A/N: I've been on roll with the weird and/or tropey stories, so why stop? I've got one last chapter for "Found" that I'm almost finished with and will post in the coming days.
prologue
—
They were the last ones left.
It was way past closing time, and if it had been any other customers, Ben Morris would have kicked them out by now, but it wasn't every day he had the honor of welcoming in his bar Rayna Jaymes, Juliette Barnes, Deacon Claybourne and... some producer whose name he couldn't remember. He was almost sure it was Irish, though. McGowan. Or McNulty maybe.
Ben had been milling around the room, pretending to be busy even though there wasn't much left to do. All his staff had gone home already, and he would have too if... well. He couldn't kick the Queen of Country out of his bar.
From what he'd heard of their conversation, they weren't ready to leave anytime soon. Rayna and Juliette were supposed to agree on a song to perform together at some upcoming event, but all they'd been doing was snipe at each other. Deacon looked exasperated by it all. The only one who seemed to be having a good time was the Irish guy. He got some sort of permanent smirk on his face.
Ben had stopped paying attention for a few minutes when he heard Deacon shout. "Shut up!" Everyone, including Ben, froze and looked at him. "It's one song, all right? Surely to God, the two of you can come together on one song!"
All that sounded so ridiculous to Ben. These were two women who had the kind of life most people would dream of, and yet they couldn't put their differences and egos aside for a minute to work together.
He thought how this wasn't a random occurrence that they'd all ended up in his bar after all. He was now convinced the universe had sent them, and he knew exactly what he had to do.
—
Juliette stormed into her house, slamming the door shut behind her. She hadn't cooled off a bit since she'd left the bar.
She was the one who'd gone multiplatinum twice in the past three years. She was the one who was selling out arenas. And that... woman had the guts to claim she didn't deserve to stand on the Ryman stage?
It hurt.
It hurt to admit she'd let Rayna's words get to her. It hurt even more to admit she genuinely cared about Rayna's opinion.
She paced through her living room, mumbling to herself, but it did nothing to calm her down. She needed to unwind. She fished for her phone in the purse she'd thrown on the kitchen counter earlier, and she called Sean.
—
Rayna was parked on the side of the road. She'd felt the need to stop for a minute to cool off before going back home.
She was thinking about Deacon's last words before he'd left the bar. You listen to this. You tell me that girl doesn't have it in her to be a great songwriter. She'd listened to it, and of course, it was great. She'd known it would be great the minute Deacon had thrown the CD on the table.
It hurt.
It hurt to admit that Juliette might not be just a flash in the pan. It hurt even more to think about Deacon helping her.
She groaned and let her head fall against the wheel. She closed her eyes for what she thought was a second, but when she opened them again, she was standing in an unfamiliar living room with a shirtless, tattooed guy standing in front of her.
What the hell? Was she dreaming? She'd never fallen asleep this fast before.
"How do you get to gay from me wanting to take things slow?" the tattooed guy asked.
He was staring at her, clearly expecting an answer. It didn't feel like a dream, but it did feel different. She felt different. For one, she felt... shorter. Which was incredibly weird. And when she looked down at her body, she didn't recognize it.
"Juliette?" the tattooed guy asked again.
What kind of fucked-up dream was this? She closed her eyes, wishing to wake up, but nothing happened.
"I..." she started, and she immediately recognized Juliette's voice. It was getting weirder by the second. Was she having some sort of psychotic episode?
She wasn't sure what to do, but what she knew was that she needed to get the stranger out of here. "Listen, I... I think we should talk about all this tomorrow."
She spotted a balled-up shirt on the floor which she assumed belonged to him. She grabbed it, handed it to him before she pushed him toward the door.
"Jul—" he started, but she'd closed the door on him before he could finish.
She turned around, leaned back against the door and tried to remember how to breathe.
—
Juliette Barnes was having the biggest panic attack of her life.
One second she was standing in her living room arguing with Sean, and the next she'd found herself sitting in some unfamiliar car, her forehead pressed against the wheel.
It was dark in the car, but when she'd looked in the rearview mirror, she could have sworn she'd seen Rayna. She'd jumped out of the car, not daring to look again.
And so now she was standing on the side of some road, God knows where, shivering in the chilly night air.
What the hell was happening?
—
TBC