"What?" Jude exploded. "You?"
Tommy looked back at her. "Yeah, what's wrong with me?" He asked, somewhat offended.
"I could name about 700 things that's wrong with a duet with you!" Jude shot back. Was Tommy on drugs? She wondered silently. He must have been if he came up with this idea.
"Come on, Jude. It'll be great. Didn't you once say you would have loved to sing with me?" Tommy recalled, thinking back to a year ago where Jude almost begged him to do a duet.
"Yeah, but then I grew up!" She threw at him. Tommy just ignored her.
Kwest spoke up. "You have to admit it's a good concept. You know how many people will put down money to hear a song by ex-boyz attack member Lil Tommy Q and his protege Jude? Not to mention a video. The media will be in a frenzy."
Georgia just sat back in silence, tapping a pencil on the desk. 'It has potential.' She thought. 'It could be the biggest thing to hit the music industry.' "Well, I agree with Kwest-" She began but was cut off by an astonished look by Jude
"You can't be seriously considering this?" Jude asked, dumbfounded
"Jude, listen. It would be good press," Georgia began. "However," She said throwing a glance at Tommy. "If you don't want to do it, you don't have to. But put aside the fact that I'm your friend, in my professional opinion, it be a really great move and a really great way to kick off the album."
"Can't we get somebody else?" Jude pleaded with her eyes.
"Jesus, Jude stop acting like we're asking you to do a duet with the devil, it's just me." Tommy put in. He knew Jude wouldn't immediately warm up to the idea, but he didn't think she'd flat out refuse it.
"Jude, why don't you talk this over with Tommy, alone? No pressure, okay?" Georgia suggested as she and everyone else got up and left the room.
Chris will have a fit." She muttered as she closed her eyes and started to massage her temples with the tip of her fingers. She knew if Tommy continued at it, he'd persuade her to do it.
Tommy snickered at that. "Can't make a move without his say?"
Her eyes flew up and sent daggers at Tommy. "That's not even it."
"Oh yeah?" He drawled out as he leaned on the table. "Than do the song with me."
Jude recognized bait when she heard it. "I'm not falling for that, Quincy. God, you act like a 16 year old sometimes. Was I this bad two years ago?"
"Yes." He replied, not missing a beat. "Do the song Jude. Forget that it's me for a minute. It's a great idea, you know it.
"No, I can't. I couldn't subject Chris to that. We'd have to do a video and everything." Jude knew the duet was a good idea, but she couldn't do it. Because of Chris, but mostly because of herself.
"He's a big boy. Besides what do you think he does in his movies? Play kiss with the fellow actresses?" Tommy asked.
"Who said anything about a kiss?" Jude asked, suddenly nervous. The idea of doing a song excited Jude, but a kiss made her feel edgy. She remembered vaguely about her kiss with Shay in the video. It took a couple of takes to get it right, she wouldn't be able to handle that with Tommy.
"Come on that's a given." He enjoyed seeing her sweat a little. When should started to shake her head no, he interjected. "Don't be one of those girlfriends who doesn't do something because her boyfriend won't approve. You're better than that." He got up and walked around to where she was and sat on the conference table right next to her. "Say you'll do it, Jude."
"Okay." She blurted out, unable to stop herself. When Tommy was this near to her she couldn't think. He did all kinds of things to her system.
Tommy smiled, he could sense the turmoil she was feeling. Just to make sure he still got a hold on her, he leaned in closer to Jude, so that they're lips were almost touching. "I'd knew you'd see it my way, girl." He murmured then abruptly got up and made his way to the door. "Oh, and don't worry Jude." He turned around, with a hint of a smirk on his face. "We'll keep it strictly business."
When Tommy left the room, Jude buried her head in her hands. What had she gotten herself into?
Jude still sat in the conference room, now with her cell phone in her hand. 'Call him.' Her inner voice urged. She didn't know why she felt so guilty about doing the duet with Tommy. He had point when he said that Chris had to kiss a lot of girls in his line of business, so this really wasn't a big deal. Besides, she didn't even know what the song was going to be yet. It could be some friendly little number, or something. But she highly doubted that. Chris would understand wouldn't he? It was her career after all, she wasn't going to compromise it for a guy, no matter who it was. She quickly hit speed dial 3 on her phone and put it up to her ear as it started to ring.
When it went to voice mail, Jude left a quick message. "Hey Babe, it's me,- I mean Jude, uh, anyway, I need to talk to you about something so call me when you get this okay?" She quickly hit the end button and threw her phone down on the table. She looked up when she heard the door open, and saw Georgia standing there.
"Tommy told me you'd do the song." Georgia started as she made her way towards Jude.
"Yeah," She said softly.
Georgia looked at her intensely. "Rethinking it?"
"What? No, no. You guys were right you know, it's gonna start a big buzz around the album. It's gonna help it a lot."
"Okay so why do you look so upset then?"
Never being able to lie to Georgia she quickly explained how she knew Chris would react to the news, but she held back about how she felt.
Georgia made a "mmhmm" sound and nodded her head understandingly. "But the biggest problem is being this close to Tommy right?"
Jude laughed lightly, not surprised that Georgia could read her like a book. "Yeah, you know, if someone told me a week ago that Tommy would be back as my producer and wanted to do a duet with me, I would have keeled over in laughter and then suggest a good therapist, but here he is, and he's different, you know? I think he wants me for a change and I don't know how to handle that." Jude sighed and added, "Then there's Chris. If this hurts him, I don't know what I'll do. He's a great guy, sometimes I don't think I deserve him." She replied, feeling insecure.
"Ah yes, Christopher. Don't be ridiculous of course you deserve him, you're a wonderful person. You won't hurt him, Jude. If you change your mind about him, you'll do the right thing, correct?"
Jude waited a second before she nodded, thinking about the kiss she lied about. She knew she was implying if something happened between her and Tommy, she'd break it off with Chris.
"It just threw me for a loop, you know him coming back and all. I just wanted to get this CD done with, then deal with everything. I can't have it out with Tommy now, especially now with Chris, especially now with the song. If I start asking him questions about why he left, I'll never stop. For now, I'll have to be satisfied with knowing nothing." Jude said sadly, but firmly, hoping to convince herself that it would have to be good enough for now.
Tommy all but skipped into the recording studio where Kwest was sitting going through some things.
"Told you she'd go for it." He grinned as he looked at Kwest.
"Yeah, I figure she would eventually, but I hope she doesn't end up regretting it." Kwest said looking doubtful.
"What do you mean?" Tommy asked, frowning.
"Well, I knew there'd be no way that girl could say no to you, no matter how mad she claims she is at you or what she says, but I wasn't kidding when I said the press would have a frenzy with it. It's not all gonna be good publicity. A lot of it will be, but not all. You know it'll kick up some of those old rumors about you two being more than meets the eye."
"So what? Jude never cared about what the papers said, I was the only with the problem." He recalled.
"Yeah, but she didn't have someone else's feelings to take in to consideration." When Tommy made a face at the reference to Chris, Kwest continued. "Jude's a good person, Tommy. You know that better than anyone. She's gonna hate what the press will probably print about you two, and hate even more how it'll effect Chris." Kwest started to get up. "Good for you, though man, hope it all doesn't bite you and Jude in the ass."
"Hey, wait." Tommy stopped Kwest from leaving. "When I told you the idea, you seemed for it, at the meeting you even encouraged it, why you saying all these things now?" He fired, angry.
"I overheard Jude and Georgia talking in the conference room." He sighed as he continued. "I left something in there, but when I heard voices, I didn't go in. I only caught some of the conversation, but Jude's pretty torn up about this. Maybe you should talk to her." Kwest then gave Tommy a sympathetic pat on the shoulder as he went on his way.
Tommy figured Kwest was at least right about one thing. Tommy went out to search for Jude and hoped to have a chat with her.