My parting words to Kaz were a blinking, neon sign inside my brain.“I bet you’ll be crawling back to your parents in less than six months, begging for forgiveness after you realize no one is interested in your shitty music.”
No one except for my goddam boss. And millions of people who’d streamed their music. If there’d ever been a time not to lean into the desire to be a bitch, that had been it.
I was seconds away from hyperventilating.
In the meantime, Mason sat in his chair, his arm slung over the back of another, looking utterly at ease, as if he and his buddy weren’t in the process of ruining my life.
“Rock is having a revival at the moment, and your sound is exactly what the market is hungry for,” Trinity began, kicking off the meeting. I was relegated to taking notes. “It’s sexy, gritty, and has the kind of melodies that stick in peoples’ heads. You’ve done exceptionally well on your own, but as you’ve said to me in our previous meetings, you’re ready to take it to the next level. I think that’s smart. Your royalty income is just not enough to produce and properly market the kind of ambitious debut record you envision. A record deal will bridge that gap. I think you’re going to have a lot of interest from top labels.”
“We’ve already had some interest,” Kaz said. His speaking voice was slightly lower than when he sang, which explained why I didn’t recognize it immediately. “But we haven’t taken any meetings yet.”
“Good,” Trinity said with an approving nod. “They’re trying to get in early and seduce you with a low-ball offer. You don’t need to waste your time on them. From now on, forward any inquiries my way. Your focus should be on making more music. Every independently produced hit that blows up on streaming platforms and social media gives you leverage with the labels. You want to make them think you’re perfectly happy staying independent, because that’s when they’re going to offer you deals you can’t refuse.”
Mason scrubbed his jaw. I couldn’t help but notice the prominent veins that ran up his muscular forearms. An old forgotten feeling was needling inside of me, bringing me right back to when I was still attracted to him years ago.
You’re over this man,I reminded myself.
“The strategy makes sense,” Mason said, “but we haven’t figured out why our songs have taken off the way they have. Most of our traction is coming from S Wire, and no one seems to know what makes their algorithm promote one video over another. We may have just gotten lucky.” He glanced at Kaz.
“And we can’t keep banking on luck,” Kaz said, fidgeting with a Hyperion pen he’d found on the table. “That’s why we signed with you. We’re hoping you can guide us in the right direction.”
“I intend to do exactly that,” Trinity said. “Here at Hyperion, we don’t believe in luck. We believe in strategy.” She rolled her shoulders back. “Here’s my proposed plan. We market the hell out of you for the next few weeks. Our first priority is getting your faces out there. I’m talking a proper photoshoot for your next single, as well as some band photos. A music video would be ideal, but you don’t have the time or budget for something well made. We have to move fast so that we can take advantage of your momentum.”
The guys exchanged a look. “That’s fine by us,” Mason said. “We’ve held back on any of that publicity stuff because we’ve been too busy making music. We thought we’d let our music speak for itself.”
“And it has,” Trinity agreed. “But if you want to keep growing your audience, you’re going to need to come to terms with the fact that you’re the product, not just your songs. You’ve got sex appeal, and if you take advantage of that, it’s going to help you pull in a strong female base.”
I bit on the inside of my cheek, relieved and disturbed at the same time. Trinity mentioning their sex appeal made me feel less guilty for still finding Mason unbearably hot, even if the thought of making him into a sex symbol made me want to gouge my eyes out.
And Kaz? I mean, okay, I could admit he was kind of good looking. The years had done him well. He still looked like someone who on a bad day might stab you in a dark alley, but I guess some women found that kind of moodiness attractive.
Not me, though. Definitely not me.
“We have a track that’s nearly finished that could work for the single,” Kaz said. “We recorded it last week. It’s in postproduction.”
Trinity gave him a thumbs up. “Keep working on it and send it to me when it’s ready. We’ll schedule the photoshoot as soon as possible. We need to align on a concept first, and I have a photographer in mind who’ll be just perfect. In the meantime, we need to start getting a social media content plan in place. That’s where Molly comes in.” She flicked her gaze to me. “Molly’s going to work very closely with you over the next few weeks, taking photos to capture your work behind the scenes, managing your day-to-day business tasks, and helping you however she can.”
A film of sweat broke out on my forehead. Was this what she meant by “whatever it takes”?
“We’re on a tight budget, so we can’t staff anyone else on this at the moment,” she added in lieu of an explanation.
Oh, so I was cheap labor.
“Of course, happy to help with this,” I croaked out.
Kaz smirked, and it felt like a punch to the face. Beside him, Mason’s expression darkened.
Trinity dove into a discussion about streaming royalties, but I was too stunned at the turn of events to pay much attention to the conversation. She wanted me to work with—for—Mason and Kaz. Closely. Whatever the hell that meant. These two guys probably hated my guts, or at the very least considered me a huge bitch, and now I was at their mercy. I bit on my nail and tried to resist the urge to panic.
“Molly will be over at your place tomorrow morning,” Trinity said, bringing my attention back to the room. She stood up and glanced down at me. “You’ll be working from there for at least the next few weeks, since I want you to document their creative process.”
Fuck. Me.A bead of sweat rolled down my back.
“And we’ll let you know as soon as the photoshoot is arranged,” she added, looking back at the guys.
“Thanks,” Mason said stiffly. “We’re excited to get started.”
“Yeah, this should be fun,” Kaz added, his gaze fixed on me.
