Aladdin called a cab and instructed the driver to take them to her favorite lunch place. It was a little café in a quieter area of town. It wasn't very well known, but it was really good and she liked it because it wasn't busy and full of people who would recognize her and stare. She used to perform there with Alibaba and Morgiana before she became a professional.

When they arrived Judal looked around, figuring out what kind of place it was. A hole in the wall, apparently. Obviously not some place a bunch of teenagers or young adults would be going to get lunch. Good. Less staring, he approved of her choice so far.

She led him in and chose a table in the corner at the back. In a moment a waitress, in her fifties was Judal's guess, came to get their drink orders.

"Hi Gloria! It's been a while. I want iced tea. And the Usual sandwich, you remember right?"

"Of course I remember sweetheart. And you sir?"

"Water and the French Dip."

"That's no fun! You like peaches. Could you bring him the peach smoothie please?"

The waitress smiled and walked away. Judal arched a brow at Aladdin.

"I like peaches?"

"Um, yeah. You always post pictures of peach deserts and stuff on your instagram." As Aladdin talked she got quieter until it was just a mumble. Her cheeks were dusted with pink.

Cute. That's what came into Judal's head when he saw her blush. He wanted to see more. In a sultry voice, "Do I? I didn't know you were so interested in me." He added a slight tilt of his head.

Her cheeks were bright red, she could feel them burning. "I-I…Yeah. The music you play is really amazing and you have a great voice. And I noticed that you don't use much auto tuning. It's nice. I don't like the way auto tune makes things sound. Natural voices are prettier."

"So full of compliments. Do you flatter everyone like this, or just me?"

If it was possible her face got even more red. "I-I compliment people who deserve them. Oh look, the food is here."

She got lucky. He stopped the flirtation for now. For the first few moments they just ate. Judal could feel the curiosity rolling off of the girl. She wanted to ask him a million questions, he could tell. But, unlike many others she had the courtesy to wait, so it seemed.

"So is there something you wanted to ask or say specifically, or did you just plan on looking at me while I eat?"

She had been caught. She cursed at herself, but quickly recovered.

"How many instruments can you play?"

"And here I thought you followed my social media. That information is-"

"But you constantly learn new instruments, and no new information has been posted on any of your social media for almost a year."

"Wow, I have a celebrity super-fan." He watched her face begin to redden again. "Ten instruments."

"What are they?"

"Ukulele, ocarina, cello, french horn, flute, violin, drums, guitar, harp, and piano."

"Do you own any of them or do you just rent them?"

He smirked, "I own at least one of all of them."

"That's amazing. I have a grand piano at home but that's it. And I'm not very good. You write all the music for your albums right? Not just the lyrics?"

"Of course."

"I want to do that too."

"Then do it."

"I can't."

"Why. If you want to write the lyrics and the music then write them both."

"I'm not very good. And Sinbad is already mad that I'm doing that for the album I'm writing now. It's taking me a really long time, and he told me he didn't want the next album to take this long. He wasn't very happy about it."

"Then ignore the man-whore. Nobody likes him anyway. He doesn't know what he is talking about. Yeah, he is talented and popular. According to the music charts you are too."

"I don't really get much of a choice. If I don't do it the way he wants then I'll get cut from the Label, and I want to keep singing."

Judal noticed the change in her. Apparently, he wasn't the only one who was negatively affected by Sinbad. She pushed her food away, not even half finished, and her smile faded. He recognized that look. He had seen it in himself right before Ithnan had started giving him the damn drugs. Something raged inside of him. Why the hell did Sinbad have to make things suck for everyone?

"When do you plan on coming back from your break?"

"Soon. My original plan was to take a year off to get ahead on some albums and relax a bit. I wasn't really sleeping or eating well and my health really sucked the few months before I left. Not to mention they kept making me do these stupid performances with talentless wannabes. Especially that last performance; that was a complete and utter disaster."

"Yeah, I'm sure from a normal person's view the last performance would have looked fine but to me it looked a bit disorganized."

He gave her a withering look, but it wasn't really directed at her, "That has to be the understatement of the year. I didn't even know I was performing with that asshole until the morning of the performance. My manager knew I would refuse if he told me in advance. That idiot was so high it I was surprised he actually remembered the words to his rap."

Aladdin saw this going downhill and decided to try to redirect the conversation, "What about that last music video you did. The dancing one! It was really cool an-"

"Do not say anything else positive about those dancers. They were all idiots. They kept telling me how I should play my freaking music. It was always to fast or to slow for them. That entire group of dancers was know-it-alls with no sense of respect."

Aladdin could relate to that.

"The actor I had in my last music video did that two. He kept complaining that I wasn't doing it right even though everyone else said it was fine. It was really annoying."

"Working with people in music videos is a pain in the ass. Most models are okay and some actors are okay, and besides that particular group of dancers I haven't found to many problems on that side. Just whatever you do don't let anyone talk you into working with rappers. They don't appreciate people with actual talent."

Aladdin wasn't sure about that because she had never worked with rappers, but she didn't think arguing with him was a good idea. Kouha texted her. She looked at the message.

Just arrived in San Francisco. I have no idea what the hell the movie is about still! What took you away from me?

I found someone in the music store. We are at lunch.

Someone? Is it a boy? Is he a musician? Is he cute?

He is a musician and a singer…Yes, he is cute. Extremely cute actually.

Do I know him?

Probably.

What's his name?

I'm not telling you.

Tell Me! Ali WHAT IS HIS NAME?

I'll tell you later. I'm still with him. Go work or something :P

While Aladdin had been texting Kouha the waitress had brought the check, Judal had handed her his card, and she had taken it away and returned with it. Aladdin looked up in time to see him returning the card to his wallet.

"You weren't supposed to pay! I invited you I should have paid! At least let me get the tip."

"I already got it. Since when does the girl pay? Haven't you seen movies or read romance novels?"

"I thought that was only for dates. And besides, this is modern times. Guys never pay anymore. They order the most expensive things on the menu and insult you throughout the meal then insist that you pay for everything."

Judal noted that she sounded a bit bitter. "Aww, poor little newbie had a bad date?"

"Yeah, I didn't get the 'never date Abercrombie models' notice until this morning and its not like Sinbad knew."

Judal laughed. "Yeah, you can't date them. I made the same mistake more then once. They are really annoying most of the time."

Aladdin smiled a little. One of her songs came on and she started singing along without realizing it. Judal watched her for a moment before he moved to get up.

"Ah, where are you going?"

"My hotel."

"Come play music with me." Aladdin winced. It had sounded like a demand. And it sounded kind of rude. He wasn't going to come. That sucked.

He smirked. This girl kept surprising him. She wasn't all full of herself, she wasn't prideful, and she kept getting all flustered. It was amusing. Fine. He would go.

"Lead the way, newbie. I don't have all day."