All the Right Things (Love in LA) by Audrey Harte

going to sleep on the couch if I wanted.”
    Casey laughed. “Wow, girl, get your mind out of the gutter. I was talking about what activities—the non-sexual kind—I could take you to do.”
    Annie blushed again, but this time out of embarrassment. “Oh, right. Well, I’m easy. Whatever you want to do with me is fine.” Pausing, she pulled a face, realizing how that must sound.
    “Uhh, that’s what she said?”
    Annie laughed. “Somehow I knew that was coming.”
    “Sorry, couldn’t resist. Anyway, I was thinking about taking you to Chinatown and then maybe also going down to Fisherman’s Wharf.”
    “Sure, that sounds fun.”
    “Cool. So do I get my serenade now?”
    “Sure, why not?” She took a deep breath. “Okay, so for my first back-up song, I decided to go with one by Rihanna that I heard on the radio recently. It totally has a power vocal.”
    “Nice, let’s hear it.”
    This time, Annie was able to start singing for him without needing to do as much nervous preparation. As she sang each line, she felt herself relax and begin to really get into the song. By the time she finished, she was beaming. It felt so good to be singing again… and to be doing something positive for herself.
    “Wow, that was incredible. I know that song and you did it justice. The judges would be crazy not to send you through to the next round. In fact, you might want to consider doingRihanna over Gin Wigmore, and then have that be one of your back-up pieces instead.”
    “You think so?” Annie couldn’t help sounding a little skeptical. She wasn’t sure how she felt about doing a slower song for the initial audition. It could be a good or bad thing, depending.
    “Yeah, I do.”
    “Well, what about the other song I’ve been practicing?”
    “Oh right. Who was it by again?”
    “Haley Reinhart.”
    “Hmm, never heard of her.”
    “She placed third in season ten of American Idol … has kind of a bluesy, soul sound.”
    “I missed that season. Well, sure, go for it. Whenever you’re rea—,” he tried to say as he broke off in a yawn. “Oh wow, excuse me. Whenever you’re ready.”
    “Oh God, I’m keeping you from your sleep. I can let you go.”
    “Don’t worry about me—I can survive on very little sleep. Come on, princess. Sing to me.”
    She couldn’t help giggling before she took a deep breath. “Okay. Here it goes.”
    Quickly, she dove into the song, not wanting to keep him on the phone longer than necessary. After she finished, Annie’s face fell as Casey told her that it was decent, but that it should definitely be one of her back-ups. She thanked him for taking the time to listen and promised she’d call him after she got home from the auditions on Saturday. As she ended the call, Annie pondered what he said. Maybe she should pick a different third song. Even if it was a back-up, she wanted them all to be great.
    Checking her playlists for inspiration, she bit her lip in concentration. After listening to several more songs, both slow and up tempo, a light bulb went off. Quickly, she searched through her iTunes library and pulled up the song she was looking for. Humming a few bars, she Googled the lyrics for Gravity by Sara Bareilles. She sang it through once and grinned like the Cheshire Cat. It was perfect.
     

     
    Annie had a terrible time getting to sleep on Friday night. She had spent hours going through her closet with Alex, trying to pick the perfect outfit for her audition, finally settling on her favorite skinny jeans and a flowy, sleeveless top made of white linen with embroidered blue and green flowers along the neckline and hem of the shirt. It was cute, yet comfortable, and went perfectly with a pair of aqua blue espadrilles she’d recently purchased on a whim.
    After printing out directions to the venue, she packed a small bag with healthy snacks, a few water bottles, a thermos of hot tea, two pomegranate Rock Star energy drinks, her iPod, her Kindle, make-up, breath mints,