In The Heat of Los Angeles

“Anything to see if you can irritate your Pops,” Kammi said.

“Well, what does he expect? He’s hiding a meeting from me…asshole,” I said mumbling the last part. The door opened to Ty and Eliza walking in with Melissa on their heels

“Oh, I didn’t know you wouldn’t be dressed,” Melissa said as she covered her eyes. Both of us were covered up by towels.

“You’re fine,” Ty said. “This is how we do our morning meetings that are the four of us.” He sat down on the sofa that was in the room with Eliza next to him. They each had their iPad Pros ready to take notes and go over our schedule for the day.

“Okay then,” Melissa said as she sat down in one of the chairs in here. Everything was white, it was like this little luxurious piece of heaven in between our offices.

“Okay so there's lunch with James today and other than that your day is pretty chill,” Eliza said. “You both have an exec meeting at 6:00 here.” She gave both of us a look that exec meeting was the code for our secret meeting.

“Cameron is flying in from New York for the exec meeting. His flight should land at 2:00,” Ty said.

“My Dad is coming today?” Kammi asked. “I had no idea. He normally does these via video chat.” She was covering with Melissa why she’d be shocked that her father was in town. I finally decided on what to wear. I pulled a black tight fitting mini skirt and a grey top that was like a dressy t-shirt. I found my black blazer and put them all together. I held it up towards the room of people.

“Feelings?” I asked. I watched as my three best friends tilted their head to the right a bit and then the girls gave a thumbs up. Ty gave a thumbs down. “Okay, Ty, then what am I wearing?” He stood and walked to the closet. He picked out a long sleeved black mini dress and thigh high boots. “I like this. Ladies?” Everyone did the head tilt and followed it with a thumbs up. Without even asking Ty walked to the section of clothes that he wanted to pick from for Kammi’s clothing. He pulled a floral midi skirt and an off the shoulder black top that was just barely a crop top based on where the waist of the skirt sat.

“Thank you T,” Kammi said. She was now standing in front of the mirror putting moisturizer on her face. I noticed that the coffees we had requested were sitting on each of our vanities. “So do we have any other meetings today?”

“Nope, James and Cameron requested that you both have your focus today to the interview with Melissa until the exec meeting at 6:00. The meeting will be in Everlee’s office this week.” If I knew my father well enough the meeting in my office meant the mystery meeting was with someone involved in music. Had I read rumors of anyone being unhappy with their representation lately? Anything on Twitter or the trades? I couldn’t think of anything and my Pops likely knew that I wouldn’t be able to guess and that the whole day would be torture because we couldn’t try to figure out who the meeting was because of Melissa.

“Fantastic. Where is James taking us for lunch?” Kammi asked.

“That little bistro down a block that you two love.”

“Awesome,” I said. “Okay if we are done with our daily meeting Melissa can get back to her questions.”

“How did you four end up as a team together?” she asked.

“Well, Eliza’s mother and my mother were roommates in college and have been best friends since. We grew up a few blocks from each other and have been friends our whole life. We shared an apartment in Chicago when we were in school despite going to different colleges. When I moved out here to take a job at SME full-time there was no one I trusted more the Eliza. She is also an actress so it gave her a chance to be in a city that gave her a great opportunity to pursue her craft.”

“I also lucked in to being represented by one of the top agencies in the world,” Eliza said. “Hard to pass up that kind of opportunity. I had been offered the chance to stay in Chicago and work at a theater there but this was what I wanted. And it’s a nice chance to still be with some of my closest friends while we are young.”

“With Ty, we met in high school. We were polar opposites but have always gotten along well. I owe him for the fact that I can put an outfit together and as you just witnessed most days I don’t even have to do that, he picks out our clothes for us. We stayed close in college despite the distance. He was still in New York at FIT and had dreams of being a stylist. He gets to do that every day here as we often do the press shots for clients in house. We have a full team of photographers, hair stylists and makeup artists. Ty is able to do the fittings and style our clients so that they look their best in new headshots or press shots. It’s great to have someone in house to do that.”

We kept answering questions as we were getting ready for the day. Melissa had quite the variety to ask too. Everything from how we manage to balance our commitments, both of us were on the board for several non-profits on top or our jobs. How it feels to be in front of the camera, we had both recently done some modeling which was weird. And our favorites were usually about the trouble we sometimes got ourselves in together.

“Where are your favorite places to travel?”

“We traveled through Europe together, just the four of us, for a month after we graduated college and before we started here. I loved that,” I said. “We got to see everything and eat everything.”

“I loved that trip. I really did eat everything,” Kammi said. She was a foodie to the core. If there was a chance to eat something new she jumped at the opportunity.

“I was able to visit where my great grandparents lived in Italy, that was really cool. I would say out of that whole trip Italy was my favorite, though I loved Amsterdam. With my Mom being a curator being able to visit the museums in Europe was awesome.”

“We get to see some pretty cool places. E and I were lucky as kids to travel with our Dads when they worked in different countries. Being able to do that now is also super cool. We are excited to go to Brazil at the end of the summer for the Olympics too. We have a few athletes that we represent that will hopefully make the Olympic teams for their home countries so we will be going down to support them.”

“Our families take a huge trip to Mexico every year too,” I added. “It’s sort of wacky and most people don’t get it but we’ve been doing it forever.”

“Why is it wacky?” Melissa asked.

“Because all three of her parents go,” Eliza replied.

“Really?”

“Yeah, my Mom and Pops are still friends. They couldn’t make it work as a couple but they were great at co-parenting me. We started the Mexico trips when the three of us girls were in diapers. We’ve never stopped. When we hit high school Ty started tagging along with the Mackins. There is a huge house we rent every year on the coast. The four of us always end up in one room together, which is typically fun when significant others join the party.”

“That’s coming up in just over a month,” Ty said. “I’m excited to go back to Mexico. As we all keep adding people to the group we’ve discussed splitting up in to two houses or finding a new property.”

“Mom found one,” Kammi added. “It’s awesome. I’ll have to show you guys today. She found this amazing property that will sleep all of us. Even if some of you find a date for the trip this year.” Despite having been in a relationship for the past six trips I only went with a date twice, he was always too busy with school to join us. Maybe this year I’d have someone to take with me, though I wouldn’t hold my breath about it.

“That’s awesome. I’m ready for that vacation,” I said. We were finally done getting ready and started the tour with Melissa. We went down to the first level to start. “Well, you’ve already seen this area but this is our welcome area. While a lot of our agents have assistants we like to have someone at the front desk 24 hours a day. We often have staff in and out at all times. Our gym facility is not just available for our employees but also our clients and families. It’s available 24/7 so having security and staff here around the clock is important.”

“How long have you been in this building?”

“SME purchased this building three and a half years ago, it took roughly I think 9-12 months for it to be renovated so we could move in. Originally this was a Ford Motors Factory that at one point manufactured the Model T. We’d been on a few floors in a high rise downtown until this was purchased. Our board felt we needed our own property and at that point they decided they wanted to be in the Arts District. This building was perfect. It was fun to witness the design and remodel on it as well. Immediately our clients loved it and often times we found them showing up to use the gym, eat at the restaurant or just hang out.”

“That’s awesome,” Melissa said as she took some notes. The reception area had white leather midcentury modern couches throughout along with some amazing art. It had been neat to see my parents work together on curating the pieces that went in to the building. On the other side of a large waterfall/fountain that sat behind the reception desk was the bullpen.

“This is one of our bullpens. Our junior agents and interns are all typically located in the bullpen, this one however houses our creative team. Graphic designers, photographers, content writers, and digital strategists. This team of people work with every division of our company. The offices that are located on this floor are the managers of each of our creative teams. We both started in a bullpen and earned respect the way any of our agents do. I was lucky to have started in our bullpen in Chicago, it’s much smaller and less intimidating. Our headquarters are here in LA but we have satellite offices in Chicago, New York and London. Kammi interned in New York a few summers and then was here for the summer between junior and senior year.”

“You didn’t stay with your family in New York?”

“No, I lived here with E and her Dad. The plan had been that we would both be in Los Angeles upon graduation and James knew that this office was very different from the offices in Chicago and New York. He wanted us both to have experience here. I’m glad I did it too. I fell in love with LA immediately, which is something my friends back in Manhattan love to give me shit about. Most New Yorkers come here and hate it. It’s quiet. There’s too much sunshine. You have to drive everywhere. And the public transportation is shit. But I love it. I can run outside all year round. I’ve learned to surf. I don’t ever go without a tan and it doesn’t snow.”

“That is one of the best parts,” I added. Chicago got it’s share of snow and this phenomenon called lake effect snow hit us all too frequently. Mom’s house was only a few blocks from Lake Michigan. I missed the snow on occasion but the excitement of it wore off on about the third day of being home in the cold every winter. After the bullpen we showed her the restaurant and coffee shop area. It was huge and could accommodate everyone in the company if we really needed it to. We all stopped at the Starbucks on that floor to grab another coffee and get something for Melissa.

The second floor was the company gym as well as our sports division. It only made sense that they were located on the same floor. A lot of our agents were able to catch a client on their way in to grab a work out. It was great that each of the divisions we represented were able to have their own floor, that way our agents were able to collaborate when they needed to. Each floor had a number of offices and conference rooms as well as a bullpen area for junior agents in those divisions, as well as some assistants and interns were in each bullpen.

The third floor was where I spent most of my time if I wasn’t in my office. It held our music division. Set up just like the floors below it there was a bullpen, offices and conference rooms. Where the second floor had the front desk of the gym this floor had a small lounge set up for people to listen to new demos, view brand new music videos and determine the track list albums. We’d debated putting a recording studio in here but knew that our artists would likely want a more freeing environment so we purchased a space across the street and built a state of the art recording studio. There were several different areas to record a variety of pieces from one person doing vocals to an entire orchestra tracking the score of a film. It was easy to get back and forth so that agents could be there to assist when needed but not stifle the creative process. We’d built the studio about 9 months ago and it was nice to have input from some of our artists. Nick had been a huge help to me during that time period. As had Ed Sheeran who was one of my favorite clients and close friends.

Off of the third floor was a rooftop deck that had been turned in to a relaxing environment for our employees. They could grab a quick break, hold a meeting or just take a few minutes to relax and enjoy the outdoors for a little while on this deck. There was a similar area between the building and the parking garage that had an outdoor basketball court for people to enjoy. We’d held a few small concerts on this roof and managed to have a lot of great parties. When the design was done it had a fake creek and trees, I still wasn’t sure how we’d pulled that off.

The fourth floor is our film and television division. It was again the same layout only this floor had a small theater to view dailies from a movie shoot, trailers before they hit to market a new film, and pilots with some of our show runners. It was a great place to relax and see what the brilliant minds we represented were up to. I loved that we’d decided to include this. As we do have some clients who overlapped in either sports or music and film/tv we put the room on this floor. We always keep a client represented by someone in their primary industry. The best example of that is Nick. He’d developed steady work as an actor but his first priority was his music, so he was represented by my division. Likewise if the person was primarily an actor, like Jared Leto, they are represented by agents from film and television, my Father’s division. We had a few playwrights and authors as well, but they were handled out of our New York office with a few people in Los Angeles to represent them.

The fifth and final floor was our executive offices or the Dads and Daughters as my cleaver and nerdy father called it. We had an executive board room and kitchen up here so that if we were in the middle of a large project we could function completely on this floor. We could access the roof from this floor but had decided not to make it a patio as the other roof area had been. That didn’t mean that we didn’t sneak up there occasionally. Cameron and Pops had put a putting green and a few places to lounge. The only people who ever came up here were the four of us or our assistants and then the rare person we brought to join us. I’d spent many an afternoon contemplating existence on that rooftop. After my breakup I spent a lot of time up there. We were exiting Kammi’s office to head to my Father's when Cameron came walking across the floor pulling his suitcase behind him.

“Hello ladies,” he said as Kammi ran up to give him a hug. “Hey Kameron.”

“Hi Dad. I had no idea you’d be here in time for lunch. T said you’d be here after lunch.”

“I was ready early so the jet took off ahead of schedule to get me here.” We had two corporate jets, one in Los Angeles and one in New York. “I figured that James and I should be part of this feature you young ladies are doing today.”

“That’s great,” I said as I hugged Cameron and he kissed my cheek. “I know Pops will be happy you’re here.”

“Yeah, we figured we could get our exec meeting in tonight over dinner. I’m staying up at his house for a few days and fly out on Friday.”

“Need to get ready for Hurricane Kammi to arrive home next week?”

“Of course. Vic is going crazy knowing that you four will be home, plus Stassi and then Blair will be home for part of your trip. Kam, are you staying in your old room or at the Scarcellos?” Often times she’d stay with me at the condo my father and I had in New York so that we could all still hang out and she didn’t feel like she was upsetting her parents normal routine.

“I haven’t decided yet. It will depend on if Nick is traveling with us or not.”

“Is he still weird about staying in your bedroom at home?”

“Yup,” she replied laughing.

“I’ve known the kid since he was still a kid. Tell him not to be scared of me now that I’m his girlfriend’s Dad. He’s coming to dinner tonight, right?” Cameron loved Nick and had been happy when Kammi finally fessed up that they were dating.

“I will call and tell him he needs to show up,” she said smiling.

“I’m gonna go drop my stuff off in my office. James said lunch in 15 minutes, so get yourselves ready.” We headed in to my office so that Melissa could get what she needed and Kammi called Nick on speakerphone.

“Hey babe,” he answered.

“Hey, so my Dad made a surprise visit to LA today. You’re supposed to come to dinner tonight. I think his goal is to talk you in to coming with me to New York next week.”

“Are we staying with E or your parents?” he asked.

“He wants us to stay there. I’ll owe you.”

“You usually do. Where is dinner or do you just want me to meet you at the office?”

“Office,” I yelled. “We have a meeting at 6:00 with the Dads. Not sure how long it will take but we rarely care if you sit in on them so just show up whenever.”

“Hi E,” he replied. “I’ll meet you guys at the office around 7:00.”

“Perfect,” Kammi said. She was smiling. Nick was the first guy in a long time who wasn’t completely intimidated by her parents and spending time with them. He just hated the idea of sleeping in her childhood bedroom with her parents in the house. “Bye babe.”

“Bye babe.” We finally left and headed to the restaurant for lunch. We felt that leaving Eliza and Ty at the office was a chance for Melissa to interview both of the dads with us. We were seated at a private table towards the back.

“Alright, give me your best shot Melissa,” my father said making everyone laugh. “I figure that your editor sent you here to interview my daughter and either get all the dirt on her or the history of my relationships.” Melissa laughed uncomfortably.

“It may have been something they suggested but I told them that I didn’t feel that your relationship history was an important part of a feature about your daughter and her success in the entertainment industry.”

“That's a breath of fresh air.”

“But I will ask, are you single?” Kammi and I both nearly spit our drinks out at the question. Every woman in a room with my Pops became flustered by him with the exception of me and my Mom, we both knew better. Add in Kammi’s Dad and it was easy to make even the most intelligent woman mix up words.

“Currently, yes, I am single. I haven’t had a serious relationship in a while. I’m focusing on running my business and for the first time since she was five getting to have a relationship with my daughter that doesn’t involve putting her on a plane and sending her back to her mother. It’s been a nice change to have her here over the last several years.”

“Do you think working together has changed your relationships?” Melissa asked to all of us. We had never done an interview with all four of us in the room but whenever a question was posed to us all we usually all jumped at answering and didn’t know how to determine who was going to speak first. This was opposite. None of us jumped to answer, so that meant I was going to bite the bullet.

“Yes, but I only view that it has changed it for the better. As my father mentioned, since taking this job and moving to LA it’s the first time since I was five that we didn’t have a date where my time with him ended. Sure I travel a lot for work and pleasure and I go back to Chicago to visit my mother but I am always going to come back to LA, it’s my home. It also is a chance for both my Father and Cameron to have us involved in their passions. We are able to have a different perspective on why Pops missed out on parent-teacher conferences or a dance recital, though admittedly they both rarely missed anything. But we are able to have a different understanding on why they weren’t home for dinner every night or in my case why my father moved half way across the country when I was five. I get it now.”

“I’m sure as hell glad she does because if not I don’t know who would continue the Scarcello name since she’s all I’ve got for kids.” Everyone laughed a little bit.

“I know for me it’s been great to have Kameron and Everlee involved in the business. It’s amazing to see how much they’ve both grown and how great they are at their jobs. The most obvious part of how it’s changed my relationship with my daughter is that she lives on the other side of the country. But despite that I think it’s brought us closer, which no one thought possible. Kameron was my little sidekick when she was growing up. Her sisters had no desire to be part of the business. Both of them are still in college, Stassi is following in her mother’s footsteps. She is as determined as her older sister but in a different direction. She took the necessary classes to get her real estate license at 18 and then her broker license at 20. She works for her mother while attending Columbia and has opted to stay at home while she’s in school. She also intends on going to law school after she gets her undergraduate degree so that she can understand her industry from every possible angle. She also has always loved school so it’s an excuse to still be a student. Blair at this point, well I’m just happy she comes home on the occasional weekend or will meet us for dinner. She’s a student at NYU yet I rarely see her. You’d think the island of Manhattan was the size of the entire country with as little as Blair is home. She has dreams of Broadway but I think right now she’s just concerned about having fun. She’s 19, I’m not completely worried. I know what Jimmy and I were like at 19.”

“We did manage to have a lot of fun at 19. Chicago was barely left standing by the time we left that town.” Everyone started to laugh. They’d been roommates all through college and friends since they were five, it was awesome to see how close they still were.

“I think that the relationships we all have with each other have changed since we moved to Los Angeles. Growing up E and James were like family to me. Now I get to have family dinners with them, spend weekends in Malibu with them and see them every day which is awesome. There wasn’t a day in high school that I didn’t text E or call her. We saw each other on breaks, with Dad having family in Chicago we were always able to visit E and her mother. We have been best friends our whole life, getting to actually live not only in the same city as each other but to live and work with each other every day is awesome. I’m living my dream and unlike a lot of people my age who are either still struggling to get to that dream career or have it and don’t get to enjoy the perks of it, I have the people in my life that make it great. And when I want to go home to my family in New York I can hop on a plane and work from our offices there for a few weeks.”

“It is nice to know that the girls are doing what they love,” Cameron said. “We’ve told them both that when they grew up they could be whatever they wanted. We lucked out that they wanted to take over the business when we decide we are done.”

“Which is never going to happen,” I added laughing. “They both love their work too much. We all do. The joke is that the Scarcellos are likely going to die at their desk while working on a new contract for a client.”

“I hope that she doesn’t inherit that from me,” my Pops replied. “As her Father someday I’d like to see her be more successful than me. In both this business and in life. I am admittedly terrible at relationships, I’ve been married four times and realized early on that if I even tried to have more kids than Evie that I’d be as terrible of a father as I was as a husband.”

The rest of our lunch was great. It was interesting to be part of an interview with my father, Cameron and Kammi. Something we’d been hesitant about doing and perhaps would feel more comfortable doing again in the future. Melissa interviewed us with Ty and Eliza in the afternoon asking more questions of our friends than us. They gave insight to what our work ethic was, what we had been like growing up and how life was different for us now. We had a day next week before we leave for New York scheduled for a photoshoot that Melissa would be attending as well to do any sort of follow up questions. It was about 5:30 when she was out the door and the Dads walked in.

“So will you finally fucking tell me who the meeting is with?” I asked as I pulled my thigh high boots off. While they were cute they were terribly uncomfortable for a long day.

“Yeah, the suspense is just plain rude,” Kammi added. Both of the Dads laughed as they helped themselves to my bar. Scotch before or during a big meeting wasn’t unusual for them, especially if it was after hours.

“It’s a huge opportunity and we didn’t want it to get blown by the reporter knowing who it was,” Cameron said.

“But how on Earth does it involve all four of us. We don’t have many clients that overlap THAT much.” We each oversaw a separate division of the company. And it was a very rare occasion that someone was part of every division. Athletes would act or maybe write a book. Musicians would act or maybe write a book. But I couldn’t name a ton of people who were on a professional level as an actor, athlete, musician and writer.

“It doesn’t overlap into all of them. Kammi’s division wouldn’t be part of this. But we want her here because we want to show this potential client the full power and brains of our agency,” Pops said.

“Who is it?” Kammi and I asked.

“Harry Styles,” Cameron responded.

“Well, that’s a joke. There is no way the crew over at Modest will let him out of the grips. One Direction may be on a hiatus but they are making it out to seem that it’s maybe a year off and then they are back at it. You can’t successfully have a band that has multiple agencies representing them,” I rattled off the information I knew about the situation.

“She’s right. They are going to have first dibs on representing each of them as a solo artist or whatever comes next,” Kammi added. We knew what we were talking about. We had bands that the singer did solo projects and we maintained a relationship with them for everything they did.

“This case is different. Harry wants out from Modest. His assistant has been setting up meetings for him. He wanted to meet with us because of the work Everlee has done with some of his friends,” Cameron said.

“You’re fucking kidding me. Who?”

“Well, in particular, Ed. You fought for and won Ed an entire year off where he was able to be completely out of the spotlight but you still fed him the projects he would want when he was done with his break,” my father said. “Ed put the call in to me knowing that you’d somehow talk yourself out of it.”

“Well, of course I would. I can’t believe that Modest would allow that to happen.”

“They don’t get to have any input in to his contract negotiations with anyone else. He’s interested in finding a movie as well. Nothing where he is the star, he wants to start small, the way any actor would. Auditioning for roles and not taking the projects that studios will inevitably send his way as soon as they know he’s interested in acting. That is another reason why he’s looking at us,” Cameron said.

“Because we have the best team in the game for a musician who wants to act,” Kammi said. “That makes complete sense. This is fucking awesome. It’s a huge opportunity for us to get the next big thing without having to build them from the ground up. He’s bound to be the one with the most successful career out of that group. He has a huge following, a great voice, and he’s not afraid of having a life that occasionally involves a photographer following him.”

“And great dimples,” I said mindlessly.

“And THAT is why we have Kammi in the room,” Pops added. Everyone laughed at my Pops’ comment while I flipped him off. “We sent my car service to go pick him up. He should be here any minute. I’m sorry that we didn’t give you two much time to prep for this but you are often times better when you’re playing in a no-huddle offense.”

“I appreciate that metaphor and we do,” Kammi said as she picked up the glass of Johnnie Walker Blue that Pops had put in front of her taking a drink of it. They had been training us to be able to drink with them knowing that it eased the tension on occasion. I picked up the glass and downed the whole thing at once making everyone laugh. “Okay, sometimes she doesn’t do well with the idea of a no-huddle offense.”

“I’ll be fine now,” I responded. The warm feeling of the alcohol was spreading in to the rest of my body and making me calm a little bit so that I could process what was coming next. We were all in my office which made sense now that I knew it was Harry Fucking Styles coming in for a meeting. The door to my office opened and quickly closed as Eliza walked in.

“Umm….Harry Styles is here,” she said. I hurried over to where I’d left my boots laying on the floor. I quickly pulled them on before standing up and trying to adjust my dress.

“How do I look?” I asked.

“Fine,” Pops muttered as he took the final swallow of his drink.

“You look great,” Kammi said as she laughed a little at me. I did get nervous before meetings but this was different. The most anticipated solo album of the next probably 18 months was Harry’s. It would be a large task but also a huge honor to be the company who he chose to take over control of his career.

“Alright then,” I said. “Bring him in.” Eliza went out of the office before opening the door and letting Harry in.

“Hello, Harry. Wonderful to finally meet you in person. Welcome,” my father said as he stepped forward to shake Harry’s hand.

“Hello, it’s nice to meet you in person as well, Mr. Scarcello,” he replied.

“Call me James. This is my partner Cameron Mackin, as well as the President of our Sports Division, his daughter, Kameron Mackin and the President of our Music Division, my daughter, Everlee Scarcello.”

“It’s nice to meet you all,” he said.

“Likewise,” Cameron said as he stepped forward. “We are excited to have you here and talk about what a partnership between all of us might look like.”

“Thanks for coming in today,” Kammi said as she took her turn to shake his hand. “Hopefully the drive in to the office was nice.”

“Yeah, you guys have a pretty cool building.” It was my turn to talk.

“Hi,” I said and the second he shook my hand the words flew out of my head.

“Hi,” he responded and smiled. I felt Kammi poke me in the back as she walked towards the conference table where our fathers were sitting.

“I am glad you were able to come in. I look forward to the opportunity to show you what the Music Team at SME is capable of and how we can help take you to the next level.”

“As am I,” he said. He smiled again. And there I was again, nervous and forgetting what I was supposed to do. I realized I still had his hand in mine. Shit. Fuck. Shit. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. This isn’t the best way to behave in a meeting with someone that could bring the biggest project of my career through the doors of our office. I let go of his hand and gestured to the conference table that everyone was sitting at. Eliza looked at me with wide eyes as I took a deep breath.

“What the hell?” I mouthed out to her. Eliza shrugged her shoulders and I turned to follow Harry to the table. I tried not to stare and watch him, but it was hard not to. He had an aura about him. The skinny black jeans, the black shirt that I needed to ask Ty about because the fabric looked amazing, and the black Chelsea boots. He had sunglasses pushed in to his long curly hair. The way he moved was almost like he floated. And I just realized that I was staring at him because Kammi’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head. I finally grabbed the remote to turn on the television that doubled as a screen for presentations. I watched as Pops started talking about what we can offer him, specifically as he moves into the world of acting. Next it was my turn.

“At SME we pride ourselves on working as closely as possible with our artists to ensure that their career is not only in their control but well controlled. As you may know from speaking with Ed Sheeran, I want my artists to have the life that lends itself in the best possible way to giving them the creative space they need to make the best music possible. We have our own recording studio here in the Arts District in Los Angeles as well as one in Tribeca in New York. We have partnerships with some of the best studios around the world and will go to whatever length we need to make sure that the needs of the artist are met. I make it my personal goal to make the artists who work with us happy. We work to help you through the creative process and make sure that when your music is ready to release that the best marketing plans are put together for it, the tours that meet the needs of the artists as well as getting the best producers, directors and creative teams out there.”

“You personally ensure that?” he asked as he raised an eyebrow at me.

“I do. I can’t tell you the sort of emergencies I’ve had to handle in my time with SME. And the sort of last minute trips I’ve taken. Making sure that SME is part of the best music being created in the world right now is my mission.”

“So if I want you with me for a recording session in Antartica you’re coming along?”

“Of course,” I replied.

“She’s not kidding,” Kammi and Pops responded.

“Ed has made me do some pretty ridiculous things over the last few years.”

“Oh, I’m aware. He told me that you are very committed to the happiness of your artists. It’s a lot of the reason I wanted to meet with SME. I’ve been in a relationship with a management company that had complete control of my career. This time I want the control.”

“At SME, you’ll have it.” I was confident at this point. The Johnnie Walker still clearly doing it’s job.

“We have an amazing team of people in our Los Angeles office and New York office. We have satellite offices in Chicago and London as well so we have the ability to help you in more than just our two main offices,” Cameron said. “Everlee and her team really do go above and beyond the call of duty to make sure that everything is taken care of and done perfectly.”

“Well, everything sounds perfect. I’m going to be honest, you aren’t the first company I’ve met with and obviously Modest has been trying hard to keep me but I’m ready for a change.”

Notes