“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.
“Come in Friday morning,” Matt said. “I’m out of town until then.”
Now I’d had the contract rewritten to my liking, I was anxious to get it all finalised. To come this far and have my dreams snatched away from me would be the cruellest fate of all.
I called into Trouble, still not wanting to discuss things until they were concrete but the other guys hadn’t been so careful.
“Hey, Alex, I heard the news,” said Carlie. “Congratulations. Does that mean you’ll be on the road touring and I’ll have to take over? I think I’d need a raise for that.”
I gave her a salute but didn’t answer.
“Summer Rock,” said Holden. “We’re doing that too. Carlie might be coming with me.” He grimaced.
“Then who’s going to look after the bar?” God, I hadn’t thought of that. If I didn’t have Carlie to run the place, there was no one else.
“Ha, I’m the obvious choice,” said Drew. “I know this place back to front.”
Carlie laughed. It was a pretty ridiculous idea.
“I’ve not even started to think about that yet. The contract’s not signed and it’s all up in the air.”
Still, a sense of satisfaction filled me. This would all work out and the future would be mine. The dull ache Dee had left in me would soon be filled. She was just a girl.