“Are you ready?”
I look up from my notepad to find Sam standing in front of me. Her toe is tapping impatiently on the floor and her hands are perched on her hips. It’s seven a.m. and I’m still in the studio from last night or maybe it’s the night before. I’ve lost track. It’s been a year since I asked Sam to find us a new label. She promised me it would happen, but yet here we are with a full album and no producer. We have enough new songs to make another one, but no one wants us.
We almost cut Sam loose but in the end decided to sign with her again. If all else fails, we can make the record with Moreno Entertainment, but it’s not what we want to do. If someone told me that it’d take this long to get a decent label, I would’ve laughed. I had such high expectations when I first signed and now I’m just spending night and day in the studio, writing.
I look at Sam questioningly. This is her new game: Cat and mouse, the Sam version. She asks a question and waits painstakingly long to continue, or until I cave and speak to her. I’ve learned that speaking to her too much gets me in trouble, so I try to keep my mouth shut as much as possible. If I phrase something wrong, or if there’s a slight hint that I might want to see her later, she’s like a cougar ready to pounce.
I can’t go there again. I care for her, I do, but I care for my sanity more. I had to leave town to escape her and get healthy, and my fear is that she’ll drag me back down again. She the puppet-master to my vices and knows how to pull my strings to get me to cave. I haven’t had a cigarette in years, but she makes me want to inhale an entire pack just to calm my nerves. I prefer the mellowness of my apartment and my cat. How I ever ended up with him, I’ll never know. He was sitting in a box, shivering. It was raining and I was running down the street. Why I stopped to look still baffles me, but I did and I brought him home. He doesn’t have a name though. I thought long and hard but couldn’t come with anything that I thought fit him s
o I stuck with Cat. I thought he’d be a good companion, but he hisses anytime I go near him. He’s a good cat though. He loves Quinn and lets him pull on his tail and ears and never scratches him. It’s just me that he hates.
“How long have you been here?”
I glance at the clock on the wall and shrug. I don’t even pretend to know what day it is. She steps forward and that’s when I get a strong whiff of what she’s wearing. My leg starts to jerk and I’m biting the inside of my cheek hard enough to draw blood. I’ve never smelled this perfume on her before and it can’t be that popular, so why is she wearing it? Why does she smell like her all of a sudden? Never have I had reason to compare them. That’s why Sam is so easy for me to be with and dismiss. She’s the opposite of everything I want, everything that I had with my girl. I don’t care how many years it’s been; to me it feels like yesterday. To this day I still have her hate filled voicemail that I listen to when I need to remind myself why I’m here. I can still see her eyes when I’m telling her that I can’t be with her. I was a coward that night. I still am a coward. So many times I could’ve gone back and told her everything. I could’ve answered any one of her calls, but the thought of letting her down, the thought of her being so disappointed in me, broke me.
I know what I did was wrong and someday I’ll make it up to her. I don’t know how or when that will be, but it will happen. I’m still a nobody. I’m still the young kid that sat on a stool hoping that a bar owner would like him enough for that coveted nighttime spot. I wasn’t even good enough for that, yet here I am pouring my heart out on a piece of paper because it doesn’t talk back. It can’t look at me with disgust and I can’t hear the disdain in its voice telling me how much of a loser I am. The paper doesn’t mock me, it absorbs what I’m telling it, what I’m feeding it.
Sam stands in front me, her expression one of contempt. Does she know what she’s doing to me? She can’t know. I’ve kept everything a secret and never gave any hint or inclination as to what awaits me in another town. I stand and move the other side of the room. My breathing is sporadic, coming in short spurts. This whole time I’ve done everything I could to protect my girl and now, somehow after years, Sam’s wearing CKOne. Everything about this moment feels wrong and I hate it.
“What do you want, Sam?”
She stalks toward me. I have a feeling she knows and she’s doing this on purpose. The question is how does she know about her and what am I going to do about it? Do I pretend she’s not invading my senses to the point where I want to grab her… and kiss her, or does she think I’m acting like the typical dick that I am? I hope it’s the latter. If she’s having those thoughts, my life is easier.
“I don’t get you, Liam. Sometimes you want to be near me and other times you act like I’m carrying a disease.”
You are, I want to blurt out. The ‘let’s try to kill Liam slowly’ disease.
“What do you want, Sam?” I ask again. Her eyes brighten and I realize my mistake. I should know, no open ended questions.
“Well since you’re asking. We’re good together. I don’t know why you insist on fighting it.”
My head shakes slowly. I pinch the bridge of my nose and wish she would disappear. I sense her closeness before she touches my arm.
“But we can discuss that later. Right now, I want you to get the guys together and meet me at Capitol, they’re making an offer.”
I drop my hand and gaze at her. My eyes bore into hers. She’s telling the truth. I can see it in her features.
“What time?”
“Half past ten. Don’t be late.” She turns and purposely sways her hips, showing off her ass because she knows I’m an ass man. “Liam, you can thank me later.”
As soon as the door closes I want to scream out in joy, but instead I bang my head against the wall. If this deal hinges on me being with her, I’ll take one for the team. I’ll hate it, but they guys deserve it more than anything.
Harrison, JD and I sit in the reception area of Capitol Records. When we arrived, I stood outside and stared up at the iconic building. The very same building that I could see from my grandma’s yard and now here I am. I’m about to sell my songs to them and in return they’re going to put their label next to my name.
Harrison and I are nervous, but not JD. He’s used to this. JD, or Jimmy as he’s named, came to us after answering an ad. We started jamming as a three-piece and he never left. He started as the bassist, but is a man of many talents, much like Way. One of the first songs we recorded with him was the song I wrote for my girl back in high school. It was one of the EP’s Harrison and I released early on, but adding JD’s piano mix to it gave it a whole new sound. I don’t know if a producer will want to run with it again, but if they don’t we have plenty of others to offer.
“If you’re ready, I’ll take you through now.” I gawk at the very tall female standing in front of us. Of course, her heels make her six inches taller than she truly is. Her hair is the Hollywood blond, platinum and styled perfectly, but her face is fair with little make-up. I eye her up and down, causing her blush and believe me I’m enjoying the reaction I’m getting. She turns on her heel and I’m the first one to step in behind her. Her ass is the perfect shape and her skirt is tight enough to show just how round and firm it is.
She stops and holds a door open for us. My arm purposely brushes against her tits. She coyly bites her lip probably hoping I won’t notice, but I do. It’s been a while since I’ve been with someone, but after this morning with Sam and her perfume, I need to find a release and this one just might be it.
We sit down at the long conference table. Anthony and Sam sit across from us and at the end are the Capitol executives. These men are going to either make or break us. I’m praying that I walk out of here a happy man. If not, I need to seriously consider going back to Beaumont, but I don’t know what I’d do there. I have nothing to offer anyone.
“Good afternoon, gentlemen. We’ve just spent the last hour going over everything with your agent and manager and we’re happy to make an offer.”
Papers are slid toward us, each of us grabbing our own set. The words blur on the page after I read “five record deal”. Nothing else is making sense. This is what I’ve been working for. This is why I came here.
“Holy shit,” Harrison exclaims quietly as he turns the page. I follow suit and agree. We have creative freedom. Sam stays as manager, Anthony as our lead agent. And the money, it’s there. Harrison will be able to move out of his apartment and get Quinn a nice place. He’ll be able to help pay for Yvie’s ballet school and JD will be able to marry his girl, Chelsea. But most importantly someone likes my lyrics enough to want to buy them, and that right there is enough for me.