Page 38 of Conquest

Jesse ground his teeth at Kenny’s cheerful, everything-was-lovely tone.

“I’d be better if you just called me Greg. I’m sorry I couldn’t be here for the start of the meeting.” He gazed around the office, his eyebrows furrowing closer. “Where’s Tim?”

“He went to get some coffee,” Kenny said.

“Did he go over the contract with you already?”

“He mentioned a few key points,” Jesse grumbled, and thought he saw a flash of annoyance on Greg’s face before his demeanor shifted back to friendly business oriented.

“I apologize for Tim getting a caffeine craving in the middle of your meeting. Let’s move down to my office where it’s more comfortable and we’ll go over the contract page by page. This is where you’re going to take the first steps toward success with your music, so if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.”

Kenny bounced up to follow Greg. Jesse rose and trailed behind them down a hall leading to Greg’s office. He wondered if he should tell Greg about Tim’s accusations, then refused to entertain the thought. That’s all he needed was to get a reputation for being difficult when he hadn’t even signed the contract yet. Once he signed the contract, he’d be locked into Phoenix and there wouldn’t be anything Tim could do to get rid of him, then he could retaliate.

He felt a little more ease at the thought and turned into Greg’s office, twice the size of Tim’s with a view overlooking the Chicago River. His eyes fell on the four framed concert posters of Evan, the Gold and Platinum records, the case filled with awards. He pointed at the wall and case. “Those are all Evan’s?”

“Yes,” Greg said. “He covered a lot of ground when he was performing. All of his albums went multi-Platinum, and his fourth, One More Time, was a masterwork.”

Jesse went to the case and gazed down at the awards. “I knew he won a lot of awards, but I never knew it was this many.”

Greg moved to Jesse’s side, also looking down in the case. “Well, they never meant much to him. That’s why I have them. It was always such a pain to get him to those award shows unless he was booked to perform. He’d go up on stage smiling for everyone, say a quick charming acceptance speech, then walk offstage, shove the award at me, and wait until he was called up again.”

Jesse looked at the awards, wondering why Evan didn’t want them. It was a huge accomplishment for a musician to win as many as he did. For every album he released there were awards.

Greg gave him a warm smile. “Evan was very taken with your music. That’s a great compliment coming from him. He doesn’t acknowledge other musicians unless he truly feels they have talent, so you can imagine that’s a rarity with him since he’s well aware of the enormity of his own gift.”

Jesse faced Greg and met his eyes with an unwavering stare. “Is that why you called us for this deal? Because he told you to?”

Greg’s smile shifted from warm to sympathetic. “You’re a fan of his, aren’t you? I could tell when you met him. You must have been very excited to speak with someone who carries as much weight in this business as he does, but the truth is Evan has little interest in the careers of other artists. He brought me to see you guys because he saw your talent, he gave me his input on your style, but that’s it. I’m sure you admire his work and would like to see him again, and if he’s still in town by the time we hit the studio, if all goes well today, I might be able to convince him to come down, but I couldn’t promise anything.”

Jesse stood silent. Either Greg was doing a hell of a cover job pretending to not know about him and Evan, or he really didn’t know. Pure elation began to fill him. Greg didn’t know. Evan really hadn’t set this up. He had been honest when he said all he did was bring Greg to see him. Not that he thought Evan had lied, but with all the accusations from Tim and Kenny, his belief in Evan’s words had gotten a little shaken. And that meant Tim really didn’t know either, but had assumed it from what he saw and his impression of him.

Jesse shot Kenny a triumphant smirk. Kenny pointedly looked away.

Greg patted Jesse’s shoulder. “I said I couldn’t promise anything, so don’t get your hopes up. Right now, we should concentrate on getting down to business.” He walked to his desk and took a seat in the chair behind it. “I take it Tim already discussed the advance amount with you, but just so you know, that’s where all your recording costs are going to come out of, so try to optimize your studio time. If you have a dream of recording in New York, L.A., or anywhere else, we can send you there, but it’s going to cost more than if you use our private studios here in Chicago.”

Jesse sat down beside Kenny. “Is this a warning to not blow all the cash on booze and strippers?”

“Pretty much. You could do that, but then you’d end up more in debt to the label.”

“Well then, maybe our advance should get bumped up,” Jesse said.

Kenny choked out a horrified gasp.

Greg leaned back in his chair, grinning at Jesse. “Are booze and strippers key elements to your creative process?”

“No, but Pizzeria Uno’s and a shopping spree at Saks are.”

Kenny buried his face in his hands.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Greg chuckled. “Let’s start working out some of the other details, and we’ll negotiate at the end.”

Halfway through Greg’s explanations of the countless clauses in the contract, Jesse sat back in the chair, rubbing his eyes. “From what I’m getting out of all this crap in the promotions section, we pretty much have to do whatever Phoenix tells us to do since you’re handling all our publicity and promoting. You basically own us. We’re your indentured servants.”

“I prefer to think of us as all on the same team, striving for the mutual goal of your ultimate success,” Greg said.

“That’s some nice sugarcoating.”

“Yes, I thought so. But you could seek outside representation in the form of an agent to handle your publicity if you’re not comfortable with Phoenix doing it.”