Page 281 of Call Me Baby 2: Side B

Every department has spoken.

And now he's forcing me to be the one abandoning here in the end.

I look down at my hands⁠—

my shaking hands.

I don’t know how to fight this, not with all their corporate bullshit in the way. “Not much of a choice, now is it?” I try to speak but it comes out brittle, breakable. “We protect the label.” I sigh. “We always protect the label.”

What they’ve all forgotten is:

the artists are the label.

The manager steps back,

arms falling to his sides, disappointed.

He’s done fighting the room.

“Alright, Allison. Just remember this moment. You’re in the room when it’s her today,” he says, staring right at me. “Someday you won’t be in the room when it’s you.” He shrugs. “That’s all I’m saying.”

Two minutes later, I’m standing in Raymond’s office, shouting as he steps in⁠—

“Why’d you make me do that?”

He’s closing the door behind him, eyes narrowed. “Lower your goddamn voice.”

“I want out,” I say through clenched teeth, turning to set the plant on the corner of his desk. “This is all too much. Hunter’s out, Raymond. He’s out! Did you know?”

He devours the distance fast, walking me back with his chest. “Calm the fuck down,” he seethes. “Course I didn’t know.”

I shove him back.

“Reverse the decision.”

He laughs as he falls back a step.

“Doesn’t work like that.”

I spin away from him,

my brain fogging,

my fingers trembling.

“You’re all over the place,” he says. “When’s the last time you had a release?”

A cruel flash of Andrew’s cheek against my thigh eclipses the office.

The craving slides down inside again,

like a swallowed stone,

heavy and impossible to pass.

Then the room's hot, stuffy.

My fingers twitch with a phantom rhythm, searching for him, for skin, my clit.