2. Chapter Two – Adam
Adam
I watch her get up from her seat again from the corner of my eyes.
This must be at least the fifth time she's gotten up, just to wander up and down the aisle and come to a stand at the little space separating premium economy from economy class, while nervously picking at the hem of her blouse and leaning down a bit to look out of the window back there.
I didn't peg her as a nervous flyer. Not that I know her very well, our conversations never went beyond superficial pleasantries at industry functions.
I’m curious about her, though.
When I heard that Millie and Kayla were setting up their own label, I knew they’d kill it. I wasn’t prepared for them to grow this rapidly though, and responsible for their quick success is the woman currently picking at her nails at the end of the plane .
She became their CEO and within months, Siren’s Talent became a company even Croney, my company, needs to look out for. Instead of remaining a label, they instantly expanded and added artist management to their repertoire.
By now, their portfolio is really fucking impressive. Lily is an enigma. I can’t count the amount of times artists told us they’d already gotten an offer from Siren’s Talent before they started negotiating with us.
Of course, it sucks for Siren’s Talent when they signed our contracts instead, but that’s life.
It’s obvious that it grates at her nerves, though. It’s evident in the tightness around her eyes whenever I’ve inserted myself into conversations during charity dinners and other formal functions our likes are expected to be at.
I don't know how they did it or where they found her, but I am dying to know.
I hope the conference in Tokyo will be a good opportunity to do some networking and get to know her better, because I’m curious. She has an amazing eye for talent and business, and in all honesty, I would love to pick her brain.
Jesse, one of the very first artists she signed with Siren’s Talent, went through the roof with his debut album and I’ve been trying to work out how she found him and what magic she cast for the release to catapult a complete newbie to number one in the charts.
If the entertainment business is one thing, it’s dependent on networking and learning from each other .
You either try to coordinate and get into other companies’ good graces, or you’re doing well enough to take the cutthroat approach and do your own thing regardless of the consequences.
Cutthroat has been my way of dealing with things for the longest time. I can play nice enough at a charity dinner, but let business remain business – and it’s been working well so far. Kayla and Millie are the one exception to this rule.
Not only because Kayla got together with Asher, a famous actor and one of the few people who make annoyingly long charity dinners somewhat bearable, but also because they have been in the industry forever. As a successful pop-duo, granted, but nevertheless, I know they have a strong network.
Working against them would be me shooting myself in the foot on a professional, as well as personal, level. So when they approached me and asked for help with setting up their own company, I was happy enough to help.
My phone buzzes with a message and tears me away from my thoughts. I try to fumble the device out of my pocket without jostling my next-seat neighbor, seeing that the message is from our Walker siblings’ group chat.
Tanner : How's the flight?
I stare at the three little words for a few moments, before I start replying.
Adam : Interesting so far. I got downgraded to economy, then negotiated my way into premium economy and now we’re finally in the air. And Lily from Siren's Talent is here too.
Reed : Oh, tell her hi from me.
Jackson : And from me.
I raise my eyebrow before I type back my answer. I expected a bunch of question marks or confusion – not for my brothers to be buddy-buddy with her.
Adam : How do you guys know her?
Reed : Dude, she's everywhere. One of their models was at the same shooting as I was, and she came over for lunch just to check if everything was going okay.
Adam : That’s impressive.
Jackson : Really, you should take a page out of her book.
Adam : If I could, I would.
Tanner : Sure .
I take a deep breath and grind my jaw, leaning my head back against my seat. I’m so sick and tired of this discussion.
Adam : Say the word and I’ll have you join the company as executive. Then you’ll see me more than enough.
My fingers fly over my phone and I shake my head at them. With a sigh, I pinch the bridge of my nose. I love my brothers. I really do.
But I’m so fucking burnt out.
I'm the oldest of my siblings, by quite a bit.
Our parents had me very young. I remember one evening when my mom and I had a heart to heart over a glass of wine. She and my dad got together in high-school – a love story right out of a romcom movie. She was the cheerleader captain, he played in a rock band, an unsupervised party involving a truth or dare and they were inseparable.
After a few months of dating, my mom got pregnant with me during her last year of high school. She didn’t tell me much about that time, but the fact that we never had contact with any of their families speaks volumes.
Mom told me that they were in over their head, so desperate and scared they’d intended to adopt me out, but she said once she had me in her arms and I grinned when I looked at her face, she just knew she couldn 't do it.
Dad felt the same. So they married and made it work.
It wasn’t easy. Even I remember times all we had to eat was rice and canned beans for weeks. Bile rises up in my throat when I smell beans, even today, thirty years later.
But then dad found his calling.
Music was always his passion, and for the longest time, he tried to get his big break-through, all while working full time. Then he realized that finding amazing musicians and recognizing talent was even more in his blood than music itself.
It didn’t take him long to be hired as a talent scout for a music label in the city and he quickly worked himself to the top, signing all kinds of now-famous actors, musicians, and bands. When he felt he didn’t get paid what he deserved, he bid the company farewell and founded his own, finding to his joy that a lot of artists stuck with the company for him. Once he was gone, so were they. A lot of them are still with Croney, even all these years later.
And my dad’s job made for such an awesome childhood.
He might have been busy, but he took me along to gigs, to movie castings and theatre plays. I even visited a few movie sets with him and we had a blast visiting all these amazing worlds.
Before long, Mom was able to quit her job to stay home and take care of me. That’s when they decided that they were finally at a point to have more children.
Within a few months of that decision, she got pregnant with Jackson, whose ability to lie with the best poker face I’ve ever seen, made him pursue acting. I remember how excited I was to finally get a baby brother.
Reed, who we called ‘angel face’ as children, followed two years after. Then Tanner. And finally, five years later, another oops child: our sister Zoey.
She's just gone off to college, which is the only reason I'm even going to Tokyo for so long. I wanted to be there for her while she lived at home.
She was barely two when our parents died in a car accident. A fucking drunk driver who was on his phone.
I tried my best to do it all. Taking over Dad’s company, raising my siblings, but it meant sacrifices. I couldn’t go to Tanner’s football games when the board called yet another meeting to try and take the company away from me. Couldn’t go to Zoey’s dance recitals when Jackson was about to leave for college and needed money for tuition.
It sucked. It still does.
I wish I could split in half and be everywhere at once. But I can’t.
And then Zoey couldn’t get far enough away from home and picked a college on the other side of the country. It makes me feel like an asshole for even thinking it, but for the first time in sixteen goddamn years, I feel like I can breathe. Like the weight of expectations on my shoulder has gotten a little less .
I don’t need my brothers to pile on a load of guilt in its stead. Dread settles in my stomach when I realize that my phone is still buzzing incessantly.
Tanner : Hello, earth to Adam?
I quickly scroll up the group chat. Of course, just like always, all of them ignored my suggestion and continued on the conversation.
And I know we will have the exact same exchange, not even a month from now, but at this point, I’m growing tired of having to justify myself over and over again.
Reed : When are you flying back again?
It’s the last message directed to me and the one I’m assuming Tanner wants a reaction to. I quickly check the calendar in my phone and type out my answer.
Adam : Conference is two weeks. Might come back earlier if it’s too boring.
I hate conferences. If it wasn’t such a good network opportunity as well, I would have skipped it or sent one of my consultants instead. That’s what sucks about being company owner – it’s expected that you make time for networking. No matter how mind-numbing and irrelevant to the company a conference will turn out to be.
At least they’re not going to be taking up the whole day. Most of the attendees are high-ranking employees in their respective companies and none of our jobs pause just because we're at a conference.
I’ve gotten lucky and my secretary Barbara managed to call off or reschedule all important meetings while I’m in Tokyo. I would have attended them virtually, but the time difference would have meant they’d be in the middle of the night for me or at inconvenient times for Philadelphia. Thirteen hours’ time difference is not easy to navigate.
Now, speaking of work.
I stand up to get out my laptop. I still have a few emails to answer and documents to look over – easy enough tasks that I saved up for this ungodly long flight.
Jackson : I'll free up the family jet for you. God beware you’ll have to travel Economy again ;-)
Adam : Please and thank you.
Then I lift my phone and take a selfie in the cramped premium economy seat.
Reed : I feel so sorry for you.
Reed : :D
All I send back is a middle finger emoji. They might be laughing but I know fully well none of them would be happy about changing places with me.
I wake up due to a small ray of light coming from my left. Lily turned on her lamp in this otherwise completely dark plane and quickly turns it to her lap with panicked movements before looking up and lifting her hand in an apologetic gesture when she meets my eyes.
Looking back down, she rummages in her handbag and fishes out a journal and a pen, gently pulling down the tray on the seat in front of her and opening up the journal.
I turn my head the other way and close my eyes in an attempt to fall asleep again.
But it doesn't work.
Despite my noise cancelling headphones, I swear I can hear the pen fly over her paper, and before I know it, my head is turned into her direction again .
She looks so serious. The tray is put up again and she’s sitting sideways now, propping her thigh on the empty seat beside her, leaning her back against the plane window as she writes into the journal in her lap.
She reminds me a bit of Zoey when she sits on her windowsill to read one of her books.
Lily, though, she seems focused instead of entertained, biting the end of her pen with closed eyes, lips closing around it, before she opens her eyes again to hurriedly jot something down.
Suddenly, I can't take my eyes off her.
Her hair keeps falling into her face, and just as often, she brushes it behind her ear while she continues writing.
I wonder what's going through her head. She looks a bit less nervous now, maybe due to the fact there is no more turbulence.
If you’re not a great flyer, being on a 16-hour flight must be hell. How is she doing it? I’m afraid of spiders and there is no way in hell I could face that fear.
Suddenly, she lifts her head and look around until her eyes meet mine. I fight the urge to quickly look away. She's caught me anyway.
Instead, I raise my eyebrow at her and try to shoot her a smile. She raises her eyebrow right back at me, then rolls her eyes at me and averts her gaze again.
I grin and sit up straighter, trying to find a comfortable position without jostling the woman sitting next to me. I’ve done my share of small talk with her and that’s enough for the rest of the flight.
It’s impossible to find a truly comfortable position. This goddamn seat is not doing my back any favors.
But at some point, I find a somewhat comfortable way to sleep, and after finding some calming music in my playlist, I drift off.