Chapter 10: Echo

I told Maxine to send the front desk home and let him up.

Then I walked down to Studio B alone.

I had never sat at the main board during a session, because the main board belonged to the engineer.

Today I sat in his chair and put my hands on the faders.

I loaded the master session of "Midnight Ledger" and pressed play.

The song came up in the room, wide and warm, every layer in place.

It was mine.

Every guitar swell was mine, every low drone and every breath before a chorus.

The studio door opened.

I did not turn around.

I heard his footsteps stop beside the glass.

"Who's there?" he said.

"Close the door," I said.

"Is this the booth? Is Echo in here?"

"Close the door, Devon."

He closed it.

He came and stood behind my chair, and in the reflection of the black screen I watched his face go still.

"Laurel," he said.

"Hello."

"What are you doing at the board?"

"My job."

"You don't have a job here. You were an assistant."

"I was also something else."

He looked at the screen, where the waveform scrolled past, and at my hands, and at the sticky note on the monitor.

It was in my handwriting.

It said, in block letters, "FIX THE BRIDGE, ECHO."

His breath caught.

"No," he said.

"Yes."

"That's, no. That isn't possible. Echo's a man in Lisbon who hasn't left his house in a decade."

Keep reading free with an account. Start Backstage Romance with the Popstar from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.