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The room was silent. I swore I heard a pin drop down the street. Everyone was stunned, looking at me, with mouths agape.
Sadie’s eyes were so wide and full of naked panic that I was truly concerned they might pop out and her head would combust. I knew this meant the heaviest lift for her since she’d have to work on rescheduling everything.
Jackson looked shocked, but it didn’t really impact him much, so he just kind of nodded cautiously.
Kurt had steam coming out of his ears. He was fuming so badly. I swore he was going to explode at any second. He didn’t like surprises, and he usually wanted to hear the latest before the rest heard. But I didn't do that this time.
And then there was Thalia. Her honey brown eyes were gentle and soft as she looked directly at me. She looked slightly confused, but not as shocked as everyone else in the room. I couldn’t wait to talk to her later.
I glanced around the room one last time and could see that no one liked my announcement. But, I had a very valid reason.
I needed to spend time with my daughter.
Chapter 21
Thalia
“You'dbetterhaveagood reason for this, Damian.” Kurt screeched across the office, breaking the stunned silence that had choked the room since Damian’s announcement seconds ago. “This doesn’t make any sense. Why wouldn’t you want to do these shows? You have three nights in New York coming up!” He quieted his voice just a touch, but the furious expression on his face was not softening even the slightest.
Honestly, I was also taken aback by Damian’s sudden decision to push the East Coast dates back for a couple months. I was already trying to prepare to leave again after two weeks, but he obviously had different plans.
Damian remained stoic while handling Kurt’s little outburst. He shrugged while I thought Kurt’s head was going to pop off.
“It’s simple. I’m not in the right headspace to continue and I want to give the fans my all. And to be clear, I’m notcancellinganything. I’m just rescheduling.”
I was sure Damian had thought this through completely. He never did anything without a good reason. Damian was a mastermind and wouldn’t risk a ding to his reputation for rescheduling if it wasn’t for a good reason.
“Um… sir… Is it alright if I asked you to elaborate?” Sadie’s voice came out a bit defeated. I couldn’t blame her. She had been working hard getting everyone’s schedule right. It wasn’t easy contacting every single point person and finely polishing the dates and times they were needed for the tour. Now, she had to do it all again.
“I want to apologize first to you, Sadie, and your team,” Damian began, genuinely looking sorry for what he just did. “I know you've all been working hard, and I’m forever grateful for it. But as I said, I’m not mentally prepared to continue performing such huge shows back to back and I want to give my fans the Damian Apollo they deserve.”
Jackson raised his hand, catching everyone’s attention. “If I could add to this, I believe what Damian here is trying to say is that there’s a momentum going on in the creation of the next album, and personally, as someone part of that process, there’s a risk of disrupting that momentum.”
The room remained silent for a while, no one having a proper rebuttal to what Jackson just raised. Sadie seemed to take a deep breath and appreciated Damian’s gesture and apology. I could see on her tablet that she was already starting to contact people to create the new schedule. She was always one step ahead.
Kurt wasn’t letting up, however. It was naïve of me to think that he would. He was always hard-headed, and I thought he would change after five years, but I was blatantly incorrect.
“But think of what you’re risking,” he said, uncharacteristically softly. “This would mean there’s no tour shows for a while. All the same, you don’t have any new material coming out, and you don’t have any other special appearances. Essentially, you’re out of the spotlight. You’re risking that you’ll be overshadowed by some social media viral sensation in the next two months.”
Damian stared Kurt down. The look on his face basically echoed the thoughts of everyone in this room: Kurt was bonkers. In two months, Damian wasn’t going to be replaced by some new social media darling. His career was established, and multiple records had been broken by him in the span of half a decade. Damian was just getting started.
“I love new talent and welcome them onto the stage and at our label here.” Damian leaned back in his chair, hands linked behind his head. He was the picture of relaxed. “Does anyone else here agree with Mr. Harvey? That I’ll simply be replaced? That there isn’t room for new talent alongside those who have been working at it for a few years?”
He looked around the room, stopping at everyone who gave a small shake of their head.
“Great. Then it’s settled. We don’t have to worry about such nonsense. I’ll keep everyone updated on the album's progress. Sadie, let’s talk more about the rescheduling logistics. In the meantime, everyone, take a deep breath. It’s all going to be okay. While some of you now have some downtime, let’s focus on all of our other amazingly talented artists and get them the stages and airtime they need and deserve. Thank you, everyone.”
Damian caught my eye, and he just smirked, making me roll my eyes. Everyone stood up, and as I was scanning the room, I saw Kurt carefully looking at me. I even checked if he was looking at anyone behind me, but no, he was definitely looking at me. Suddenly, it was like I was his artist again, and I was trying my best to pretend that I didn’t see him. I wasn’t really in the mood to deal with anything he wanted to say to me, especially after he got shut down by Damian.
“Hoo boy, I know he said to take a deep breath, but I just simplycannotdo that,” Sadie said as we started to walk out of the room. I stayed close to her heels, wanting to get as far away from Kurt as possible. “It’s going to be a long few days just getting everyone updated. What the hell could have driven him to make this sudden change, though? Why isn’t he in the right headspace?”
I was getting used to Sadie’s Olympic Speed Walker pace, and we had reached in her office in record time. For such a high-strung person, I was always surprised to find her space so…zen. Clearly, she was trying to manifest some calm vibes or something, because this definitely didn’t match her outsides.
“Hmm,” I said noncommittally, trying to decide how to respond. “You don’t believe what he and Jackson said back there about the album?”
I didn’t really want to talk about this anymore, but I couldn’t just let my friend drown in her stressed-out, overworked misery. There was no question how much all of this impacted Sadie.
“I don’t know,” she hedged, fiddling with the blinds and letting in some hot, late-morning sunshine. “Usually, Damian’s super hyped to perform. It’s hard to keep himoffthe road sometimes. It just seems like a huge one-eighty for him, like something big must be going on.” Sadie looked up from her laptop and must have seen the apprehension written all over my face. Her eyes narrowed like she knew I knew something.
