A/N: Thanks to my lovely betas SassyKassie and Naught, much love, girls, much love. I am not a songwriter, nor do I really know how the songwriting profession works beyond the basics, so I took some liberties here. Please be aware that this is fiction so this is how MY songwriting industry works. I also created a phone number that I don't think belongs to anyone, but I cannot be 100% sure so please do not try to call Bella. I don't own any of the Twilight stuff, but I do like sharing toys with others. Enjoy!

I Want It That Way

I swear, I've been plagued by nerves more times in the last couple of weeks than I have in my whole life. I find myself waiting for my meeting with the record execs nervously. I'm going to drive myself absolutely crazy at this rate. The receptionist's phone buzzes and she tells me that I can go on in. I've been working with Atlantic Records for a couple of years now. I write tons of songs every year and they buy about 4-5 of them each year for their artists. This year has been particularly busy for me, as I've already sold them 7 songs.

I sit down at the table with Jared Cameron, Brady Fuller, and Emily Young. I've worked with this selection committee several times and I like them all very much. They're great at what they do and fair with the deals that they make. I slide the disc across the table so they can listen to the 5 songs I've prepared for today's meeting. They listen through the selections, including my newest creation, Somewhere in Brooklyn, and take notes as they listen. When the last strains of the song fade out, Emily starts tapping her pen on the table to the rhythm they'd just heard. She turns to Brady and says "Bruno?"

"Oh, totally. It's perfect for his sound. Absolutely. Good call."

"Bruno?" I asked.

"Yeah, we have this relatively new artist named Bruno Mars. Well, his name is really Paul Hernandez or something, but his stage name is Bruno Mars. He's fantastic and starting to gather a great following. This Somewhere in Brooklyn that you wrote is totally his style. Although, it's not really yours. What's with the sudden change, Cullen?" Jared fills in the information for me.

"I have no idea, just came to me one day. I was inspired by a chance encounter at the subway stop. It's actually kind of a true story."

"Nice. I love it. The others are great too and we'll pass them along, but we can make you a deal today on this one. It's going to be a perfect addition to Mars' new album," Brady added.

"Great, I'm glad you like it. I wrote it just the other day actually, the melody wouldn't leave me alone until I did."

"Well, I'm glad you didn't let it go cause this is great. Let us get some numbers together and we'll call you this afternoon. You can stop in tomorrow to sign the papers. It'll take us the rest of today to get everything drawn up for it," Emily smiled, clearly happy with another painless meeting.

"Sounds great, thanks guys. Just let me know what time I need to be here or whatever. I look forward to hearing the offer," I wink at them on my way to the door. Their offers are always fair and pretty easily agreed upon, but I know how some business relationships in the industry are. They're not all so amicable, and I'm glad to have a good working relationship with these guys.

My contract with Atlantic states that I need to write no fewer than 15 songs a year for them to listen to. More often than not, I write that many in a couple of months. It does not require them to buy any of my songs, but as I said, usually 4-5 a year get picked up. For each song I make between $50,000 and $100,000 in initial payment. It all depends on which artist the song is for and how much they anticipate that record or album making. Yeah, I make pretty damn good money for what I do, but that's what happens when you write a string of songs that become number 1's on the charts.

I knew there would be at least a couple more meetings this week with Atlantic. I'd have to go in tomorrow to sign the paperwork for Somewhere in Brooklyn. It was possible that I'd have to go in for some paperwork for one of the others as well. Brady mentioned something about that possibility as he was shaking my hand.

A lot of times they'll have me come in and meet with the artist at some point before recording as well so that we can discuss the song. I'm sure I'll be hearing from them when this Bruno, or Paul, guy is in town. I guess I'll be busy over the next couple of weeks.

As I'm heading out of the building on 6th Avenue, I get like 3 text messages from Alice. Oh, right. That interview. One more thing to get done this week.

Hey, E. Bella says that anytime on Tuesday or Thursday afternoon works for her. Or on Wednesday morning. Her number is 212-550-1212.

Give her a call today sometime and set something up. She wants you to pick the time.

Oh, hey, random question, but were you in Brooklyn last Monday? I was down that way at a boutique for work and thought I saw you walk by. Over near Alter?

I quickly type out a reply. Ok, I'll call her, thanks for the info. And yes, I was in Brooklyn on my way to The End for my meeting. You saw me and didn't say hi?

I save the number Alice sent to my contacts, under just Bella since I can't remember her last name right now. I call her, but she doesn't answer. I fucking hate leaving voicemails. I always sound like an idiot. I can't just hang up though, she won't know whose number this is. Shit.

"Um, hey, Bella, this is..." shit, I'm just Anthony Masen for this right? I hope Alice didn't spill my secret... "Anthony Masen. Alice gave me your number so we could set up that interview. I have to keep my schedule a little flexible for some meetings this week so maybe we could do it over the phone? Give me a call back when you get a second - you have my number now - and let me know. Ok, um, thanks?"

I think to myself, wow, way to go, you sounded kind of like a bumbling idiot. Why was the 'thanks' a question? Ugh. I fucking hate leaving voicemails.

Alice had sent a response while I was on the phone. Saw you walk by the shop window. Was in the middle of a buy for a photo shoot we're working on. Couldn't just walk out of the store.

I slide my phone in my pocket and decide that despite the chill in the air, it's another beautiful day. My mood is always better when the sun is shining. I head toward Central Park and the nearest hot dog cart. There's nothing better than a New York City hot dog when you're out and about for lunch.

Just as I'm balling up the little piece of foil that my delicious hot dog had come wrapped in, I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket. Looking at the screen, I notice that it's Bella, likely returning my call.

"Hello?"

"Um, hi, is this Anthony Masen?"

"Yep, that's me. And you're Bella?"

"Um, yeah, how did you know?"

"Alice gave me your number, remember? I put it in my phone so I could give you a call, so your name popped up on the screen."

"Oh, right," she replies, and I swear I hear her mumble something like 'smooth, moron' under her breath, but I can't be sure. "Um, so do you have some time to chat for this paper I have to do? Alice said you had some meetings...and I guess you mentioned it too...um, so, maybe we could just talk on the phone?"

"Isn't that what we're doing right now? Talking on the phone?" I say, laughing at my brilliant joke.

"Oh, yeah, um, I guess we are. Did you want to do it now or are you busy?" There's something familiar about her voice. I'm not sure what, and I can't quite place if it's her tone or a hint of an accent or what, especially with the somewhat shitty connection of a cell phone, but she definitely sounds familiar.

"Well, I'm in central park right now, but it's kind of cold out here. I was going to head home in a few. Are you busy in about an hour?"

"I actually have a meeting with one of my professors to go over an internship essay at 2:30 so I wouldn't have much time. I do have some time after class tomorrow. I get out about 10:30."

"Ok, I shouldn't have to be anywhere until at least 12:30 tomorrow so why don't you give me a call when you get out of class and we'll get started. If we don't get everything you need in that amount of time, we'll set something else up."

"That sounds great, Anthony. Thanks again for agreeing to do this. I have really enjoyed the couple of sets of yours that I've seen and I'd always rather interview someone I like listening to than some teeny-bopper or wannabe pop-princess. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"No problem at all. I don't often talk about myself, so it'll be an interesting experience for me too. I'll talk to you tomorrow morning." As I go to hit the 'end call' button on my phone I pick up on music playing in the background on her end. It's Wu-Tang Klan, METHOD Man. I do love me some 90's hip-hop.

When I get home, I flip on the television and just relax for most of the afternoon. I doze off a bit, not having slept well over the last few nights with all the stuff going on. Between meeting with Ben on Thursday, something we'd set up when I called on my way home this afternoon, and my meetings with Atlantic to finalize the song deal, and my phone interview with Bella I was suddenly really busy. I was also having to pay very close attention to which persona I needed to fill when dealing with each situation. I don't want to mess up this carefully crafted stage identity I'd worked out.

Tuesday morning, Bella called around 11:00. I had set up a meeting at 12:30 with Atlantic to sign the papers for Somewhere in Brooklyn. That gave me about 45 minutes to answer questions for her before I had to head out the door. I wanted to give myself enough time to get to 6th Ave and not be late. Most of her questions were pretty straight forward. What instruments do I play, how long had I been interested in music, what were some of my biggest influences. We chatted and the conversation flowed easily. She seemed to become much more comfortable the longer we were on the phone.

After about 40 minutes of conversation I told her I'd have to get going soon, so we planned for her to call me Thursday again when she got out of class. My meeting with Ben was at 2:00 so I'd have a little more time on Thursday in case she had more questions. There was still something oddly familiar about her voice, but I just couldn't place where I'd heard it before.

When I got to Atlantic to sign the papers, I saw that they were offering me $75,000 for the song along with 5% royalties on any individual record purchases. I would also be getting a percentage, albeit a small one, of the album sales as I'd written a song that appears on it. It was a very good deal. My lawyer, Jason, had been sent a copy of the paperwork this morning and called me to say that it all sounded good to him, so I happily signed on the dotted line, so-to-speak. I was feeling really good about that aspect of my life. Things with my songwriting career were certainly going well.

In addition, in 2 days I had a meeting with The End to discuss the terms of a record deal as well. Ben had been really impressed by the showcase on Friday night. I didn't get a chance to meet with them, but apparently Tyler and Eric, Ben's business partners, had seen the set as well and were also impressed. They'd be at the meeting on Thursday so I'd be meeting them then. If they were anything like Ben, I was sure that we'd get along just fine. I decided to spend Wednesday getting a couple of my songs down on tape in my little in-home studio to bring to the meeting. I'd definitely be bringing Stray Dog, since I played that at the showcase. I'm thinking I'll record Never Think and Let Me Sign as well. They are two of my favorites and I think they both have pieces that illustrate the type of sound I like to play with.

I wasn't a producer so I didn't play with the sound at all, but I just wanted to get something quickly recorded for them so they'd have it to work with. I spent all of Wednesday tinkering around and getting the three tracks recorded. Everything was going so well and I'd been so busy this week that I only drifted to thoughts of Somewhere in Brooklyn girl half as much as I had been. That still meant that just about every half an hour a thought of her would find its way into my head, instead of every hour. She was still a reminder that no matter how well things were going for me, there was still something missing. When Rose stopped by Xbox night on Wednesday evening to pick something up from Em's place, I watched as she and Em moved around each other like magnets. I saw how they looked at each other. I saw how a simple touch seemed to move their world. I saw all of this and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I knew what was missing. I want it that way.

Chapter End Notes: He wants what Em has? Awwww. What do you think of the interview? Do they know who the other is?