“I’m not used to a woman being in my house and not expecting anything,” he said bluntly. As if that had anything to do with me.
“Like… what? And don’t say sex things. I get it.”
A dismissive look flashed over his face like,Yeah, I wasn’t gonna go there.“Like anything. Drinks. Coke. Pool. The steam room—”
“You have cocaine?” I glanced around, suddenly looking for white powder trails and mirrored trays. I didn’t see any.
“I’m not a D-Boy, Angeline. I have friends.”
Right. Friends who brought the coke over at a moment’s notice if his mean girl du jour requested it.
“That’s good to hear. And I said no sex things, remember?”
He sipped his drink, his eyes staying on me. “Using a steam room can be non-sexual.”
“I’m sure. Let’s talk about your career.”
“Let’s.”
“Oh, and by the way. You’re not going to like this conversation. So you might want to prepare yourself for that, because we are having it.”
“What makes you think I won’t like it?”
“I read many articles online where you’re quoted expressing distaste for a lot of things the media says about you.”
“So? You’re not the media.”
“But I will be speaking to them for you. And putting things out there for them to publicize. About you.”
“Things I expect you to handle appropriately.”
“Of course. That’s the whole point. So. Why don’t we start with Breakneck? No one seems to know where the band is at, publicly, so that’s good. For now. But rumors will fly, bad and wrong information may spread at any time, with the speed and adaptability of a super virus, as you know. And other people may start talking to the press about it first. Nothing we can do about that. But we can control your version of events. Only you speak for Johnny O. And, well, me. So what are we saying?”
“Nothing, yet.”
“Oh.”
“We’re in negotiations. Through our lawyers,” he added with distaste.
“Okay. To what end?”
“The goal is to come to an amicable arrangement without anyone suing anyone else. That’s what I’m told.”
“But once you get lawyers involved…”
“I’d rather not get lawyers involved, but as of this morning, JC has started threatening to take the band. Take the name. Take everything. Yash said it was best to start talking through the lawyers.”
I made a mental note to talk to Yash, if appropriate. But first we needed to wade through some muddy ground.
“Okay. So for now, no comment on the band situation, specifically.”
“Right. Anything about Breakneck needs to stay quiet. Until we’re clear to talk about it.”
“No problem. We can keep our narrative about you, how excited you are about upcoming projects. You are excited, right?”
“Sure, if I had something to be excited about. Feels like the rug got pulled on that. Now that I have no band.”
“But that’s just a temporary situation, right?”
