Ryan kept the car moving at a steady pace. The area around the road grew increasingly desolate, with nothing but abandoned wooden houses, waist-high weeds, discarded furniture, and heaps of trash. Coupled with the setting sun, it looked like a classic scene from an American horror movie.
"Where are we?" Taylor asked, still nervously looking around.
Ryan turned and glanced at Taylor in the passenger seat.
She had turned her white spring jacket around so it covered her front, and was curled up against the seat, watching him warily.
A string of alarming news stories came to mind: men luring women they'd just met to deserted places...
Taylor's heart raced. Just as the thought of calling the police crossed her mind, Ryan turned the car, and a busy auto shop came into view.
"It's a little out of the way, but at least repairs are quick and easy here. I had my car modified at this place." Ryan got out and started chatting with the mechanics.
"Couldn't you have told me that sooner?"
Taylor sat in the car, first feeling a wave of relief, then laughing at herself. She pulled a pair of Chanel sunglasses from her handbag and put them on, then took out a baseball cap. After disguising herself, she got out.
The mechanics seemed more interested in the car than in the woman wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap.
Ryan hadn't been wrong. There was no waiting, and the workers were skilled. They finished the panel beating, paint job, and polish in less than half an hour. The car was as good as new, with no trace of its earlier "injuries."
"Since your mother drives this car, she might get mad if she saw the damage," Ryan said as he got back in.
"Is this how you pursue girls?" Taylor asked out of nowhere.
"I don't think there's any need for that," Ryan replied lightly.
He'd only done all this because of Trey. That included helping her get the car out earlier. Personal preferences aside, she and Trey were working together, after all.
In Ryan's memories, the original owner had never once pursued a girl. With that face and physique, it had always been the girls who chased him, ever since school.
"Then do they think the car's air conditioning isn't working properly?" Taylor asked with a smile.
"Every time I took it in for a checkup, the mechanics would get impatient and tell me there was nothing wrong with the AC," Ryan said.
Once the misunderstanding was cleared up, the mood in the car grew more relaxed.
"Have you ever hooked up with a girl in your car?" Taylor asked, narrowing her eyes.
Ryan knew he had. Taylor knew he had. Ryan knew Taylor knew he had. Still, he shook his head.
"Yeah, right. I don't believe you," Taylor said, unsurprised.
Just as he was about to turn the wheel and head back the way they'd come, Ryan suddenly turned it the other way, sending the car away from home.
"I never said I wanted to go home," Taylor said, twirling a golden lock of hair and giving Ryan a coquettish look.
·
At dusk, the setting sun painted half the sky red, and the clouds blazed in brilliant colors.
The SUV, parked in a vacant lot beneath a tree, started up slowly. The windows on both sides of the front seat rolled down at the same time. Taylor, who had just put her top back on, leaned toward the window and took a few deep breaths, her cheeks unusually flushed.
Then, pulling on her fitted jeans, she said without hesitation, "Since you put in so much effort, I'll give you a chance. After my new EP comes out this summer, we'll shoot a music video for the lead single off my new album. I'll choose Trey as the director again, and you can be the male lead."
She had personally chosen the male leads for her previous videos. Every music video needed a male lead, and as far as Taylor was concerned, it didn't make much difference who she picked.
She tidied her hair so it wouldn't look so messy, then straightened her collar and tugged at her hem. After that, she lifted her chin and repeatedly checked the rearview mirror for marks on her neck. Once satisfied, she put on her shoes. Finally, she wrapped the scarf she'd been wearing around herself. It all looked as though nothing had happened.
Ryan hadn't expected the sweet little country girl to be so uninhibited in private. He knew there was no future with someone like her, but a little time to unwind was still fine.
A bad woman was a bad woman. Why not enjoy the moment?
"Does Trey have your number?" Ryan asked, testing the waters. He wanted to keep in touch with Taylor.
Taylor instantly grew wary, and Ryan's earlier words came back to her.
She didn't know anything about his past. Who knew what kind of man he was? And he was a model, too. Better not get too involved with someone in that line of work... After a few seconds of thought, Taylor made up her mind.
"Listen, I don't want you to get the wrong idea. You're a gentleman, and you're great in every way. I'm really, really satisfied. But I'm incredibly busy right now. I have to record a new album, and I don't think I'll have time to date anyone. Maybe things could go further between us someday, but at least for now, we shouldn't stay in touch."
"So I should forget everything that happened and not tell anyone, right?" Ryan asked with a smile as he drove.
Taylor turned to him. "You're smart, and you're passionate. That's exactly why I'm not trying to deceive you. I meant every word I said. My parents always taught me to protect myself when I'm out. I admit I got carried away just now, but that's because I trust you. If you have a problem with that, we can end our working relationship at any time."
First she said something nice, then blamed her actions on getting carried away, and finally slipped in a threat.
Ryan's smile turned bitter. He knew their positions were worlds apart. If he pushed the issue, he wouldn't just lose the chance to be the male lead in her video—Trey could get dragged into it, too.
So, thinking rationally, he had no choice but to go along with her wishes? Writing a song about an ex was a business deal, and it wasn't like the song would be about him. It was just one friendly hookup. What more could he ask for?
"There are still three whole months until summer. Maybe Trey will have kicked me out by the time you start shooting the video," Ryan said suddenly.
"That's your problem."
"You're right. So, to make a living, I'll have to turn this afternoon into a song and sing it around the bars in Nashville. Don't worry, I won't mention you. That's in keeping with your demand for secrecy. But I'm a pretty crude guy, so the lyrics might be a little explicit—like those booty music tracks. You won't mind, will you?" Ryan asked with a smile.
Taylor was the one who was best at turning other people's private lives into songs and singing them everywhere. He'd just be giving her a taste of her own medicine.
Taylor whipped her head around and glared at Ryan.
"Actually, you can look on the bright side. My songwriting is so bad that even if I wrote about you, there's no way I'd get famous by selling someone else's private life like you did. Does that make you feel any better?" Ryan went on, rubbing salt in the wound.
Taylor looked like she wanted to kill him.
Only then did Ryan say unhurriedly, "And now you have a chance to make this problem go away for good. You can buy the song."
"You're trying to blackmail me?" Taylor laughed angrily.
"It's called selling the rights. A deal we both agree to." Ryan pressed the gas pedal.
·
Half an hour later, Ryan walked out of Taylor's mansion in an affluent neighborhood. In the end, Taylor had agreed to his terms, and he was in an exceptionally good mood.
As he turned the corner, he spotted an ambulance with its lights flashing nearby. Paramedics were frantically performing CPR.
As Ryan drew closer, the medics placed an AED against both sides of the patient's chest. A surge of electricity passed through, and the patient's chest jolted violently.
A powerful sense of déjà vu swept over Ryan again, almost exactly like the feeling he'd had when he saw Taylor. But unlike before, this time his consciousness seemed to freeze for a moment.
Once, twice, three times. The AED's sharp beeps seemed to form a rhythm, and the vibrations grew stronger. Ryan's heart seemed to tremble along with them.
Then the beeping turned into a continuous chord. The deep drumbeat swelled to an enormous volume, layered with rich, resonant effects, creating an intense groove that erupted like a volcano and released a surge of energy.
A melody lasting several minutes, made up of multiple tracks, appeared in Ryan's mind.
Then Ryan realized it wasn't a traditional pop song at all. It had no vocals, except for a brief "3, 2, 1, go!" in the pre-chorus, but it still had a structure like pop music, with an intro, verse, chorus, and interlude.
Ryan looked at the neon sign of a music bar in the distance and listened to the acoustic guitar coming from inside. He shook his head, then glanced toward a nightclub on the other side. The powerful low-frequency bass in his mind seemed much better suited to a place like that. At the same time, the song's title began to surface in Ryan's consciousness: Tremor.
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