“Oh, dude, thanks so much!”

Ashley particularly enjoyed praise for her lyrics – she took pride in her song-writing and had always had a certain way with words. Her imagination always led her down interesting story-telling paths. She was usually inspired by tales from walking in an imaginary stranger’s shoes, allowing her to write about everything from heart break to travelling the world without having actually experienced either. It was almost like McKenna was an entirely different person and the music was her life story.

Suddenly she frowned, then pointed to Cory’s hoodie.

“I sure hope this isn’t one of your sarcastic moments and that you actually think my music’s trash,” Ashley teased.

She pulled out her straw and twirled it absent-mindedly through her fingers, accidentally trailing a little bit of coffee across her lap. Woops. “Not exactly how I saw my day going either, if it helps. Getting recognised by people is still pretty surprising for me – doesn’t quite feel real that people actually listen to my songs. Nice to get some confirmation,” she added with a grin.

“I haven’t heard of you yet.” Ashley smiled.

She listened patiently, Cory’s explanations muffled slightly by the headphones, and was struck by a sense of modesty- no, that wasn’t it. Was she actually that shaken by meeting her? Ashley couldn’t help but think that the girl had a few confidence issues. Dressing loud to compensate. She’d known people in high school like that – and plenty of people in her industry too, come to think of it. Cory would fit right in.

There were instant goosebumps as soon as the music started. Ashley had never heard her music in this style before, but the song itself was something she had sung a thousand times over. All at once entirely familiar and completely alien. There was more reverb on her vocals than she was used to – plus a whole host of extra musical effects that she couldn’t name. She found herself holding her breath as she listened intently. It was good, really good. Not perfect, but definitely better than you’d expect from a completely self-taught amateur.

At about a minute in, Ashley exhaled audibly, finally releasing her breath as the music dropped. It was a heady, intoxicating brand of club music. Damn, it really was good. And all along she could still recognise her melodies, her lyrics…

“Wow.”

She’d listened for a little longer until it abruptly ended – clearly unfinished. Now she was looking up at Cory with wide, excitable eyes, just about to sing the remix’s praises when Cory blurted out some more bashful modesty.

“It’s amazing so far- I’m serious,” Ashley insisted, reaching out to Cory’s forearm and locking eyes with her. Serious face. “You’ve… transformed it, ugh, I love it! You’re honestly telling me that you’ve just started? Is this your first try? You must have the most incredible natural ear.”

Once a music nerd, forever a music nerd.

If Ashley had a dictionary to hand, she could probably rifle through it until she found “Flustered”, and then see a mirror image of the girl before her on its page. She could almost see the loading symbol spinning in her eyes as she formulated a response.

It was technically a response, even if it was more a jumble of key words, ums and ahs, and Ashley nodded encouragingly as she fumbled her way through her attempt at forming a sentence. “Ooh, music!” she echoed, unable to hide her interest. She was intrigued – the production side of music was something she was far less familiar with, and she could only assume that was what the girl was putting together on her laptop.

Concerned that she may be coming across as intimidating (in all her 5’2 glory), Ashley put on her best reassuring smile as she scooted a little closer in her chair. “Can I see?”

Woah, too much? She backed up a little. “Uh, unless it’s like, private or something…” Ashley had always been happy to share her musical creations with others, but she knew that techies in particular could be a lot shyer. Probably best not to reach out for the headphones and press play, for example.

Okay, she gathered from the girl’s next, quieter utterance that she was well aware of who Ashley was. Or, more likely, who McKenna was. Ashley plucked her cup of coffee from the table and shook it with a grin.

“McKenna Chase?” she suggested, with a grin. “Hiya.” She had a look at the smoothie on the other girl’s table, but couldn’t make out a name. She gestured to it vaguely. “What name did you give the Starbuck’s guy? A joke name or your real one?”

She leaned in conspiratorially. “Sometimes I give them a random, old lady kinda name, just to amuse myself. Although… then I forget what it is, so joke’s on me when they wind up leaving my drink on the side for five minutes.”

Hands moving to shield her stomach from Alice’s hunger, Ashley quickly composed herself and grinned impishly. “Eat them? Why, my dear-” she pulled at the bottom of her top, flashing her stomach for a second “-you could always just grate cheese off them.”

She added a comically un-seductive wink for good measure.

It was a nice little walk, tempered only by the fact that Alice wasn’t really capable of the same mile-a-minute conversations they’d been having while walking around town. Ashley just took the opportunity to look at the view. It really was pretty. She never got the same vibes from other cities as she did San Francisco. Even the famous fog charmed her. It was an eternal hope of hers that no matter how famous she became, she wouldn’t need to move away.

She sat herself down next to Alice and perched her bag on her lap, giggling at Alice’s sorry state of fitness.

“Sure I can’t count on you as a future gym buddy?” She laughed, trying to imagine Alice keeping up with her usual regime. It could be fun to try something a little lighter though… A workout pal was always a good motivator.

She joined in with Alice’s contemplation, looking at once more at the City extending out into the horizon to meet the ocean. “When you work all the time it’s sometimes hard to give yourself these moments,” Ashley said thoughtfully. “They’re valuable.”

Ashley watched as Alice rummaged through the contents of her paper bag, pulling out some of that German bread which looked pretty damn appealing right now.

“Yup, fruits in here,” she said, plucking out a few grapes. She popped one into her mouth, and then offered the other to Alice. She had her hands full but that didn’t mean she couldn’t enjoy a grape, right? “I say we just have a mix of everything. I definitely want to try some of that blue cheese, but maybe it’d be safer to start with brie…”

She frowned, and awaited the budding chef’s sage advice.

Blinking, Ashley realised that there’d been a slight shift in her vision. With a jolt, she noticed that somebody was looking at her. The girl at the laptop. She was just staring right at her. Ashley met her gaze before she’d even really registered what was going on, wondering if they needed something, and then watched with amusement as fingertips reached past the top of the laptop. It was hard to read her expression as she gave a hesitant, gentle wave before she quietly opened with a little, “Hey”.

Ashley smiled, unsure whether she was supposed to be remembering this person or not. Maybe she’d thought she’d been staring at her? Oh man, that would be awkward. She was fairly sure they’d never met, but maybe this was a long lost friend from kindergarten or something.

“Hi there, you okay?”

It was vague, but she couldn’t think of how else to respond. The girl did look a little wide-eyed in headlights, as though – just like the person in the queue – she recognised her as McKenna. Two in the space of as many minutes? No way.

Ashley folded her legs down, now cross-legged on her seat, and took a silence-breaking sip of her coffee. “What you working on there?”

What? Ashley liked making conversation. She didn’t want to introduce herself in case they were old friends, but equally she really wanted to know who this person was. Hopefully if she left it up to them, they could establish some kind of introduction. Plus, maybe they were working on something cool. A novel maybe – writers often collected in coffee shops to gather inspiration. That would be interesting. Ashley liked writing. She stuck mostly to song writing now, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t appreciate a good book pitch when she heard one.

Ashley was finding it hard to think of a time where she’d had such a good time meeting somebody new. Her positivity was significantly enhanced by the fact that every time she looked down at her nails she was reminded that they matched Alice’s hair perfectly. It could only be fate. There was nothing else to it – Ashley was simply going to have to cling onto this friendship like a koala.

As they walked, the train imitations gradually faded away in favour of normal conversation and normal methods of ambulation. They were still being pretty silly, as carefree young women often are, but the constant giggles were at least a little less likely to attract the attention of a passing psychiatrist. Not that Ashley was really paying attention to on-lookers; her heart and mind were set on cheese…

Yet again Alice led them to a place which simply screamed “hidden gem”. It was definitely not the kind of place that Ashley hit up very frequently. Quite simply, she wasn’t sure what half of the ingredients in here actually were, and there were more still that she recognised but couldn’t tell you what they tasted like. She decided not to inform Alice of this fact – not wanting to risk a foodie-breakdown.

“I like brie… and Swiss…” She gazed for a moment at the disorganised mountain of cheese, trying to identify, well, anything. “I want something nice to go with some good bread, I think.” Ashley turned to Alice for support that this was a good suggestion. “We should get grapes too – essential cheese board ingredient. And maybe find somewhere to get free plastic knives …”

She assumed there was some fruit hiding in this cramped little store – she hadn’t really looked on the way in.

“Then we can go explore; find the perfect park to eat our fancy cheese in if you want? Hopefully passers-by won’t be too jealous and try to steal it.”

Ashley narrowed her eyes, bottling her imaginary rage for these imaginary cheese thieves. She wasn’t above chasing them off – unless they were nice cheese thieves, of course, in which case she could probably be persuaded to share. Ashley liked making friends.

“Ummm… maybe just an iced Americano. Decaf, please,” Ashley added, prying herself away from staring at the cakes. She was in a Starbucks, having ended up on a more unfamiliar side of town after a meeting and not knowing any reputable independent coffee shops in the area, and she was trying her hardest not to consume every sweet treat in sight in the knowledge that her dad was cooking something fancy for her later on. Ashley was pretty stubborn and always tried to clear her plate; her father’s portion sizes, however, tested that stubbornness immensely. If she ruined her appetite now, she’d only be fighting a losing battle later on.

So, iced coffee it was. She wanted something refreshing but, more than anything, she wanted an excuse to just sit and relax in a coffee shop for a while. A coffee was a great prop – especially iced. That way she had no fears of it going cold while she stretched out the drinking process.

“Name?”

“McKenna,” she said, without thinking. Sometimes it really did felt like there were two different sides to her, bleeding into one another. Having spent all day so far being called McKenna meant that it had been pretty drilled into her by now. Some days she had to take a moment to figure out who people were talking to when they used her stage name, vice versa others.

She sensed it rather than actually saw it, but she could have sworn the person behind her in the queue stiffened with sudden recognition. They didn’t say anything but suddenly she could feel their stare burning into the back of her head. It was definitely a little thrilling, but Ashley also didn’t want to make assumptions. She flashed them a brief smile while she moved over to wait for her drink but stayed quiet.

Their eyes lit up, then they blushed and looked away. Ashley grinned, satisfactorily flattered, and left them in peace.

These kinds of moments were definitely starting to occur at a higher rate. Even Alice, a random friend of Will’s that she’d launched herself at for a last-minute friendship date, had known one of her songs. It was exhilarating. That said, Ashley was still able to walk the streets alone without getting mobbed by adoring fans and rabid members of the press, so it was a way to go before she’d have to start leaving the house in disguise. The thought that fame could have a negative impact on her privacy wasn’t really even cemented into her head yet.

She took her drink and headed to the far corner, dropping down into the first available seat at a clean table that she could find. It was nice and quiet back here, away from the door, with the only real noise coming from the barista making coffee and the girl working at her laptop on the next table over.

Ashley tucked her legs up, perching the iced coffee between her knees, and let herself drift into an aimless stare past the girl’s shoulder and into the mid-distance. Just… chilling.

Alice’s expression was the only confirmation Ashley really needed, and she bit her lip hesitantly in response. She couldn’t help but smile at Alice’s following outburst, even though she was still unsure how to react to the fact that Alice knew her music. Okay, probably just the one song, but still. She’d even labelled her a “celebrity”, which was weird. In an industry forever full of bigger fish, it was hard to think of yourself as famous, especially when you weren’t a worldwide household name.

She was about to protest something along those lines – try and restore the social balance they’d been enjoying – when Alice suddenly went red. Ashley caught her eye as she made a worried apology, obviously eager to reset the balance as well.

“Not too often actually, it’s kinda flattering,” she said cheerfully. “Anyway, you should see me squeal at some of the people I’ve met backstage, I’m so bad.” Ashley laughed, remembering how overwhelming it had been when she’d first started moving into similar circles as Billboard-charting artists. She hadn’t actually squealed, but hopefully Alice would feel a bit better if she could share in the mental image of Ashley shrieking her head off at some A-lister passing by.

In truth, Ashley just really liked meeting people. Her level of enthusiasm was pretty equal no matter who she was talking to. It actually helped with making contacts, she’d found. People respected the consistency.

Ashley waved a yoghurt-laden spoon at Alice, her face serious. “Of course, ma’am. Just print the menu onto a beautiful dress and I’ll wear it as I accept my tenth Grammy.”

Her pot of fro-yo was getting woefully empty. She pouted. “Dang, I’m nearly out. What kind of establishment doesn’t make their pots bottomless?” With a little giggle, Ashley pulled her phone out and returned to her trusty list. “I was thinking we could go buy stuff for lunch now, if you want? We could go eat it somewhere nice outside – would be a shame to waste all this sunshine.”