I felt privileged being in here. Dimitri didn't let just anyone in here, so it felt privileged to be here. It really was like a mini recording studio and I ran my finger over the keyboard that sat near the microphone. I had been in the booth before, but not this part of the room.
"You seriously want me to demo this for you?" I asked with furrowed brows.
Dimitri nodded. "Yeah. I've heard you sing, and I think that if I can get a female voice on the demo, I might be able to sell it to the label for a collaboration after my tour," Dimitri said as he sat down in the little transparent closet in the corner. I sighed and picked up the headphones that were hanging around the mic stand and put them on. I had heard the song on the album just him, but he really wanted to hear a female voice with it.
As soon as I put them on, I couldn't hear anything.
"I'm going to go over some exercises with you before you do the demo, okay?" Dimitri said through the microphone. I nodded and repeated what he was doing. It felt stupid, but I figured he was making me do it for a reason.
"Ready?" he asked once we had gone through the warm-ups.
"Do I have a choice?" I asked with a smirk.
Dimitri smiled at me. "Even if you think it sounds bad, keep going. The vibrations of your voice are just getting caught in your face and distorting it to your ears," he said. I nodded and he counted down before the music started. I had heard the demo music so many times while he had practiced it, and now I was just copying him.
At one point while I was singing I closed my eyes, feeling awkward that I was just staring at him. It was easy to get caught up in what I was doing. By the time I had finished the first run, I had lost track of what I was doing.
I opened my eyes and Dimitri had a grin on his face.
"What?"
"Come listen," he said with a beckoning finger. I took the headphones off and walked over to him, watching him pull the cords out so that I could hear the recording. I listened to a few seconds of it before shaking my head.
"There's no way that's me," I said with a shake of my head.
"That is you," Dimitri said as there was a knock on the door. Tasha poked her head into the room and smiled.
"Is that you?" she asked with a grin.
"Apparently," I said with a scoff.
"Holy crap," she said and shut the door behind her, folding her arms over her chest.
"Is this a demo? I don't think I've heard this?" Tasha said.
"It's a piece that Rose wrote as poetry, and I convinced her to sing it for me. I think it's amazing," Dimitri said with a grin. I rolled my eyes as he played the whole track for us, Tasha nodding her head along as she listened.
"I love it," she said with a cant of her head. I shrugged but Dimitri ruffled my hair affectionately.
"Maybe you can sneak it into a show. Then you'd really piss Victor off," Tasha said with a laugh, "Also, you never got back to me. Are you coming to the dinner?"
"What dinner?"
Tasha smirked. "Millie invited us all for Christmas dinner. She said the band of misfits shouldn't be alone," she said and I smirked.
"She hasn't mentioned it to me," I said with a pout.
"She literally asked me last night," Tasha said and looked at her phone with a frown. "Have you spoken to Ivan?"
Dimitri shook his head. "No, he called but didn't leave a message. Why?"
She looked at me and shook her head. "Nothing. He's having another one of his epic relationship meltdowns."
Dimitri sighed and rubbed both hands over his face. "What now?"
"He's doing the whole back and forth with Lena and can't figure out what he's doing with me. I mean, if he just wants casual with me, fine. But I'm not having him sting Lena along at the same time. I don't think I have the right equipment to handle this conversation."
Dimitri sighed. "I love the man," he muttered begrudgingly under his breath. I looked at him sympathetically and excused himself, walking out of the room with Tasha on his tail. I propped my feet up on the edge of the table and played the track again, video-taping a little bit of it with a grin.
Did you ever think you'd hear me sing like that? I said as I sent it to Mia and Lissa with a grin.
I lay on the couch and smiled at the falling snow. My apartment was nice, but sometimes the view from here was better. Plus, I hated how much I loved this quilt. If Dimitri wasn't so attached to it, I'd take it.
Dimitri looked comfortable on his chair, legs dangling over the edge as he twirled the pen between his fingers. He had swept his hair back into a bun and sported a fugly-looking cardigan, but at the same time, it looked homemade so I couldn't really say it was ugly.
"What's a game of cards you can think of?"
I lifted my head. "Huh?"
"I am a deck of cards, vice or?" he said, looking up from his writing. I pursed my lips and thought about it for a few minutes.
"A game of hearts," I said after a minute with a grin. Dimitri nodded and scribbled it down, going back to what he was working on.
"So, are you coming this weekend?" I asked him. He had his tongue between his lips as he looked up.
"Huh?"
"Dinner? At my mom's place?"
"Oh, yes. Sorry, I've been so wrapped up in this piece," he said tapping his pen against the pad of paper. I stood up with the blanket wrapped around me and tried to see what he was writing, but he flipped it against his chest.
"Oh, c'mon!" I pouted.
"You can wait to hear it live," he said with a smile. I pouted again and he laughed. "Trust me, you'll like it."
"Even though you've already released the album?"
"It's not uncommon to release a song after an album release. Plus, I can always tease it on my social media, rial up the fans and then the label has to let me release it," he said with a smirk.
I chuckled and adjusted the quilt around me.
"Fine," I sighed but Dimitri's hand reached for my arm.
"You never told me what you wanted for Christmas," he said with a smile.
I shrugged. "I don't want anything," I said quietly. Dimitri raised a brow at me.
"Really, I don't want you to spend any money on me," I said honestly. Dimitri sighed quietly and pursed his lips.
"Did you end up looking at the laptops? Yours is on the frits," he said.
I nodded and said off-handedly that the one I liked was a little more than I wanted to pay for a computer, but I was secretly disappointed at how much it was. I was making decent money, but it was still more than I wanted to pay. I wanted to put a lot of money into savings, and I wanted to surprise Mildred with a trip.
I wanted to take her to New York. She had always wanted to see Time Square, and I wanted to surprise her with it. Dimitri was in on it, helping me plan the trip. It coincided with a concert he wanted to go to for a friend, and I was more than happy to accept his offer to use the same plane.
"Are you ready to meet my crazy extended family?" I asked Dimitri. He grinned at me.
"Of course, I am!" he said with a grin, tossing his notebook on the table, "Anything I need to be prepared for?"
"Um, my cousins Matthew and Jill will probably ask you to sing," I said with a laugh, "And my uncle Simon will grill you with questions, while his wife Annie will probably stare at you. Now the kids, well, they're going to try and climb you because of how tall you are."
Dimitri grinned. "I will be prepared then," he said, "What should I bring?"
"Umm. I actually don't know," I said with a laugh. I pulled out my phone and texted Mildred, asking her what we could bring. I had gifts that I was bringing, but I wasn't sure about anything else. She responded quickly.
Bring booze. Uncle Mike is coming this year. We're going to need help. Mom says to bring those dinner rolls by your place – Andrew.
I relayed the message to Dimitri and he chuckled. "Good to know," he laughed, "I'll make sure to bring the good stuff."
"And you'll be meeting my friends officially too," I pointed out, "Obviously, Lissa, Mia and Christian know, but nobody else knows the truth. It was too hard to hide it from the girls, and Christian would probably have known from Tash.
"Yes. Anything I need to be prepared for?"
I shook my head. "No. But be prepared for drunk table dancing in the living room if you leave me and Tasha unattended," I snickered.
I knocked before we walked in, hanging my coat up in the closet and taking Dimitri's from him and hanging it up. Dimitri took my bag of gifts and the things we brought, gesturing for me to lead the way. I smiled at him and smoothed my hair back as I walked into the living room.
Andrew spotted us first and stood up, smiling at me as he approached and scooped me up in a hug.
"Hey kid," he said as he hugged me.
"Hey bro," I said as he set me back on my feet. He ruffled my hair affectionately before directing his attention to Dimitri.
"So, this is the boyfriend?" he mused with a wink. I guess Mildred filled him in.
"Yes, this is Dimitri. Comrade, this is my brother, Andrew."
Andrew shook his hand with a smile. "It's nice to meet you instead of just seeing pictures of you and my sister," he said with a laugh. Andrew grinned and moved out of the way when May and Jackson ran to me, wrapping their arms around my legs. The twins were ten and now they were almost up to my chest.
"Merry Christmas," I said as I hugged them back. May looked up at me and grinned at me.
"Did you bring chocolate?" she asked. I rolled my eyes playfully and pretended to think about it.
"Oh, I don't know. Maybe you need to ask my friend Dimitri if I brought any chocolate. Dimitri, do you think I brought any chocolate for the little gremlins?"
Dimitri smirked and reached into the bag he was holding, pretending to search for something before reaching into the second bag and pulling out two boxes of hazelnut chocolate. May squealed and bounced on her feet before batting her eyes at me.
"What's the word?"
"Please Rose can we have some chocolates?" Jackson asked, his lisp catching the s's in his words. I smiled and kissed the tops of their heads before handing the chocolates to them. They ran away to eat them, knowing that their parents would say they had to wait.
I introduced Dimitri to everyone, watching the excited and perplexed expressions on their faces before they compose themselves. Mildred was happy and excited to see us, kissing both of our cheeks before moving around.
"Do you want some help?" I asked after her, but she didn't reply. I rolled my eyes and Dimitri said he'd speak with Ivan while I slipped into the kitchen. I found Lissa in the kitchen, cutting the ends off the asparagus. She looked up when I walked in, and she smiled at me but it didn't reach her eyes.
"Merry Christmas," she said with a smile. I replied in same and washed my hands, asking what I could do to help.
"Um…maybe peel the sweet potatoes? Mildred didn't even want me to help, and I told her that it wasn't an option."
I nodded and grabbed the potatoes out of the cupboard and started peeling, looking at her cautiously as she cut the vegetables.
"What's wrong?" I asked softly.
Lissa gave a small shake of her head. "It's nothing."
"Liar."
She shook her head. "It's really nothing," she explained and I moved to the counter she was at, leaning on it and raising a brow at her.
"Lissa," I drawled.
"I think that Christian has a gambling problem," she said quietly as she set her knife down and rubbed her hand over the side of her face. I bit my lip and rubbed my hand soothingly over her back.
"Why do you think that?" I asked softly.
"I usually don't look at our savings account, mostly because I don't touch it, but he's made a few large withdrawals. I mean, a couple thousand at a time," she explained.
"How much in total?" I asked gently. "And is this your inheritance account?"
"No. That's in a separate account that has an age restriction on it. I can only take so much out at a time. It's our joint savings that we've both put a lot into. In total, it's something like eighteen thousand."
I felt my stomach drop.
"Eighteen!?"
Lissa nodded. "Honestly, I felt so sick when I saw it. It's all been over the last few weeks. I don't know how to bring it up without him thinking I was snooping, but what could he have gotten himself into?!"
I soothed her gently and rubbed my hand over her back again.
"Liss, breath. Maybe he's taking it out for a down payment on a car? You mentioned he was looking into getting a new car."
"But the dealerships take bank drafts, not cash," she said sadly.
I frowned and was at a loss. I wasn't sure what I could say to make her feel better.
"I know it's harder said than done, but try not to let it bother you too much. It's Christmas, try to forget about it for today," I whispered before excusing myself, saying I forgot something in Dimitri's car. I slipped into the living room and found Tasha and Dimitri.
"Where's Christian?" I hissed quietly. Tasha furrowed her brows and pointed at the stairs leading upstairs. I nodded and forced a smile, walking calmly to the stairs before climbing two steps at a time. The main bathroom door was open but I beelined for the one attached to my room. I closed the door behind me as the door to my bathroom opened, making Christian jump.
"Jesus! Put a bell on!" he exclaimed.
"You've been caught," I hissed quietly.
"What are you talking about?!" he asked just as quietly.
"Lissa checked the savings account," I said, "She thinks you have a gambling addiction!"
He looked at me like a deer in the headlights.
"What did you say?"
"Nothing! I went along and acted surprised that there was eighteen grand missing from the account! I just stood there and tried to convince her not to worry about it today while you walk around with a giant rock in your pocket!" I exclaimed as lowly as I could, throwing my hands out to the side, "I tried to convince her you took out the money for a car down payment, but she's too smart to fall for it!"
Christian groaned and rubbed his face. "All because I wanted to buy her the 'dream' ring she's been drooling over," he said tiredly, "But none of the money I took is her money. I used money from my parents."
I nodded. "I know that, we know that, I just don't want Lissa's Christmas ruined because of her worrying."
"It won't, I promise. I'll do it before the gifts when we go for our walk," he said before walking out of my room. I looked up at the ceiling and groaned quietly before following him down the stairs. Dimitri raised a brow at me as I followed Christian down the stairs but I rolled my eyes and shook my head at him. I grabbed the bottles of wine out of the bag beside him.
"What was that about?" he whispered in my ear.
"Trying to prevent an absolute meltdown," I whispered back as I stood up.
"Anything I can help with in the kitchen?"
I shook my head and playfully poked his nose. "Nope!" I said as I wandered back to the kitchen.
Lissa looked down at her hand every once in a while, a small smile gracing her face every time she did.
"Are you going to calm down now?" I asked as I drank my cider with a snicker.
Her smile flattened instantly. "Wait, you knew?"
I rolled my eyes at her. "Of course, I knew. How do you think he got your ring size?" I laughed, "Or, how he knew exactly which ring was your dream ring from Tiffany's?"
Lissa blinked at me a few times and scoffed a laugh. "How long have you known about this?"
I licked my lips. "Since before you graduated," I said with a smile. She thought about it and shook her head.
"A year?"
I nodded. "Yes."
Lissa shook her head at me and lifted her hand up to look at the ring.
"So, you'll be my maid of honour, right?"
"If you didn't ask I would be upset," I laughed and rested my head on her shoulder. Lissa took a sip of her wine and chuckled quietly to herself.
"What?"
"I'm surprised nobody has asked Dimitri to sing yet. I really thought it would have happened before dinner."
I chuckled and looked at Dimitri where he sat on the floor, playing cards with Jackson while May was passed out on her father's lap.
"I know. I've been waiting for Millie to ask all night long," I whispered back, making Lissa giggle too. I glanced at Mildred sitting on the other couch, her hand running over her cat, Hershey, as she talked to Ivan.
Dimitri looked up at me and I smiled at him, casting my eyes towards Mildred. Dimitri whispered to Jackson that they would finish their game shortly and I stood up too, heading over to the piano and gripping one end while he gripped the other, shuffling it around so that when he sat at it, his back wasn't to everyone.
"So, I know most of you know who I am," Dimitri started and my cousin Matthew whooped. It pulled a handful of chuckles and make me smirk.
"And, Rose and I decided that we have one more gift for Millie," he said as we both sat down at the piano. I was nervous about playing his song on the piano, but he had faith in me. And we had been practicing for two weeks.
Mildred's face lit up when she realized what was happening and I noticed Tasha take her phone out. I started the keys for Somebody You Loved and I watched Mildred's eyes start to water as Dimitri started to sing. May had woken up when we started, her little voice following along as she sang too. Whether everyone knew the song, I could see them singing it to themselves too.
Once the last key was played, Mildred was on her feet, already over to us and kissing Dimitri's head before kissing mine.
"That was absolutely outstanding," she muttered, her tears thick in her voice. Dimitri thanked her quietly and stood up, giving her a hug.
"What was that song written about? Was it about Greta?" Uncle John asked. I grimaced and looked at Dimitri out of the side of my eyes.
"No. I wrote it after my grandmother died," Dimitri explained, resting his hand on my knee as he sat back down, "She would never admit it out loud, but she was my biggest fan. And when she died, I didn't have a barrier anymore. She kept all the hard things at bay as a teenager. And I was embarking on the biggest part of my career at that point. My last album truly made my career, and that song helped me get there. I like to think that it was her the whole time."
I sniffed and looked upward for a quick moment. I had assumed that it was about Greta too, but to learn that it was about his grandmother, his babushka, made it seem all that much more emotional. Dimitri had told me that Yeva had meant a lot to him, that she reminded him constantly that their hardship was not his fault, and that he saved his mother, but it was still hard to come to terms with. He said that while she was older, her passing was sudden. They all thought that she'd live forever because she was so stubborn.
"It's beautiful," Mildred whispered, "I have to say, this Christmas was a lot easier than I expected it to be. And I have all of you to thank for that."
When I got back to my apartment I yawned, dropped my bag of gifts by the couch and pulled up short. There was a box wrapped under my small tree with a big red bow on it. I picked up the box and bulked at the weight too it. It didn't look big, but it was heavier than I thought it would be.
I slid the bow off and then tore the paper, staring down at the box in my lap. It was the laptop that would cost me three months pay after my bills. I looked at the box in front of me and I let out a grunted breath, standing up and carrying the box with me, reaching for my phone.
When I picked up, Dimitri was already calling me.
"Hello?"
"Did you find it yet?"
"Do you mean the six-thousand-dollar laptop under my tree?" I asked breathlessly.
"Yes. Did you read the note that was attached?"
I set the laptop on the couch and looked through the wrappings, finding a card attached to the bow.
My muse can't be without the means to write her own art. Merry Christmas, and don't drop this one. Love Dimitri.
I laughed as I read the card, no doubt understanding the jab. I was clumsy when it came to objects. I was notorious for dropping my laptop, my phone, coffee mugs, the likes.
"I promise I will buy a protective cover for it tomorrow. Did you find yours?" I pledged and smiled to myself. We had both 'agreed' not to buy each other gifts for Christmas, but I knew that neither of us would stick to that rule.
I heard him walking around before there was a shuffle and then a deep chuckle through the phone.
"Now I will never run out of notebooks," he said ad I smiled. I had found a bunch of handmade pleather-bound notebooks at a market and thought that they'd be perfect.
"Good," I said as I bit my lip. "Thank you for being there tonight. It meant a lot."
"I'm glad to have been there. It's been a long time since I've had what feels like a traditional Christmas," Dimitri said softly, something unspoken lingering in the silence between us.
"Merry Christmas, Dimitri."
"Merry Christmas, Roza. Sleep well and enjoy your new toy," he said before hanging up. I bit my lip and squealed a little bit as I opened the box with my keys. I pulled it out of the box and licked my lips as I powered it up, ready to spend the next hour or so transferring everything over.
Someone You Loved by Lewis Capalid
Demo - Way Back Into Love by Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore
This is a super rough edit because I'm exhausted, but I hope that you all enjoyed it!
What is the best gift you ever received? Mine was my Huskey, Meeko.