Rock Star Returns: Carlie's Story (Access All Areas 2)

ly. Plus, she got to go on a holiday before it happened. That would make me as happy as fuck.

I opened the bag and broke off a piece of my muffin. Carbs and sugar, the forbidden combination, but I was starving. If I didn’t scoff this down before Drew got back, he’d eat half of it on me.

I sat down at the Galaga machine, intending to get some practice in before Alex and Violet came out. My game had been slipping lately. If Drew achieved his ambition of beating me, I'd have to quit forever. Quit Galaga, not life.

Before I got started, Alex came out of the office. Finished already? Surely not. Violet didn’t follow him.

Alex walked to the door, not looking at me, and opened it for someone.

I took another bite of my muffin then nearly choked, a huge lump of muffin stuck in my throat.

Holden King.

Holden bloody King.

No wonder that butthole Alex had been acting cagey.

The penny dropped. It dropped as fast as my stomach. I vomited a little in my mouth. The special guest for the re-opening. The weird looks Alex had given me. I wasn't getting demoted, I was getting screwed over.

"This bar is a Holden King free zone. No Holden King music, no Holden King talk and, most of all, no Holden King." I pointed to the sign I'd put behind the bar. I'd printed out a picture of Holden King and given him devil horns and a Hitler mustache. Yeah, I knew that was as petty and childish as you could get but it’d been so damn satisfying.

Alex waved as if to dismiss me. "This is my bar and we are having a meeting."

Alex tried to get to Violet's office but I blocked his way.

"You told me I had free reign if I took this job."

"Free reign downstairs. This is an upstairs matter. Now settle down and let us through."

"Over my dead body." Screw him. I had to make a stand.

"Don't push me on this, Carlie. If you go up against me, you'll lose."

My hand twitched to punch him. His face wouldn't be so pretty once I rearranged it. But he was my boss and I couldn’t punch him. Not if I wanted to keep my job.

Holden stood behind him, not saying a thing. He gave me a look that was obviously intended to make me feel guilty but I wouldn't. I refused to feel bad.

"You knew I wouldn't like this but you went ahead anyway. It's not fair on me."

Alex pursed his lips, his eyes hard and cold. "You'd be hard to replace but not impossible. This is a business and I run it my way. Any feelings you have should be put aside in the interest of the club."

He wasn't going to back down on this. Not that I expected it.

If Alex wanted a spectacular reopening, he couldn’t do better than Holden King. He could fill stadiums nowadays so he didn't need to play a tiny little club. People would kill each other to get tickets to see him play here. Holden playing the opening would be way beyond a splash. It’d be a tsunami.

But what was in this for Holden?

I moved out of Alex's way and let him pass.

"Oh, and another thing, Carlie," he said. "Could you please stop smoking in Violet's office? It's against regulations to smoke on-premises."

I wanted to ask him why it was okay for all those workmen to smoke while they were working upstairs. That was on-premises too. Alex just wanted to throw his weight around in front of Holden. The urge to punch him grew stronger but I couldn’t say a word. I just waited until he went through the door to Violet's office then gave him the finger.

I kicked one of the fridges behind the bar. Screw Alex. Screw him in his tight leather pants. I wanted to scream. I could either work here with Holden King coming in all the time or quit my job. Considering I had things to do in my life like pay rent and eat, quitting wasn’t an option. It was two weeks until the reopening upstairs, maybe I could take some time off.

But should I?

If I was just doing bar work, it'd be a no-brainer but I was bar manager now. I couldn't take holidays just after getting the job. How much time would Holden King spend in the bar anyway? He'd have to come into soundcheck and to play but it's not like he'd be there more than that. And he'd be upstairs. I might not even see him. I had to be professional about this.