Chapter 3
The Firm’s receptionist showed Hope and Carli to a large conference room. Abby and Kelley were already in the room waiting for them.
“Hi Hope, I’m Abby Wambach, a senior manager here at The Firm. It’s so nice to meet you”, Abby said enthusiastically as she rose from her seat. She extended her hand. ”And Carli – always a pleasure. Please, come in.”
Hope spotted Kelley as she shook Abby’s hand. “Hey! It’s you!” she said and smiled, as Kelley rose to greet her.
“Oh - you two know each other?” Abby asked, surprised.
“Uh, we met at Whole Foods yesterday”, Kelley said to her boss by way of explanation.
Kelley looked back at Hope and her heart skipped a beat. Gone was the dressed-down woman from the grocery store and before her was the rock goddess. Hope was wearing a white and red tank top, a studded belt, studded bracelet, black leather pants and tall black boots.
“I was shopping for some fruit, and I almost spilled like an entire stand of oranges. She caught them for me before they spilled”, Hope said to Abby, then looked back at Kelley and gave her a subtle wink.
“Oh", Abby said. She looked at Kelley and smiled. "Nice job", Abby complimented, and then looked at Hope. “Well, I’m glad to see that we’re assisting you already.” The four women laughed together. “Hope, Carli, this is Kelley O’Hara. She’ll be assisting me with managing Hope’s career.”
“Great”, Hope said, and smiled again at Kelley.
“It’s nice to meet you, Hope”, Kelley said and extended her hand for Hope to shake.
“But we’ve already met”, Hope said with a sly smile as she shook it.
“Officially”, Kelley said, and smiled professionally.
“Well, let’s have a seat and get started”, Abby said, as she motioned to the chairs at the table.
********
“So, to sum it up, the best thing to do right now is to put Hope back out on the road as soon as we can. The album is still hot, and we want to keep the momentum rolling. Carli – you said you’ve already laid the groundwork for Hope’s next tour, which should start in a few weeks, so we can finalize that. Sound good?”
“Sounds great”, Carli said. “Hope?”
“Uh, yeah”, Hope said, as she stifled a small yawn to the back of her hand. Even though she had slept in yesterday and lounged around her house for most of the day, she was still tired from eight months of touring, and business meetings were inherently boring to her.
“Are you okay?” Carli asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just tired”, Hope replied.
“I’m sure”, Abby said, understandingly. “We know you just got back from a long tour. Great show the other night at The Arena, by the way. I was there with a couple of the other senior managers from The Firm. Anyway, how about a cup of coffee?” Before Hope could answer, Abby said, “Kelley – why don’t you take Hope out for a moment to grab a cup of coffee, while Carli and I start transferring Hope's contract.”
“Absolutely”, Kelley said. She rose, then looked at Hope and smiled. “Shall we?”
“Sure.” Hope smiled back, suddenly more energetic, happy to get out of this boring meeting and, more importantly, happy to spend some time alone with Kelley. She rose and followed Kelley out of the conference room.
“Do you want to go to Starbucks, or is regular coffee from our Keurig machine okay?” Kelley asked, as she walked with Hope down the hall. People stared at Hope as they passed by.
“Regular coffee is fine, thanks. I’m not fancy”, Hope said and smiled. Kelley smiled back, and then Hope asked, “Hey, did you know we were meeting today?”
“I found out yesterday evening, just like an hour before I met you at the grocery store”, Kelley said.
“Oh”, Hope said, then frowned a bit. “Why didn't you say anything, when we met last night?”
They reached the coffee machine. Kelley stopped walking and Hope stopped alongside her. Kelley looked at Hope for a moment and then said, “I didn't want to say anything because I didn’t want to make a big deal out of recognizing you in public. I didn’t want you to feel like you had to talk about music, or who you are, or anything like that while you were out grocery shopping.” Kelley smiled at Hope and said, “I didn’t want you to feel like you were getting, I don’t know…bombarded by a stranger. I know how it is for you. People probably recognize you all the time and stop you wherever you are, for autographs and pictures and what not. You're probably surrounded by people 24/7, and you probably feel like you always have to be 'on'." Hope was just staring at Kelley, and Kelley, despite having made a mental note to herself to check her normally chatty mouth, kept talking. “I mean, my guess is that you were wandering around the grocery store all incognito with your hoodie up because you probably wanted to be able to shop in peace. I wanted you to feel like…like you could be out in public like a normal person and not get…I don’t know…harassed, or bombarded, or whatever..." Hope was still staring at Kelley with her intense eyes, and Kelley stopped talking as she realized she was rambling. She took a bit of a breath and then smiled at Hope again. "That's why I didn't say anything."
Hope looked at Kelley for a moment longer and then smiled back. “Well, thank you”, she said with genuine appreciation. “I appreciate that. I mean, I do get stopped a lot in public.”
Kelley smiled at Hope for a moment longer and then made her a cup of coffee. “I figured”, Kelley said. “Also, I knew we’d be working together, so I wanted to have us ‘officially’ meet for the first time here in the office. You know – start our relationship out professionally.”
Kelley was trying hard, maybe a bit too hard, to come off as professional and not-junior as possible. Hope sensed that and smiled. “I get it. Makes sense”, Hope said as Kelley handed her a cup of coffee.
“Thanks”, Hope said and winked at Kelley.
Kelley felt her pulse quicken a bit. She did her best to keep her professional game face on. “Um, well…shall we rejoin Abby and Carli?” she asked, as she started walking back down the hallway.
"Sure. After you", Hope said, and she followed Kelley’s lead. Kelley could feel Hope watching her from behind, and she felt a tingle run up her spine as she led them back to the conference room.
********
Kelley was relaxing in her bathtub. She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Hope since their meeting at the office earlier in the day. Actually, she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Hope since their encounter last night at Whole Foods, when a piece of Hope's hair had brushed across her face and she had caught a whiff of Hope’s perfume. She's beautiful, Kelley thought. Even dressed down, she's beautiful, and dressed up…well, she looks like the rock goddess that she is. But, more than that, she seems like…a cool person. It’s funny - the world knows her as a rock star, but really, she seems like just a normal girl – well, woman, Kelley mused. Then Kelley's thoughts flopped. But, she's still a musician, Kelley thought and sighed. Since graduating college and starting at The Firm a couple of years ago, Kelley had embraced a rule – never mix business with pleasure. That meant not having a relationship with anyone in the music world. Abby had told Kelley on Kelley's first day at The Firm that the music business is a hard business. You don’t need to complicate things any further by shitting where you eat. Plus, if you want to make it, you need to be one hundred percent focused on your career. It's a cutthroat profession, Abby had said. In the last few years, Kelley had been on a handful of dates, but none with anyone in the music industry, and nothing serious had ever materialized. Managing artists was a demanding career, and it left little time for anything else.
Kelley closed her eyes, tilted her head back and slid down in her tub. She felt the day drain away, and she started to drift off into a light doze. As her mind wandered, she flashed to a quick fantasy of her and Hope, walking hand in hand, eating ice cream, sitting on a beach together and staring out at the ocean, or canoodling as they rode a Ferris wheel together at an amusement park. Just two normal girls, on a normal date, on their way to falling in love with each other. I know I said I would never be with anyone in the music world, Kelley thought to herself, but would I make an exception for Hope? Then Kelley’s eyes opened and she laughed at herself. Who am I kidding? she thought. Like that would ever be a choice I would have to make. Hope’s a Top 10 rock star, and I’m a lowly junior manager. Kelley knew from Hope’s Wikipedia page and from just being in the business that Hope was single, but still, that didn’t mean she even had the faintest chance with her. I mean, I can’t believe Hope’s not with someone, Kelley mused. Another rock star, or a movie star, or a pro athlete. Someone rich and famous, Kelley thought, as she closed her eyes again.