London Harmony: Small Fry (8 page)

She cocked an eyebrow at me. “What, goose?”

I shrugged and gave her a toothy grin. “Just that I would never have thought I was a lesbian.  It is a surprising revelation to myself.  Just when I think I have figured out who I am, I go and surprise me.”

She just nodded in understanding and she said in an odd tone, I realized it was uncertainty, it just sounded odd coming from this strong woman,  “I understand.  It was just the past couple years I was realizing my attraction to women was just as strong as my attraction to men.  I was confused for months.  I mean, you assume your sexuality, but then find you were wrong the entire time.  I found that sexy is sexy, and intelligence and personality are my kryptonite.  Male or female, if they have both, like you, I'm lost.”

Hmm.  That is another good answer, maybe that is how I feel as well.  I... why is she glancing over with a smile?  I flushed and felt silly.  Bloody hell, I'm dense.  I smiled and bumped her shoulder with mine as she drove.  “So you're Supergirl now?”

She nodded staunchly and cutely said, “Yes, and you're my very own Kryptonite.”  Dear lord I wanted to kiss the woman, but I also didn't want to be another traffic fatality, so I restrained myself and just laid my head on her shoulder for a moment.  See?  I can show self preservation and restraint at the same time.  She tilted her head on top of mine for a moment in a virtual hug.

I melted at the attention and sat back in the seat, absently chewing on the cuff of my sleeve on my free arm.  She cocked her head at that and I looked down and released the sleeve I had bunched up in my hand.

I looked out the window, watching the familiar sights of London pass by as she navigated us toward the Tower Bridge.  We parked in a parking garage and walked, my arm under hers as she clasped my hand.  I wanted to feel giddy like this always.

We walked up to an nondescript three-story brick building just off of Aldgate.  I looked over my shoulder and could see the bridge just a couple blocks away.  At the corner of the building that was packed with businesses was a plain wooden door painted black.  There was a circular blue silhouette of a building painted on the black wooden door with “London Harmony” written in bold, gold letters across it.  In smaller letters below it was “Meetings by appointment only.”

I looked around.  This?  This was London Harmony?  It had to be like an off-site storage for paperwork or something right?

I looked up at Fran and she seemed amused at my reaction and she held up a shiny brass key and wiggled her eyebrows.  She made a show of unlocking the lock, she was so... American.  I smirked.  My American.

We stepped through the door and I stopped dead.  I thought I was in a Doctor Who episode on the telly or something.  We stepped trough a plain door and into a different world.  That plain and ordinary door had hidden an open and inviting space that was a fusion of the original old timbers of the building and modern lobby you would expect from a grand hotel or something of the ilk.  There was a black marble front desk beside a huge staircase with an oak railing, and wrought iron banister and newels.  There was a glass elevator beside it that had London Harmony written on it in big brass letters.

The overall effect was one of opulent welcome.  You just wanted to flow right up the stairs.  But an overly cute, black haired, twenty-something woman behind the desk, barred your path with her smile.  Fran grinned at the lady as we approached.  “Hi Jen.  This is...”

The woman blurted in a surprisingly low alto, “Tasha.”  She crinkled her nose and said, “You are all we have been gossiping about the past couple days.”  She gave us a super cheesy grin.

Fran dropped her head and shook it slowly as she muttered, “Good lord, it's going to be worse than I thought.”

The woman grabbed my free hand as we reached her and shook it enthusiastically.  I quickly inventoried everything unique about her so I could recognize her later.  She had immaculately manicured nails that I was instantly jealous of.  Her delicate pearl bracelet that matched her necklace, draped on her dainty wrist.  She was in a smart, black, pinstripe skirt suit that just screamed high end.  She wore low heels.  Ah, there was something I could use, she had a cute little heart tattoo below her left ear on her long graceful neck.

I paused as I looked at her neck.  She had a barely noticeable Adam's apple.  I blinked.  This gorgeous woman was a man?  No.  I corrected myself.  She is obviously a woman.  I couldn't imagine the torment a transgender person went through, being born one gender though you knew you were the other.  She absently brought a hand to her neck.  Way to go Natasha, make her feel self conscious.  I'm such a wanker.

I quickly said, “I simply love your necklace and bracelet. I could never pull off something so delicate.”

She blushed and dropped her hand.  “Thank you.  My mum gave it to me for my twenty-first birthday.”  I smiled at that.  My aunt always gave me appropriate gifts on my birthdays.  She always tried so hard to show she loved me like my mum had.  I already knew, and didn't need any present to win me over.  She loved me so much she had adopted me as soon as she could after I lost my parents, thus my last name.  But she never wanted me to call her mum, only auntie.  I think she felt guilty that she was alive when my mum, her sister, wasn't.

Fran said, “I'm giving her the nickel tour since it is Bring Your... Girlfriend?  To Work Day.”  She shot me a questioning look and I blushed and looked down, nodding.  Bloody hell, I was somebody's girlfriend.  That made me all sorts of warm in all sorts of places.

Jen teased. “And she's a cutie.”

Just to have Fran scrunch up her nose and say playfully, “Hey, eyes off lady, she's mine.”  Then she dragged me along beside her, laying a hand on the other woman's arm for a moment as we passed.

I called back between gleeps as she pulled me along, “It was nice meeting you Jen!”

She chuckled and waved at us. “Nice meeting you too Tasha, I'm sure I'll be seeing you around.  Small Fry looks all kinds of smitten.”

My girl blurted out, “Hey!”  Then the blushing woman pulled me into the elevator instead of taking the stairs.

As soon as the doors closed, I exhaled and muttered, “Bloody hell.  I'm such a git, I didn't mean for her to feel self-conscious, I was just taken by surprise.”

She nodded.  “Virtually nobody notices at all.  She's got a procedure scheduled to shave her voicebox, so even that won't be an issue for her soon.  Jennifer is the youngest transgender woman to undergo sexual reassignment surgery.  She always knew she was a girl and her parents were supportive.  Her psychiatrist and doctors agreed, and she started hormone therapy at thirteen and had the operation at sixteen.”

I blinked at her. “Wait, she's Jennifer Harrison?  Her story was all over the news like ten years ago.”  She nodded and I said, “Well, good on her.”  We shared a smile and the doors opened on the third floor.  My hand was suddenly in hers again as she dragged me out into an open office area that had maybe six or seven desks.

This was all there was to London Harmony?  For how huge they were in the music world, and the enormous impact their artists have had on the entertainment industry, I had expected like a twenty story building with hundreds of workers.  Even if the second floor had as many desks, then they had less than twenty workers?  But logically the floor below would have the recording studios unless they were off site somewhere and this was just the admin building.

I asked, “How many people work for the label?”

She scrunched up her nose in thought and said, “Not counting our in house bands, fifteen.  Twenty-five with them.  But that number fluctuates by two or three depending on people coming in or moving on.”

I blinked at her and she misread me.  “I know, cramped quarters at times, especially when the talent is in, but we're all family here so it is cozy.”

I grinned at her, shaking my head. “No, it's just that I thought there would be hundreds of people running 'THE' London Harmony.  How can so few people be something huge enough to change the face of the music industry?”

She looked around at the lemmings that were popping up to look over at us, pride was sparkling in her eyes. “They are good at what they do.”  Then she added, “Though we are thinking about a second location as it is progressively getting busier around here.”

I laid my head on her shoulder as she lead me through the open office to meet all the workers.  I did my best to try to try to remember them.  Finding something unique about each to put a name to.  It is always hard when meeting a group of people.  I noted Fran would use their names each time she asked one a question or responded to them, I knew it was for my benefit.  I absently wondered if she even knew she was doing it.  I actually grinned at the squeal and hug I got from Zilrita, she was easy to identify.  I absently wondered how it felt like she gave a full body hug with only two hands.  Was that the squid hug everyone associates with her?

June's voice rang out over the commotion our arrival had spawned.  Apparently everyone was curious about the person who 'tamed' their Small Fry.  “What's going on out here?  Doesn't everyone have work to do?”  The humor in her tone was not lost on me, and the response she got was hilarious as everyone started throwing balls of paper and rubber bands and the ilk at her.

That was sort of awesome I thought, that the workers had such a good relationship with the boss.  Then she made a “Plffft” noise and diligently ignored the rebels and said, “Rocky!  Good to see you! I was wondering when Small Fry would bring you around.”  I glanced at her bracelet and her shoes and smiled, it was just like she had said.

She gave me a hug and then looked around and whispered to me, “Nessie is on the hunt for a singer she heard the other night, at the guy's day job.  So I'm soooo bored right now.  Wanna sneak down to the studio with me while Small Fry get's the sign off paperwork together for the talent?”

I was buzzing with excitement, J8 wanted me to go to a studio to watch another artist.  Bloody hell, who the heck would say no to that?  I nodded excitedly and glanced at a pouting Fran who whined cutely at her, “You stealing, thieving, purloining, girlfriend appropriating wench!”

I grinned at the well articulated response from the multi platinum singer. “Neener neener.” And she stuck out her tongue at my girl as she looped her arm in mine and dragged me toward the stairs.  She looked back. “The faster you get the exit paperwork to us, the faster you can have her back.”  I'm sure I was grinning like an idiot.

She whispered to me in a teasing tone, “Such a drama queen, that one.”  We stopped on the second floor and she pointed out the green room and the two studios.  One larger one for full bands and one with isolation booths for individual singers.

Then she said, “Today we have a full house.  Abigail Addison is in the iso booth, and we have Tabby Cat making some A/B's for a revision to a number before pressing next week.”

I perked up, there was going to be a new Tabby album?  Her stuff was edgy like Penny Franklin's old stuff.  I'd be hearing new stuff?  I loved Abigail Addison's stuff too, she was a one woman band. I wondered if that working dog of Abigail's, Sir Percival was here with her.  I heard he was a hero.

I liked the harder rock that Tabby sang a little bit more than the strictly pop numbers that Abigail sang.  June caught me eyeing the larger studio and grinned in satisfaction and dragged me over.  I had to grin.  We stepped into an ultra modern control room with dozens of computerized mixing consoles and some older high-end consoles with slider bars.

There was a man tweaking the controls as we were assaulted by a cacophony of sounds.  June brought me up to beside the man, who she exchanged nods with, and we looked through the observation window.

I saw a band prepping.  Each playing some different warm up.  The man beside us was speaking to each of them apparently independently through their headphones as he would hit different switches and give instructions for levels and one of them would nod and do as he asked. I knew this had to be one of their house bands Violet Rose, or Purple Horseshoes.  The two winners of the Roctoberfest competition last year.

The copper haired woman with her back to us had to be Tabby.  It was the same odd color and style from the other night and I've never met anyone else with that color hair.

The man hit a big button and said,  “Okay you unruly lot, you're making it hell for me in here.  Don't think for one second I'm not on to you!  One at a time now.”  The band stopped and most of them gave him cheesy grins. He prompted, “Kacy, walk them down for me.”

The woman made a brilliant display of spinning her drumsticks above her head then brought them down in an explosion of sound as she did a drumroll that started on her snare and went through all the other drums.  I understood why they called it walking down now as each drum had a deeper tone to it.  Then she went crazy on the variety of cymbals and then just suddenly stopped and grabbed the rims of the cymbals to stop the reverberating sound.  She looked up and he gave her a thumbs up.

Then he said, “Can someone pry the sandwich from Mei's hand for me?  I need to set her levels.”  A tiny Asian lady looked up with a grin on her face and her mouth full of the breakfast sandwich was holding.”  She put the sandwich on her amp and turned toward the window as she shouldered her guitar.  I blinked, she only had one arm.  That made this group the Purple Horseshoes.

I had heard that the lead guitarist had only one arm but it was one thing to hear about it and another to actually see it.  I wondered how good she could possibly be for all of three seconds before she blew me away with the intricate solo that wailed out from her guitar.  I recognized that it was ‘Hammered’ from the Enders.  I barely noticed when June reached over and closed my mouth and prompted, “I know, right?”