Page 20 of Broken Melody
As soon as I walk into the kitchen at Rocco’s house, all the guys look at me like another head is growing out of my neck. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You…look normal,” Henley says lamely.
“What the fuck does that mean?” I ask.
“Well, it’s been ages since we’ve seen you walk into a room looking normal. Meaning, you don’t appear to be hung over, your hair is brushed, and dude, you’re like dressed nice and shit,” he replies looking me up and down.
I look at Rocco for some help and see I’m not going to get it. He’s covering his mouth and it’s clear he’s trying not to laugh. “Really, man,” Nixon grabs my attention. “Are you feeling okay? Maybe we should check him for a fever,” he says to the others. “Rocco, do you have a thermometer?”
“Seriously?” I ask him snidely.
“Dude, you can’t blame me for asking.”
“Alright enough, let’s lay off of him. We don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth do we?” Rocco instructs and I give them all a vulgar gesture and they laugh. “Alright, so the reason we needed to meet is to discuss a few things now that we’ve all agreed that Sailor is the girl we’d like to join the band.” I clear my throat loudly and Rocco rolls his eyes. “You’ll agree because you know she’s the best choice, so I’m ignoring that.”
Digging my phone out of my pocket, I place it on the table and check the time. I hope this is going to be a quick meeting. I texted Sailor earlier letting her know to meet me at Thorn, a popular restaurant where I was thankful to get us reservations. There’s no way I want her to show up before me and wait around for me to arrive. I may be an ass at times, but my mom still raised me to have manners. Besides, given the little bit I know of her so far I get the feeling she’d leave if I kept her waiting too long. Quickly, I set an alarm so that if the meeting runs long, or I lose track of time, I’m notified when I need to get myself out the door.
“Beer?” Henley asks me when he grabs one for himself. There’s all kinds of food on the table. Bowls almost overflowing with chips and pretzels, the snack cake things that Nixon likes and even candy. The guys all dig in and stuff their faces. I shake my head at Henley’s question, which I notice makes them all look at me funny again.
“Alright, let’s get this show on the road,” I say, not willing to wait for them to eat before we discuss whatever needs to be done here.
“Yes, boss,” Nixon mutters before shoving a chip in his mouth.
“We got a call from Jace. Rick is considering contacting Sailor to tell her she’s got the gig if she wants it. Guess he is also considering some additional auditions. Anyway, before they reach out to her or anyone, they want some information from us.”
“Like what?” Nixon asks.
“They’d like an idea of how long it’s going to take us to write in a duet part for the female on all of our new material.”
“Why?” Henley asks before popping a cheese puff in his mouth.
“When the individual goes to Rick’s office to sign the contract I guess they’ll let her know where and when to meet us for rehearsals. They want us to get started as soon as possible.”
“Of course they do,” Nixon complains. “Forget the fact that we’ll just have done a one-eighty to have this happen and that we will just have chosen her. Don’t we get any time to get used to the idea?”
“I don’t think they really care about an adjustment period for us. Fortunately, I anticipated that,” Rocco says. We all look at him expectantly, “After they laid down the ultimatum about adding a woman, I took the liberty of getting started on implementing a female part in our songs, old and new. Even though I don’t know the style or range yet the person will bring, some of what would be needed is obvious and whoever is chosen will have to be able to perform the music as rewritten. Some can be modified. So we are fairly good to go.”
“Are we supposed to be surprised by this?” Nixon asks.
“Well, I guess not.”
“That’s great, Rocco. I don’t think anyone is upset that you took initiative,” I add kindly.
“What are all of your thoughts on practicing? I mean, any conflicts on days or times? Preferences?”
We all shake our heads, “I think selection and then practices should occur the sooner the better though,” I say. “Whoever she is, she’ll have a lot of songs to learn, we need to record them, and start rehearsal for tour. There’s a lot to cover in a short period of time.”
“I agree,” Rocco says and the other two nod as well. “Hopefully she’ll be a quick learner.”
We continue to hash out details and the conversation moves to what our vision is for this tour. “Since we are adding another member, shouldn’t this also be a conversation that our new member is included in?” Rocco asks.
“What? Why?” I ask.
“Well, because she’s going to be a member of the band now too. She may have input,” Rocco adds.
“I’m not sure what I think about that,” I answer honestly.
“What a shock,” Henley says and I ignore him.
