“I have never liked the man,” Celia said now. “From the very first moment I met him, he was rude and condescending to me. He insulted my musical talent, my family, my heritage. He has done nothing to redeem himself in my eyes since. I do not think he would be a good fit to the KVA family of acts. I think he would be nothing but trouble.”
“You are undoubtedly right,” Pauline said with a sigh. Of the four of them, she was the only one who was the least bit enthusiastic about the thought of signing Matt. And even she was not that enthusiastic. She would shed no tears, feel no regrets if they decided as a group to tell Matt to fuck off and die.
“He was respectful to me when Sharon and I helped him with his sound at the Tsunami Sound Festival,” Nerdly said. “He even thanked us for our efforts. I am not sure, however, that his gratitude and acceptance would extend into the recording studio. Matt has very strong opinions about how his music should be recorded, mixed, and mastered.”
“That’s the truth,” Jake said, remembering the endless arguments with him back in the Intemperance days. “And he is often wrong in those opinions. Look at his first solo CD, Next Phase. That is a perfect example of what happens if you let Matt have complete control. The CD barely made Gold, and that only happened last year, more than five years after its release. I think we should agree here and now that if, by some miracle, we do decide to sign him, he must agree to letting us have primary control over the recording, mixing, and production of the CD.”
“Agreed,” Pauline said without hesitation.
“Agreed,” said Nerdly.
“Agreed,” said Celia.
“All right then,” Jake said with a nod.
“Do we even know why Matt is asking to sign with us?” Celia asked next. “He’s been with National ever since the first Intemperance contract. Why is he suddenly backing away from them now?”
“Does the reason matter?” Pauline asked.
“It could help us if we know his motivation,” Celia said. “We know his last contract period expired with the end of the last tour. Shouldn’t he be in a position of strength at this point? What makes him think that we would offer a better deal than he could get with National? Especially considering the fact that we would have to pay National money for the right to do his earlier material if we were to send him out on tour.”
“That is a very good point,” Jake said with a few nods of his head. “We would also have to have Aristocrat or one of the other record companies finance the tour and we would have to split the profits with them. There is no way he could score fifty percent of tour profits under those circumstances.”
“Do you suppose this has something to do with the taxation problems Matt has been having of late?” Nerdly asked. Though Pauline had never revealed that she had been the one to hook Matt up with his tax attorney, everyone knew he was having tax trouble. The IRS and franchise tax board had both issued press releases multiple times on the matter and the fact that Matt had had to sell off his LA condo, his yacht, and a significant portion of his other belongings had been gleefully reported in the LA Times and other publications.
“Perhaps,” Pauline said carefully. She, after all, knew just how bad Matt’s tax issues really were. “I’m guessing that he has been backed into a corner by all the penalties and back-taxes. That could very well be a significant part of his motivation.”
“Enough to make him swallow his pride and come crawling back to us?” Jake asked her.
“Maybe,” she said. “I know Matt well enough to understand that he does not swallow his pride easily. In fact, this might be the first time he has ever had to do it.”
“Precisely,” Nerdly said. “It is for that reason I think we should at least hear him out and consider his proposal. It must have been very difficult for him to make a decision such as this. Let us not reject him out of hand just because of past differences.”
Jake and Pauline looked at each other for a moment. Though both of them knew they had not killed Darren, and both of them knew that they had only done what they knew to be the right thing at the time they had pushed to have the troubled bass player replaced by Charlie, both had also always harbored a chunk of guilt for the way things had worked out.
“Okay,” Jake said at last. “I will at least listen to the man before I decide whether or not to tell him to fuck off.”
“Me as well,” Pauline agreed.
They looked at Celia, who disliked Matt immensely and had never been around him long enough to know that he did have a few redeeming qualities. She sighed and then nodded. “I will listen to him,” she said. “Is this a majority rules decision?”
“No,” Jake said at once. “I think it needs to be stronger than that.”
“Unanimous then?” Pauline asked.
“There are only four of us with a vote,” Nerdly pointed out. “The only option besides majority rules is unanimous.”
“Oh ... yeah, of course,” Pauline replied. “Unanimous it is then.”
“Unanimous it is,” Jake and Celia said in unison.
In other words, an ice cube in hell probably had a better chance at survival than Matt did at securing a contract with KVA.
Jake manned the receptionist’s desk at 10:55 AM. The receptionist in question was currently on vacation and, since there was not a whole lot of phone calls to KVA during this part of the release of CD and music promotion cycle, they had not bothered to hire a temp to sit in for her. Jake sipped from a glass of iced tea and watched the security camera footage on one of the screens on the desk. At 10:58, a long black limousine pulled up out front. It sat there for the better part of two minutes before the door opened and Matt Tisdale stepped out. He was dressed in a pair of ripped and tattered jeans and a black tank top. He stood in the parking lot for another minute, just staring in the direction of the door. Finally, he trudged slowly forward and opened it.
Jake looked at him as he entered, noting that Matt appeared absolutely terrible since the last time he had seen him. His face was drawn and he had bags beneath his eyes. His body looked skinnier than was really healthy. His long hair was thinning in the front and starting to show a few strands of gray. He looked at the receptionist’s desk as he entered and froze in his tracks when he saw who was sitting there. It seemed for a moment that he was about to just turn around and walk back out. But, in the end, he took a step forward.
“Jake,” he greeted tonelessly, giving a brief nod of the head.
“Matt,” Jake returned, returning the nod. “Welcome to KVA.”
Matt looked around for a moment, obviously unimpressed by the office and its décor. “This is where you run everything from?”
“This is the face of the company,” Jake said. “It’s where Pauline keeps her office, where the receptionist answers the phone, where the mail gets delivered. It’s also where we keep our rehearsal studio.” He shrugged. “We don’t need some fancy-ass office up in a high-rise somewhere to do what we do.”
Matt thought this over for a moment. “I guess that shit makes sense,” he said at last. He locked his eyes on his former best friend, a man he had once called a brother. “I heard you knocked up your old lady.”