Angela's Salvation

by Hughes, Michelle

  Helping her stand, he pulled into a warm embrace, and fought against taking her upstairs and starting her education today. He wanted to give her time to reconsider, even if his mind was completely against that idea. Thankfully they had enough on their agenda today to keep them busy until later this evening. "We've got a million things to do today, are you ready to get started?"

  She hoped he wasn't talking about sex, because a million things in the bedroom seemed a little overwhelming at the moment. "Um, okay I guess?" Her hands were trembling now as she wondered if he'd take her upstairs to his room.

  He knew instinctively that she'd misunderstood and smiled patiently. "We need to stop by the hotel, pick up your things, then go down to the studio and get things in motion for the album." He almost chuckled when she gave a sigh of relief, and couldn't wait until she was comfortable enough with him to want to be in his bed more than doing impersonal things.

  9 Loving Away the Past

  By the time they arrived at the hotel, reporters were swarming the outside entrance, and Nolan squeezed her hand reassuringly before asking her to let him do all the talking. The flashes from the camera were blinding as he escorted her through the crowd, before stopping at the front door. Pulling her protectively to his side, he wrapped a hand around her waist lovingly, before he began answering questions.

  Angela rested her head against his shoulder nervously, leaning on him for support as the vultures asked him questions so personal her cheeks were on fire. One reporter even had the audacity to ask if she was so good in bed that Nolan couldn't resist her charms.

  "I find that question in such bad taste that it doesn't deserve an answer, but I will say that she is the most remarkable woman I've ever met and I would do everything in my power to protect her." He was furious at the rudeness of these people, and wondered how they lived with themselves.

  After answering an endless barrage of personal inquiries, and demanding that all questions be directed at him, he held up his hand. "If you'll excuse me we have some business to attend." Without waiting for their acceptance he opened the hotel lobby door, and escorted her inside.

  Sanders was waiting for them, along with two security officers and Angela felt like she had walked into a different world. They all ventured upstairs to the room she shared with Lizzie, but gave her privacy by waiting outside her room as she went in to collect her things.

  "So is it true that you and Nolan are a thing now," Lizzie grinned, having been amazed at the morning papers and discovering her roommate was having an affair with none other than Nolan Fitzgerald.

  "Yeah it is," she hated lying to her new friend, but she knew that Nolan wanted this story to be believable. And after today, she reminded herself, it would actually be true. "I'm just here to get my things then I'm moving in with him."

  "Holy hell girl, that's freaking amazing, but what about the show?"

  "Well Nolan and I decided doing the show wouldn't be fair so he offered me a recording contract." She almost grinned as Lizzie's eyes widened at her response.

  "That's like finding the pot of gold under a rainbow, Angela, I'm so envious!" Everyone knew that if Nolan Fitzgerald suggested you, it was almost a guarantee of overnight stardom.

  "Would you mind helping me get my things together?" She didn't know how to answer Lizzie's statement. "I'm not sure how long Nolan will stand out in the hall before demanding I hurry up."

  "Wow, he's here now?" Lizzie was absolutely floored at her friend's new circumstances. She would have never guessed that the two were hooking up from Angela's comments before. "Sure, we don't want to keep the man waiting."

  They had everything she owned packed into suitcases within thirty minutes and Lizzy impulsively hugged her as she was about to leave. "Don't forget us little people," she giggled.

  Returning her hug, she laughed as well, "I hope you blow them all away at the competition Lizzy." She wasn't just trying to please her friend, Lizzy was an incredible performer and she deserved her own shining star moment.

  Nolan didn't bother with niceties as he led her back out of the hotel, through the reporters. He pushed his way through with his hand in hers until she was sitting once again in his car. "I'm afraid it won't get much better when it comes to the press, but as long as you are always with me or one of the security guards you should be fine." With a shrug and a smile he drove toward the studio.

  She couldn't imagine having to live through that scenario every day of her life, and wondered for a moment if stardom was actually worth having no privacy. For a quick second she wished she was still back in New Jersey living her quiet life again, that thought reminded her of Rachel. Digging her cell phone out of her purse, she noted the fifteen missed calls from her best friend. She dialed her number quickly and hoped she wasn't overly worried.

  "I've been trying to reach you since breakfast honey, are you okay?" Rachel had seen the news release this morning and had almost fainted. Her sweet little Angela would never have gotten involved with anyone without telling her about it, and she knew something was wrong with the picture being painted by the media.

  "I'm fine Rach, honest, things just got a little crazy around here." If there was one person in this world she refused to lie to, it was her best friend.

  "He hasn't hurt you, has he? I swear I will rip off his balls and shit down his throat if that man did anything you didn't want!" Nolan might be a celebrity, she thought, but Angela was worth ten of him in her opinion.

  Laughing softly at her vicious comment for a moment she forced herself to speak. "I don't think that will be necessary Rach, I'm fine and Nolan's not done anything to warrant him losing that part of his anatomy." She snickered as Nolan looked at her from the driver's side with a raised eyebrow.

  "So you guys are really together?" The thought of her best friend finally finding someone who interested her was amazing, as long as she really liked him.

  "Well yeah I guess you could say that," that definitely wasn't a lie, after their meeting earlier she was going to become his lover. That thought made her excited and petrified at the same time.

  "Honey the way this thing works is either you are sleeping with him, or you're not." Something just didn't seem right here, she thought, but she couldn't really pinpoint what it was.

  "I'm moving in with him today," she wanted to tell her the entire story, but before that happened she wanted to explain to Nolan that of all the people in the world Rachel was the one she would trust with her life.

  "Wait a minute, isn't that a little sudden honey, I mean having a boyfriend is one thing, moving in together that's a huge commitment." She was really worried about Angela, knowing that if things didn't work out it would crush her.

  "Don't give up my room yet, but I want to at least try this Rach," she knew that her small part of the rent was something her friend counted on, but she had no idea how long this would last with Nolan, and also didn't know what the recording company would pay her to begin with.

  Nolan had been listening to the conversation and knew that he had to intercede here. "Tell your friend you'll send her the rent until you make a decision on where you want to live." He knew she'd never need to return to the previous life she had, but having her at his mercy wasn't a place he felt comfortable with either. He wanted her with him because of her own desires, without her independence she couldn't make that decision.

  She relayed Nolan's words, and was grateful that Rachel wouldn't have to bare the brunt of her not being there at least financially. Without a doubt she knew if things panned out for her with the recording, she'd be inviting Rachel to live with her in Vegas. Nolan would have to understand that after this media fascination was over, it just wouldn't do to live with him without some type of emotional commitment. She was going to bring that up, she decided.

  "You just take care of yourself Ang," Rachel was more worried than she wanted to admit about how fast things were moving for her, but she hoped she could find some happiness at last.

  "I will Rach, and you take
care of you, I'll call you later okay?" They'd just pulled up to the studio, and she didn't want to keep Nolan waiting while she caught up with her best friend.

  The press was waiting outside the building, and again Nolan guided her through, refusing to give another statement. She had never been inside a studio before and the building itself was enormous. When they finally made it through the front doors, she noted it looked more like another hotel. "I thought we were going to the studio?"

  My company owns the top floor here, and the studio located here is state of the art, we own another one on the outskirts of the city, but for our purposes we need to be at this one today." He led her over to an elevator and they made their way up fifteen floors.

  The elegance that surrounded her made her feel completely out of place, but Nolan was obviously in his element. He spoke with several people in his authoritative way, and within minutes they were inside a huge board room with fifteen other executives. She sat down in the seat beside him at the head of the table, having no idea why all these people were here.

  "Angela, everyone here is going to have a major influence over your career in the next few months and I wanted to introduce you." Turning back to the group he introduced the twins, "These two incredible women are Kaitlin and Kayla Schrader, they are part of your public relations teams. What they do is make sure that you are primed for any interviews and if there is any negative publicity, it's their job to spin it back to put you in a positive light."

  "Nice to meet you," she smiled nervously at the beautiful women and there was no doubt they were twins, even if one of them had her hair cropped into a short bob, and the other's was long and flowing down her back in a raven silk curtain. They smiled and gave her a nod, seeming to be studying her intently.

  "Jon Baker here," he pointed to a handsome young professional sitting at the opposite end of the table, "is the senior vice-president of the record label, he's responsible for making sure the label is protected obviously, but he will also be helping with our situation and keeping the media on the right track."

  He introduced Simon Richards, the head of the songwriting department, and informed her that demo's from the best writers in the industry would be found for her first session. Sanders, she had already met, he was a former recording artist himself but had recently signed on with the label to promote new talent, and he informed her that he was his right hand man. "If for some odd reason you can't get in touch with me, Sanders is the man I want you speaking with."

  After being introduced to the photographer, accountant, and music producer, the names started to all blur in her mind and she knew it would be impossible to remember them all. Nolan informed them all that she would go by the name Angel Storm, and he expected them to come up with ideas on marketing but he also had his own input he planned on adding. She was amazed at how efficiently everyone in the room seemed to work together.

  "Simon the faster you can get some demos put together for her, the quicker we can get her recording." At Simon's nod, he knew that she'd have the best song choices he considered within a day. If there was one thing Simon knew, he thought to himself, it was the type of song that would sell.

  "I want to get this all together as soon as possible, so I'm going to call the meeting and let you all get busy with making the lovely Angel an overnight sensation." Laughter filled the room at his play on words from the show he produced but they quickly dispersed, knowing what he expected.

  "We need to get you in the studio so you can get a feel for what you'll be working at," Nolan stood and waited until she did as well before leading her out of the room.

  She was amazed at how big the studio was when they entered, having thought it would be a smaller room. "I guess when I thought of a studio, I thought of just a little booth." Laughing nervously, she glanced around.

  He pointed to a small booth off to the side. "We have both Angela, musicians use the larger room and the vocalists are isolated in the booth. For today, I just want to play some music and get you comfortable at singing without vibrato. It's like singing without a mic and not what you usually hear when you're performing, well let's say karaoke." One of the biggest challenges for most vocalists he'd worked with was not liking the sound of their voice without added reverb. The reverb or vibrato as some artists called it was something the music producer would add in after the music had been mixed.

  He led her into the mixing room and showed her a wall full of karaoke tracks. "These will help us do some warm ups, just pick a song you know and will get started."

  There were so many song choices that it took her a minute to choose the right one. She decided doing a song she'd performed on open mic night at the bar would probably be the easiest, so she pulled it out and handed it to him.

  "Okay, go into the booth and put on the headphones, you'll be able to hear me through them." He was in business mode for the moment, and wanted to make sure she had time to acclimate to singing in this setting before her real recording sessions began.

  She walked into the booth, and the first thing she noted was the complete absence of sound. It was eerily quiet until she put on the headphones, and she jumped slightly when Nolan's voice came through.

  He chuckled softly at her action, being able to see her very well from his position in the mixing room. "I'm going to turn on the music in here, and you should see the words plainly in the monitor in front of you."

  It was just like being on stage on a karaoke open mic night she thought, except it was just her and Nolan in the room. As she started to sing she instantly understood what he'd been talking about when it came to vibrato. Her voice sounded very plain, and it was an unusual experience. When she sang at open mic night, the reverb added to her breathing pattern, and she found she had to work harder to push the longer notes out.

  After a warm up song, he recording her performance and brought her back into the mixing room. "I know what you hear when you're in the box, but all the tools to add to your voice are right here at the director's fingers." He played her recording and smiled as she cringed. "You still sound incredible Angela even without the mixing, but listen to this." He added a slight impression of reverb and a smile found her face.

  He showed her how he could change the tempo and key of her voice and she was simply amazed. So even if I couldn't hit those high notes, with the right producer behind the scenes it would make it appear I could?"

  "That's about the crux of it Angela, take a singer with an average voice and the ability to stay on key, and you can make them sound like a superstar." He'd done his share of getting the director to doctor up vocals. "The only difference is, when they perform live concerts the fans know exactly what they sound like. Granted we can give them the reverb, but all the pitches and speed, that's up to the singers when they do concerts.

  It made sense to her now why that concert she'd went to with Rachel, when the singer was nowhere near as good as the CD had been, why he'd been unable to perform that way. "Learn something new all the time I guess." She laughed softly.

  Nolan allowed her a few more songs to get comfortable with the sensation of hearing her natural voice before deciding to call it quits. She'd done exceptionally well here and he knew she would feel much more comfortable for the real experience that would come later. "I don't know about you, but I could use a good meal?" What he could really use was some private time alone with her, but instinctively he knew that it would make her nervous if he brought that up.

  "I could definitely eat," she answered but honestly it was so much fun being in the studio, a few more hours here wouldn't hurt her feelings.

  He could see the longing in her eyes to keep singing and chuckled. "Trust me in a few weeks you'll be ready to scream in frustration over being here." Having the finished product was always an exhilarating feeling for his vocalists, but the studio was also hard work. Depending on how difficult it was to lay down tracks, it wasn't uncommon to spend hours on one song.

  Reluctantly she followed him out of the studio and back throu
gh the thinning barrage of reporters before they climbed in his car again. Her mind was overwhelmed by all she had learned today, so she was quiet as they drove. It was hard to believe she was going to make an album, even now she wondered when she'd wake up and discover this was all a dream.

  "Would you rather eat out or have my staff put together a meal," he broke into her silence, not sure if she was willing to deal with more reporters.

  "Honestly I don't really want to be around the press anymore today if that's okay?" She understood it was going to be a normal part of her life for a while, but it made her more than a little uncomfortable. It was ironic that in the past she thought reporters were all these professional people who were refined, but that definitely wasn't the side of their profession she saw today.

  "Eating in it is then, and don't worry Angela, it gets easier to deal with them." He'd been surrounded by the press most of his life, early on because of his father's popularity, then later his own. These days they were just a nuisance he'd learnt to ignore unless something like this situation forced his hand.

  "They don't believe in privacy much, huh?" She'd been astounded at the personal questions they seemed to have no problems asking.

  Chuckling derogatively he shook his head, "According to the masses, if you're famous you don't deserve to have a private life. I guess it's the price you pay for living the dream." He always wondered how the normal person would feel if he stalked their homes and took photos of their every move, he guessed not so much.

  "If you had to do it all over again, I mean have the fame or be a normal person, which would you choose?" It was all a little overwhelming to her, thinking about how her life would never be her own again if she continued to pursue this.

  "There have been times when a little anonymity would've been nice Angela, but I wouldn't give up what I love even with all the drawbacks. Some people can't deal with the constant pressure of being in the public eye though, and for those, maybe it's not the best career choice." He could recall several stars turning to drugs and alcohol when the demands of public scrutiny became too much.