7.
The next morning Loren woke up and went and got dressed. She did her morning ritual, shower, hair and makeup. She went out to the kitchen and could hardly walk around the massive flower arrangements all over the house.
"What's going on?" she asked her mother who was sitting at the table with coffee in her hand.
"Have a seat, I'll get you a cup."
She sat the cup in front of Loren.
"This is all yours." her mother said to her.
"What?" Who sent them?"
"Well at first I thought it was well wishers from last night, but as I kept reading the cards I realized they are all from the same person."
"Who?"
"Look." her mother said handing her an envelope.
Loren took the letter out and began reading.
"Dear Loren,
I hope you enjoy the flowers, none of them could come close to the beauty you have. I would like to apologize for being a complete ass last night. That was not me. That was the fall out of a very bad break up and it landed unfairly on you. So I am hoping that you could forgive me and let us start anew. I am excited to be working with such a beautiful song writer and truly looking forward to it. I hope to see you today at our meeting I told you about last night. Again, I'm sorry and please forgive me.
Eddie
"So are you going to tell me what happened?" Nora asked.
Loren did and realized that it all happened right after that girl showed up.
"Oh mom, I should have realized."
"Yeah, maybe, but as he said, he shouldn't have taken it out on you. So what are you going to do?"
"I'm going to the meeting. This is my dream and I guess I have to see for myself who the real Eddie Duran is."
"Good for you Loren. I am so proud of you. You are smart, beautiful, talented and you have an amazing head on your shoulders. I love you."
"I love you too mom." she said. She then stood up and went around smelling the flowers. She picked up a few of her favorites and carried them into her room.
Loren was early but still afraid to actually make it into the elevator for the meeting. She had fan loved Eddie Duran for years and now she wasn't sure who the real Eddie Duran was. She was also scared as hell about all of this happening to her life so quickly. She took a deep breath and pushed the elevator button. When she got up to the floor and stepped out of the elevator she heard people talking. When she heard her name she stopped. She wasn't usually into eavesdropping but she felt like maybe this time she needed to. She finally made out one of the voices, it was Eddie Duran.
"So what did you think of Loren Tate?"
"She was magnificent Jake. Her voice and the lyrics spoke to me. I am really glad we had the chance to bring her into this. I want to make sure we make her the star she is meant to be."
"Are you going to be okay working with her?"
"Yeah, I mean last night I did something so badly to her and I hope I get the chance to rectify it. She is going to be a great asset to my album."
"Well just be careful, I know your heart has taken a beating recently so just make sure she keeps it business like and you both will be fine."
"Yeah, no more romance for me for awhile that's for sure."
"Did I see Ian there last night?"
"Yeah, Pop called him. I was surprised he didn't have anyone with him."
"Me too. But he seemed to be impressed with the young lady he was sitting with."
"Yeah, he tells me he is over the meet them and leave them. I told him to be careful with this girl, because I found out it is Loren's best friend."
"Good. I know he won't hurt her knowing what it could do to your career."
"It's not all about my career though Jake. He has left a trail of women's tears, I don't want to see that with someone so innocent."
"Yeah."
After hearing all of this she started to think differently about Eddie. Maybe he did have some heart in him after all. She cleared her throat as if she had just gotten there and walked into the room. Both Jake and Eddie stood up to welcome her.
"I really hope she didn't hear anything." Eddie thought to himself. Along with the fact that he knew it was going to be hard being around this beautiful amazing girl, but he could get through it.