Go to New York

"Perfect, absolutely perfect!" As he walked out of the luxury hotel that housed the nightclub, Joel was still savoring Taylor's improvised song.

Then he turned and looked at the country music sweetheart, who was half a head taller than him. "You'd be a much better fit for the stage we just saw."

"Forget it..." Taylor quickly shook her head. Putting aside the performance fee, her publicist and manager would never let her perform at a nightclub.

Joel left first, while Ryan, Abigail, and Taylor said goodbye at the entrance.

"I have a songwriting session with Liz Rose tomorrow. We'll work out the lyrics for this new song," Taylor said, her face alight with excitement.

This was one of her typical ways of writing. Something that happened, someone she met, even a scene or a single line could inspire her. Then, in a flash, she would come up with the song's core theme, some of its lyrics, and the chorus melody. That was the soul of a song. All that remained was to develop and flesh out those inspirations, revise them again and again, and keep polishing until the lyrics and melody were complete. Then she and Nathan Chapman would finish the production.

Making a song might take a long time, but capturing its "soul" often happened in a short instant.

"What's the song called?" Abigail asked, holding onto Ryan's arm.

"You Belong With Me," Taylor said, looking at Ryan as she spoke.

"Her songs are like stories. She even wrote a 300-page novel before, called A Girl Named Girl..." Abigail explained in the car.

Whether the experience had strengthened her storytelling skills or not, Taylor's lyrics definitely followed a "narrative" approach, unlike the "emotional" approach used in most songs.

In other words, "a teenage girl's diary" was the best way to describe her albums.

Ryan finally understood what "that" was: inspiration.

The good news: a new song was coming.

The bad news: it belonged to someone else.

The lyrics surfaced in Ryan's mind. They seemed to be about a girl secretly in love with a boy who already had a girlfriend...

And when they'd parted, Taylor had worn a carefree smile. Compared with Ryan's recent struggles to write, it was obvious which of them was better at it.

To put it bluntly, without "déjà vu" to help him, Ryan couldn't compare with Taylor.

"My parents aren't home tonight. It'll just be my little brother and me, Ryan..." Abigail suddenly said.

But Ryan turned her down outright. "I have to go back and work on music."

Abigail nodded without saying anything.

When he got home, Trey was still awake, just like the last time. But unlike the previous "interrogation," this time she wore a broad smile. She even seemed a little ingratiating.

"You haven't eaten yet, have you? I made you something. Come on." She pressed Ryan into a chair at the dining table, then took the food she'd kept warm in the oven.

Ryan looked at the unholy concoction in front of him and gave an awkward smile. "I'm not hungry."

"Then have a taste." Trey smiled at him.

"It's really good. Don't make it again next time." Ryan swallowed. It was so salty that it scraped his throat.

"Hehe, cooking isn't hard at all." Trey laughed.

"Right, right."

"What do you want to eat tomorrow?"

"I... By the way, it was really windy tonight."

"Don't change the subject."

"I didn't do anything to offend you, did I?"

"Thank you. You're supposed to thank me." Trey finally smiled as she explained what had happened. "Someone from Big Machine called me again today. They withdrew their request to replace the director, so I'll still be directing Taylor's next music video. What did you do?"

"Strictly speaking, I gave Taylor a song," Ryan said. He hadn't been in touch with Taylor since leaving her house last time—not until tonight.

Even Trey had gotten her directing job back. Shouldn't the social media manager Taylor had promised to introduce him to get in touch soon, too?

Looking at it that way, they were even.

"I see. Is your name in the lyrics? Or did you leave a secret message?" Trey suddenly asked.

Take Should've Said No, for example. Although the lyrics didn't mention anyone by name, the booklet in the album had the letters S, A, and M capitalized in the lyrics. Put together, they spelled Sam. So far, most of Taylor's songs had contained a "code"—maybe a word, maybe someone's name. It was a little game she played with her fans.

"I wouldn't know," Ryan said, shaking his head.

"You have to make sure with her. This is your chance." Trey's words snapped him out of his thoughts.

"Besides that, is there any physical evidence linking the two of you? Like intimate photos? Or even a little video!" Trey raised her eyebrows.

"Don't joke around," Ryan said with a laugh.

"I'm not joking, kid. That's how celebrities work. They give the masses something to talk about, something to gossip over, and in return they get attention. A celebrity with nothing for people to discuss is as good as slowly dying."

"Taylor's really good at this. Do you know what her breakout song was called? Tim McGraw. Yes, that Tim McGraw, the famous country singer whose father was a well-known baseball player and whose wife is Faye Hill, another star and the singer of the Pearl Harbor theme song. Taylor didn't even know Tim McGraw back then. She claimed her ex-boyfriend liked his songs. Do I really have to spell out the truth?" Trey hinted.

Ryan thought of the song Taylor had once written for him. All he had to do was "accidentally" let it slip, and the news about the two of them might be all over the place the next day...

Then he remembered the indignation on Taylor's younger brother's face, along with the rumors he'd heard lately about Taylor. People said she dated just to find inspiration, that she and Scott had a thing going on, and that she didn't even write her own songs.

"So, is there anything or not?" Trey pressed.

"No," Ryan said, shaking his head.

From that perspective, Tremor really was short on "talking points." It could only rely on word of mouth, and that would take time to build.

After dinner, Ryan sat down at his computer as usual and started trying to work on a new song.

Half an hour later, Ryan gave up. But instead of shutting down the computer as he normally would, he played the song Taylor had given him, "Hot Afternoon."

After thinking it over for a long time, Ryan made a few changes to the song...

"Five thousand? Did I hear that right?!" The next day, Ryan was on campus when he got a call from the social media manager Taylor had introduced him to. The caller was actually an employee of Big Machine Records.

"To be precise, it's $5,000 for the first month. That includes a full-page website design, customized to match your musical style. It'd be similar to Taylor's personal page. After that, it's $2,500 a month, covering layout, updates, and compiling news. If you'd like us to write blog posts for you, that's charged separately based on word count. This price only covers Myspace. If you want us to handle other sites, like YouTube, that'll cost extra. Applying for Facebook verification also comes with an additional fee."

"What if I'm not happy with your design?"

"You can tell us what you'd like changed, and we'll revise it until you're satisfied."

"What if I'm never satisfied?"

"We'll keep revising it until you are."

"What if I don't need a design and just want you to handle the day-to-day management?"

"That's an option, too."

Ryan said he'd think about it, then hung up. It was quite a bit more than he'd expected. The results were obvious, but it was a little expensive.

In the end, Ryan called back. He'd barely had time to enjoy the money he'd earned through paid music platforms, and now most of it was already gone again.

He had to find a way to make more money. He couldn't count on that nightclub in Nashville, Ryan thought.

He remembered Deadmau5's promise and immediately called him.

"Of course. My word still stands. And don't forget, I'm still putting out singles. More people paying attention to you can only help me."

From a business perspective, Deadmau5 would surely have saved an opportunity like this for someone who better served his interests. But in reality, Deadmau5 couldn't yet compare with the well-known European DJs. His modest "reputation" probably wasn't enough to cash in on, so he wouldn't make things difficult for Ryan over something like this.

"The first stop on the North American tour is at a pretty well-known club in New York. It's this weekend. We'll meet up there," Deadmau5 continued.

Ryan then got in touch with Joel.

"Sorry, Ryan. I asked them to give us another chance, but they don't seem very flexible," Joel said right away.

"But we have other options. I'll look around some more," Joel assured him. They didn't need to lose hope.

"I've already found one. This time, we're going to New York..."