"Done?" I asked, glancing around my office to make sure they hadn’t moved anything or touched anything or put their dirty fingerprints on my shit.
They both nodded. It was so much easier leaving them to nut things out on their own.
As part of the agreement, I organized for both bands to play a few gigs prior to the deciding night, that way they could build up some momentum and get their fans behind them. That worked for them and it worked for the club. We could maximize the money-making potential.
"But you were joking about the dating me thing, right?" I asked with a grin, hoping that I could still get out of it.
Alex gave Razer a half-smile. "I wasn't, were you? Because if you were joking, we can call this off now and I'll just claim her."
"Whoa, dude. Whoa. Back right up. There will be no 'claim'. I'm not some coat in the cloak check and you don't have the ticket." I glared at him, daring him to continue with that line of thought but he didn't flinch.
"Of course," he agreed. Well, he agreed with his words but the look in his eyes said different.
With the schedule finalized, I kicked the guys out of my office.
"Go! Go out into the wild and promote the hell out of this thing. I want to be turning people away at the door because the show has been sold out. I want people queueing up overnight to buy tickets. I want this to be the hugest thing to ever hit this town.”
“If both shows are sold out, how do we determine the winner?” Razer scratched his head and grinned at me.
I grimaced. I hadn’t thought of that. Of course, two sold-out shows would be ideal for Trouble.
“If both shows are sold out, I guess we’ll look at the bar takings.”
“Cool,” said Razer. “My fans are tot
al boozehounds.”
“But remember, Chuck is not going to care if the gigs are overcapacity. If he can squeeze a couple of hundred more people in, he’ll do it.”
Of course, Chuck was wetting himself over the whole idea.
"Brilliant, Violet, just brilliant,” he said after my proclamation. “I knew we didn't keep you around just for your looks."
I balled my hands into fists and fought back the urge to hit him.
"Just remember that I've agreed to date one of these dickheads if they win. I think I need a raise just for that."
"Yeah, I agree, but I don't think the budget will stretch to that at the moment, what, with this whole tax issue. How much do you think we'll make? I need to run numbers. What's the capacity of the band room?"
That just showed what an idiot Chuck was. I mean, who owns a club and doesn't know the capacity of his own band room. If I owned this place, I'd know every square inch of it.
"A thousand," I said. "Maybe a few more if we squeeze them but that's against all regulations."
"Do you think we'll get that many?"
I could see the numbers ticking over in his mind. How much he'd make out of door sales after he'd paid the bands, how many drinks he'd sell. All those numbers. Probably just ended up in a big brain slop knowing Chucklehead's capacity for maths.
"Maybe. Razer can fill the room on a good night, and I'm assuming with all the promo he should be doing, it'll be a very good night. Not so sure about Alex. He's new in town. He got a decent crowd the other night and maybe he'll be able to fill the place when he has his full band."
Chuck nodded. As I suspected, Chuck’s thoughts turned to exceeding the room capacity to get more people in.
"We could knock out the wall behind the bar and just block off the back stairs. That way we could fit another hundred or more in easily."
"And where would we store stuff? You wanna give people free access to all the booze?"
That got him thinking for real. In honesty, the storeroom could probably be half the size and still have enough room but I didn't want Chuck starting on some crazy project that would screw things up.
"Also, you'd have to pay for workmen. That would be expensive if you want it done to building code standards. You start a project like that when there’s attention on the club and those building inspectors will come snooping around."