Mastermind

Greece, August 12th 2022

Pierre's POV

She was wearing my shirt. I didn't care if it was because I had rushed her, or maybe she'd secretly wanted to, but all I could focus on was my shirt on her body. It was the black linen button up that I'd worn on our first night and it hung loosely off one of her shoulders as she met my gaze through the glass.

"Well then...it's not about you, Gasly." Her eyes sparkled as she teased and I couldn't hold back the grin that forced its way through. It had been difficult tracking Brock Taylor down, but once I did, it didn't take much convincing to let Evangeline Hamilton record here.

Gige was a thing of beauty to behold as she sang. Hurrying through a few rough takes, I couldn't tear my eyes from her and when her gaze locked on mine...my entire body was set on fire. As the music faded, I noted some signs of annoyance on Gige's face. She spoke into the microphone,

"It feels like something is missing." 

I couldn't disagree more, she was perfect.

"I agree kid. It's like I can see the tension you're trying to build but I don't feel it." She nodded in response and went silent for just a moment. I watched as her gaze traveled around the room, stopping only once at the guitars leaning against the wall. She whipped her head back to where I sat next to Brock,

"Pierre, would you come play the guitar for me?" The air caught in my throat, as I realized she wasn't joking.

"You– want me in there? Playing with you?" The producer removed his hand from the microphone so Gige couldn't hear what he was going to say.

"Kid...she wants you in there and I think she might need it." I took a deep breath and stood heading for the booth. Gige was already setting up a stand with her notebook which held the hastily scribbled notes I was to follow.

"C'mon Hamilton, I thought you'd have better handwriting than this." We both smiled and she rolled her eyes.

I loved it when she rolls her eyes at me.

"Okay, well if you go a little off script that will just add to the...organic sound of it."

"She's right. Now let's see if you can play as well as you drive."

It only took us four takes to get one that Brock smiled at. But on the fifth, he was grinning like a maniac as Gige slid through the lyrics. She seemed to relax having someone in the booth with her and I just tried to not fuck up to bad. As I strummed the last note and Gige's voice faded, we looked at each other and knew that was the one. Brock was clapping as she leaned into the mic,

"Give it up for Pierre Gasly." Taylor gave us a nod to signify that he'd stopped recording and I stood. "Wait! Gasly..." I turned to face her. "There's one more in here that I would love to have you play on." All she had to do was look at me with those brown eyes and it was game over. I would do anything she wanted. She celebrated quickly and turned to look at Brock and asked if we could do two takes of one more song. He gave the thumbs up and we began again.

—

The radio was at full volume as we flew through the hills from Brock Taylor's house. A light radiated from Evangeline after the session and I gulped it down like water. I basked in every smile she shot my way because I was the one who brought it on. Those were my sunglasses perched on her nose and it was her hand in mine as we drove through the island hills. An idea struck as we came up to one of the small villages and I found a place to park.

"What are we doing?" I got out and went to open her door, gesturing to a banner which hung from a light post reading, 'Farmers Market This Way!'