Page 46 of On The Edge
I load up the bar with some more weight and just as I sit down to do my last set, the music playing over the speakers cuts out. A robotic voice blasts; “Call from Louis, manager. Call from Louis, manager.”
Ugh.This can’t be good. Reluctantly, I pull the phone from my pocket, cutting the Bluetooth and taking a steadying breath before answering.
“Yeah?” I absolutely do not want to talk to this man right now. He’s a good manager, but he’s an awful fucking human being. Louis knows not to speak to me the way I’ve seen him speak to others, but he tends to forget his place and talks to me about inappropriate things. I’ve seen how he acts when he’s off the clock; if he wasn’t so good at his job, I’d have fired him long ago.
“Reisyn! There’s a situation. Some pictures are circulating of Kai with that groupie you guys had backstage last night. Looks like she conned you all into a private ride, huh?” Louis insinuates, and I can hear the wink in his voice.
“Excuse me?” I ask, disgust in my tone.
He must think I’m agreeing with what he said, because he laughs like a freaking Bond villain.“Oh yeah. I’m looking at the pictures now. Looks like you all gave her a nice ride. Was she able to satisfy all of you? Maybe I need to see–”
“Watch your fucking mouth!” I boom into the phone, wishing he was in front of me so I could punch his teeth in. “What did I fucking say would happen if you ever spoke about her like that again?!”
“Jesus, boss,” Louis squeaks, and I can hear him gulping in fear over the phone. “I didn’t think you were serious.”
“I’m so goddamn serious. Don’t. Say. That. Shit. Again.”
“Understood,” Louis replies, clearing his throat. “Well, like I said, there are some pictures of that girl and Kai in the city this morning. They look awfully cozy strolling down the avenue,arm-in-arm and whispering. The problem is, the paps sold the pictures to the tabloids and now they want all the information on her. We’ve built the band’s image around mystery and tried to keep your real names out of the press as much as possible, but having this… it’s going to catch on like wildfire.”
“What are you asking here, Louis? I don’t have time for this.”
“What do you want me to tell them?”
“Tell them no comment.” That seems like a no brainer, really. “Demand that no picture with her face is printed or posted.” We’ve all signed on for this shit, but Mel didn’t. I’m going to protect her as much as I can.
In this aspect.
It’s not that deep. Don’t look into it.
Fuck, I’m not even fooling myself anymore.
“Done,” Louis says. “I’ll get the people running our social media presence to flag the pictures and order takedowns”
Social media…
Wait, didn’t Mel say she runs a social media business? A successful one, at that.
“Also, I want you to hire Social Media Buzz, Inc. for our social media shit,” I order, without really thinking it through.
But this could work… One of the reasons I bet she was complaining was because she had to work. So if I take that out of the equation, or at least make it so that her only work isours, maybe I’ll gain some favor.
Or she’ll hit me again.
I’ll take either one.
“What?”
I roll my eyes and speak clearly. “Hire the social media agency called Social Media Buzz, Inc., and make it clear thatOn The Edgeis to be Melody’sonlyclient from now on.” I don’t know if her company has more than one person, but I’m going to cover my bases. I don’t give a shit about the others.
Melody, and her time, is ours. Exclusively.
“I don’t know if that’s possible,” Louis argues.
“Make it possible, damn it,” I growl. “Pay her five times her normal rate.”
Louis scoffs. “Five times? Do you know how expensive that’s going to be?”
“I don’t care,” I snap.It’ll be worth every single penny.“I will not take no for an answer here, Louis. Get it fucking done.”
