Chapter 41
Noah
Noah’s head was reeling. “Why would they tell Arkanyon Products to back out? Is there some sort of corporate conspiracy?”
Grace rolled her eyes. “Well, apparently, corporations are people, so I’m not sure that ‘conspiracy’ is the way we’re allowed to describe agreements between them. Even the illegal ones.”
“Seriously, though,” he said. “Why do you think they would say something to Arkanyon? Won’t this festival at least get a few people listening to my music, making them more money?”
“They must have heard a rumor about you trying to poach one of their biggest assets. Did you tell anyone about Evie?”
“Of course not!” he snapped. “But she’s so unhappy. Isn’t it obvious she’s thinking of leaving?”
Grace adjusted her headband. “I can’t be sure. A lot of recording artists are unhappy. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll jump ship.”
“Well, it’s stupid of them not to.” He amended it immediately. “I mean, strange of them not to but fine.”
“Everyone wants to make a living,” Grace said. “Speaking of which, our balance sheet is not balancing now. So for all our sakes, you’ll need to help us out of this. The core staff start tomorrow, and we have to make payroll.”
“Okay,” he said. “Well, we’ll just have to cut a few corners.”
Grace held his gaze. “You don’t really seem to be getting this, do you? Arkanyon was one of our biggest sponsors.”
He shrugged. “Can we get other sponsors?”
Grace sighed. “Don’t you think I’ve been trying? This is the eleventh hour, Noah. Even a well-worded request for money for a festival that’s about to start is not necessarily going over well.”
“What else can we do?”
She patted the swivel chair next to her. Noah hated those chairs, though he tried to settle in next to Grace. He preferred to sit on a cushion on the floor, laptop on the coffee table his mother had brought by, looking for solutions to problems.
Except it seemed they were out of the easy solutions.
“There’s not much left,” she said quietly. “And, Noah, I’m sorry, but I can’t go without a paycheck.”
He put a hand to his mouth. “God, Grace, you know I would never ask you to do that!”
“I know you would never ask,” she said. “But the thing is, Noah, when there’s not an account from which I can be paid? It amounts to the same thing.”
“I’ll sell something,” he said. “My car.”
“How? You’re not there to sell it. You know it’s not going to go for the same price you got it for, don’t you?”
“My parents always told me never to buy a new c-car,” he mumbled.
Grace nodded, solemn. “Well, they’re probably right about that. And how are you going to accomplish this sale?”
“Ask your friend, the one with that weird Mohawk. Isn’t she always looking for work?”
Grace looked at him quizzically. “Thea? You know, that’s not a bad idea.”
“Not all my ideas are bad,” he said and finally got a small smile out of her.
“Okay, so we’ll use the money from the sale of your car, minus whatever we pay Thea,” Grace said. Noah could see her tallying figures in her head. “That’s about a third of what we need. We still need about a hundred thousand dollars. What else should we do?”
“I don’t know. But I’ll find something. Okay?”
Grace looked skeptical. “It might be more efficient, at this point, to cancel,” she said. “Then at least we won’t end up having to pay the full amount.”
“There is no we. You’ll get paid, right? And the staff who are coming tomorrow?”
“For as long as the car money lasts, yes,” she said.
“Then that’s where we are now. Now, I’m going to make some calls.”
“Really?” Grace perked up. One of her perpetual complaints was that Noah was overreliant on email, even when calling would be more effective. Since Grace was also young, he couldn’t claim it was generational. He just hated having a stutter to contend with.
“No,” he said. “But I’m going to send a lot of emails. There’s got to be someone who would love this kind of advertising.”
“Yes, but are they prepared to pay a hundred grand for it?”
Noah pretended not to hear.
“I’m leaving the museum stuff to you,” he said. “Can you handle it?”
“I could,” said Grace. “But I consider it your mess.”
“Mess?”
“Whatever you want to call it,” she said, turning back to her work. “You and your friend Aya need to figure it out. I wouldn’t want to get in the way of that.”