Fallen for Rock (28 page)

‘Of course I do,’ I retorted. ‘I’d not be doing my job properly if I didn’t. But…’ I bit my lip. ‘No offense, or anything, but I’m not prepared to play it to just anyone. I’m sure you’ll understand.’

Dave recoiled visibly. ‘Wow,’ he muttered. ‘Most bands batter down my door for a chance to let me hear their demos. You really are a cool customer.’

‘Not cool,’ I smiled serenely. ‘Only careful. My client got burned once, and we’re not going there again.’

Dave gave me a curious look. ‘Burned, eh? By the manager?’

‘Nope. By the band. But it’s a long story. Let’s simply say he likes to keep his material safe now. As well he should, because it’s dynamite.’

‘Rock, is it?’ Dave was fishing. I could see the cogs turning in his head.

‘Uh-huh.’

We sat in silence once more, to the extent that this was possible in a noisy pub. I was tingling all over and almost had to clamp my hands in front of my mouth to stop myself from blurting out something inappropriate. I couldn’t believe the game I was playing. Where was it all coming from?

And then I realised. It wasn’t that dissimilar from the smoke and mirrors, playing-cards-close negotiations surrounding mergers and acquisitions. I had been the master of strategy there. It turned out to be a transferrable skill! And even though I had confessed to Mike that I hated the whole business, this was different. This was strategy for a real purpose, not for someone’s fictitious millions.

Abruptly, Dave laid his cards on the table. Literally. He presented me with two business cards, one for Dave Kline, Director and Manager, and one for Kline & Co Music Media Management Company.

I picked up the cards and looked at them carefully. I hoped that Dave didn’t notice how much my hands were shaking. This was it. He was making a move. He would listen to the demo. Oh God, how I hoped he would like it. I cleared my throat.

‘You’re Iron Dave,’ I finally acknowledged. ‘How exciting to put a face to the name. I’m honoured.’ I gave a little bow.

Dave raised his chin ever so slightly and lightly tapped his fingers against one knee. I didn’t think he knew he was doing it, but it appeared that he was gratified that I had recognised his name.

‘And you are?’

‘Emily Trenden,’ I introduced myself formerly. I also produced a card, thankful that Mike had pushed me to create some the previous week. ‘You never know when you need them,’ he had said, and he had been right.
Emily Trenden
,
Artist Publicity and Promotion
, my card proclaimed. It was simple but powerful, giving my mobile phone number, Facebook and Twitter IDs, and the web address that I had bought. Dave took in the bold white-gold writing on a background of hazy stage lights and flashed me a smile.

‘So, Emily. You’re a publicist. New to the scene, but evidently hot. You’ve got a certain flair.’ He nodded to himself. ‘All right. You’ve got me intrigued. Who are this band and this artist you’re representing?’

I took a deep breath. I hoped that Mike would be okay with this. If only I had thought to ask him about this eventuality when I noticed Iron Dave was here tonight. But it had never occurred to me, not for one wildly misguided second, that I would get to speak to the man and take matters this far.

‘The band will be called Fallen For Rock. Mike is in the process of putting it together as we speak. He has found a bass player, and he was hoping to gain a drummer tonight. He has a lead guitarist in mind, and we’re seeing him next week.’

‘Mike.’ Dave’s voice was almost hoarse. ‘As in, Mike Loud? Of MonX?’

I nodded. This was it. The first hook. How would he feel about taking on Mike?

Dave chewed his lip some more. I was rapidly coming to the conclusion that this was one of his tells. He was interested but trying to play it cool.

‘I was wondering what Mike would get up to,’ he finally offered. ‘I’d been watching MonX for a while. Break-up was inevitable.’

I said nothing. Quite suddenly, Dave looked at me all over again, even more closely this time. ‘Are you the woman from the photo?’

I sighed. Would that photo ever go away? But there was no point in lying. Dave had been known to fire artists, not for any indiscretion or scandal they had got embroiled in, but for the fact that they tried to hide the truth from him.

‘It’s a long story, but yes. And no, there were no drugs involved.’

‘Ah. Good.’ Presented with a simple admission, Dave dropped the matter instantly as if it were of no real consequence to him now. ‘Well. I’ll look forward to hearing the story one of these days. Now will you let me off the hook and let me hear what you’ve got?’

Whoa. I struggled to keep up the pace. If Dave was willing to shrug off a potential scandal just like that, he really had to be interested. But playing the demo? Here? Now? Once more, my mouth spoke before my brain caught up.

‘You’ll have to listen on my iPod. With earphones. Otherwise the ambient noise…’ I made a rolling hand gesture and tilted my head.

‘Okay.’

Okay?
Just like that? Oh
man
.

I shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal after all and dug out my iPod. Figuring that we would be lucky to get ten seconds of Dave’s time, I selected ‘United We Stand’ and hit play while Dave plugged himself into the earphones. I was very nearly sick with excitement and worry. I had never felt this nervous before, and it wasn’t even like this was for me!

Dave closed his eyes and focused on the music. His face was completely blank. Inwardly, I counted the seconds. I reached ten and expected some kind of reaction from Dave, but his eyes remained closed and his face impassive. He might have been in a trance or something.

I swallowed and kept up a silent count. ‘United We Stand’ had to have finished by now, but still Dave didn’t surface. I sipped my drink and noticed Mike hovering at the bar. He was making frantic hand gestures and mouthing questions at me. I gave a surreptitious wave and pointed first at my ears, then at Dave. Mike pulled a face of comical horror and pointed at his watch. I held up my right hand, five fingers upright.
Five more minutes
, I tried to communicate. Mike acknowledged my request by repeating the gesture.

At last, Dave opened his eyes and unplugged himself from the earphones. His face remained inscrutable, and I resisted the urge to prompt for a reaction. I nearly had to bite off my tongue, but I didn’t say anything.

As more and more seconds ticked by without a word from Dave, tears of disappointment pricked at the back of my eyes, and I had to blink rapidly. The silence was excruciating. I didn’t know where to look.

It seemed like an eternity before Dave spoke, but when he did, he smiled.

‘I’d like to meet Mike. And I’d like a copy of that demo.’

Chapter Forty-Three

Result!

I summoned every ounce of professionalism in my body and remained in my seat, my hands resting calmly on the table. I allowed myself to smile, but I didn’t air-pump my fists or squeal at the top of my voice. I wanted to. By God, I wanted to. But I didn’t.

‘If you’re serious, I’m sure that can be arranged,’ I announced at length.

‘Don’t push me, Emily,’ Dave growled, revealing for the first time the iron man behind the smooth exterior.

Okay. Thin ice. Time to pull back a little
.

‘I’m sorry,’ I offered sincerely. ‘I didn’t mean to push. I was simply trying not to jump up and down with excitement.’

‘You’re permitted to jump up and down with excitement.’ Dave reverted to his jovial self. ‘It’s a big deal. I do like a reaction of sorts, you know.’

‘Well, if it’s a reaction you’re after…’ I grinned inanely. ‘I can give you a reaction. How’s this?’ I lifted my fists high in the air, pulled them down sharply and let out a high-pitched squeal of delight. Corny, right? But it felt good. Dave burst out laughing.

‘That’s better. Now, did you say Mike was here?’

‘He is. In fact, he’s coming over now.’ I beckoned to Mike, who had been watching at the bar, and he walked over smartly. I rose, as did Dave.

‘Dave, this is Mike Loud.’ Figuring the moment for squealing exuberance had passed, I spoke briskly and business-like. ‘Mike, this is Dave Kline. He’s listened to your demo and would like to keep it. And, I assume, he’d like some more. Congratulations.’

Mike’s face was a picture. He turned pale behind his sunglasses, and he was speechless for a second. I gestured for him to remove his disguises, and he blushed.

‘Gosh, Dave, thank you. Wow!’ He pulled off his wig and took off his sunglasses. With a boyish grin, he mussed his hair to get it to stand up a bit. ‘Sorry about this.’ He waved the wig about and dropped it on the table. ‘I totally forgot.’

‘The old disguise trick,’ Dave snorted with laughter. ‘It worked. No wonder I didn’t recognise you. But do sit.’

He lowered his bottom in his chair, and Mike and I followed suit.

The next half an hour was among the most surreal in my life. Mike and Dave were courting each other, there was no other way to describe it. Both knew they wanted something from each other, and both were too wary to come out with it. I wanted to knock their heads together, but of course I did do no such thing. Instead, I adopted my tried-and-tested business mediator mode, directing the conversation into fruitful channels when it threatened to stall and generally keeping the mood light.

Yes, me. Emily Trenden. Really, who could have predicted that all this business experience would come in so very useful in a completely different world? That I would sit in a small pub and help lay out the terms of the rock management deal of the century in its roughest original format right there and then?

And already it was all over. Mike and Dave set a time to meet at Dave’s office the following Monday. They shook hands, Dave and I shook hands, Dave pocketed my card, Mike and Dave exchanged telephone numbers, and Dave left. Fallen For Rock had secured the most powerful manager there was, just like that.

‘Not just like that,’ Mike contradicted me on the way home. ‘Because
you
worked your own brand of magic. This is unheard of. I still can’t quite believe it. Tell me again how you managed to get to talk to him?’

I shrugged happily and obediently launched into my tale again. Mike shook his head.

‘You do realise that if I’d gone up to him and introduced myself, he’d have given me the brush-off, right?’

‘No, he wouldn’t. He was keen on you, I could tell.’

‘That may be, but he would never have talked to me like that, right there. He would have made me
work
for it.’

I snorted. ‘He certainly made me work for it. I’ve never died so many proverbial deaths in such a short time.’

‘You did great,’ Mike repeated. ‘I’m stunned. Fallen For Rock is really going to happen.’

‘Hold your horses,’ I reminded him. ‘You still need a guitarist.’

‘I know. But I have high hopes for the chap I want to suss out next week. And we’ve got the bassist and drummer on board already.’

While I was busy dancing with Dave, Mike had managed to lure the drummer away from the band and invited him to join Fallen For Rock. I gathered the conversation went very much like Mike’s and Dave’s except in reverse, with the drummer in awe and Mike calling the shots.  So Luke was ‘in’, and Mike was delighted.

Of course, everything would remain a little up in the air until Mike could get everyone together to see if they would click, but he was confident he was on the right track. His excitement was palpable.

‘It’s really going to happen, Emily,’ he kept repeating. ‘It really is!’

‘Of course it is,’ I echoed him. ‘Did you have any doubts?’

‘No, of course not. But planning something and seeing it come to life so quickly…it’s amazing. And Iron Dave! In my wildest dreams I wouldn’t have dared to hope that Iron Dave would sign me or my band.’

‘You deserve it, Mike. You really do. Your music says it all.’

‘I hope you’re right,’ he whispered.

‘Artists.’ I rolled my eyes and decided to tease him a little. ‘You’ve got such vulnerable, fragile egos. You need
such
a lot of handholding.’

‘And you do it so well,’ Mike deadpanned, but quickly returned to being serious. ‘I couldn’t have done this without you.’

‘Yes, you could,’ I insisted, embarrassed now. ‘And anyway, we still have loads to do.’

‘We do. That, we do. But mark my words, with Dave behind us, it’ll be a walk on the beach. Comparatively speaking. I mean, I know he’ll work us hard, he’s a real slave-driver, but he’ll also make it happen. He won’t take any nonsense. It won’t be like MonX.’

‘Amen to that,’ I agreed. Meanwhile, we had reached my building and were trudging up the stairs, speaking rather too loudly as we went. Predictably, Mrs Bowden’s front door opened.

‘Really,’ she huffed. ‘You’re being very inconsiderate these days, Emily. And this is the second time in one night that one of your rocker friends wakes me up.’ She sniffed disdainfully on the words ‘rocker’ and ‘friends.’

My heart froze. ‘What do you mean?’

Mike took my hand and squeezed it hard. We exchanged a look.

‘Who disturbed you, Mrs Bowden?’ Mike enquired politely, but firmly. He had paled too, and I could practically read his mind. Had one of the other MonX members found out Mike’s hiding place and come to pick a fight?

Mrs Bowden sniffed some more. ‘That man. You know, that rocker boyfriend of yours.’ She looked at Mike and became flustered. ‘The other one, the one before
him
.’ She thrust her chin out quite forcefully towards Mike to signify who she meant by ‘him.’

‘Nate?’ My voice came out high-pitched and strangled. ‘Nate was here?’

‘He was. He had the audacity to knock on my door when you wouldn’t open.’

‘You
spoke
to him?’

‘I had to, didn’t I? But I wasn’t best pleased.’

‘What did he say?’

Somewhere at the back of my mind, I noted that Mike was still holding onto my hand. He had also put out an arm to steady my back, stopping me from tumbling backwards down the stairs. I was a little wobbly on my feet all of a sudden.

‘He wanted to know whether you still lived there. I said you did, but you had
male company
again.’

‘You
what?
’

Damn you, woman, what business is it of yours? He asked you a simple question, why do you have to go and spill my life story, and one that isn’t even correct?
I was screaming inside and could have happily strangled her. I was so angry that I couldn’t speak at all. Mike stepped in for me.

‘And what happened next?’ he asked gently.

‘Well, he left, didn’t he?’ Mrs Bowden shrugged. ‘Of course, I’ve been awake ever since, and now you’ve woken me up again. I shall complain to the owners’ association, you know.’

‘You do that,’ Mike encouraged her. ‘Enjoy yourself.’ He propelled me towards my own front door, completely ignoring my nosey neighbour. Awkwardly, he fumbled for his set of keys in his pockets and stabbed at the lock until he managed to open the door.  He pushed me inside and locked up.

‘You all right? You don’t look so good.’

I caught sight of myself in the hall mirror, and I had to agree. I was ashen-faced and trembling all over, like I had seen a ghost.

‘Nate was here,’ I whispered. I had to peel my tongue off the roof of my mouth for every word. It seemed inordinately big, my tongue, and my speech was slurred and laboured. ‘He was here, and
she
told him I was with you.’

Tears brimmed in my eyes. Mike looked stricken.

‘I mean, not that I was with you, that’s fine, but she implied that I was
with you
, and now he’ll think that I have someone else, and it’s all over all over again.’

I was vaguely aware that I wasn’t making much sense, but Mike understood me anyway. He took my arm and led me into the lounge.

‘Here, sit down,’ he instructed and pushed me to sit on the sofa. ‘Ring him. Explain.’

‘I can’t,’ I objected. ‘What am I going to say? “It’s not what you think?”’

‘Precisely.’

‘He’ll never believe me.’

‘He won’t if you don’t try.’

‘He hates me.’

‘You don’t know that.’

‘But he’ll be thinking I’ve found someone new. He might think that I was seeing you before I finished with him. He might think I finished it with him for you.’ I tore at my hair, nearly hysterical now as I imagined all the wrong things that Nate might be thinking.

‘You’re being ridiculous. He’ll think no such thing. But you’ve got to ring him,’ Mike repeated. ‘It’s the only way.’

He handed me the phone. I looked at it as if I had never seen one before.

‘Do it. Now.’