“Hi there. You ready for the meeting?” Tina asked. Dana had become one of Tina’s closest friends in the years they had worked at the label together.

“You bet your sweetass I am. Listened to the radio lately?” Dana asked as she gathered her files.

Tina chuckled. “Ha! Of course I have, Fairbanks. Can we say Number 8 song in the country right now and climbing? Do I know how to pick ‘em or what?”

The two executives began the journey down the hall together. “You most certainly do, Ms. Kennard. So you know your love muffin was called in for this meeting right?”

“Are you serious? Shit. I’ve been avoiding him.” Tina instantly tensed.

“Why? I thought things were super cool between you two?”

“According to him, maybe. Eric is anything but ‘super cool.’ Dana, he bores me to tears. He’s sooo…” Tina was searching for the right word to describe the guy she’d been dating for the last six months. “…conventional?”

Dana made a face. “Conventional…how?”

Tina was about to continue until they reached their destination. Stopping at the threshold of the conference room, Tina looked at Dana and whispered, “I’ll tell you later,” indicating that Eric was already seated at the conference table. “Speaking of office romances though, how was your date with Tonya?”

Dana blushed at the sudden shift in conversation to her love life. “Looks like we have a lot to talk about later.”

Inside the conference room, Eric Turner, in-house counsel for Alphaville, Tonya Peterson from the label’s Management Division assigned to Third Wheel Crush, Benjamin Bradshaw, Alphaville’s Senior Music Producer, and Tim Haspel, the band’s agent from In-Tune Talent Agency were each engaged in text conversations, email correspondence, and checking out their newsfeeds on whatever social media app they had opened on their cell phones around the large rectangular table.

Aaron was standing at the window speaking with none other than Helena Peabody, the Chief Operating Officer of the media conglomerate, Peabody-Shaolin International Media Group, Alphaville’s holding company.

Eric looked up from his Pixel 3XL when the two women finally entered the room. He stood up and pulled the chair next to his out while keeping his eyes glued to Tina walking towards him. As she got closer, he smiled at her and reached out his hand for the small of her back.