Page 34 of Reflex

Alle held on tight and scrolled through the article.It was a really dodgy music blog famous for stirring shit and skirting the edges of acceptability in terms of their reportage.No outright lies, but not a whole lot of truth either.

“Ava Leigh,” she finally found the reporter’s name.“Might have known.”

Ronnie reclaimed his phone and squinted at the microscopic text.“Never heard of her.Should I have?”

“She works forBang!and she’s a cow.”

“Ooh!”Ronnie crowed, before folding his long legs up so that his heels were pressed against his butt on the chair cushion.“What’d she do to you?”

Alle squeezed her lips together, and hoped the rush of blood to her cheeks didn’t show through the layer of foundation she’d caked on this morning to try and even out her sleep-deprived complexion.“Nothing.She’s just got a personal vendetta against them.She does nothing but talk crap about them all the time.I don’t know how she’s still working.The woman’s got no ethics.If there’s a line you shouldn’t cross, Ava Leigh has already pole vaulted it.”

“So, you’re saying she probably hit on one of them and got told to fuck off.”

“No.I didn’t say that.Not everything in this world is about securing male attention.I don’t know what her issue is.Maybe she just likes stirring shit.She wouldn’t be the first.Speaking of which, is it time we started mixing some of yours?”

“Hey.My tunes are rocking.”His grin was almost enough to convince her, except she’d been listening to his version of rock-lite teenaged angst for a fortnight now.

“Ronnie, you have one or two sparks of brilliance, but most of these are album tracks and you know it.”

“Good.That’s what they’re supposed to be.And all I need is a couple of strikes to make it stratospheric.”

“Hm, and then what?What’s sustaining you once you’re up there?”

He shrugged his narrow shoulders, flowed out of the chair, and grabbing a set of headphones, headed to the recording booth.“My monumentally over large ego.”He winked.“Let’s do this.Then I have a surprise for you.”

“I don’t like surprises.”

His grin dwarfed the rest of his features.He winked.“You’ll like this one.”