Page 27 of After Effect

Chapter 8

Finch Corbin

Two Months Later

The first album recording went off without a hitch. Lilly’s voice was polished, sexy, and evocative, the lyrics were powerful and relatable, and there wasn’t the vaguest doubt in my mind that she was going to blow America wide open when her first single dropped. We had to spend about every waking minute together for the last couple weeks to get it done, but in all the hustle and bustle, we had fortunately both managed to avoid talking about anything other than work.

Errr, obviously. Because what else would we talk about? We didn’t need to talk about that night at the club, and we didn’t need to talk about the day after. I would rather a coworker never see me in that kind of state. But in this case, opening up to her seemed to have given her a touch more confidence, and she had been performing flawlessly in front of our test audiences so long as I was there. So we’ll call that little day trip ‘team building.’ That’s a good phrase. Very professional.

Sigh.

But the excess of work was a needed distraction. I had done a lot of footwork, I had made more phone calls in the last week than I had in the combined total of my lifetime, and I knew I was about to make Christian Baek shove his doubt right back down his throat.

Which is good, because I don’t have enough soul left to sell if he doesn’t. The only worry I did still have was, well, the album release party. A brilliant album didn’t mean anything if no one knew it existed. But in order to get that kind of backing, I needed a little help.

I tapped on the door to the marketing department. “Jonathan, can I ask you for some advice?”

“One moment.” Jonathan swiftly typed a long string of text, then hit submit and returned his attention to me. “How can I help you today, Finch?”

“I need to coordinate an album launch for Lilly and… I’m not sure what kind of resources we have.”

“What kind of resources are you hoping for.” He was always smiling. Upbeat to the point that it was almost a little annoying. But it at least made him easy to talk to.

“Television would obviously be ideal, but I know that’s a touch more high profile than I can ask for at this point… maybe a live radio show?”

“Hmmm…” He tapped his finger on the desk a few times as he pondered my request. “I have some contacts I could shoot you. Maybe 98.5 KLOL, or 104.7 KGod.”

A country or a gospel station? “That’s… hardly our target audience.” I mumbled under my breath. “What about KRAW?”

Jonathan pursed his lips. “They’re… tough. Our relationship with them hasn’t been strong lately. We had a popstar who went a little rogue, and ended up with a bit of a scandal when she cheated on Greg Winner. Haven’t worked with them since.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

“Yeah, really was.”

We both stood in silence for several seconds. Then Jonathan spoke again. “So… KGod?”

“Yeah…” Because a gospel and Cristian rock station is the perfect home for Lilly moaning an erotic love song into the mic.

Goddamn it. We got a whole album recorded. This should be the easy part.

As I headed back to my desk, I couldn’t help but notice Baek’s office door was open.

… I guess I could ask him. I mean, it’s in his best interest for me to succeed, right? I’m already in debt to him on near slavery levels. What’s another chain or two.

I approached his door cautiously, not committing to entering until I knew for sure he wasn’t mid-phone call or something.

“I’ll keep an eye on him.” The words were only muffled by distance. “Of course… Yes, that’s all.” The sound of the phone returning to the receiver punctuated the air. I waited another minute before I entered his potential line of sight, to make sure he didn’t think I was listening in on his phone call.

Then I stepped into the room. “Mr. Baek, do you have a minute?”

His eyes immediately shot to mine. There was something different about his dark eyes today. Worry? Maybe he was… shaken? I couldn’t quite tell. I suddenly regretted having come here at all.

But not much to my surprise, he exhaled that uneasy expression, and inhaled his usual cold command. “A minute. I’ll be counting.”

“That’s all I need. I want to get Lilly Cisneros an album release party on the radio. I’m thinking KRAW.”

“I’m sure Jonathan already would have told you about our relationship with KRAW lately.” He looked unamused.

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