are really high, and I’m certain that this ad will be a success.”

Brandi smiled. Nicole didn’t know if she was supposed to sneak away in case Mr. Campbell and Brandi started talking about business, or if she should stick around. Nicole certainly didn’t want to intrude, but at the same time, she didn’t want to walk away from this eye candy just yet. “Are we done pretending we don’t know each other, you jerk?”

Evan laughed out loud. “Always the lady, huh? Are you busy tonight?”

“We were just heading out for dinner. I’m starving.” Brandi shrugged.

“I can only imagine. I meant to stop by earlier, invite you for lunch. But I was busy all day long. Can I join you? It’s been too long since we last saw each other.”

“Is that okay with you? I have to ask because I’d originally made plans to go with Nicole here,” Brandi said, which made Nicole widen her eyes in response. Why would Brandi ask that in front of the owner of the company?

“Yes, of course it’s okay!” Nicole exclaimed. She’d be crazy to say no. She felt her body warming up under Mr. Campbell’s intense stare. Why was he looking at her like that?

“It’s settled then. We’re going for pizza, though. It’s not fancy or anything like that.”

The man shrugged. “You know I never say no to pizza, B.”

Brandi grinned. “Great. We’re heading over to Alessandro’s.”

“Nice. I’ll just run some quick errands around the office and meet you there.”

The singer nodded and grabbed Nicole’s hand. “We’ll be waiting.” The two women headed to the elevator and Brandi started giggling.

“What?” Nicole frowned but didn’t get any response as the singer kept on making giggly noises. “Okay, I may or may not be regretting my decision to get into an elevator with a crazy woman.”

“Sorry about that,” Brandi took in a deep breath to recompose herself. “It’s just…you were totally crushing on him!”

“I was not!” Nicole said incredulously. “Where did you even get that from?”

“I saw the look in your eyes.”

“What? You barely know me, how can you possibly interpret the look you think you saw in my eyes?”

Brandi shrugged. “I don’t need to know you to know that you want that man.”

Nicole rolled her eyes so hard they almost reached the back of her head. “That’s not true. I was just…appreciating the view.”

“Yep, sure were.” The singer grinned mischievously. “I’ll make sure you’ll get to appreciate the view a lot tonight.”

“What? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You just wait and see, Nicole. I’ll make sure you get the man.” Brandi smirked.