Page 46 of Polly

Chapter 13

Flynn

Flynn flicked his head backward and flung sweat out of his hair as he walked offstage. He handed his guitar to a nearby roadie, and strode to the dressing room along with the other band members, who chattered loudly, excited about how well the performance went.

Someone had taped a piece of paper to the door that read “Late Nyght Smoke.” The band members opened the door and walked through. Flynn followed through last and shut the door behind them.

He did a double take when he spotted a beautiful redhead on the room’s couch. She sat beside their manager, Miguel. She and Miguel stood. The woman flipped her hair behind her shoulder, her silver dress hugging her frame.

Miguel said, “Guys, this is your new songwriter, Amie Athey. She has a lot of writing experience, and I think you’ll do great together. She will travel with you to write and hopefully spark your next hit.”

Their label mentioned possibly bringing on a songwriter for the next album, but this was a surprise. They weren’t even having trouble writing, but the label wanted a few songs with a different sound to attempt to hit the pop charts.

The woman approached their lead singer, Will, who looked at her with confusion. “Uhh, hi?” he asked, tucking his blond hair behind his ear.

She held her hand out to shake Will’s and smiled. “Hi. I’m Amie. Pleased to meet you.”

Will cleared his throat. “Pleased to meet you, too,” he said awkwardly. He turned to gesture at Flynn. “Flynn here does most of our writing, so you’ll probably be working mainly with him.”

Amie shook hands with the other band members, then approached Flynn and shook his. “I’m sure we’ll be a great team.”

Irritation nagged at Flynn, but he tried to ignore it.

“Sure.” Flynn let go of her hand. “Nice to meet you.” He glanced at the guys. “I’m going to hit the showers, then head back to the bus and call Polly. I’m not going to the after party.”

“Okay, man. Tell her we said hi,” Will said.

“Will do.”

Flynn headed into the dressing room bathroom and shut the door behind him. He stripped off his clothes, turned on the water, and let the hot stream run over him, washing away some of his irritation.

* * *

“So the label wants some ‘peppier’ songs to draw in a new crowd. I really think that idea will flop because that’s not our band’s sound. But they’ve hired this songwriter, Amie, to try to achieve it. I’m trying not to be annoyed, but I’m very annoyed,” Flynn said, holding the phone to his ear as he stretched out in his bunk. The other band members hadn’t returned yet, so quiet surrounded him.

“I’m sure it will work out fine. I can always write with you, though I’m not sure they’ll be sold on my version of peppy,” Polly said, then made a fake upbeat guitar riff sound.

Flynn laughed. He’d seen her that morning, but already missed her.

“Miguel said sales for my band are up after that video of you and me went viral. How about you?”

“Same. My manager, Paige, actually said maybe we should have you do a guest appearance and sing a duet.”

“With you?”

“Probably with Bex.”

Flynn shook his head no. “Mmm. No. I don’t like that.”

Polly laughed. “Well fine, you don’t have to do a duet with my band if you don’t want to.”

A smirk stretched across Flynn’s face. “Polly.”

“What?”

“I don’t want to do a duet with Lovely Oblivion.”

“Okay, fine. You said that.”

---