Page 30 of Strike A Chord
“Hello, boys. I’m Sal’s wife, Sharon. It’s nice to meet you. Please come in.” A nice older lady greeted us. I fully expected a stiff butler to show us in. This was better, more personal.
We stepped inside the foyer just as Jeremiah came around the corner. “Mom, Ethan wants to talk to you.” Ethan. Ethan. Why was that name familiar?
“Excuse me, boys, I need to call my other son.”
Bingo. Diamond’s real name was Ethan. Wow, Masterson really did keep it all in the family.
“Good morning. We have pastries. Anyone hungry? Sal will be a few more minutes, he’s on a call right now.” Jeremiah led us to the kitchen where more than pastries were set out at a ten-person table.
“I could eat.” Marley was the first to fill a plate then the rest of us followed his lead. I hadn’t eaten yet. My anxiety was all over the place and I was afraid I’d spew. Now that we were here, I was still nervous, but the warm welcome helped calm some of the nerves.
“Good morning, boys.” Sal came in with Joey, Stoli, and Mickey behind him. “I hope you’re enjoying breakfast. I wanted to meet with these three before we did. I’m sorry proper introductions weren’t made on Sunday during the call. If you could take a moment to introduce yourselves, we’d appreciate it.”
“Jason Stallworth, lead vocals.”
“Marley Altman, bass.”
“Nigel Lawton, drums.”
“Josh Gray, guitarist.” They knew who I was, but directions were given, and I was following them. With time, hopefully not too much, they’d see I wasn’t the man they believed me to be. I was better than my past, Reagan had shown me that, though I still had my low moments. Fighting my demons would be a lifelong battle but one I was determined to win.
Joey, Stoli, and Mickey each filled a plate and took a seat. Idle chit chat, I could do this. Here goes nothing. “Thanks for agreeing to work with us.”
Stoli rolled his eyes. “Not like we had much of a choice.” Joey elbowed him.
“I’m happy to help. With Maiden and Social taking a break from touring it’ll be nice to have something to do. Idle hands and all that.” Joey and I were gonna get along just fine.
“My partners work for Masterson,” Mickey began. How he juggled two men was beyond me. “River manages social media for all the bands. You’ll meet him and Benny later. Benny is our touring masseuse and when we’re not on the road he has a lot of personal clients he tends to.” Hmm, that was good to know and smart of Masterson to employ a masseuse. Between head banging, lugging heavy gear and sleeping in shitty beds, I could see how the bands would benefit from that service. Not that Masterson would let us sleep in seedy motels and places like that, but I got it. Keep the talent happy and healthy and they’ll remain productive and happy.
“I’ll give you a low down of the inner workings for the Masterson family so none of you,” Stoli’s eyes immediately darted to me, “say or do the wrong thing. Sal is married to Diamond and Jeremiah’s mom, Sharon. Diamond is married to Sal’s son and our band manager, Easton. Benny and River are Mickey’s partners. As everyone in the world knows, Joey is my husband. I assume all of you know the members of each band?” We nodded. “Good, what am I forgetting, babe? I know there’s more.”
“Rhone, the drummer for Embrace the Fear, is married to Ely who is the head chef for the company. David, bassist for Embrace, his partner Jordan owns a catering company with Ely.”
“And my partner is Seltzer, lead guitarist for Embrace,” Jeremiah said just as the man entered the room and kissed him.
“Chaotic, great to meet you.” Seltzer went around the room and shook each of our hands as we said our names and what we did again.
“We are one big, happy family.” Sal’s smile spoke volumes. He was proud of this, as he should be. He spent years in the industry building his flawless reputation and if one of his boys fucked up, the others would yank him back in line.
“Thank you for breakfast.”
“Don’t thank me, thank my lovely wife. She insisted.” I’d make sure to do just that the next time I saw her. “Put your dishes in the dishwasher and throw your trash away. Stoli, bring them to the office when they’re done.” He turned and walked away. We scrambled, cleaning up everything and ensuring no crumbs were left behind and then followed Stoli.
“Deep breath,” Joey whispered to me. “You’ve got this.”
“Thank you. I really am sorry.”
“It’s all in the past. The first step to moving forward is to leave it there.” Fucking hell, what did I do to deserve this potential friendship? You already paid your dues, Josh. I sure as hell fucking hoped so.
“Gentlemen, have a seat.” This was by far the largest office I’d ever been in. It must’ve been converted from two or three huge ass bedrooms and extended the length of one side of the downstairs hallway. “If you need to use the restroom, it’s across the hall.”
We sat around a large conference room table that sat fifteen. On the far wall was a giant TV monitor, the screen separated into seven boxes. No faces were in them yet, but the names on each made it easy to figure out who was joining us.
All four members of Maiden Voyage and the three remaining from Embrace the Fear.
I wasn’t familiar with the Embrace guys outside of just having met Seltzer but was about to be as faces appeared in the boxes. “Good morning, gentlemen,” Sal said to them. Each either waved or returned the same words. “We’ve already done introductions here, but I’ll have the guys from Chaotic do it again for those of you on the video call.” Once that was done, Sal began again.
“We’ve already hashed out past digressions and I’m here to warn, I don’t want to hear of it again. Leave the past there and everyone is to move on. Now, I’ve emailed all of you the agenda and printed out copies for those in attendance here.” Mickey walked around and handed us each a packet. “First and foremost, after NDAs and contracts are signed today, Stoli, Joey, and Mickey will become more acquainted with Josh, Jason, Marley, and Nigel by mentoring them. With that being said, Jeremiah and I are working with venues from Seattle to Phoenix, including Las Vegas and the greater Los Angeles area to set up shows with Embrace and Chaotic.”