Sally stood up. “Anyway, I should get to work.”
I nodded. This definitely seemed like an avenue for revenge, a grave that Alex had dug for himself. If I got Mum to send me the phone, I could prove something.
But, did I still want to destroy Alex? That was the question.
Alex
Three days after the gig, I got a call. The call. Even though we’d played the worst gig of my life, they were keen. I had no idea how we’d done it, but those label guys didn’t care. My dreams would finally become a reality.
“Are you free to meet up this week?” the guy had asked on the phone.
“I think I could see my way clear. Just me or the whole band?”
Of course I was free. I was nothing but free. I’d pretty much reschedule anything to make that meeting. They weren’t just any label either; they were one of the top three labels in the world. Well, a branch of that label. Same thing.
“The whole band, of course.”
They set a time and I called the other guys. If those bastards had babysitting duties or work or any other kind of lame excuse for not making this meeting, they needed to know that I would cut their throats.
“You sly dog, you kept this quiet until now? Now I see why you were such an edgy bastard at rehearsal,” Hedley said.
“Yeah, and that’s only going to get worse,” I replied. “We need to step it up a notch or ten.”
The Summer Rock Festival loomed bright on the horizon, with a label backing us. An album in the works. Then, maybe, a smash hit. Fame and fortune. I’d dreamed of it all. I’d done more than have worthless dreams, I’d planned and plotted and worked hard to make sure it happened.
Everything shone in front of me, so real I could almost touch it.
Everything except one thing.
God, I’d made a mess of things with Dee. The best thing to do would be to avoid her in the future. Something like that must never happen again. She was a sweet girl under the tough exterior and needed some guy who would treat her right.
Just thinking about her got me stirred up. There were some things in the world I was not entitled to, though, and she was one of them.
Those lips though, the way that bottom lip quivered with desire. That haunted me. The whimpers she’d made. Every detail, from the smell of her hair tickling my nose, to the chipped red nail polish on her fingers as they caressed my cock, all that haunted my dreams. The nightmares had gone but, in their place was something so precious, so close but so out of reach.
After the moment passed, she’d have had second thoughts. She was having them before she even left the office.
Hell, the best thing I could’ve done was not been so damn good with my fingers and my tongue. If she’d thought I was a lousy lay, then she’d have been only too eager to get away from me.
I rocked up at the music company headquarters. The place could’ve been any drab office building. Definitely not rock.
A guy called Matt met us in reception. He looked around my age and wore a checked sports jacket over a t-shirt. We waited for Fabian and Hedley, while an intern got us coffee.
The guys rocked up in scruffy jeans and t-shirts but I’d put a suit on. That was the best way to deal with people in business. Meet them on their own terms. Hedley gave me the
side eye but he’d soon see the sense of it.
In the meeting, Matt showed us the contract.
Fabian and Hedley were a bit too keen to sign on the dotted line. I told them I needed to get my lawyer to look over things. An offer was just that, an offer. Everything was up for negotiation. There was no way I was going into this unless I knew we’d be a priority on their roster. The more money they invested in us, the harder they’d work to make sure we were a success. That was just basic business sense.
“I’ll get back to you next week,” I told him.
The next few days were a flurry of appointments. Lawyers and more lawyers. The other guys were happy for me to take the lead, naturally. They didn’t want to hang around with boring legal types.
I played hardball with the deal. There were some clauses about creative control that I didn’t like.
Finally, we got the deal hammered out.