Chapter Seven
Xander (Monday)
I felt on top of the world as I walked toward work on Monday. I always enjoyed starting a new week of work, not that weekends were much of a thing to me anymore, but today was extra special. Today I had something so exciting to get started on, and I couldn’t wait.
Saturday had been a great night – an epic night, in fact. Not only did I feel good about helping all those children, even if the recognition up on stage in front of everyone did make me uncomfortable, but I also found that incredible female singer, with her amazingly talented brother on the piano.
The next big thing. I could just feel it in my bones. Their performance at the fundraiser had sent chills up and down my spine. They were magic, they were what we wanted. It was going to be awesome.
I couldn’t wait to tell Michael all about it. He would be as thrilled as me. To finally be able to kickstart our new project was just so awesome.
“Hey,” I exclaimed happily as I walked through the front door of the recording studio to see him buried in paperwork. “How’s it going?”
“You’re in a suspiciously good mood.” He eyed me curiously, looking me up and down to see if the answer was going to just reveal itself out of nowhere. “What’s going on?”
I couldn’t wait to tell him; it was Michael’s enthusiasm for the music industry that had made me want to hire him after we reconnected. It only took one hour of drunken conversation on that fateful night for me to just know that he would be perfect for my world, and I’d never regretted that decision.
“I’ve found someone,” I announced proudly, flopping in the seat beside him. “At the fundraiser, I found the people we want next.”
“Are you kidding me?” he scoffed, completely surprising me with his unexpected reaction. “You found ‘the next big thing’ at some cheesy benefit? Please.”
“I’m serious.” I felt myself go a little misty eyed as I thought about that night. Her voice had goosebumps popping up all over my body, his playing was like nothing I’d ever heard before, and on top of that, they were raw, totally unpolished, which meant they could give us exactly what I wanted. “They even wrote their own song, so we know they have talent there, too. Trust me, when you see them, you’ll be as blown away as me.”
“Oh, yeah? And when am I going to see them?” Why was he so skeptical? Didn’t he trust my judgement? Hadn’t I proven time and time again that I knew what I was doing? Okay, so maybe there hadn’t been any direct magic recently, but we were working to rectify that. This would change all of that.
Unfortunately, I hadn’t yet had a call from them, so I wasn’t able to come up with the answer Michael needed.
“I haven’t set up a meeting yet; I wanted to discuss it with you first,” I bluffed, hoping he wouldn’t be able to see right through me. “But whenever you’re ready, I can set it up. You can see them firsthand and eat your words.”
“You might as well get it done this week. We want to progress as soon as possible, right?”
I nodded, internally praying that I’d hear from this girl sooner rather than later. I probably should’ve taken her number, too. Maybe I made a big mistake with that one. I’d just been so distracted, wanting to speak to everyone before the night was up.
“Especially when you hear that Aiden’s agent has been on the phone again, insisting he needs to come back in.”
“Ugh, he’s a pain,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Let him get on with it, book him in. I know it’s hard, but try not to let him annoy you. Hopefully, it’ll all pay off in the end. Maybe we’ll be surprised by how well he does.” Even I didn’t believe that, but I had to try and get Michael off that topic as quickly as possible.
In that moment, my phone blared shrilly in my pocket, making my heart leap into my chest. I hoped and prayed it was going to be the girl from the fundraiser so I could get the ball rolling, especially now that I had something to prove with Michael. I glanced discretely at the screen and noticed it was a number I didn’t recognize, so I excused myself quickly to answer in private.
“Hello?” I glanced behind me as I answered, but Michael was ever the professional, back to work in an instant. “Xander Runner speaking.”
“Oh, hi...” It was a female voice, and she sounded very nervous, which I had to see as a good sign. “It’s Lila… we met at the fundraiser.”
Relief flooded through me. Thank God! “Hi, yes, I remember. How are you?”
“I... I’m good, thank you, I just wanted to call you because...” She trailed off, clearly having no end to that sentence.
“Because I asked you to?” I supplied. “Thank you very much. What I wanted to talk to you about was possibly coming in for a test recording, if you wanted to?”
Please say yes... I probably need this just as much as you do!
“Oh, wow, that would be awesome,” she exclaimed happily. “When would you like us to come in? And, for how long? And how many songs would you need?” Nerves transformed into excitement, which equaled a whole load of questions.
“Whatever you have.” I chuckled. “It’ll be more to see if we’re a good fit for one another, to see what we can do. I have a piano here, so there isn’t anything you need to bring with you. Do you think you’ll be able to make it Thursday morning? I’d like you to meet my business partner, as well.” I would just have to warn Michael in advance to keep away from her. He was great at never actually mixing his professional and personal life, but Lila, whose name I now thankfully knew, was stunning. Possibly too irresistible.
“That’s great. Kyle and I will see you then.”
As we said our goodbyes, I noted their names in the schedule, feeling good about it. Lila and Kyle. I had the strong sense that this was going to be an amazing new venture, and I didn’t feel like this was just hope anymore. I felt like I had something substantial to look forward to.
“That was Lila,” I told Michael proudly. “I have the new act booked in Thursday, so you will see exactly what I’m talking about then.”
“I hope you’re right,” he told me with raised eyebrows. “I do. We need this. I just don’t know if you’re going to find someone unique enough at a snooty charity thing.”
This seemed to have a lot more to do with the charity than anything else. That was fine. If he wanted to feel that way because of his own past, that was up to him. His mind would be changed soon enough, I just knew it.
“It’s got to be more fun than working with Aiden again, right?” I nudged him playfully. “Just remember that and this won’t seem so bad.”
“If their sound isn’t generic and they don’t have a stinking attitude, then they will already be beating him!”
“I don’t think we’ll have much trouble with that!” As I thought about her shy face, the way she looked so terrified as she stepped out onto the stage... This was a girl who’d be grateful for the chance, not someone who’d want to throw it in our faces.
“You know, these two are brother and sister, and they were fostered, too.” I could see Michael’s eyes glazing over, him shutting down as I once again tried to tackle the one subject that bothered him the most. “They have a great story, rising up over the hard start in life, making a difference...”
“I don’t think we need to focus in on that.” He shut me down in a heartbeat. “The world has enough sob stories. I don’t want to turn into that ourselves. People don’t just have to be their pasts, where they came from.”
A thick silence hung in the air, and I desperately wanted to reach out to my friend, to do whatever I could to help him, but I had the sneaking suspicion that wouldn’t be what he wanted. “Okay.” I finally nodded slowly. “We don’t have to talk about it. I wasn’t saying it for that reason, anyway. I was just telling you.”
“Yeah, okay... well, I don’t want to know.” The anger and tense muscles simply fell away in that moment and he seemed to become a shadow of his former self. It was almost as if the tough, adult exterior had simply fallen away, and all he had left was a sad, scared child. Every now and again, I got that feeling myself.
“I don’t want to think about anyone’s childhood, especially if it was like mine,” he sighed, breaking my heart a little bit. “I hate how people see kids with no parents, it isn’t fair. It isn’t like we chose that life, yet we’re the ones who have to suffer.”
Shit, is this him actually opening up to me? “I know. That’s why I want to help...” I tried, but clearly, that was the wrong thing to say.
“That’s how you deal with it,” he snapped angrily, scraping his chair back. “I just want to forget. I don’t want to think about the orphanage or the endless families I had to stay with. I don’t want to recall being in the way or never being loved, never even having a stable home. I just want to forget about it.”
As he walked off, I realized how lucky I was. Sure, my situation had been similar, but it never stuck with me, it certainly hadn’t impacted on me as hard as it had Michael. I wasn’t sure how, but I’d managed to move past a lot of it without too much pain.
I had to stop trying to get through to Michael. I had to stop talking about it. If he wanted to forget about where he came from to move on, then I had to let him. We might have had a similar background, but it wasn’t identical, and it had affected us differently.
Anyway, that wouldn’t stop me from pursuing Lila and Kyle. Their story wasn’t just about that, and as soon as Michael understood that, his outer icy shell would thaw. He would see that they had talent, and I hoped he’d go on to respect them for that.
This had to work. I needed it to. I couldn’t imagine ever feeling so positive about anyone else, so it meant a whole lot to me. I wasn’t sure my enthusiasm would flow quite the same for anyone else. I didn’t think I could get quite as excited. I just needed to find a way to get Michael feeling the same.