An hour later, Minh walked in to her apartment to find Gali sitting in the living room, watching re-runs of Dancing with the Stars and eating a bowl of pho. But as soon as Minh walked in, she shut the TV off and jumped up, bowl in hand, and bounded over to Minh.
“Hey! How did your first official day go?”
“Goo-ood.” Minh felt the reply come out slow and dazed, like it was coming from someone else. The entire ride home, she’d felt out of sorts, almost as though she was uncomfortable in her own skin.
She kept turning around Chris’s words in her mind. Too similar. Still too similar.
She crossed the room and slid her violin case on the shelf where it belonged. The same thing every time she came home. The same routine, day in and day out.
She’d thought about her routines on the way home. About her rules. And even though she’d reassured herself, over and over, that he was the one that was wrong, it bothered her.
Gali cocked her head to one side. “Good? That’s it? Just good?”
Minh nodded. “Yeah.” Except not really.
Gali narrowed her eyes and used her chopsticks to point at Minh. “Don’t make me use these on you to get you to talk.”
Talk? Why bother? I say the same thing all the time. Do the same things all the time. Predictable. Expected. Conformist.
That was supposed to be a good thing. That’s what had gotten her through these past few years without any more incidents. So why was she questioning it?
“Minh?” Gali set her bowl and chopsticks down on the coffee table and grabbed Minh’s hands, shaking them gently. “Hey. Earth to Minh.”
She pushed away her doubts and smiled at Gali. “Hey, sorry. I was just lost in thought. I-I have a lot of work to do for the score. Think I could get your help on the keyboard?”
Gali eyed her curiously, but didn’t ask any further. “All right. Daria said she was going to be on campus at some classes for a few more hours, so we don’t have to worry about bothering her. I’ll finish my food and then I’m free to help. Why don’t you go change in the meantime?”
Minh nodded and headed to her room and changed, then pulled her phone from her bag to listen to that voicemail from the call she’d missed earlier. She put the phone to her ear and walked into the kitchen to grab a snack while the message played.
“Good afternoon. This message is for Minh Jackson. Miss Jackson, this is Debra Walters at Well Placed Media. We received your application for the commercial composer position and would love to speak with you further. Please call me back.”
The woman’s voice left a phone number and repeated her name before the message ended.
“Okay, I’m ready!” Gali appeared in the doorway of the kitchen, and Minh whirled around, phone still pressed to her ear before she realized that the connection had ended. “What’s up? You look spooked.”
Minh put the phone on the counter and took a deep breath. “Well Placed wants to talk to me more about my application to their commercial composer position.” She couldn’t keep the disdain from her voice. Even though this movie she was working on with Chris wasn’t a big budget film, it was at least a movie. It was a break into the world she wanted to be a part of, but writing TV commercial jingles? The bottom of the barrel. It wasn’t easy to claw one’s way up when you were that deep.
Gali frowned. “Are you considering it?”
Minh shrugged. “I don’t know. I-I didn’t think they’d call me back, honestly. After all those other rejections…”
“But you don’t even want the job! A month ago, when you sent it out, you said you didn’t know why you were bothering because it wasn’t your thing, anyway.”
“Yeah, but—”
“And now you’re actually doing music for a movie, which is what you do want.”
“I know. But—”
“And you want Chris too, so that’s a bonus.”
“Gali!” Minh huffed in exasperation. She might want him, sure, but that didn’t matter when she wasn’t even going to see him for a few days while she extended these pieces. Besides, he didn’t even like her music.
She wanted him to like it. She wanted him to like her.
God, she was a mess. “I know I said all that. I know I want to be a film composer. But that was before I got rejected by all the other places. What if I do this score and everyone hates my music? What if Well Placed is the only place that wants me, in the end? Better safe than sorry. That’s why I applied, in the first place. Safety net, backup plan, you know? All the things that I’ll need when I fail at this!”
Gali’s mouth tightened into at thin line. “That won’t happen. I think you should call Well Placed and tell them thanks, but no thanks. You have an opportunity here. Why all of a sudden are you wondering if the bottom is where you belong? Because I can tell you, it’s not.”