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July 6th 2001:

What you want (oo) Baby, I got (oo) What you need (oo) Do you know I got it? (oo) All I'm askin'

The Queen of Soul’s voice bleed through Alayziah's old and well loved red radio sitting on top of the wooden desk.

She kept up skillfully with Aretha’s rendition as she applied rogue lipstick on her lips looking in the long mirror.

Eventually she couldn’t help but belt out the last part with Arethla feeling her pain. Using her lipstick as her microphone but the moment was ruined when her bestfriend and roommate bust into the room shaking her ass as she danced into the room not caring if Ezra watched her highly amused.

“yeeees sing it like the queen of soul bestie” she yelled playfully. Her fiery orange wavy locks bouncing against her shoulders.

The legendary song ended and the next song came on.

Ezra went back to applying her lipstick while Keyisha watched her do her thing lounging on her bed.

The makeup applied and outfit on Ezra felt a little self conscious she wasn’t as slim as she was in her twenties thanks to Keyisha’s soul food but the self proclaimed chef protested that she was too skinny so the food was doing it's job.

Pushing down the lime green top in the mirror, she turned around to face her bestfriend “what you think? Does this say ceo?” asking her fashion guru friend.

“your sizzling girl now use that to get laid” she replied smirking and Ezra rolled her eyes.

“thanks but no” she said turning around to face her mirror to pat her lion mane styled hair.

“bestie you are gorgeous you can get any man you want all you need is to make that skirt a little shorter” she replied sweetly to her.

She couldn’t understand how her friend was still single with her long black kinky hair reaching to her shoulders and her unique eyes inherited from her Asian father made her an exotic catch amongst the men in the town but she wasn’t interested in any man at the moment focusing firstly on her career.

“yes I heard mama Keisha” she replied wavering off her friend’s words before she could ramble into a full blown rant. She waved her friend goodbye and left the room not before kissing her reluantant goddaughter on the head then hurried out the door to start her jam packed day.

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Michael was on his way to drop his kids off to his mother's to let them spend the day with her while he went to meet with the designer concerning his album cover.

After six years away from the music industry he chose to come back to create his music now that the kids were a little older to handle him being away for longer than a day.

Besides that the pull from being away from his calling was too strong and he came back from retirement this last time for the fans.

His gaze fell upon his two kids kicking each others feet to pass away the time. He didn't want the kicking to turn into a fight.

"Kids stop kicking and seat still" he ordered strictly to them both.

They stilled hearing his strict tone and looked up at him pouting sadly.

Eventually they arrived at his mother's place where she was standing at the door waiting for them.

It was too early in the day for any paparazzi to be found hiding anywhere outside his mother's flat.

The flat was her escape when she wanted time from Joseph, the media and the workd. She chose to fly out to the UK for awhile to be away from it all and wanting to spend time with her London bound son and grandbabies.

"Oh my babies!" She greeted cheerfully to them as the trio walked up to her.

Violet pulling away from her daddy's hand, ran clumsily to grandma's feet hugging her right leg tightly.

"Oh my little pudding how are you" She said patting her head while Violet smiled toothily in response.

"Hello mother how's your health?" Michael asked concerned.

Katherine waved him off and told him she was fine, she spotted Agu standing by his dad not moving towards her.

"Is something wrong with Agu?" She asked looking at him as he stood by his father's side.

"He thinks running to you is childish so he's trying to act cool" Michael answered smirking amused at his behavior.

"I'm too cool iya" he said arms crossed In front of his chest.

"His words mother" Michael replied chuckling.

"Oh that is such a shame I was going to give you a extra piece of my famous apple pie but that is such a shame" she said faking sadness.

Agu uncrossed his arms, his eyes widening in shock at her words and he ran up to her forgetting about his bravo.

"What no I still want it!" He cried pulling at her skirt while violet giggled at her brother.

"That's better" she replied smiling down at him before she looked up at Michael.

"Your going to be late Michael everything will be fine what time will you be back to pick them?" She said to him.

"Around late in the evening mother be good for granny ok?" He said eyeing his children sternly.

They nodded at him holding onto her hands as they walked back to the flat leaving Michael to stare after them.

A few seconds later he saw the door slammed. He turned around and walked back to the car with his set of bodyguards flagging around him.

Two hours later...

Ezra was sitting in her office when her personal assistant Olly walked into the room with a stack of papers in his skinny arms.

"Morning Olly what do we have on the agenda for today?" She asked him politely sending him a small smile making the younger man blush brightly.

He stopped at her front desk dropping the papers and wiped out his paper which contained today's agenda.

"Well you have an email from a private order for today ma'am" he replied.

"What? An email??? Oh my goodness I should have checked my email last night" she replied irritated at her clueless behaviour.

She quickly switched on her computer waiting for it to slowly load up. A few minutes later after she connected to the internet she logged into her AOL account to her disbelief that Olly had been right there was an email from a client who was arriving today in roughly an hour but she found it suspicious that there wasn't any name linked to the client.

"Strange that there isn't a name attached I hope this isn't a prank" she said reading the email twice and trying to crack who it could be.

"Maybe the person is a celebrity? And wants their identity to be hidden?" Olly suggested to her.

Ezra pulled her gaze from the screen to look into the azure coloured eyes of Olly who stared back.

"You could be right Olly if your hunch is right I owe you lunch" she responded teasingly.

Oliver blushed to the roots of his ginger wavy shoulder length hair and smiled bashful.

"Well let's get one of the larger rooms set up for the client and go from there also before you get started could you get me a black coffee with two sugars please" she told him and he nodded before leaving the room to get everything prepared.

A few minutes later Olly returned with a pipping hot cup of coffee in his hand with a cinnamon bun.

As the CEO of her own company Ezra didn't have much chances to leave her office often, only leaving for lunch or meetings.

Thirty minutes later Oliver walked back into the room to see the empty cup and paper on her desk as she sketched ideas in one of her many sketchbooks.

"Uh Mrs.Araki the room is ready" Oliver mentioned to her.

Ezra looked up from her sketching replied "perfect I'll bring my work and we can start"

Ten minutes later Ezra was in one of her favourite rooms used for one to one meetings with clients, allowing the warm earthy colours to sooth her nervous as she stood shuffling papers.

Michael was only a few feet away with his trail of bodyguards by his side, when he knocked the door not expecting to hear a feminine voice.

He opened the door and strolled into the room not expecting to see a beautiful woman in front of him staring passively at him looking up from her task of shuffling papers.

"Oh I see your my mystery client Mr.Jackson I'm surprised you chose my small company to design your idea" she greeted professional.

Michael snapped out of his stupor when he heard her silvery voice making him feel a little more relaxed than he expected.

He chose to sit in the sit opposite her and he stared into her eyes as she placed the papers aside.

Now Ezra wasn't exactly a bundle of nerves seeing the King of pop in front of her, she was surprised the man had found her little company instead of the more popular known companies.

She had seen her share of small time celebrities this was just one she didn't expect to ever see in her lifetime.

Also she couldn't deny the man was attractive. She only saw him from the posters hanging on Kevin's wall and they didn't do the man justice.

Before she could be sucked into his gaze, Ezra asked him if he wanted anything to drink or eat which he declined politely.

"Before we begin Mr.Jackson I want to know why you chose my company out of all top notch companies around the country instead and chose me to design your concept?" She asked as she crossed her arms against her average sized chest.

"I chose your company because I found out from a friend of mine who had his company logo done by you and I wanted to see for myself how you work. I chose you because your work spoke to me it showed your creative side but sensitivity as well you didn't just dwell in your chosen career but you expanded into other things also it's inspiring to see a young woman like yourself take charge and chase your dream" he explained to her genieuly.

To say the least Ezra was well floored from his explanation. She had tried telling people this time and time again what she envisioned but as always business men couldn't take seeing a successful woman in her own right..

Ezra coughed to break the tension and she decided she would work with him.

"Thanks for understanding Mr.Jackson so what has tickled your mind to come to me?" She asked calmly.

Michael ran his hand though his curly shoulder length before answering her.

"I want you to design my album cover for my new album Invincible which is being released sometime this year" he said to her.

"I've heard all about the album release from my best friend and son who are mega fans of yours. I hear your music all the time and frankly it's quite tiring to try and fall asleep to it no offence" she mentioned wittily.

Michael chuckled at her words before she continued on "what do you envision?"

"I envision nothing too over the top with the design but still holds a elegance of class and still fits to my style" he replied.

Ezra felt a little troubled at this project but she never backed down from a challenge.

"I don't have too much experience with CD covers but I do have some old designs in my portfolio" she admitted.

Michael nodded and she handed him her A3 sized portfolio where she kept the smaller finished designs on better paper.

Michael opened the portfolio flicking through each page, impressed by her work yet again and knowing he hadn't made the wrong choice.

After handing her back the portfolio back, they spoke longer about concept and his music reach and what he wanted to achieve.

Lunch time arrived before leaving Ezra offered him a meal outside of the office but he declined politely, she gave her farewells promising not to breath a word to anyone about the project and told him she would keep him updated with the design process.

At the end of the day Ezra was knacked to the point of wanting to just lay herself in bed, munch on junk food and watch documentaries on the TV.

She was still sitting at her desk when she felt her pink Motorola fliphone began to vibrate on her desk next to her.

She groaned knowing who was on the phone. If she missed Keyisha's call, she would receive a rant and beat down when she returned home.

She bravely picks the phone and brings it to her ear to hear her friends sing song voice "girrrrll where are you? Kelly and I are waiting for you"

"I'm coming worrywart calm down sister" She replied rolling her eyes.

"I know your rolling your eyes at me! You better come home" she replied sassy.

"I'm on my way calm down see you soon" She replied and cut the call.

She made sure everything was left in its proper place before leaving the building trusting the cleaning people to lock up after themselves.

Chapter End Notes:

So we get to meet Ezra! What do you think of her? Thoughts? 

Enjoy!

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