Chapter 10 Denied

It had been about a week since Jude got the great news about G Major's deal for her. She was writing every second she had and when she wasn't, she was jogging. Jude felt limitless when she would go jogging. She would feel the wind in her face, the world rushing past her and the unknown ahead of her. She didn't have to be Jude, the rock star, when she would run. She could be anyone she wanted and she reveled in that.

At the end of her jog, Jude would sometimes stop at a local juice bar and get something to quench her thirst.

"Hey, Jude!" one of the workers, Steph, always greeted her warmly when she would stop in.

"Hey, Steph. I'm gonna need one of your specials today!" Jude said dragging up to the counter.

Jude pulled her ringing phone from her fanny pack and saw that it was Jaime. She was going to have to answer him sometime before he got too suspicious. "What's up, Jaime!" She tried to sound as casual as possible.

"Uh, Jude?" Jaime sounded unsure.

"Yea, it's me," Jude grimaced at her failed attempt. "What can I do you for?"

"I was wondering if we can get together sometime today to talk about some logistics. I've been trying to reach you but I guess you've been pretty busy?"

"Yeah, I have…sorry about that…" Jude was still nervous and didn't want to rush the conversation.

"Oh, it's no problem. I know G Major probably has you running around like crazy trying to get out of that lame contract!" Jaime roared with laughter over the phone.

Jude tried to let out a courteous laugh but came out a bit of a sigh, Jaime didn't notice. "How does lunch sound?"

"Perfect! See you then, Jude!"

Jude would need to rehearse what she was going to say to him. She was scared of facing Jaime but she also knew that this was an opportunity of a lifetime. There was no possible way she could pass it up and she knew once Jaime heard about it, he wouldn't let her either.

Tommy would know how to handle this and Jude remembered how he always knew exactly what to do in situations as these. Sadly there was no running to him anymore, she was a big girl now.

At home, Jude couldn't concentrate on her speech for Jaime. She instead started writing a new song.

Maybe I don't say all the right things

Maybe I stumble on my words

Maybe I laugh at all the wrong times

Maybe I mumble and I curse

The last thing I want is to let you down

Cause all that I want is to make you proud

I can't explain just why I'm acting this way

I can't control it, so I go with it

I'm just a girl, I won't be changing the world

And boy you know that, I'm not perfect

But I'm perfect for you.

"That is incredible." Tommy appeared in her backyard clapping slowly as she paused in her song.

Jude nervously put her guitar down and got up from the grass. She awkwardly tried straightening herself out until she realized she was making the situation more involved than necessary. "What are you doing here?"

"Darius asked me to give you a rough draft of the contract they've been working on for you. Kinda, look it over, or have your lawyer do it…" Tommy handed her the file and then placed his hands in his pockets. "That song though it's…really good, "he tried to stress.

"Thanks. Trying to get my final works out before I go crush my best friends dreams and then he kills me", Jude plopped back unto the grass and put her head in her hands.

"You haven't broken the news to Jaime about staying with G Major yet?" Tommy sat on the ground next to her, picking up the guitar.

"How do you do that? How do you still know exactly what's going on with me, without me telling you?" Jude was in awe.

"Well, you aren't that hard to figure out, Harrison", he chuckled. I just made an assumption, and I was right. And in your case, I'm usually right 90% of the time".

She smiled and playfully punched his arm. "What do I do?" Jude asked seriously, forgetting that she didn't want his help.

"This deal is once in a lifetime. Not even Celine Dion would pass up a deal this sweet. If any company offered something like this to their artist they would be considered crazy. But G Major believes in you. You should let them help you reach the highest peak before you jump and begin to fly. I promise, without this, it's going to be a lot harder." Tommy rested his palm on her leg and gave a reassuring squeeze. "If Jaime is as smart a business man as I think he is, he wouldn't let you pass this up either."

Jude was grinning from ear to ear, "I think that's the nicest thing I've ever heard you say about Jaime".

They both laughed. "Well don't go telling him, I don't want him to get all cocky."

"I won't." Jude looked at Tommy next to her and she felt herself wanting to pull him into a hug and say thank you. She wanted to run her fingers through his full hair and bask in his cologne, a mix of fresh water and fir. He was staring back at her, probably reading every thought on her mind. She broke eye contact and hurriedly stood up. "I have a lot of work to do. Thanks for coming by." Jude tried to rush into the house without having to say another word to him but he grabbed her arm before she was a safe distance away.

Tommy pulled Jude back much closer to him than before. "Don't think I forgot what I promised you, Jude." She pulled her into tight hug and his soft lips gently kissed her forehead, lingering.

Jude felt lightheaded and warm all over. When she opened her eyes, he was gone.

Jaime was seated at the lunch counter at his favorite burger bar, Grease. He was already munching on fries when she sat down. "Sorry, Jude, I was starving!"

Jude laughed, "No worries, I'm there myself." She grabbed a handful and stuffed her mouth too. She wanted a moment to get a feel for Jaime's mood at the moment so the silence was good. She let him speak first.

"Was it ok that I ordered your usual?"

"Yea, that's perfect!" Jude smiled at her best friend; he seemed to be in a good mood which eased a bit of the stress for her. A bit.

"Ok, so I wanted to discuss with you where we are going to start as far as either recruiting new artists first or if you want to head the business side, such as the business location and investors. I was thinking having some signed artists on our side would give us some leverage as to what type of music we are promoting and that we will definitely have some quality music in the works. But on the other hand, with your name alone, we should be able to get some pretty well off people who are willing to get behind us in this. What do you think?"

"Well, I wanted to talk to you about something before we got into anything serious…"Jude paused and the food arrived.

"Oh my God! I swear this is gonna be gone in 60 seconds!" Jaime rushed into his first bite and grunted in satisfaction as he chewed. "So what were you saying?" he asked with a mouthful.

"Umm, lets just eat first." Jude diverted her eyes and focused on her chicken sandwich.

"No, what were you gonna say? That first bite is just a requirement! As soon as they set it down, you gotta dig in. But go ahead."

Jude was mustering up some confidence and chose to stare at the mustard on his chin rather then look into his eyes. "I was offered a contract of a lifetime with G Major. I would be incredibly stupid to pass it up at this point and in the end, its only another 18 months including a cable concert and that would give us enough time to really start our business right with all the financial backing we need. So please don't be mad that I accepted this, I HAD to. It took me a minute to decide but this would be best for the both of us. Just picture how much more exposure I would get with no expense to us!" Jude was out of breath from speaking so fast.

Jaime had been looking at her directly through her whole speech. When she finished, he looked at his plate and took another bite of his oversized burger.

Jude's heart was racing and she knew he could probably hear it. Her mouth was incredibly dry but she didn't want to move to grab the glass of water in front of her.

The silence was deafening. Like no one else was in the restaurant and the sound of Jaime's chewing and Jude's loud heartbeat is all she could hear. "I think that's a good idea. If you don't mind, I would like to see the contract too though. I want to make sure there isn't a clause that would prohibit you from doing any other work while you're under it."

Jude almost fainted. Instead she wrapped her arms around his neck so tightly and never wanted to let go. "Thank you so much!"

"You're choking me…" Jaime managed to cough out. They both laughed as she let go. "Let me know when the contract is done."

"I will! You can be the first to read it! I love you Jaime…"

He smiled. "Eat your food."

Benjamin was kissing her neck as she tried working the sound board to no avail. "Benji,…" Jude moaned. She tried pushing him away. "I'm trying to work! I promise as soon as this is done…we can go play." She winked.

"I want to play now." He grabbed her and covered her mouth with his. He roughly moved his hands to the back of her head to pull her closer and deepen their exchange.

His hard chest was pressed against her and forgetting about her work, Jude moved herself unto his lap. Benjamin was pulling her hair back and then pressing her back into him as they rocked back and forth in sync on the chair. He stood up with her still tightly wrapped around his waist. Placing her on the soundboard he removed her top urgently and tugged at her waist and softly kissed and nibbled her stomach. Jude was getting turned on so fast it was like she was in a whirlwind. Benjamin was mixing necessary roughness and still being gentle with his light touches and kisses, Jude wanted to know who taught him how to do this. Her mind couldn't figure out where he was going to go next. She felt him all over. She was tingling and was scared to open her eyes for fear he might stop.

"Jude, you make me crazy…" he coarsely whispered.

She finally exhaled and peeked to see where he was headed. She noticed he had removed his shirt and she was completely topless now. He held her and was running his hands down her back with his fingertips, massaging her. Jude felt satisfied, she was able to make this guy go crazy for her and yet she was still detached. She felt free, like she was finally becoming a woman. She heard her name.

"Yes, Jude Harrison has been quite the party girl these days. She's been seen with various up and coming stars and some well known all about town. Rumors are flying about her and her many boyfriends but all that it comes down to is that fact that she is becoming the mirror image of her ex, Tommy Q. Hurt much?" The newscaster giggled and turned her report over to her anchor.

Jude realized that Benjamin was listening as well. She moved to start kissing him again hoping that the report didn't bother him as much as it did her. He moved away. "Many? Many boyfriends?"

Jude laughed, "You don't believe that do you? I mean they will assume that I guy I'm next to in line is my boyfriend. I'm with you!" Jude answered as innocently as possible. She caressed his abs and pondered their judgments about her. She wasn't being like the old Tommy Q, was she? Jude was trying to have a good time. Get her mind off the past and here it was blowing up in her face again.

"I thought we had something special. Are you seeing other people, Jude?" Benjamin was starting to look worried.

Jude couldn't understand what was going on. "Benji, I'm sure you have tons of girlfriends! I mean you're absolutely gorgeous! Girls practically throw themselves at you all the time!"

"I don't want other girls. I wanted you." Benjamin grabbed his shirt and left the room.

Jude scrambled to put her shirt on and ran out of the studio to follow him, yelling his name. Those milling about paused to watch the shirtless model storm out of the building with a stumbling blonde chasing after him. "Benjamin!" Jude sighed as she saw him enter the garage elevators.

"Was that one of your many boyfriends?" Adam appeared in a doorway, looking her over.

"Adam it's not like that…" Jude couldn't say anymore without starting a complete lie.

Adam walked away without another word.