I sat in the back of a quiet coffee shop. I came here often when I was in town and I needed to think. Besides the employees I was rarely recognized when I came here, occasionally a fan or two would come up to me, but most of the time I was alone. I liked it that way.

“Is there anything I can get for you Mr. Carter?” Mary quietly asked. I usually sat where Mary would serve me. She was friendly and always seemed to know when I wanted to be by myself or when I was in the mood for conversation. She was a single mom who worked too hard and often got mad at me for the generous tips I left her. No matter how often she argued and tried to not accent my tips, I knew she appreciated it.

After shaking my head no I looked up as a guitar and piano where being set onto a small stage.

“We have some entertainment tonight. Riley Hutchins. She plays here every once and a while. You should stay and check her out.”

“I just might” I sighed. I knew Sarah was going to throw a fit when I returned to the hotel, but as much as I knew I should care, I didn’t. A couple more hours couldn’t hurt. I needed air, and even more than that I needed space away from her.

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“Riley are you ready to go on?” Jake the owner of The Coffee Shack yelled, “Tonight may be the night you get discovered, you don’t want to keep those important people waiting!”

I rolled my eyes. Jake said that before every one of my performances. I was pretty confident that he was really my only fan. I didn’t mind though. Music was my life, my escape, and as long as I had that not matter how horrible my life got, I was always OK.

“I guess I’m as ready as I’ll ever be!”

“Good because there is a larger crowd tonight. Word is getting out about you sweet cheeks.”

“Do you have to call me that?” I whined as I walked from the back room and out towards the small stage where my guitar and a piano was set up.

“Yes. Now stop being a big fat whiney baby.”

I flipped him off as I turned the corner. Jake was right. The tiny coffee shop was packed. Many of the people I recognized but tonight, there was a handful of new faces. A younger man caught my eye. I hadn’t seen him in here before. He was sitting at a table alone with a baseball cap pulled down low over his eyes. It was rather odd if you asked me. Normally I would get the creeps over something like that, but he didn’t seem bad and the way Mary was talking to him it was almost like she knew him. He looked lonely. I took my eyes off of him as I sat down at the piano and thanked everyone for coming out.

“I’m going to start this set a little differently than I normally do, slower. Here’s something I wrote the other night.”

The moment my fingers hit the keys of the piano I was lost in my own world, in my music.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I sucked in a breath as I saw her walking onto the stage. She was beautiful. Long dark brown hair cascaded in loose waves around her face. She was thin, and not too tall. From where I was sitting I could tell her eyes were a piercing green color. The jeans she wore clung tightly to her body and showed the curves of her hips. Her chest wasn’t very large as her low cut shirt showed but it suited her body. Her shirt that was tight at the top flowed out under her chest but you could tell that her stomach was toned. I looked down at her feet and noticed the leather boots she wore that zipped up over her jeans gave her about 3 extra inches in height. I sipped on my coffee not taking my eyes off her.

Her foot started to tap and her fingers began to dance along the keys of the piano.

I jumped when a hand touched my shoulder.

“Geez Brian! You scared the piss out of me!” Brian chucked and then looked at me smirking as he sat down.

“She’s cute isn’t she?”

“Who?”

Brian rolled his eyes. “Anyway, I thought you’d be down here so I thought I’d come and join you and see if everything was OK. I heard the yelling.”

I just shrugged my shoulders and looked back at the girl on the stage. She took a breath and started to sing.

“I sit here by myself,

Just staring into space

I thought I knew you well

But who can ever say?

It seems it’s been so long

I can’t define my right from wrong”

She started off with a ballad. Something the guys and I have never done before unless we were on a talk show and our current single was one.

Her voice was powerful and full of pain. It sent shivers down my spine. I looked over at Brian who sat there in awe.

“One more, for the night, and

One more for the pain,

And one more long goodbye

One shot to the brain

And one more, takes the knife, and

One more takes the train

Who do I blame today?

Brian looked over at me.

“That’s it!!” he said to me looking really excited.

“What’s it?” I asked almost wishing that he didn’t interrupt the song.

“Well, we have a tour starting!”

‘You’ve got to be kidding me’ I thought to myself and rolled my eyes. I mean why else would we be in Nashville rehearsing?

“Thanks for stating the obvious Rok.”

“Nick, we’ve been trying to book an opening act for a month now and nothing seems to be working out with people we want. We said that we wanted something fresh and new.”

I was surprised that Brian said that after only hearing part of a song. Sure she was good. Her voice was phenomenal. She obviously wrote and played her own songs something most people couldn’t take credit for.

Against managements wishes we had decided we didn’t want to take an inspiring artist from the label we were on. We wanted to pick our own act. We set Brian in charge of booking someone.

“I dream of better days,

Has luck gone out the way?

Is there a better place

But who can ever say?

It seems it’s been so long

I can’t define my right from wrong.”

I looked back up at her as she went into the second chorus. Her eyes were closed and she swayed with the beat. Emotion poured out of her as she sang each word.

“Who do I blame today??”

The song ended and the place broke out in cheers. Brian got up to go make a call. I assumed he was calling Howie or AJ to tell them about the potential opener. Her eyes made contact with mine as she stood up from the piano and grabbed her guitar moving onto the next song.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The guy in the corner was cute. I almost laughed as I saw him jump when someone who I assume was his friend put a hand on his shoulder, laughed, and then sat down to join him.

Throughout the song I couldn’t help but look up at the two men that were sitting across from my piano. They kept whispering and looking up at me nodding. I didn’t really know what to think. I thought of what Jake said before I went on about how maybe tonight was my night but then I laughed at myself for thinking that. I pushed the thoughts out of my head and continued to get into the music.

Half way through my set I watched the man signal Mary over. His friend who had left earlier still had not returned. I saw Mary’s eyes light up and she looked ecstatic as she nodded her head. Interesting…

I sang about 7 songs before I grabbed my guitar and got off stage. I was putting my things away when I heard a knock on the door.

“Come in!”

“Riley” I heard Mary’s voice and I turned to face the door way and saw her head peaking in. “There are two guys out there that have requested to talk to you oh and by the way your set was amazing, that new song was great!”

”Thanks, but back to what you said??”

She laughed at the look on my face. “What that two guys are waiting to talk to you?”

“Want to talk??? To me??? What for?”

“They didn’t say.”

“Liar”

“Just go talk to them already!”

“Ugh, fine. But I can tell that you know something I don’t! Where are they at?”

“The table in the corner, Mr. Car….the two guys wearing baseball caps.”

I looked up at her funny. “Crazy coffee server say what?”

“Never mind, just go out there and talk to them.”

“I guess I’ll head out there in a few minutes, I just want to get my things together.”

“Don’t keep them waiting hunny.” Mary said as she walked out. Something was obviously up.

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Song Credits: 'One More'- Hanson