AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I rolled my eyes. “Okay, I’ll sort this out.”
I’d have happily left Sally crying in the toilet if that suspicion hadn’t come back into Dee’s eyes, but I didn’t want to look like a heartless bastard in front of her. Sally would get over this far better without me interfering. Carlie should know that. If I acted kindly toward her, she’d just get ideas.
Still, I went downstairs and knocked on the toilet door.
No answer, just a sniffle.
“Sally, come out. We need to talk.”
“I don’t want to talk to you.”
My first instinct was to leave it at that. I didn’t particularly want to talk to her either. But then, if I went back upstairs and Dee asked me about it, I couldn’t tell her I’d left things unresolved.
“I’m going to get a Jack and Coke and take it into your office for you. If you decide to come out, I’ll be there.”
I grabbed the drink from the bar and took it into Sally’s office. When Violet had worked here, that office had been a death trap, with stuff piled up everywhere. Sally had it as neat as a pin though. Maybe I’d been a bit harsh on her. She did her job well; it was just that she wanted my intervention far too much. I knew full well the kind of “intervention” she really wanted.
Sally came in a moment later. She’d tried to clean up her face but her eyes were swollen and red and she’d not managed to remove the traces of mascara that had run down her face.
“You wanted to talk?” she said. She picked up the drink and stirred it with the straw.
“Sit down,” I said.
She sat at the desk and I sat on the couch. I put my foot up on my knee, trying to keep this casual.
“Look, I probably shouldn’t have snapped at you earlier…”
She tried to smile at me.
“But, I need you to be much more autonomous in this job. If there’s an issue, sort it out yourself. I won’t always be here and, even if I am, I have other things to deal with.”
She nodded.
I bit the inside of my mouth for a moment before continuing.
“Sally, you have to understand, our relationship is professional. That’s all it’ll ever be.”
She sobbed again but nodded, without raising her head. It was better to spell it out now than to let things continue. I waited for her to speak. She didn’t look at me though.
“You can go,” she said.
I got up, relieved to have things out in the open.
I wanted to go upstairs, to see Dee again but, when I got there, they’d all gone to a house party. They hadn’t even told me they were leaving.
Dee
“Is he as good as he thinks he is?” Ferdie asked. We were waiting for Alex to come on stage.
I had to admit that he was. For all Alex’s ego, he had the talent to back it up. I was surprised that he hadn’t gone further with his band. Other than playing at Trouble, he didn’t seem to do much.
Jake had always said Alex was the driving force in their band, the one who wanted the rock glory. He’d sent out demos from the time they first started and he pestered people until they got publicity and attention. It seemed though that Alex hadn’t progressed much beyond that. But what did I know? He might have all kinds of deals going on behind the scenes.
Ever since we’d played, I’d been buzzing. Everything with the band seemed charmed. The music kept getting better, my song was almost ready to be played. The day after the gig, I’d been walking down the street and some girls had recognised me from the band. That had been weird. Hell, if that kind of thing kept up, I’d have an ego as big as Alex’s.
The band room was jam-packed when we got there. We pushed our way to the bar and got drinks. Pete was too busy working to even say hello.
“Near the sound desk, th
