Free Checkmate by Malorie Blackman Page B

finishing touches on our latest song, Just Ask Me.
    We'd been commissioned to write this for one of the new and happening Cross girl groups. Usually my heart sank when we were commissioned to write for a new pop group, but these girls had been together since school and had been practising for years before landing a recording contract. Designer groups put together by the music companies for the sole purpose of fulfilling a so-called demand or gap in the market usually had a limited shelf-life of about two years. And when they disappeared, their songs usually disappeared with them. Which meant our songs disappeared. In this business, to make money it's longevity that counts.
    In a meeting with Dale Applegate, an executive producer at Sometime-Anytime Music, he told us he wanted a dance track where the words would be easy to remember. Sonny and I had to hide our true feelings from Dale when we heard the brief. I could feel the waves of hostility emanating from Sonny at Dale's words, but luckily the producer was too thick-skinned to feel it. And after all, it wasn't the most inane brief we'd ever been given. Plus Sometime-Anytime Music were excellent, not to mention prompt, payers. We were supposed to deliver the song the following week, so we really had to get it right.
    Except that I was fading and Sonny had faded and was fast asleep! I read through what we'd written so far, singing softly so as not to wake up Sleeping Beauty.
    A pinch of dedication
A dash of consolation
Sling in some deep frustration
Then add a tear or two
    A longing for salvation
Disguise the revelation
In a web of conversation
That's all you have to do
    Chorus:
Just ask me
What I need
To make me laugh
To make me sigh
What makes me dance
What makes me cry Just ask me
What I'd like to own
What turns me on
What brings me home
Just ask me
    Strokes of stimulation
Don't believe in simulations
With a little relaxation
I'll do what you want me to
    And be swept up by elation
One kiss for my salvation
I will give in to temptation
But the rest is up to you
    Chorus:
Just ask me
What I need
To make me laugh
To make me sigh
What makes me dance
What makes me cry
Just ask me
What I'd like to own
What turns me on
What brings me home
Just ask me
    I don't mind if we take for ever
I don't mind if it's just one night
I just want the thrill of something new
To make me feel all right
    Chorus:
Just ask me
What I need
To make me laugh
To make me cry
Just ask me
What I'd like to own
What turns me on
What brings me home
Just ask me
(Just ask me)
Why don't you
Ask me
(Just ask me)
You'll never know
If you won't
Ask me
    I shook my head. It still wasn't quite right. Now I just had to figure out why. Sonny was usually really good at homing in on why a song or lyric wasn't working but he'd been scribbling away for the last half an hour without coming up with a single new idea. Still, we were both tired. Maybe we should give in and just call it a night, then come back to it fresh in the morning.
    My eyes were so full of sleep-sand, I had to keep rubbing them
    to try and get the stuff out. Sleep-sand . . . One of my mother's sayings
    from when we were children, fighting against drifting off to sleep. I sighed.
    Life was very strange. Mother and I were getting on so well at the moment.
    We had the kind of relationship I could only dream of as a teenager. But with
    Meggie and me it was a different story. Sometimes I felt like Meggie and I
    stood on different planets playing tug-of-war with my poor daughter. And as
    for Sonny . . . His head was turned to one side and resting on his folded
    arms upon the lid of the keyboard as he slept soundlessly. I sat back in my
    chair and watched him, surprised at how contented I felt to just watch him
    sleep. We seemed to be getting on so well at the moment. Better than I could've
    dared to hope. But there was a part of me that stood apart, watching. Sonny
    made all the running in our relationship, something he'd