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“We quit.” I struggle to hold back the laughter as I see the stunned faces of the Jailbirds, Iris, and Faith in front of us in the conference room.
Beside me, Evan’s smug smile hides behind his cup of coffee. The silence is endless until Iris snaps. “What the hell is your problem? You quit once a month and drag us through hell every time? No! You can’t quit!” she rages against us.
“I agree,” Damian says, and everyone nods.
Evan places his cup on the coffee table. “You can’t stop us. We resign, but we’re not leaving.” He’s talking in riddles, nudging my knee to encourage me to continue.
They study us, frowning and perplexed looks on their faces.
“We realized that we can’t manage more than twenty clients who have signed with Jail Records. So we decided to take a step forward in our career. We’ve decided to open our own company, EM&ES Management, and to start hiring more people to help us manage the workload. We won’t abandon you. We’re expanding our business.” I’m so excited that my voice trembles.
For a moment, there is absolute silence, then Michael’s laughter thunders in the room, and we all turn to him. “For someone who doesn’t want to mix private and professional life, you’re not doing a great job.” He turns to Evan. “But I’m glad you’ve finally abandoned that stupid rule. I’m happy to accept your resignation and to sign with the new company if you’ll have us.”
“I thought about giving up the Jailbirds as a client, because you are a real pain in my ass, but in the end, I thought of that poor manager who’d have to deal with you, and I felt sorry for him.” Evan teases with a wink.
“This is the best news ever,” Damian says, standing up and hugging us.
I’ve never been a particularly emotional person when it comes to my job. I’m always focused on achieving my goals, determined to not drown in despair when things don’t turn out the right way, but I’ve never felt butterflies in my stomach for something like earning a living. And here I am, excited as a young girl in love, trying to contain the emotions and tears that overwhelm me.
It’s not just the job, but the fact of starting this adventure next to a man I see in my future, in the long term. It’s as if today, all the pieces of my career and private life are part of a massive gear turning the wheel of my future toward a goal I had never dared to dream of.
“Did you see the charts today?” Emily asks while she sips coffee at the desk in the office we set up in one of the guest rooms.
Since opening our agency, we realized we couldn’t continue working at Jail Records, especially with three new assistants. So we are currently camped inside our apartment, waiting to find a real office.
I open the Billboard charts page and smile. The Jailbirds are in the top six with all five of their albums, including the last one they released with the old record company which they never toured.
“Red Velvet Curtains are in eighth place. Emma is thirtieth. You should be proud of yourself,” I tell her as I scroll through the big names behind our three leading artists.
Everyone was calling us a failure when we decided to open Jail Records, and I can’t blame them. In this industry, money makes the difference to promote artists, advertise, create a buzz around their music and start selling records and concert tickets.
The Jailbirds, however, have been able to use their name and, with the essential help of Iris, things have begun to move even without a stellar budget. Emily and Iris have superb skills that make them unique and perfect for this job: they think outside the box.
When you work for a big record company, you have such big budgets it’s not worth wasting time and resources looking for alternative ways to get your artists known. The usual channels, newspapers, and big blogs are a safety net it’s difficult to give up to experiment with alternative promotional stunts. But when you grow up without much money, you’re used to looking for creative solutions that don’t require it.
Iris and Emily are a winning team for this kind of approach. They stay up to date with the latest trends, know who the ideal fan is, and never lose sight of it. They adapt to the evolution of the market with the agility big companies can’t possibly have. The two of them together brought Jail Records to a level of success that we didn’t expect in the first two years of the company’s life.
She smiles smugly at the feat she has accomplished. “I’m over the moon. I can’t wait for next week with the tour’s first date. It’s been four months of insanity, but I think it will be the springboard for both Red Velvet and Emma’s career.”
“I still can’t understand how you managed to organize a national tour in just four months. I swear I’ve never seen that done in my entire career.”
She shrugs her shoulders, gets up, walks around the desk, and sits on my lap. She kisses me gently and smiles, sticking her hand under my T-shirt. For the first time in my life, I don’t wear a fancy suit and tie to sit at the computer. I must say that it’s an article of clothing I appreciate more and more while working from home.
“I learned from the best.” She winks at me. “Are you ready to reveal your big surprise this morning?”
I sigh and get lost in her gaze, full of expectation.
“I hope. I don’t know how they’ll react to my proposal. It’s a gamble and, considering Jail Records has just settled, I don’t know if they want to venture into this project,” I admit sincerely.
One of the things I’ve learned from being with Emily is that admitting your doubts out loud helps you put problems in perspective.
“You’ve laid out a detailed plan of all the costs and how to cover them. You’ll see, they’ll follow your lead in this too. They always do. They won’t want to miss this opportunity.”
I hold her tight and bask in the perfection of this moment. I always thought work was my only reason for living. I always assumed I wouldn’t do anything else; instead, I realized that being able to balance work and personal life is the ultimate goal. I would never give up breakfast with Emily in the morning while we read the newspaper or Sundays at her mother’s house listening to Gabriela tell us about her week. They’re the small pleasures I want in my life, the ones that make me smile when worries threaten to take over.
***
Two hours later, we’re standing on the sidewalk in midtown with our noses in the air in front of a thirteen-story brown brick building. People inside the bars on the ground floor are watching us, staring at the boarded windows from the second floor up. Beside me, Damian, Michael, Thomas, Simon, and Aaron look curiously at the building occupying half the neighborhood, with modern glass buildings sharply in contrast in the background.
