Free Sing For Me by Trisha Grace Page A

at work, and that gave off a constant wave of matt gray that was easy to ignore.
    She took a deep breath and rehearsed her speech in her head.
    Jason, I’ve given your question—no, proposal. She should be more direct. Jason, I’ve given your proposal some thought, and I don’t think I can say yes.
    That sounded direct but kind. At least she hoped it was.
    I’m sorry. I think I’m just not the marrying kind.
    Neither was he, but she decided she wouldn’t add that part in.
    She waved at the receptionist seated on a bright red chair behind a white counter. She went right past the meeting room framed with frosted glass and headed straight toward Jason’s office.
    She’d slowed her steps while she tried to come up with a proper speech. Despite that, when she got to his assistant’s desk, she still hadn’t figured out how she was going to tell him about the kiss she shared with Christopher.
    She would start with an apology, of course, but she couldn’t come up with anything beyond that.
    She clasped her hand around the handle of her bag and tucked the other into her jeans’ back pocket. “Hi, I’m looking for Jason Morgan.” This was the first time she had come to his office without Jason beside her, and it seemed he’d changed his assistant again.
    “Do you have an appointment?” The receptionist didn’t bother to look up from her bright red chair. She continued clicking on her white mouse on the equally white desk.
    She shook her head. “Is he here?”
    “Mr. Morgan doesn’t see anyone without an appointment.”
    Chloe scratched the uncomfortable tingling along her neck and tried to ignore the growing green mist. “Would you just pass him the message that Chloe is here?” You’re fine; the mist won’t suffocate you.
    She clenched her jaws, but managed to keep her eyes on the assistant.
    “Chloe who?”
    She licked her lips at the assistant’s rude tone. “You know what, maybe I should just call him.”
    “Yeah.” The assistant nodded patronizingly. “You do that.”
    She turned her back to the assistant and moved away from the green mist that was threatening to envelop her. When she was certain that the dissipating mist wouldn’t be able to get her, she pulled out her phone. She was about to click the dial button when she noticed a shadow.
    She stopped and looked up from the shiny black leather shoes. “Lawrence,” she said and smiled at Jason’s grandfather.
    Lawrence opened his arms, and she stepped in to give him a hug.
    “What are you doing here?” he asked.
    “I’m looking for Jason, but I don’t think he’s here.”
    Lawrence frowned. “I just saw him.” He cocked his head to the side. “Walk with me. So how are you doing? Working with any new artist?”
    She laughed. “You know I won’t reveal anything.”
    “Not even to me?”
    Chloe’s smile faltered slightly. Lawrence had always been nice to her, but he was someone she couldn’t quite figure out. He was someone whose colors varied widely from one person to another, and sometimes his words were laced with strange dull purple, red, or black.
    He did seem to like her. When he spoke to her, the color was usually of a light pink; a color she’d often spotted when parents spoke gently to their children.
    Still, there were times when even the pink was laced with a trail of dark gray smoke.
    “You’ll know when they come to you for music promotion.” She grinned. She had always liked Lawrence. Though he owned the largest music promotion firm, he never spoke to her as if she was beneath him, which was an irritatingly common bad habit in the music industry.
    The contempt could be so thick that she often had to step away for fear of suffocation.
    Though all the songs she’d written got the singers onto various charts, she was young. Many in the industry, especially those who had been in this line for a long time, thought of her as a quirky songwriter who got lucky.
    She shouldn’t care what others thought about her, but she