Remo shrugged his shoulders, his hair and clothes completely disheveled. “Hell if I know. Is the limo downstairs?”
Giselle sighed. “Yes. Go down there and wait in the car.”
Hearing commotion downstairs, Maxine roused in her bed and gasped when she noticed the naked man next to her.
She winced from her hangover and pushed him. “Tony, wake the fuck up. I hear Giselle downstairs.” She raised her voice through clenched teeth. “Tony!”
He started stirring and then rolled over, squinting. “Huh?”
She rolled her eyes. “Get the fuck up! Your manager is here.” She hastily got out of bed, throwing on clothes and collecting his, throwing them at him.
She headed down the hallway to her guest bedroom and opened it a crack. She noticed Sully fully clothed, sprawled out in the middle of the bed, completely passed out.
She walked into the room and nudged him. “Sull. Sully, hey. Sull!”
“Huh?” His voice sounded muffled in the pillow.
She jumped on the bed and yelled into his ear. “Wake the fuck up now!”
Startled, he sat up, squinting and then put his hand to his head. “Fuck. I feel like shit.” He glared at her. “Why did you have to wake me up? I was sleeping so…”
She gave him a hard shove. “Because your manager is downstairs looking for your crazy ass. You gotta head out to Portland, you mofo. Get the fuck up, c’mon!”
He snickered and held his arms out. “I love you, Maxi.”
She chuckled and hugged him. She pulled back. “Ok, ok. Get your ass up, slacker!”
He stood up and shook his head. He then turned to her. “Can you give me something for the road?”
She met his eyes and a slow grin formed on her face. “Yes. Our secret.” She motioned with her head. “My bathroom. C’mon.”
They passed Tony in the hallway as he was heading downstairs. Sully frowned having noticed Tony leaving Maxine’s bedroom. “Did you and Tony…?”
She led him into her master bedroom and shrugged her shoulders. “So what if we did?” She laid out several lines of cocaine.
Sully shook his head. “Ok.”
She handed him a straw. “Go ahead. It was just a one-night thing. We were both drunk and high. Seemed like a good idea at the time. This morning? Maybe not so much.”
Sully proceeded to do three lines before Maxine shoved him. “Hey, don’t hog it. I mean you’re one of my best friends, but that doesn’t entitle you to do all of my blow, you greedy mother fucker. Jesus!”
He chuckled, wiped his nose and handed her the straw. “Sully!” He heard Giselle’s voice bellow from the first floor. He sighed. “I gotta go before G has a coronary.” She nodded, uninterested as she focused on doing lines.
He waited until she was done and then leaned forward to give her a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks, Max. See you soon?”
She nodded. “I’ll be in L.A. in two days.” She sniffled.
He grinned. “Ok. I won’t be back for a bit. I’ll tell Kit you say hi.”
She snorted. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
He frowned. “Huh? What do you mean?”
She met his eyes. “I haven’t talked to Kit or Alexa in months, Sully, and I can’t imagine that my moving back to L.A. will change that.”
He stared at her, stunned. “Huh? Why?”
“Sully Foxx! If you don’t get down here in…”
He yelled. “I’m coming, G.” He looked at Maxine. “Tell me what happened.”
She shook her head and folded her arms in front of her chest. She then grinned. “Go, before Giselle loses her shit. We’ll catch up when we’re both back in L.A. and I’ll tell you the whole story.”
He nodded. “Ok. Lunch on me. I’ll call you when I get back into town.”
She smiled. “You got it, Sully Foxx. Go blow up Portland tonight.”
He smiled and waved as he hastily headed out.
As awkward silence penetrated the interior of the limo where Sully sat with his fellow, hungover band members, he couldn’t help recall Maxine’s comment about not speaking to Kit or Alexa. He wondered what had happened. They had all been thick as thieves since he met them.
* * *
“It’s a major sales spike, Spence. I talked to Pete, he said it’s nearly beating out retail on the numbers,” Giselle retorted as she balanced the receiver on her shoulder and glanced at a report in front of her.
Spencer sat back and chuckled. “Wow. I guess we had underestimated the impact Sully’s announcements would make.”
Giselle laughed. “Totally. We’ve got another shipment of her singles coming in today. They’ll be ready for the show tonight. Have you talked to her yet about performing?”
He sighed. “No. I haven’t. One thing at a time. I wanted to see the results of Sully making those announcements before I said anything. If it wasn’t making much of an impact, I would have pulled her out at the last minute. But now, I’ve got numbers to back it up. I’m gonna need that because I have a feeling this is going to be a hard sell.”
Giselle took a seat at her desk. “Maybe not. They’re officially separated now. I talked to Kit two days ago. She’s been working through things with her therapist. She seems to be doing well. Now she can really focus on building her career. Any idea about management for her? ‘Cuz I love you, man, you’re an amazing manager, but you can’t do it full on. You’re the CEO of KMK. Do you sleep anymore managing her and running the company?”
He chuckled. “I catch a wink here or there. As far as a manager for her, I’ve got some ideas, fireball. I gotta run and call her. I think it would be easier to talk her through this face to face than
