Page 131 of Damaged Mogul
“The reason I’m a freaking ray of sunshine all the time”––the sarcasm is unmistakable in my voice”––is because everyone wants a piece of me.”
Her expression turns somber. “Michaela alluded to that.”
I’m not surprised.
I’m enjoying my time with her, I don’t want to bring the mood down by talking shop.
“Going back to your assessment of my personality, I have a team of pro coders, so I don’t touch that side of the business anymore. My job is to show up at the office in a suit and tie, and strike deals.”
She shoots me a dubious glance. “I doubt it’s that easy.”
I let out a self-deprecating laugh. “You’re right, it’s not.”
“But, you’re a king among kings, so you must be doing something right,” she says. “My father began his career as a low-level insurance salesman with a high-school degree and worked his way up to become a Wall Street Wolf and earning a part-time MBA. He bought out the company he was working for when the owner—who never got married and didn’t have kids—was ready to retire. Sure, he’s grown the company, but he took it over. He didn’t build it from the ground up.”
The way Fisher spins his tales, you’d think he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and he had an Ivy League education. Shyster.
“Speaking of which, how did you find the money to fund StreamCloud? You have mad coding skills, but what about servers and such? Storing all of those songs can’t be cheap.”
With a cocked eyebrow, I study her.
She cringes. “Was that a dumb question?”
I shake my head. “Not at all. That was a smart one. Most people never ask the question, although servers are the lifeline of any streaming company.”
She blushes.
“Allow me to repeat myself. You underestimate yourself, angel.”
The rosiness coloring her cheeks deepens.
I cut her some slack. “I met pretty boy Beckett and the rest of Random Misconception when their record company hired me to DJ one of their parties.”
“At Rhys’s party, Cesar explained Beckett, his older brother Holt, their cousin Jace Halsey, and Hall of Famer drummer Rod Wolfe, aka Dom’s baby daddy, were once rock gods.”
Rod Wolfe is a soon-to-be father. What has the world come to?
Of all the guys in my inner circle, I was certain he would be the last one to cave in.
Like Mom always said,“When you find the right person, it’s because you were fated. The love gods rearranged the sky so you could be in the right place, at the right time, in the right situation––aka, you’re both single. You owe it to yourself to grab that person by the hand and never, ever let go.”She held on to that belief decades after my dad passed away. Until a snake oil salesman came into her life and pretended to love her.
I stare at Lily a little too long.
I shake my head, breaking the spell I’m under.
Where were we?
Oh yeah.
“Random Misconception was on top of the world, so it made sense for them to partyon top of the world.”
Lily furrows her brows. “Which means?”
“Mom was moonlighting as my booking agent and doing a fine job of it. I was in Bali when she sent me an email to let me know she had received a request for a gig at CÉ LA VI Marina Bay Sands in Singapore for VIP clients––”
“Oh, that’s supposed to be an amazing party spot.”
“You know of the place?”
