Elegy - Chapter 29

It had only been two days and I was starting to go out of my mind. After a year with a schedule so packed that I hardly had time to sleep, I was now existing in limbo, waiting all day for Kat and Mrs. Philips to come home, trying to find something, anything to do. It hadn’t taken me long to realize this wasn’t the life for me. I needed to keep busy or I was going to go crazy.

Kat had done a good job of getting me out of the depression I’d been in since my mom died. I was still sad, of course, but I didn’t feel despondent anymore. Kat talked to me for hours on Monday, until late that night, and I’d even managed to finally cry about Mom. Not body-wracking tears, but enough that I didn’t feel so numb anymore.

The problem I had now was that Kat had gotten me amped up to take the fight to Mr. Campbell, the school, and the label, but that wasn’t something that could happen immediately. All of this would take time, and being psyched up with nothing to do is a recipe for restlessness.

When my phone rang just before lunchtime, I practically leaped out of my spot on the couch to answer it, desperate for a little human contact, even if it was over the phone.

“Charlie, it’s Arthur Eaves,” my lawyer said, actually sounding apologetic for once. “I’m sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I’ve been tied up in court since early Monday and had a hearing this morning I needed to prepare for.”

While I would have hoped that he could have found five minutes in the last two days to call me, I knew I wasn’t his only client, and I really couldn’t afford to alienate anyone else at the moment. As long as he was on top of my case and we were making progress, that’s all I really cared about.

To that end, I asked, “Did you have any luck with the judge about the pretrial release?”

“It’s not about luck with the judge. It’s a process. I submitted the request to alter your release conditions, as we discussed. I’ve also filed a motion for summary judgment to get the charges dismissed outright and have been working on the case we’ll be presenting to the judge. The court has scheduled a hearing for both motions in two weeks, which is unusual. Both for how fast it’s happening and because usually, the judge simply puts out a ruling on this kind of motion and doesn’t hold a separate hearing to gather additional information or to hear witnesses around it. They’re scheduling one is a good sign for us.”

“Do you think he’ll side with us?”

“It’s too early to know, but like I said, it’s a good sign. DA Campbell has reached out with a plea bargain as well, which means they might be worried, although the plea itself is a joke, so maybe he just wants the judge to think he’s being reasonable and overlook our evidence that the entire case is weak.”

“What’s the plea?” I asked, although I was already certain I wouldn’t take anything short of dropping the case entirely.

“You plead guilty to manslaughter and they request a sentence of five years maximum. Since I’m legally bound to mention pleas to you, there it is, but it’s a bad deal. I think, even if the summary motion fails, we’re going to get this thrown out in court, so any plea is premature.”

“I was thinking just that, although I was specifically thinking there’s no way in hell I’ll take anything short of dropping the entire case.”

“Well, things might change in court. That’s why pleas usually work. Juries and even judges can be unpredictable, which is why it’s usually best to try and stay out of the courthouse, and why DAs ramp up the charges to make the end result scarier. Unfortunately, Doug went way over his skis with this second-degree murder charge, so he didn’t leave himself a lot of room to up the charges if we said no to the plea deal.”

“Okay. So, the reason I called on Monday is that things have gotten worse since we last spoke. Kent Graham from MAC Records called me Monday afternoon. They’ve canceled my contract on the grounds that I violated the moral turpitude clause by getting arrested for murder. They’re mailing me written notice, but he said it was official as of yesterday.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, Charlie,” Mr. Eaves said, sounding legitimately sorry for me but intellectually uninterested. “Morality clauses in entertainment contracts are common, allowing labels an out if an artist faces criminal charges, regardless of guilt or innocence.”

“That’s the thing: I read the contract yesterday, including that section. I read over it a bunch of times, and it seems to me that the way it’s worded it only applies if I’m found guilty of a crime that would damage my perception by the public. It used the word ‘convicted’ three times and never said ‘arrested’ once. It seemed really specific.”

“Really?” he said, suddenly sounding a lot more interested. “That’s unusual. Every one of those clauses I’ve looked at has always been clear that it only requires arrest for that kind of thing. Sometimes it doesn’t even need that and can be enacted simply after accusations are made. I honestly don’t remember the specifics of your contract, but remember that at the time I thought it was fairly boilerplate, so I’m not sure how well we scrutinized it. I’ll have to double-check. If that’s true, they made a pretty big error in drafting it, and an even larger one by pulling your contract under those terms, if that’s true.”

“So you think we might be able to pursue a lawsuit against them, get my contract back?”

“If they did make that mistake, yes. Although we can’t do anything until we get your criminal case settled. It’s important you don’t say anything to anyone at the label, or to anyone who might talk to someone at the label, until we do. First, we need to see the paperwork they’re mailing you. Telling you over the phone is one thing, but if they mail you paperwork to officially invoke the morality clause before you’re convicted, and especially if the charges are thrown out or you’re found innocent, we can definitely get some kind of concession out of them. They always have the option to back out of that decision though, which is why I don’t want you to talk to them.”

“But they’ve already pulled the contract and mailed the paperwork. They can’t change that now.”

“They can, actually. With most contract law, it’s about actual harm done. If they break the contract but then reverse themselves and honor it, it would be considered a wash, and the court would let it go, since you wouldn’t have suffered any real harm. If they’re warned, they can then find some other fine print in the contract to justify getting rid of you. I’m serious; don’t talk to them, Charlie. The number one reason I ever lose cases is because my client decides they know better than me, and say something or do something they shouldn’t, so you need to listen very closely to me here. Don’t talk to them.”

“Got it. Don’t talk to them. There’s actually more that’s happened. I was expelled from school for posing a risk to the student body.”

“Okay. I assume you don’t want to be expelled.”

“No. I want to be able to go back to school. If I miss too much, I might have to repeat this grade, and I really don’t want to do that.”

“There’s always a GED,” he pointed out.

“No, I need to graduate. I promised my mother, and now I feel that I really need to honor that promise.”

“Okay, we can see what we can do, but just like the record contract, we have to take care of your criminal case first. Once we’re out from under it, we have a lot more options.”

“Okay. I just wanted to let you know so you could … I don’t know, start working on it or whatever.”

“Consider me informed,” he said, laughing at my choice of words.

“On the topic of things to do after my case is settled, I wanted to ask about the DA. Everything he’s been doing over the last year has to be, at the very least, against some kind of ethics rule, if not outright illegal. Aside from the drug charges, which he told a judge under oath he was still considering while telling you it was a mistake, this is the second time he’s prosecuted me without a referral from law enforcement.”

“I told you that, while rare, it does happen and is allowed under the rules,” Mr. Eaves said when I paused to take a breath.

“Twice to the same person in two months isn’t rare. When you couple that with refusing to file charges against his son, instead of recusing himself from the case, dropping the prosecution against my father for attacking me in court, and dropping the charges against Harry and his friends when they were on tape assaulting me, all of this has to paint a picture of a very specific form of retaliation.”

“They do, but it’s hard to prove what his actual intent was with all of that, and intent is what we’d have to show if we wanted to go after him for something like prosecutorial misconduct. Judges do not like overstepping their bounds and removing elected officials.”

“What if we could prove he’s been paying off school officials, who have actively been trying to get me expelled, the same officials who brought up the bogus drug possession in the first place, and who had to backtrack on it in the presence of the sheriff when it was proved they were wrong, even though I know they planted the drugs in the first place.”

“How could we prove that? Unless you have information I haven’t heard about.”

“We’d have to look into him. During a lawsuit can’t you request financial records? I guarantee the evidence would be there. You know him. Has there ever been a more egotistical man? He doesn’t think what he’s doing is wrong because he thinks it’s a crime to cross him or his family. I know his type, and he definitely wouldn’t think to hide his tracks. He’s too narcissistic for that. He thinks he’s untouchable.”

“I don’t know. Maybe,” he said, clearly considering it.

“I know we can’t deal with this now, not until my criminal charges are taken care of, but I’m tired of ‘laying low,’ ‘keeping my head down,’ and ‘being patient.’ He’s come after me one too many times, and it’s time I fought back. Against him, against Mr. Packer, hell, against the label. I haven’t done anything wrong, and yet for a year and a half, people have been treating me like a punching bag. I want it to end, and the only way that’s going to happen is if we hurt the people doing it enough that they won’t want to come after me anymore.”

“If you try something like this, and it doesn’t work, you’re going to have big problems.”

“Bigger than being falsely accused of murdering my own parents when the sheriff doesn’t even think I did it?”

“Probably not.”

“Then it’s worth it. They keep escalating, and who knows what they’re going to try next.”

“As long as you know there might be consequences to pursuing all of this,” he said. “I’ll start working on a complaint against him, although there isn’t much I can do until we actually sue his office and get discovery. Keep your expectations low on this. We’re not the police and can’t actually investigate him. We can only sue his office and make enough noise that someone with the ability to look into him starts paying attention. Once discovery happens, we’ll be able to look into his finances, which is where the real smoking gun’s going to be, if there is one. But even if it’s there, we may not be able to get to it ourselves.”

I realized it was going to be an uphill battle, going against Mr. Campbell ourselves, since he had all the power in this kind of situation, but Mr. Eaves’ warning actually gave me an idea. Not that I was going to say it out loud to him, since I knew he’d tell me it was a bad idea.

“I’ll also start making some inquiries with your school district about your expulsion. There, at least, we have some more leeway since I believe there are specific requirements related to expelling students. There’s a good chance they’ve violated their own policies, if not state law, and unlike the DA’s office, school boards don’t have the kinds of protection or power to avoid dealing with us. If we can get you acquitted or the case thrown out, they’re going to want to sweep it all under the rug.”

“Okay. I just don’t want to miss a lot of school if I don’t have to.”

“Be prepared for it. If we can’t get the case dismissed and have to go to trial, it’s going to be the end of the summer, at the earliest, before the trial actually starts. There’s not much we can do about that since that would still be very fast for this process.”

I was afraid he was going to say that. I guess I didn’t have much of a choice, but the idea of adding another year of high school sucked.

“And the contract?”

“I’ll look over it and see if you’re right. I’m not making any promises about it. These guys usually know what they’re doing and have good lawyers. Unless the exec who decided to pull your contract ignored them or didn’t talk to them at all before doing it, which would be monumentally stupid, I doubt they would have made that kind of mistake.”

“But it’s possible?”

“Anything’s possible. I’ll look at it. Remember, this is all just prep work. I’m not filing anything or making any moves until we’re clear of your criminal charges. Besides it being more important, all of these other things rely on you not going to jail.”

“I understand,” I said, although I wished things could be different.

“Fine. If we hear anything about your pretrial conditions getting changed, I’ll let you know. Otherwise, the next time we talk is going to be at the motion to dismiss hearing on the thirty-first. You don’t really have to do anything but stand there and let me argue our motion, but we’ve got a fair amount of prep work to do on our end. If anything else happens or you have any questions, you can still call, of course.”

“I’ll try not to bug you. I just hope we get this thrown out so I can get my life back.”

“I know. We’ll do our best,” he said, and hung up.

I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. There wasn’t any kind of resolution, and I was basically in exactly the same spot I’d been in before the call, but I still felt a little better after it. I was ready to start fighting back, and this was the first step.

***

I went through the rest of the week and weekend, just waiting. Chef still had me come out to train since there wasn’t a rule about being outside of a bar, and his apartment counted as a separate location. It was weird to not be able to step into the Blue Ridge at all, but it did feel good to get more training in.

Since I didn’t have anything else distracting me, he put me through more and more conditioning. I also found that if I worked myself hard enough, I was too tired to think about all the things that I was missing. Kat told me the baseball team had lost the last two games, and I felt bad about that. I’d worked hard to be part of the team, and their losing felt like it was somehow my fault. That wasn’t really fair, since we’d lost games I’d played in too, and I didn’t know the circumstances related to the losses, but I couldn’t help feeling the way I did.

On Monday, I was cooling my heels, tinkering on “Little Things”, even though I didn’t know if I’d ever get to actually play it on stage again, and working out some more when Warren called. Considering I’d been canned from the label and he no longer worked for me, I was more than a little surprised.

“Should you be calling me?” I asked right away, worried I might be getting him in some kind of trouble.

“It’s fine. Just because you’re not with the label doesn’t mean we’re not allowed to talk to you.”

“Okay. I wasn’t sure. What’s up?”

“I mostly wanted to call and apologize for how everything’s gone down. I hate that they canceled your contract. Yeah, it was costing money to cancel those shows, but you could have bounced back from that. You’ve made such amazing progress and even if you couldn’t play for a couple of months, I think your momentum would have kept you going. Hell, I hear your streaming numbers haven’t dipped yet, even though they pulled the advertising.”

“At least I’ll have a little money coming in while I can’t work,” I said.

“Yeah, but I meant that it shows that you could have survived this and still been a good investment for the label, long-term. I wanted you to know I fought for you. I really did. As soon as I heard what was happening, I called Kent and even his boss and tried to convince them they were making a mistake. These guys, you’d think for people in the music business they’d be a little more open-minded, but they’re really reactionary. Once you get above Kent, it’s not even about the music. It’s all spreadsheets, looking over costs and earnings. I get you have to look at a business that way, but it sometimes makes them miss the big picture. It really sucks. I just can’t believe they’re being this obtuse.”

He was getting a little heated. I liked Warren, but we’d stayed more or less professional since he started working with me, and he was honestly one of the last people I’d thought would have gone out of his way to protect me. Not because he didn’t like me or anything, but because he was just doing a job. This wasn’t a passion project for him.

“Trust me, I feel the same way,” I said, getting him to laugh. “I really appreciate you trying though. It means a lot.”

“I know you’re going to try to keep going, even with this. I have a list of club owners in North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee that are all within driving distance. You can’t tell them I sent you or anything, but it should make it easier to start working on getting some gigs lined up. Just make sure you look over any contract before signing it. MAC is big enough they have to sign our documents and the small clubs won’t try anything with them, but some of these places will try and slip something in to push costs back on you. They should back down if you fight it though. It’s mostly there for the guys who aren’t paying attention.”

“Really? That’d be great. I have the info for a few clubs we already played at, but I’d love to have more options since I know some of those are going to start saying no, now that we’re on our own.”

“No problem. I really do want to see you guys make it, so if you ever need any advice on bookings or anything, call me on my cell, okay?”

I know Mr. Eaves had just told me not to talk to anyone at the label, but Warren was sticking his neck out pretty far for me, and I didn’t want him getting caught up when I sued them. If they found out he was helping me, after I brought the lawsuit, it could cost him his job. I couldn’t do that to him, especially not after he’d gone to this effort to try and help me.

“Warren, I really appreciate all that, but there’s something I think you should know. Once I take care of the charges against me, I’m planning on suing the record label for breach of contract. I’m pretty sure they misapplied the morality clause and broke the contract when they ended my deal because of it. No one at the label knows this yet. I’m telling you because I don’t want you to go out on a limb for me and get in trouble.”

He was quiet for a long time. I actually wondered if maybe we’d gotten disconnected until I heard him cough.

Finally, he said, “Charlie, do you think that’s a good idea? You’ve only really dealt with me and Kent, and Kent’s an okay guy. Our bosses though … they can be pretty ruthless. If they think you’re going to cost them money, they will go out of their way to hurt your career. They may not be one of the largest labels, but they’ve got a ton of pull on the East Coast. They can and will make it very hard for you to get back on your feet.”

“After what happened with my contract, I figured, but I’m not going to let them treat me like this. It’s not just because I want revenge or anything. They still have the rights to my album. I’m worried another label might not want to cover me if I already have one record under contract with someone else. Yeah, that might be okay for big names, where a new label would do anything to get a big name on their label, but for a little guy like me …”

“No, you’re right about that. Labels would be worried that if you make it big, their competitors can put your previous stuff out and capitalize off of their marketing. But you really need to think this through. MAC might not be huge, but they’ve got money and legal resources you don’t have. It’s going to be a fight.”

“I know. Right now, I’m just working on initial stuff for it. Like I said, court case first. But I’m serious, I want my music career to work, and I’m not going to let them screw me over.”

“Well, good luck,” he said.

“You don’t have to send over the names of clubs or anything if you want to second guess that. It’s why I warned you about my plans. I don’t want you putting your career in danger.”

He was quiet for another beat as he considered. I didn’t blame him. He was trying to be a nice guy, but he had to look after himself first.

“No, I’ll still send it over, although I might not talk to you again until it’s all over. Just in case.”

“I get it. Thanks for still helping though. I really appreciate it.”

“No problem, Charlie. Good luck,” he said and hung up.

It had a very final-sounding ring to it. Mr. Eaves had given me a similar warning, but I’d half thought that was just him being careful. Warren giving me the same warning about how vindictive they could be, and how they could damage my career, however, gave me pause. I still had some time since right now Mr. Eaves was just reviewing my contract.

I needed to think if this was something I really wanted to do or not.

***

A few days later, I got a call from Lyla. I’d actually been expecting to hear from someone from the band for more than a week since our blow-up when Marco and Seth had both stormed off. I’d already accepted the idea that the band was over, but no one had actually made it official or anything.

When I saw Lyla’s name on my phone, I assumed, as the person least pissed with me, she’d been elected to tell me it was over.

“Break it to me easy,” I said, answering.

“What?” she asked, confused by the out-of-the-blue statement.

“I assume you’re calling to tell me the band is done. After the couple of weeks I’ve had, I’d prefer if you’d sugar-coated it while you’re telling me we’re done.”

“Oh... I’d never say anything like that,” she sounded almost wounded but mostly just perplexed. “I actually was calling with an update about Marco and Seth, which is why you threw me for a sec.”

“Sorry, I have way too much time to think, running through doomsday scenarios, and not enough actual human beings to talk to. It might be making me weird.”

“Well, weirder anyway,” she joked, trying to lighten the mood, I guess. Her laugh was half-hearted at best, which told me she was as uncomfortable with this as I was. “Some stuff has happened over here, and I wanted to let you know about it, although I’m not sure there’s anything we can do.”

“What did Marco do now?” I asked.

If ‘stuff was going on’ with the band, and it was as bad as she was making it sound, then I had to assume Marco was behind it. Seth might be pissed at me, but he wasn’t the kind of guy to instigate anything.

“He called the label. He’s trying to convince them to switch your contract over to the Wild Cats, I guess hoping if he keeps the name, they’ll decide to keep him cause the marketing is easier, or whatever.”

“That’s never going to work. For one, all of the marketing was for Charlie Nelson and the Wild Cats, not just the Wild Cats, so they’ll have to change out the marketing anyway. For another, they already passed on us as a whole band, feeling it wasn’t strong enough to sign us as a group. Sorry, that sounds like a dick thing to say. I don’t mean you and Seth…”

“No, you’re right. I tried to tell him that, but he’s talked himself into the idea that we were the real part of the group, and you were just a prima donna or something.”

“I mean, I am a prima donna,” I said, which got a more natural chuckle out of her. “I knew he’d gone to the label because he was the one who outed me to the label, telling them about my pretrial restrictions instead of letting me break it to them in a better way. I’m not saying it’s his fault I lost the contract because I probably would have lost it anyway, but I knew he’d called Kent at the very least. I didn’t realize he’d done it as his opening play to get me out of the way and get his own contract. Makes more sense now, I guess. I’d wondered why he’d done something so obviously destined to get our record deal pulled, so it at least explains that.”

“Yeah,” she said, hesitantly. “I … uhh, told him no. That I didn’t want to be in his band.”

“Really?” I said, caught off guard.

I knew she and Marco didn’t get along that well, but she did alright with Seth, and Marco and Seth had been managing to book gigs on their own before they found me, so I thought maybe the three would stay together since they’d be her best bet to keep working.

“Yep. If you’re still going to try and make it work, and you still want me, I want to stick with you. Besides being the best guitar player I’ve ever heard and a damn good singer, I like the way you’ve handled everything. I’ve met a lot of guys like Marco over the years, most of whom treated me like I was just one step up from a groupie, I guess because I’m a girl. If I had to choose, I’d choose you. If you’ll have me.”

“Of course. Hell, you wrote our most popular song, I’d be crazy to say no. I appreciate it, though. With everyone else starting to bail, I was getting a little worried I was going to be out here on my own.”

“Ha, me too,” she said.

“You know I’m not able to play right now, though, right? Until I get the trial behind me, I’m kind of stuck. We’re going to try and get the case dismissed at the end of next week, and we’re trying to get my pretrial conditions removed, but for right now, I can’t work at all.”

“Yeah, I know, but it won’t last forever, right?”

“It could last for a while. There’s a chance they won’t change my pretrial release, and the motion to dismiss is a long shot, according to my lawyer. Those rarely actually get taken, judges preferring to let cases go to a full trial, and that could take up to a year. That’s a long time.”

“I know, but I still want to work with you. It’s not just me trying to be loyal, although I am. I think my best shot is with you. You’ll be back on stage eventually, and when you are, I want to be with you.”

“If that’s what you want to do, then I’m not going to turn you away. If you aren’t working, how are you going to cover your part of the rent with the other two? You’re not in Asheville anymore, where you could at least find a gig here or there filling in for someone else doing session work.”

“Actually, rent isn’t an issue anymore. Marco kicked me out.”

“Really? Is he that pissed you told him no? And how could he kick you out? I thought the three of you were all renting the house together.”

“Of course he was that pissed I said no. I didn’t tell him directly that I was going to keep trying to play with you, but Marco takes anyone telling him no about anything as an insult. He’s been on a rampage. Hell, he’s been yelling at Seth even, and Seth goes out of his way to try and not piss him off. And the lease is in his name. My credit sucks...hard. If I was on the lease, we wouldn’t have gotten the place. At the time, it seemed a safe bet.”

“You sound awfully calm for someone who just became homeless and has no work at the moment,” I said.

If I were in her place, I’d be freaked out at the thought. Hell, I had a place to live where I didn’t have to pay rent, and I was already freaked out.

“Tabitha let me move in with her,” she explained.

“Things are going that well?”

I was surprised on multiple levels. Yeah, they were together a lot, but I’d still never really figured them out as a couple. Besides the age gap, they were so different. Tabitha was as blue-collar, coal-miner’s daughter as you could get, and Lyla was a blue-haired rock girl. They just didn’t make sense to me, and I really hadn’t thought they were moving-in-together serious.

“They are, actually. I’m usually not one of the U-Haul lesbians, but I was already spending about half the week at her place, so it’s not that much of a switch. I’ve also told her as soon as I get on my feet again, I’m going to find my own place, just so we don’t get too much of each other.”

“As long as you’re happy.”

“I am, actually. Maybe it’s why I’m not taking this whole thing with Marco as bad as I usually would.”

“Willie isn’t playing with the band anymore, but I can talk to Dwight and see if they have a spot for you to play with them while they’re doing all the shows at the Blue Ridge. It might not be the same kind of cut you were getting with us, but it’ll be something. And we still have album money coming in for a little while.”

“They’re going to keep paying you for streaming and record sales?”

“They have to, it’s still mine. They just aren’t going to put any money towards promotion, so it’ll fall off pretty fast.”

“Are you going to give Marco a cut? I mean, he quit the band and he was never listed on the copyright, so…”

“Part of me wants to say no, just to stick it to him, but I have enough battles at the moment, and I wouldn’t put it past him to take me to court over it, and try to get that money put on hold while he fights, and I just don’t have the energy for another fight at the moment. I’ve already got all I can take.”

“I get it. Well, I’m not going to turn down the money, and yeah, I would really appreciate it if you could get me in with them. Actually, Marco went and talked to them the other day, I guess trying to get your old spot, and they told him it wasn’t going to happen. He was so pissed. I can’t believe he didn’t see it coming, I mean, you’ve been playing with them longer and he always acts like he’s somebody every time they came around. One day, he’s going to realize you can’t treat people like shit and expect them to like you.”

“I doubt it. Marco lives in his own little world where he always has to be the center of it. Still, I don’t want people blocking him from work because they think they’re doing me a favor.”

“It’s not about you, I think. It’s the consequences of his attitude.”

“Thinking of that, I hate to put you in this position, but could you see if you can get as much of the band equipment out of their garage as possible? Not Seth’s drums or Marco’s keyboards, they should keep that, but any of the other stuff like amps the band bought. We’ll need those eventually, and if he walked away, he doesn’t have a right to them anymore.”

“I can try. I’ll talk to Seth while Marco isn’t around, since he’ll be at least reasonable. I could see Marco calling the sheriff, telling them I’m robbing him or something.”

“If it becomes too much of a problem, just let it drop. We can always get more stuff. It’s not worth it if things get too serious.”

“I’ll take care of it.”

“Good. Thanks, Lyla, for... you know, everything. I’ll call Dwight tonight and see if they can work you in this weekend. Okay?”

“Great. I really appreciate it, Charlie. See, this is why I want to stick with you. You look out for everyone else.”

“Maybe save the back slaps until after I’ve talked to him.”

“Nah. You know me. I always just assume it’ll work out. Worrying causes wrinkles, and I gotta stay hot if I want to keep my sugar mama happy,” she said, laughing.

“I don’t want to know,” I said, shaking my head even though she couldn’t see it. “I’ll call you as soon as I hear something.”