Chapter Twenty-Five
Xander (Monday)
As soon as Lila left the studio, taking my heart with her, I turned on my heels and went to the office to face the awful job that I’d been putting off all morning long: I was going to have to face Michael.
I knew that he had been stewing in there all morning, no doubt getting himself incredibly worked up the entire time. It was safe to say that this wasn’t going to be fun!
I wasn’t in the mood for an argument, but I had no doubt that was where things would be headed. Michael and his hot head always went in that direction when things didn’t go his way. Still, this was one area he would have to let it go. I knew what I wanted and was utterly determined to get it.
I steeled myself up for a second before pushing the door open to see his red face staring back at me. I clapped my hands together and tried to keep my face happy. I was determined to keep upbeat, whatever his mood was. “Let’s get this sorted out, shall we? Show me the paperwork, and we’ll work out a way to get this all fixed.”
“Will you stop it?” he growled, rolling his eyes in an exaggerated manner at me. “Do you have any idea what’s even going on in this company? Is your head permanently in the clouds? Have you not noticed any of the warnings that things are going under?”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I shot back through gritted teeth. I was still determined to remain happy, but he was making it very difficult. Why was he being so damn pessimistic? There was no way things were that bad.
“I know exactly what goes on in this place; please don’t try to undermine me. Okay, maybe things haven’t been as good as in recent years, but that’s picking up. I’m working on it, you know that.”
“What, with Lila and Kyle?”
His snippy tone had me riled up. He had been just as into that plan as me when we first got going. Maybe he was jealous of how well I connected with her, maybe he didn’t like the fact that I’d broken the fraternizing with the clients rule, whereas he never had. Well, that was just tough. Lila meant more to me than a hook up, and I wasn’t willing to throw her to one side no matter what Michael thought.
“You think they’re going to save things? Well, what if they don’t? What’s your plan then? Maybe you think that they’re good, but the rest of the world might not.”
“You like them, too.” I wasn’t about to take this lying down. “You were all for it not so long ago.”
“I didn’t know how bad things were then!” Yep, he was yelling at me, this was not going to end well. “I didn’t realize quite how bad our finances were.”
“I have money.” I shrugged, giving him the obvious solution. “It’ll be fine.”
“You do not want to sink more of your money into this place. It’s starting to become a dead end, so unless you want to end up living back on the streets, I wouldn’t bother.”
My blood was boiling. I could barely stand it anymore. Maybe I was wrong to bring Michael into this; maybe I should never have given him so much power. He certainly wasn’t the best at keeping his temper in check, which wasn’t the most professional way to behave. “That is none of your business. What I do with my company is nothing to do with you. I think what I need to do is speak to the accountant myself.”
“It’s quite simple. We need to get rid of people. And personally, I would start with that smartass douchebag Aiden.”
Okay, maybe he had a point with that one, I wasn’t much enthused about Aiden myself, but I hadn’t started this studio just to trim the fat when things got hard. I did it for love of music, and I wanted that to drive me forward. “No one is going anywhere until I’ve tried to sort things out myself.”
“Kyle, then.” I could spot a twinkle in his eye – one that I sensed was just there to rile me up. He knew for a fact that would make things incredibly awkward for me, and that it was also the opposite of what I wanted, which felt like the very reason he was saying it. “He’s just the piano player; we can get that without him. It’s Lila who has the real talent.”
“Don’t be such an asshole,” I growled, slamming my fists down on the table in anger. “You know as well as I do that Kyle’s talented. I am not letting you make these sorts of decisions. You’re acting with your hot head, and I don’t run a company in that way. I make cool, calm rational choices, which is what brought the studio to the place it is right now.”
“What? Failing!” Michael sneered, moving his body closer to mine in what I could only assume he thought was an intimidating gesture. “If you didn’t have me on board, things would never have had any success. I made you, I made this record label, and you’ve flushed it all down the toilet.”
My breaths were coming in ragged and sharp. I was trying so desperately hard not to freak out. I didn’t want to sink down to Michael’s level, but he was doing his best to get a reaction from me.
Then his hands slammed down on my shoulders just a little too hard, and I lost my shit. “Get out,” I snapped, flinging his arms away from me. “You cannot be here acting like an asshole.”
“But you—”
“Just get the fuck out!” Luckily, Michael seemed to sense I wasn’t fucking around anymore. He gave me one look, saw my set jaw and grim expression, and turned on his heels to stalk out.
I slumped onto the seat, sadness consuming me. I hated falling out with Michael, but because we were like brothers, it happened a lot. Not like this, though; this felt different. I rubbed my forehead hard, trying desperately to make the awfulness leave me, but it wasn’t going anywhere. I needed to fix this. I needed to sort this out before it got out of hand.
I jumped up and raced out into the hallway, wanting to catch Michael to sort this out before he left, but as I flung the door open, it was a different face looking back at me. A pair of eyes filled with the knowledge that I didn’t want her to know.
“Lila,” I whispered, wishing that I could take that whole conversation back. I didn’t even need to ask to know what she’d heard, it was too much already. “What are you doing here?”
“I... I’m so sorry,” she gasped, her breaths coming out in little pants. “I just came back to... to say sorry properly. I didn’t mean to overhear. I think maybe I better go.”
She went to turn, but I grabbed hold of her shoulders to bring her back to me. I couldn’t lose Lila and Michael all in one day. “No, please stay with me,” I pleaded. “Please don’t go when things are like this.”
“But...” She glanced from side to side, as if she was desperately looking for an escape route, before accepting that she was going to have to have this conversation with me, however awkward it was.
“Okay, look I don’t want to be the reason your studio goes under.” She shrugged as if she wasn’t bothered by the whole thing, but I could see her tears shining in her eyes. “If you need to get rid of people, then I volunteer to go. I don’t want—”
“I am not letting you go anywhere,” I insisted, bringing her closer to me. I could feel the warmth of her body next to mine, making my insides thaw a little. Things just didn’t feel so bad when she was by my side. “Did you not hear me? Michael is not in charge here. Just because he thinks that he can throw his weight around here doesn’t mean that he can.”
She followed me into the office, but I could tell that she still had a whole lot of questions. “But what if he’s right? What if you do need to make cutbacks? I would much rather you get rid of me than Kyle. This has been his dream far longer than it’s been mine. I can just go back to work at the diner. I mean, I appreciate you sticking up for us, but I can’t make things difficult for you.”
I sat down and pulled her onto my lap, smiling. “I have already told you, you and Kyle are not going anywhere. Don’t worry about the business side of things. That’s up to me.”
“Okay, well, this is probably already obvious to you, but I would just prefer to clarify that I can’t do this without my brother. I need him. I’m happy for him to do it without me, but I can’t do it the other way around.”
I pulled her in for a kiss to stop her talking, and she happily rested her lips against mine for a few moments. We got lost in each other, totally blocking the rest of the world out. Of course, that moment did make me wonder if I couldn’t see things as clearly as Michael because I had all those feelings for Lila, but I quickly pushed that to one side. I didn’t want to start doubting myself – not now.
“So, you used to work in a diner?” I asked teasingly as soon as we pulled apart. “I bet you were the sexiest waitress ever, right?”
“Ugh, no, we have these horrible yellow outfits...”
“Have?” It didn’t escape my knowledge that she was still talking in the present tense. If she still had another job, maybe that meant that she had doubts. I didn’t want to be the only person putting my all into this! I wanted everyone else to have as much faith as me.
“Well, I haven’t worked there for a while.” Her face heated up as she defended herself, which clarified my biggest fear. “But I haven’t exactly quit either, so... yeah.”
With that, a pregnant pause filled the air, neither of us knowing exactly where we stood. I wanted to demand to know what was holding her back, why she was so scared, but I didn’t want to freak her out, either.
Eventually, she broke the awkwardness of the moment by standing up and smiling sadly at me. “Well, I guess I better go. Kyle is waiting outside for me. But I’ll see you Thursday, okay?”
I nodded, keeping silent as she walked away, but my mind was in turmoil. I didn’t want to admit Michael might have a point, but it was becoming clearer by the second that he just might. I was going to have to meet with the accountant myself to try and get my head around the money stuff. It wasn’t my area of expertise, but I’d been wrong in knowing nothing about it, letting other people have the information I so desperately needed.
That was going to have to change if I didn’t want to lose everything.
I would do that first and speak to Michael afterward. He was going to need time to cool down, anyway, and I wanted to go to him when I was fully in the know. It didn’t help me at all when he had information and I didn’t. I couldn’t let that happen again.