Page 27 of The Final Beat

Ali and Elliot came into the room, closely followed by Graham who looked less than happy.

“You ready to go, boys?” Ali asked. “I think we’re done here.”

“Yeah.” Ronnie took my mug and passed it along with his to Graham. “Here you go, mate.”

Graham, a tall man with a shock of red hair, looked baffled as he fumbled with the mugs and shit coffee splashed over his shirt. “You don’t have to go. We could continue talking if you’d like.”

“No,” Ali said, slapping on her ‘professional but I’m not happy’ smile. “We need to go. We have another property to see.”

The way Graham’s face fell made me think we’d be hearing from him soon enough. I’d bet money on him having ‘thought things over’ later.

As we trooped out of the house towards our cars, Ali called my name.

“Yeah?”

She looked up from searching through her huge handbag. “Where were you yesterday?” Her head went back down again, and she started to curse about losing her keys. “Aha.” She held them up. “So? Where were you?”

“Watching telly.”

“You never watch telly,” Elliot chimed in.

“That’s what I said,” Ronnie added.

“And your phone had an international dial tone.”

“That’s what I said,” Ronnie cried.

I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to think of an excuse or a reason why my phone was overseas.

“I don’t know what that was about,” I managed to force out as I bleeped the lock on my car. “Must have been something dodgy with the network.”

“Well, I’ve never heard that before. Are you sure someone hasn’t nicked your phone?”

“No, they haven’t,” Beau said. “I called him on it this morning.”

That was one lie I couldn’t use then.

“Listen, I haven’t got a clue about my phone.” I yanked open the car door and with my hand on it, turned to Ali. “So, what did you want me for?”

“It’s about your Netflix contract.” She flashed me a smile. “Nothing to worry about.”

I’d persuaded Ali to represent me with the acting side of things and I was glad I had. Music contracts were one thing, but actors contracts were a whole other minefield.

“Okay. You want to catch up later? Only I’ve somewhere I need to be,” I replied, desperate to get away before there were any more questions about my whereabouts the day before.

“They want to talk to you about another series, at the end of next year.” She moved closer, swinging her keys around her finger. “Some sort of prequel to the one you’re doing.”

“Nice one,” Elliot said. “Well done, buddy.”

“Hollywood next,” Beau added, slapping me on the back.

“I don’t think so.” I shook my head and turned to Ali. “I’m not sure I’m up for it, Al.”

“That’s what I thought, love. We’ll talk about it another time, but I’ll stall them for now.” She gave us all a smile. “Right, I’m off to have my nails done. Oh, and boys, please remember you need to look through those files of the prospective new managers.”

We gave a collective sigh of disappointment.

“Ali, why don’t you do it?” Ronnie said, his bottom lip pouting. “Otherwise, Elliot will think he’s boss and make us do things that we don’t want to do.”

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