They made love that night but it wasn’t as good as it had been. Cassie was too upset and Karin too tired. They both realized it couldn’t be the passionate encounters they had in Phoenix and Tallahassee all the time.
“I guess the honeymoon is over?” Cassie lamented afterwards.
Karin laughed at her “I’m tired, you’re upset, what did you expect?”
“I don’t know. You’re right, you’re always right” she said sadly.
“Relax, let’s get some sleep. We’re together, let’s be happy about that however unexpected it is” she said wisely.
Cassie snuggled into the protective arms of the woman she loved.
Cassie woke to an empty bed. There was no sign of Karin and she got up pulling her robe on as she looked for her. She found her in her office or the extra bedroom she called an office reading through her papers she had left on the desk. She looked totally different from the sophisticated woman she always knew. No makeup, her hair pulled back in a ponytail, and dressed in pajamas. She looked astoundingly different. Still a striking woman, she was all business with her glasses on the end of her nose as she dug into what she had found.
“Well, how’s it going?” Cassie asked fearfully.
Karin glanced up “I think you’re in trouble my friend” she said succinctly and then sighed. She hadn’t meant to panic Cassie further after yesterday. She knew yesterday had been hard on her. She didn’t need to make it worse. “It’s not so bad though that we can’t get some people in here to fix it.”
Cassie relaxed. She knew Karin would know what to do. She breathed a sigh of relief. “You’re my hero” she said smiling.
Karin smiled at her over her glasses. “Would you mind finding us something to eat?” she asked.
“What would you like? Eggs again?”
Karin shook her head “would you happen to have croissants or fruit?”
“Fruit?” Cassie’s eyebrows arched at the reminder of their weekend together in Tallahassee.
Karin laughed “yes, fruit. I eat it a lot which is why that was such a shock to my system.”
“You look a lot better since the last time I saw you” Cassie smiled.
“Gawd, that was awful, don’t remind me anymore” Karin returned the smile and got up. “Well, I’ve seen enough here” she said indicating what was on the desk.
“What are you going to do?” she asked almost fearfully.
“I’m going to make a few phone calls while you hunt up some croissants, cereal, and or fruit” Karin said as she took her in her arms. She took off her glasses and held them in her hand as she kissed her girlfriend “it’s going to be okay. I’ve got some good contacts down here who will help” she said reassuredly.
Karin did make a few phone calls and two men showed up at Cassie’s house to collect her statements and other paperwork. She handed them a key to her offices as well but only after Karin convinced her they were accountants and wouldn’t make off with the china. They worked all weekend as Cassie showed Karin around the Nashville area. Karin kept her amused as she had in Santa Monica and Cassie forgot her troubles for a while. They rented movies and sat in her living room watching them and just hanging out comfortably relaxed.
“You’ve got to meet my father” Cassie told her late on Sunday as they ate ice cream together piled high with chocolate and sprinkles.
“Why?” Karin asked her curiously.
“Because you’re important in my life. I’ve told him about you and he’d like to meet you” she said as she stretched out next to her on the sofa. They were lying side by side as they each ate a dish of vanilla ice cream.
“I’m going to have to work out extra hard after this” Karin laughed at the ice cream in her bowl.
“So you don’t want to meet my father?” Cassie asked.
Karin glanced up “I didn’t say that, it’s a little soon don’t you think?”
“We’ve been together for months, when is the right time?” she asked as she took a big spoonful of the combination in her bowl.
Karin shrugged “there’s no rush, I’m not going anywhere.”
“Well, we don’t have to head over to Kansas today to see him” Cassie grinned.
Karin rolled her eyes “Kansas, we’d have to go to Kansas to meet him?” she sounded like it was the ends of the Earth.
“Yes, and your little dog Toto too” Cassie teased sounding like the wicked witch of the east.
Karin laughed “his name is D.O.G.” she correctly primly.
The accounting firm of A.G. Wheeler and Company did an admirable job over the weekend. They were thorough, accurate, and discrete. No one from Travis’ company realized they had even been in Cassie’s offices. She had a thorough report Monday morning as the two men sat in her living room talking to her. They had declined the lemonade she had offered them. Karin sat there too in her New York business suit, a far cry from the unmade up woman she had been all weekend long relaxing with her girlfriend. This was the stuff of legends and the two men who knew her reputation knew she had hired them for a reason; they and their people had been burning the midnight oil all weekend long.
“It is our recommendation that you fire Mr. Collins immediately” one of them was telling Cassie as she looked through the report they had handed her.
Cassie looked at Karin in alarm. Karin had a copy of the report as well but she speed read it and re-read it again so she already knew what it contained.
“Furthermore, we can recommend a firm to prosecute him for embezzlement” the other man informed her.
“I see that” she said weakly as she read the report. Apparently Travis and his people had been siphoning off her monies in mock ‘expenses’ for the last two years and then some. She felt helpless for a moment before she became angry. With Karin there she wasn’t going to be the weak willed ninny she had been when she called her girlfriend to bail her out. “Let’s turn this over to your firm and proceed with what you recommend. Can you also recommend a firm to represent me and my band?”
They both glanced at Karin but her cold stony look gave them no help. The first man cleared his throat and said “I would recommend several but they too are in the report, you tell us what you’d like to do?”
Cassie stood up and they did as well “first, have a copy of this taken to the law firm of” she looked back at the report “Tanner and Broschetta and have another copy taken to the district attorney’s office. I want him arrested as well as his ‘team’ as soon as possible and before this gets out to the public so he can’t hide anything.”
They nodded and shaking her hand they headed out the door. She sat down weakly in her chair. “Now what am I going to do. I have no representation and I’m in debt up to my whatsis” she looked at Karin angrily.
“He was good, I’ll give him that” Karin said musingly as she looked over certain pages of the report. “You’ve known him for years. Do you think the fact that you wanted to come out was what turned him?” Karin asked knowing the answer was probably yes.
Cassie nodded. “He was angry at first, we talked a long time about it but I thought he had come around. He must have started stealing immediately.” She shook her head as she looked down at the report the accountants had given her. It was too incredible to deny. Wholesale stealing was one thing but this was huge. It was going to be a nightmare when the media got a hold of it. “‘Poor Lesbian Singer’, I can see the headlines now” she used her fingers to emphasize the headline in quotation marks.
Karin chuckled “or you turn it around and make you sound like the victim but use it for the free media you’re going to get whether you want it or not. Do you see the money that has come in from your appearances at LGBT functions?” she indicated the report.
“Yeah, and that’s basically all that’s supporting me” she lamented exaggeratingly.
“Then do something about it!” Karin sounded fierce.
“But what?” Cassie looked at her puzzled.
“Get off your butt and keep moving for
ward. You have talent. You know you’ve been screwed by one of the best. Turn it in your favor! Quit releasing those sad ballads that while great to hear can’t be the mainstay of your albums. Use other writer’s not your own. Sponsor them, bring them along, start another company that can copyright their works whether you use them or not. You can make so much more if you don’t rely on just your own work and capitalize on the Southern Rock market. You know yourself how people respond to that. Look at the popularity of those songs you’ve released. Make more video’s, kick ass ones that have people wanting to dance. The ballads are great but they can’t be your mainstay anymore, you’re strong, you’re vibrant, and you’re sexy as hell, capitalize on it! You can do it!”
Cassie looked at her in astonishment. While she had told Karin absolutely everything about herself she didn’t realize she had been listening, truly listening. It was no wonder she was so good at her job. She leaned forward “can you help me do all that? Take the reins?”
Karin was already shaking her head “I’ve told you, I don’t do entertainment promoting anymore. You don’t need me to do this and if you think you need someone, I can recommend several people.”
“But I trust you!” she said vehemently.
“You would come to hate me. I’d make you do things that you wouldn’t agree with. Because of our emotional connections we would destroy what we are trying to build here.”
“We wouldn’t let it!” Cassie insisted.
Karin shook her head. The cold business woman in her had come out “No Cassie, I won’t jeopardize what we have. What I want from you I made very clear. I don’t want to cross the lines between business and personal.”
“We wouldn’t let it” she repeated.
Karin shook her head “I’ve got to get back to New York, can you take me or should I call a taxi?”
Cassie took her begrudgingly to the airport so she could catch a commuter flight to La Guardia. She wasn’t happy that she couldn’t convince her to take the reins of her career but she loved her for what she had done already. While not happy at what they had found she had to admit Karin had been quick, efficient, and knew the right people to call.
The band sat around the conference table looking uneasily at one another. They had sat there a week ago and since then all hell had burst loose. The media were having a field day with the arrest of Travis Collins for embezzlement and fraud. He was fighting it in the media implying that Cassie was unbalanced since her coming out. Karin had several phone calls with Cassie advising her on what to do and who to hire. It was working but Cassie knew they needed someone on the spot. She explained everything she knew to her band mates and they were incredulous at all they had been duped over. Travis had been a good ole boy and their friend, apparently not though. They had all heard of this happening before. Bigger names than hers had been ruined by their business managers.
“You’ve got to get Karin to work for you, for us” Chet said and they all nodded. It hadn’t gone unnoticed how often her name had come up as Cassie explained what had happened in the last week.
“She won’t” Cassie insisted.
“Then you’ve got to go to New York and convince her” Alex put in and several others agreed voicing their own support of that idea.
“She is one of the best there is” Chet said.
“How do you know?” Cassie challenged him. She had known Karin for months; he had met her twice and both times the weekend in Tallahassee.
“I Googled her and I’ve asked around. Even here in Nashville she is well known. If it hadn’t been for that Em Phillilps thing she probably would still be in entertainment” he told her.
“What Em Phillips thing?” she asked looking at him and wondering what he knew that she didn’t.
“Maybe you should ask her that yourself” Alex put in. “Don’t you see Cassie, you need one of the best people to help you through this, to put you on top again, she’s smart, she has the skills, just the little you’ve told us tells me that she cares enough to take care of business for you. She’s good from what everyone says. Get her to take you on” he insisted.
Cassie sighed. She knew they were right. She couldn’t force Karin to work with her though. She was a stubborn woman. Well, Cassie was pretty stubborn herself.
They all discussed various options and ideas. Cassie encouraged it as she always had. She always figured ten heads were better than one. Without the knowledge though they were only ideas and options. They would waste time and money if they proceeded without a definite course of action. She didn’t have a lot of either.
“Cassie Summers to see Elliott Kreske” she said as she approached the desk.
The girl’s eyes behind the desk almost bugged out of her head. She knew who Cassie Summers was even here in cosmopolitan New York. “Do you have an appointment?” she asked anyway.
Cassie smiled and shook her head. “Ask him if he can spare some time for me?” she said she hoped professionally. Her knees were shaking. She could give a concert in front of thousands of people but here in New York at the office where Karin worked out of she was feeling a strong attack of nerves.
The girl smiled helpfully as she placed a call. She paraphrased it “Cassie Summers to see Elliott Kreske.” She listened a moment before saying “I’ll tell her, of course.” She looked up at the pretty blonde and said “Elliott will be with you shortly, would you mind waiting” she indicated the comfortable sofa’s behind her and Cassie nodded as she headed over there “can I get you something to drink? Coffee? Tea? A soda perhaps?”
Cassie shook her head. She really had a case of the nerves as she pressed on her stomach to calm the butterflies and practiced breathing. It wasn’t that she was nervous meeting Elliott Kreske, it was the fact that he was Karin’s boss and she was going behind her girlfriends back to do it. She had tried talking to her but Karin always shut her down about it. She had asked her to explain who Em Phillips was but that had ended even worse with Karin hanging up on her and not talking to her for a couple of days. Karin had finally called and apologized telling her that some things were just off limits. She had gone out to Long Island and signed a new client there and yesterday had flown up to Maine for another meeting so Cassie was pretty certain she was out of her office for her ‘impromptu’ meeting with Elliott Kreske. She hadn’t wanted to call and make an appointment in case Karin found out about it. She knew everything from what Cassie could see and she didn’t want a knock down drag out fight over this, she wanted her help. She was becoming desperate and was grasping at straws. She was certain that Karin’s phobias about entertainment representation weren’t as bad as she made out. She needed her. She needed her expertise and the people she knew and had at her fingertips. She trusted Karin and only Karin after the fiasco she had left in Nashville thanks to Travis. The last week of her life, the last two weeks had been awful. She had lost several of her endorsement deals and sponsors. She was financially ruined and knew it. It wasn’t the fact that she was gay that was going to ruin her in the end. Instead an unscrupulous business manager was going to take her down with him. She looked curiously around her as she watched people behind the reception desk in all sorts of cubicles. She wondered where Karin’s office was and then hoped she wouldn’t see it too soon.
“Ms. Summers?” a professionally dressed woman was addressing her. She looked like a poor imitation of Karin in her suit but Cassie could see it was a sort of uniform around here.
She stood up and nodded.
“Elliott will see you now, if you’ll follow me?” she smiled pleasantly indicating the direction they would go. They went around the reception desk and to a hall that totally changed the atmosphere of the offices. These were sleek and modern and not at all like the chaotic outer office Cassie had been observing. They turned right into the hallway and went down to the far end passing office after office before turning into one that the woman indicated Cassie should proceed her into. She shut the door behind Cassie and she was trapped or so she thought.
“Ms. Summers?” a tall perfectly coiffured man came forward in a three piece business suit. The only time Cassie had seen a man dressed so was in court and on TV. She was surprised and impressed all at once.
“Mr. Kreske?” she returned as she shook his outstretched hand. The hand enveloped her and was warm. She liked a firm handshake, it always made her trust the bearer immediately, but she had been wrong before.
“Please call me Elliott” he told her as he indicated she should take a seat in the comfortable chairs across from his own.
“I’m Cassie” she told him.
“To what do I owe the honor of this visit?” he got right down to business, she liked that, she was nervous enough.
“I’d like your firm to represent me and my band” she told him and watched his reaction. She watched as his eyes took on an immediate interest. They were light brown and she could see he was a good looking man but in this industry that was a necessity or at least that was what she had observed through Karin.
“In what capacity?” he asked but he already had dollar signs appearing in his eyes. The consummate businessman he already was thinking of ways they could work her fame into something profitable for both of them.
“I’d like the whole works” she said with her twang “I’ve considered firms in Nashville of course but yours in one of the best and with the contacts you have I need the best” she figured it wouldn’t hurt to flatter him.
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