Page 40 of Deep Daddy

Sammy hoped that Tucker wouldn’t be too angry with him. After all, it wasn’t as if Sammy had done all this on purpose. At worst, it was a silly decision that went a bit wrong. With Tucker’s help, Sammy convinced himself that everything would be okay.

Upon arrival back in New York, Sammy made a beeline toward Tucker’s new apartment. Tucker had only moved in the previous month, so Sammy hadn’t had a chance to see it yet but he remembered the address well enough from a recent bit of paperwork he had completed.

‘Woah, this looks… expensive,’ Sammy said as he stood at the building’s entry door.

Certainly, the snooty doorman didn’t look overly impressed with a bedraggled and scruffy looking Sammy. But grudgingly, the doorman held the door open and allowed Sammy inside.

As Sammy took the elevator up to Tucker’s floor, he cast his mind back to his childhood. Sammy moved around so much as a child that he genuinely had lost count of how many schools he had attended. One year he moved schools three times and by the third school had pretty much given up on even trying to make friends.

This unsettling legacy from Sammy’s childhood had followed him into adulthood too. Sammy was always keen to please new people. The last thing Sammy ever wanted to do was upset anyone or give them a reason to be mean to him.

With this in mind, Sammy began to think of excuses to give to Tucker about why he had so suddenly dropped out of his recording schedule and abandoned social media.

I need Tucker to believe me.

He’s the only person who can make this right now.

And I just don’t want him to be mad with me…

As the elevator pinged at Tucker’s floor, Sammy stepped out and was greeted by the sight of Tucker, standing outside his apartment door.

‘Giles let me know you were on your way up,’ Tucker said, a cold tone in his voice. ‘You’re lucky he let you in looking like that.’

Sammy felt his bottom lip tremble. Tucker wasn’t being very nice, and Sammy could tell that this wasn’t going to be as easy and plain sailing as he had hoped.

‘I’ll make you a drink, it looks like you could use one,’ Tucker said, casting a judgmental eye over Sammy. ‘How does vodka and OJ sound?’

‘Just OJ please,’ Sammy replied, his voice wavering. ‘I… I… I’m sorry about what happened.’

Tucker paused and looked back toward Sammy. With his silk flower-print shirt and new diamond earring, Tucker certainly looked like someone who should live in an upscale apartment like this.

Sammy looked around and noticed the expensive art on the walls, the enormous TV screen and equally extravagant sound system next to it. In addition to the art and the gadgets, the rent on the apartment must have been costing Tucker a fortune.

Even the view was something that Sammy knew came with a huge price tag attached to it. Not many people had a perfect view out over the park like Tucker did. Sammy began to wonder exactly how Tucker was paying for everything, but his thoughts were suddenly brought to an abrupt end…

‘Drink this,’ Tucker said, handing Sammy a glass of OJ with ice. ‘We need to have a serious talk. What you did was so fucking uncool, man. You left me in the shit. Not to mention all those fans you pissed off. You know that can’t happen again, right?’

Sammy didn’t particularly like the way Tucker was talking to him, but he didn’t want to cause any upset given the situation he was in so listened quietly.

‘Things are going to have to change,’ Tucker continued. ‘I’ve got your best interests at heart, you know that. You can still have a great career. It’s not too late to turn things around. But we’ll need to revise how we do things.’

Sammy felt like this was his moment to speak up and show Tucker that he could be relied upon to not mess up again. Even though he felt nervous, Sammy thought back to how Harrison had given him more confidence to voice his opinions.

With Harrison’s training in mind, Sammy began to talk…

‘I agree things need to change,’ Sammy said, summoning up his biggest, most courageous voice. ‘I’m going to stay in the city for three days and film a month’s worth of content. I’ll do an apology video too. But after that I’m going back to Harrison, my Daddy. We can see what we do after that, but-’

‘You just don’t get it, do you?’ Tucker interrupted, a cruel smile coming over his face. ‘You obviously didn’t check the fine print of those contracts you signed. I legally control all your videos, your finances, and even have your bank login details!’

‘No! No! That’s not fair!’ Sammy pleaded, tears welling up in his eyes.

‘I own you!’ Tucker laughed. ‘And no, it’s probably not fair. But life ain’t fair. So here’s what’s going to happen. You will stay in the city, and you will be filming indefinitely. All day and every day if that’s what I need from you. I’ll pay you a weekly salary. I might even give you a Christmas bonus if you’re a good… boy.’

Sammy was speechless.

This wasn’t part of Sammy’s plan. It was far, far from it.

During the train journey and without a working phone to occupy him, Sammy had come to the conclusion that Harrison had been right all along. But Sammy’s loyalty and not wanting to let Tucker down meant that he still wanted to do some filming, just enough to make things right.