“Dickheads, it wasn't even that much money. Not enough to ruin my life over. When I told Chuck, he exploded. Went fucking nuts. And I didn't blame him. Said that’s why he didn’t want a chick doing this job. You get all cock hungry for anything carrying a guitar. Sends your brain crazy.”
“That’s a bit rich coming from Chuck, considering what a dick he makes of himself over his bimbos.”
“Yeah. I wanted to punch him but I couldn’t say a word because he was right. I'd been cock hungry and not thinking. Fred had only started working a week before that. I hadn't thought. My judgment had been clouded by insane lust.”
I didn’t want to look at Carlie in case she had judgment in her eyes. I’d been so stupid.
“Hey, it’s not that bad. You said yourself it was only around a grand – and how much money has Chuck lost us recently?”
She wasn’t wrong there but it was the principle more than anything.
“The only way I could hold onto my job was to promise not to get mixed with rockers ever again. Of course, I agreed. I thought he’d forget about it in a few months’, but he’s never let me live it down. If I spend too much time talking to anyone, he always finds out.”
“And now he’s put the pressure on you to agree to this competition because he wants the money. What an absolute bastard. He can’t change the rules midcourse to suit himself. I see now why you were so against it.”
Carlie put out her cigarette.
“Even without that promise to Chuck, I'd have never dated another muso again. Fucking men. Fucking rockers. Who needed that shit in their life?”
Carlie walked over and rubbed my arm. “It was one bad experience. Razer’s no Pete. Alex isn’t either. You should give them a chance.”
Carlie could say that but I knew how close I’d come to disaster. I’d never let my judgment be clouded again.
Chapter 30 ALEX
I RANG VIOLET’S DOORBELL, not sure what to expect. She didn’t exactly live in the classiest part of town and her apartment building was a worry. When was the last time a maintenance man had been around the place?
“We’re running late,” I said when she opened the door. “We have to rush.”
“Sorry, I had to make sure I was wearing something decent and do my makeup.”
She looked hot, I had to give her that, and I’d love to think she was doing it for me but I knew she wasn’t.
“It’s a radio interview, you know. No one is going to see you.”
She put her hands on he
r hips. “That may be so but it’ll come across in my voice. I don’t want to sound like I’m badly dressed, you know.”
I couldn’t argue with that logic.
“The car’s waiting.” I smiled. I’d love to take her hand but I wasn’t sure she’d let me. The way she treated me made me hesitate where I’d normally be confident.
“The car?”
“I figured hiring a car would be better than getting in a dirty, smelly taxi.”
“Hell, I’d have caught the dirty, smelly bus.”
“Then you’d be way too late. The bus takes forever.”
We got in the back of the car and Violet made me run through practice questions with her. She couldn’t keep still and kept biting her nails.
“What if they ask me a trick question?” she asked. “I have to be prepared for everything.”
I pulled her hand away from her mouth before she chewed those nails down to the quick.
“They won’t ask trick questions. It’s a promo interview because I booked advertising with them. Their job is to make us look good. It’ll be just a reworking of the press release. I’ll talk about myself and then they’ll throw to you for a few quick questions about Trouble. Nothing you don’t know like the back of your hand.”