Chapter Fourteen

Charlie

“I’ve never been this nervous,” I tell Thomas when he comes to pick me up. He’s got a driver to take us to the restaurant and bar because he thinks it will show Addy what she could be experiencing if she decides to work with us. If I know Addy, she won’t care about having a driver.

“Don’t be. You already have that girl smitten. I think she’ll do whatever you want her to.” Thomas all but rubs his hands together in glee.

“You don’t know that.”

We’re on our way to pick her up from the school and I just want everything to go smoothly. If she doesn’t want to sing with me I’m a little nervous Thomas will drop me. He might not, because I’m paying him, but I’m always worried he’s just looking for the next big thing. And without Addy, I have a feeling that won’t be me.

“I do, you’re talented and she’s going to love singing with you.”

Thomas is the biggest cheerleader I have. He always has my back and makes me feel like the smartest person in the world. Well, that is what I pay him to do. His words ease some of the fear that he’s going to drop me. My whole thought process has been thrown off by the girl I’ve been thinking about all week.

When we pull up in front of the school, there’s an audience. I kind of wish we’d waited until the students and teachers had cleared out. There’s no way to avoid it now.

Addy appears, her bright features lighting me up from the inside. My heart slams against my chest at how wholesome yet sexy she looks. Before we can get out Addy is hurrying into to car and shutting the door firmly.

“Hi,” she says shyly looking out at the mass of people now staring at the car as it pulls away.

“Hi,” I respond sounding almost breathless.

“Where are we going?” she asks her cheeks turning an adorable shade of pink.

“We’re going to Sunfire, I think you’ll love it there,” Thomas says to Ada. “Well, Lila says you’ll love it there. She was supposed to come but had some emergency PTA things. Is she lying? I didn’t think teachers worried about PTA.”

Ada laughs and it’s a beautiful sound. “No, she’s not lying. The English teachers run the PTA and they take it very seriously. She probably had to be there to make sure they had the right fundraising advertisements or something equally mundane. Poor Lila.”

The ride over is full of conversation about Lila and Thomas. I can tell Ada loves her best friend dearly so it’s enjoyable to listen to her talk about her.

We pull up to the restaurant and immediately I see Savannah. My stomach turns sour and I try to keep the frown from forming on my face. Of all the people to run into at one of the most expensive restaurants in town, she was not someone I thought I’d see. She’s with an older guy, I assume a rich sugar daddy, but I shouldn’t jump to conclusions. Somehow, I manage to get by her and her date without them seeing us. Thank goodness for small miracles.

As luck would have it they are meandering around waiting for a table, being we have reservations I hoping they will sweep us to our table immediately. I’m happy to give the hostess my name so we can get out of her eye line. But it seems my luck has run out.

“Please go sit at the bar and have a complimentary drink while we get your table ready Mr. Maxwell.” The hostess apologetically says our table is occupied by someone who has overstayed their welcome. Once we’re seated at the bar and order a drink Thomas jumps right into business as I keep a side eye on Savannah hoping she doesn’t see me.

“So, I have the contract, but we can talk about all that after dinner. It covers things like percentage of money from the sales of albums, merchandise, and lots of other things.”

“Half,” Ada says surprising Thomas. I can tell because he leans back in the both with his mouth open.

“Half?”

“Yes, I’m putting myself out there if I decide to sing with Charlie. I’m giving up my privacy and who knows what else. It’s not like I’m the one desperate for this. I’m perfectly fine teaching my student’s music so in my mind it seems you need me more than I need you. So, I want half or nothing. If that contract doesn’t say I’m entitled to half then redo it. I’ll get a lawyer to look at it once you have.”

I’m a little blown away by this confidence Addy has gained. She isn’t backing down from Thomas and she is prepared to play hardball. It’s a pretty big turn on.

“That’s fine with me. If you want to sing with me, then half of it should be yours.” I add giving her a wink to bring back the pink flush on her cheeks.

“Now wait a minute Charlie, you have to look at the big picture here. This is your brand,” Thomas interjects.

“She’s going to be a part of it.”

I can tell Thomas is going to lose it. He is holding back so he doesn’t make her mad, but his face shows he doesn’t think she deserves half. It’s fucking dumb that he would be fighting her on this. He was the one that insisted I needed a partner. Hell, I was positive he was going to drop me if I couldn’t convince Addy to sing with me. So why he was being a dick didn’t make sense. I personally just want to give her whatever she wants so she’ll keep looking at me that way.

She has such admiration for me in her eyes since I said it should be hers. I want to give her the moon if she keeps thinking of me in such a great light.

We get seated fairly quickly and I’m happy to order a round of drinks for the table. The special is a wine spritzer of some sort which Thomas immediately makes fun of me for ordering, but he drinks his. The next round is on him and he gets something horrible the waitress sets on fire.

Once we’ve finished our before dinner drinks and ordered some food the conversation goes back to the contracts.

“Thomas, she said to rewrite it for her to have half. And her and I both agree she should get it so let’s talk about something else, like how we’re going to pull this off.” I’m getting impatient with his desire to wax poetic about legal issues. We want her on our team and we can figure all that out later.

He gets ready to say something back when I start shaking my head. And then it happens I see Savannah has spotted me and she’s making her way over. Nothing good will come from whatever she’s going to say and I can’t excuse myself to talk to her because it won’t look good in front of Ada. I feel like a sitting duck and I don’t even know what type of ammo is about to blow my ass up.

“Charlie, you left me hanging the other night. You know you owe me now.” She slurs making it obvious that she has gone beyond a buzz. The smell of alcohol floats in the air towards me as she leans down. I didn’t think it was possible that a person could smell like a liquor bottle.

“Now is not a great time, Savannah,” I tell her as quietly as I can. Both Thomas and Ada are looking at me with wide eyes.

“Charlie, I want what’s mine. I know I didn’t pay for it, but when you promise something, you promise it. You know what I mean. I want it.” Her voice takes on a whiny quality that I’m pretty sure she thinks is adorable instead of pathetic.

“So, give it to me and I’ll be on my way.” She’s getting louder as her words slur together. People are looking over now to see what the fuss is about. Where is her date?

“I mean it, Savannah, this is not the time.”

“Oh, I see. You’re here with the big man in a suit and another coke whore. You don’t want to give me what’s mine. That’s fine. That’s fine.” Her arms are swinging wildly as her glazed eyes fix on me.

Ada looks completely disgusted with the whole thing and I expect her to walk out any minute. I can’t believe she just called her a coke whore.

“You’re making a fool out of yourself. I’ll come by the bar, I’ll bring you what you want. Just leave me right now.”

“No,” she yells and slams her body into our table spilling drinks and making a loud noise. “I want it right now. I’ll follow you to your house for it.”

The owner of the restaurant’s making his way to the table. I know him from the times Thomas has brought us before. He takes Savannah’s arm and moves her from our table.

“I need you to calm down or you’ll not be welcome in our restaurant.”

“It’s his fault,” she yells.

At this point, her date has realized was not going to the bathroom but making a ridiculous scene instead. He comes over and is trying to convince her to leave. She’s still getting louder and more reckless with her body as she flails her whole body around to get out of the owner’s grasp.

“Get her out of here, or I’m calling the police.” The owner tells her date and adds, “I know you didn’t think she’d act like this Bernard, but please for me, get her out of my place.”

Once they are removed and the restaurant calms down Addy pins me with a heavy stare. “You’re going to have to explain that to me,” she states with a no-nonsense voice that I picture her using on her more rambunctious students. “And don’t lie. If you lie I’ll walk out.”

“If I tell you the truth you’ll walk out too,” I say sadly.

“You’ll just have to take that risk.”

I sigh knowing I’m about to lose the deal for us and watch as Thomas shakes his head no. But in my heart, I know I have to be truthful with her or she’ll never believe anything I say again.

“I need you to know Addy. I don’t do coke, I don’t do any hard drugs. I occasionally smoke weed and I drink. I’ve done coke in the past and I didn’t like it.”

“Okay,” she says hesitantly.

“The night we came to see you play, I had plans to meet her at the bar she works at. That night I was supposed to take her some coke. I have a friend, he sells and I got it to impress her. I was trying to get in her pants,” she winces and I hope I’m not taking the honesty thing too far. “I didn’t give it to her because there were some men in the bar my father fired and they started a fight that got me escorted from the bar.”

“That’s why your face was bruised.” It’s a statement, not a question. I nod my head and she surprises me when she continues, “Okay so now she thinks you owe her the free drugs you were going to give her if she slept with you?” Ada asks.

“When you say it like that it sounds so dirty.”

“Well, it is dirty Charlie. Thank you for telling me the truth. I don’t like anything about it, but I’m glad you didn’t lie.”

She takes a sip of her drink and the food comes to the table. I can’t believe it was that easy to tell her about my dalliances with drugs and women. Somehow this would come back to bite me in the ass later. When I look at Thomas, he’s just shaking his head.

We eat in near silence. The food is good and I think all of us are just processing what just happened. When we’re all done with our forks down I signal for the check.

“Shall we get the hell out of here?” I ask and lead the way. I’m glad the owner was able to get Savannah to calm down and I hope the damage that has been done isn’t irreparable.

The car drives us to a bar downtown called Kitzy. It’s an upscale place but not gold chalice upscale. We go in and get a table with tall stools. I sit next to Ada and Thomas sits across from her.

Once again, when we sit, Thomas is back to all business.

“So, I guess our main question is are you ready to make the commitment? We are ready to rent out a recording studio. I know a guy and all I need is for you to say the word for this to get started,” Thomas says. “You’ll be expected to come in and record with Charlie during a time we agree upon. That’s not something that takes up a little time. It takes up a lot. This album is going to be the next big thing and we want it to be right. So that means a lot of hard work from both of you and I need a commitment.”

“I understand that,” Ada says. “If I decide to do it, I’ll make the commitment. You don’t have to worry about that I never slack when I agree to do something. I’ll just have to keep a good sleep schedule so I can function at work.”

“That might not be an option. We may have to record into the night.” Thomas stares at her intently letting her know it is now or never time.

Addy fixes him with her own bone-chilling look and he holds his hands up in defeat. “Everything is negotiable Ada. I’m just trying to do my job and make sure we are moving right along and on track with everything.”

This conversation goes on for a while and I just listen. Once the three of us have more drinks coming we’re less serious. Addy cuts herself off and the two of us continue drinking.

“I’m going to the ladies,” Ada says and gets up from our table. I notice a guy on the other side of the room watching her go and I think he looks familiar, but I can’t place him. I look away and when I look again, he’s gone.

It irks me. Where do I know that guy from? Why was he looking at Ada like that? It hits me he looks like the guy that punched me in the bar, but I’m not sure. This guy is dressed completely different and I only got a glance at him. I could be paranoid after they said they were coming for me. My gut starts to churn and I think about following her to the bathroom. That’s ridiculous though, she can go to the bathroom by herself.

Thomas and I go back to our drinks and I let it go. Well, I almost let it go. I just can’t shake the uneasy feeling that something is wrong.

“Hey, that girl you were with. Someone just grabbed her from the hallway and yanked her outside.” Our waitress is standing over the table. She barely gets the words out and I’m rushing to the bathroom to save her with Thomas at my heels. I should have trusted my instincts.

It had to be Corky’s men or the men from the bar. I can’t believe my problems have somehow come down on her.