I do not own these characters. All rights go to E.L. James.
"Falling For You"
Chapter 20 – Set Fire to the Rain
The fire department was just leaving when the phone on Andrea's desk rang.
She raised her weary head from the hand it had been resting on. It had been quite an afternoon already and it wasn't even one-thirty yet.
"Christine Grey's office," she answered, striving for her best Executive Assistant voice.
"Where the hell is he? I've left three messages already, damn it. You get him on this phone right now," the voice on the other end of the line shrilled.
Andrea had forwarded all of Christian's calls to voice mail while she'd been dealing with the fire down on the first floor. She recognized the angry voice on the other end of the line as Kate Steele's manager, Caroline Acton.
"I'm sorry, Caroline, but Christian's not here. He had an appointment in Capitol Hill at one, and I expect him back no later than two-thirty. I'd be happy to give him your message."
"No, goddamn it, I need to speak with him now. I just got Kate's royalty check. Is this supposed to be some kind of joke? I tell you, I am not laughing."
"Did you try his cell phone?" Andrea asked, pushing her long, dishwater blonde hair out of her face with one hand. She'd tried her boss' phone earlier herself, soon after the sprinkler system on the first floor had deployed, ruining millions of dollars' worth of electronic equipment in the recording studios. She was glad she'd been there to supervise, having ended up canceling her lunch to deal with getting Christian's car to the service station and arranging for a loaner. Fortunately, no one had been hurt in the fire, but Andrea had wanted to prepare Christian for the disaster before he returned to the burned-out shell. But there had been no answer on his cell phone when she'd called, so she hoped he was ready for another surprise today in addition to his bashed-in car.
"Of course I tried his cell phone," Caroline said tersely. "No one answered and he always takes my calls. You'd better tell him that if he's avoiding me, he's going to be sorry."
"I'm sure that's not it. I promise to give him the message first thing when he comes in."
Relieved to have finally placated Kate's manager, Andrea hung up the phone and laid her head back in her hands. For a day that had started out with so much promise, it was not turning out well.
The fire captain had told her it would be weeks, maybe even months, before they could determine the exact cause of the fire. She hadn't been too concerned about that; after all, they had enough insurance to take care of the damage, even if they did have a fairly high deductible.
Then one of the studio engineers had pulled her aside. He told her he'd been working on Kate Steele's recording session that morning and that he'd noticed Kate's sister tossing a lighted cigarette into the trash and had thought at the time that it might cause a fire. When Kate's sister stormed out, he'd forgotten all about it. He wasn't trying to get anyone in trouble; he thought Kate's sister was a real nice person and all. He just felt bad that he hadn't gone with his instinct and made sure the cigarette was out before he'd gone to lunch.
Andrea had thanked him, but inside she felt sick. She liked Ana, too; it was hard not to like someone who always had a smile or a kind word to say. But the string of mishaps that had occurred since Ana started working at Grey Records was becoming a little too strange.
Her phone rang again and Andrea reached out to answer it, praying Christian would return soon.
~ ~ O ~ ~ O ~ ~
"What do you mean you don't know where you got the CDs? Christian speared the tall, thin owner of Everyday Music with a stormy gray gaze.
Boyce Fox tapped his fingers on the top of his desk before answering. "Look, Mr. Grey, I'm just telling you like it is. Do you know how many distributors I get product from?" He spread his arms wide and started checking off the list. "There's the big six, of course, those are easy. But I get shit from every independent record label from here to fucking Timbuktu. Sometimes they leave invoices and sometimes they don't, and they leave their product with any one of my employees who happens to be working the front counter.
"Might help if I got a computer, I know, but frankly, between you and me, the way I got it set up now, the fucking IRS maybe doesn't get half my business like they might if everything was a little better documented, you know?" He looked down at some paperwork on his desk. "Besides that, with the handful of numskulls I got working for me, I doubt the brainpower of all of them combined could figure out how to change a light bulb, much less run a computer system. That said I'd be happy to look through my desk for the invoice if you've got a couple hours."
Christian studied the man in front of him. Even if there was a clear paper trail to who had supplied Everyday Music with the pirated copies of Kate's CDs, they'd probably never find it in the mountain of paper on Boyce Fox's desk. He'd wondered how Ros could work with all her piles of paper, but at least her stacks were fairly neat and orderly. This guy's filing system seemed to be nonexistent, with a huge mound of paper piled on his desk as if a filing cabinet had exploded and Boyce had simply left everything where it fell.
Christian absently toyed with the thick black pen he'd taken out of his shirt pocket and contemplated the problem of Kate's pirated CD. He hadn't wanted to get the authorities involved…didn't want the publicity, especially now, with the pending deal with KMS…but Kate and her manager would not be satisfied if he refused to act on this.
He couldn't really blame them. Kate wouldn't get paid royalties for any of the pirated copies of her CD that sold, and Grey Records wouldn't see any money to help defray their costs of production, either. The only one who would benefit from the deal would be the thief who'd pirated Kate's master.
Christian declined Boyce's offer to search his desk and asked him to call if he thought of anything that might help. He doubted if Fox would be of any assistance in this matter, and allowed the man to usher him out of the dingy back office and into the busy front of the store.
He spotted Ana talking to the guy who had started this whole mess last week, Paul Clayton, the guy who had told Kate he was enjoying a CD that wasn't supposed to have been released yet. The same guy that Ana had leaped out a window to escape the night of his last party. She certainly didn't seem to be avoiding the man's attention now, Christian noticed sourly as he approached them.
"Paul," Christian acknowledged, holding out a hand in greeting.
"Nice to see you again." Paul grabbed the hand he offered.
After a moment, Christian extricated himself from Paul's enthusiastic grip and turned to Ana. "You ready to go?" he asked.
"Sure. I picked up some new CDs that Paul recommended." Ana rattled her shopping bag. "You know, you really ought to hear Paul's demo tape. I was listening to it the other night when I got locked in the demo room, and it's really very good."
Christian saw the light of undying devotion in Paul's eyes and fought back his growing irritation. "Troy makes all the decisions about any new artists we sign. I'm sure he's given it all due consideration."
"Of course, Christian, I didn't mean to imply…" Ana stopped as Christian began not-so-subtly pushing her toward the door.
"Nice to see you again, Paul." Christian waved nonchalantly as he shoved Ana out the door. He felt irritated, edgy after seeing Charlie and getting nowhere with Boyce Fox. Why did life have to be so damn difficult? Events were starting to spin out of control, and Christian didn't like it. His unpredictable feelings for Ana and the unexpected jealousy that had just stabbed him when he saw her cooing over Paul Clayton brought his simmering temper to the boiling point. He hadn't been able to control his physical responses to her, but his emotions were another matter. He could, he would, control them. She might think, after a weekend together, that she had some kind of hold on him but she'd be wrong. Christian shoved his pen into his shirt pocket.
Stunned to find herself out on the busy sidewalk, Ana turned to the man behind her. "That was rude," she protested.
A couple walking past them turned their heads.
"Lower your voice, Ana. You're causing a scene." Christian clamped a hand on her arm and began dragging her toward her car.
"What are you doing? Let go of me."
"Fine." Christian abruptly released her as he continued stalking down the sidewalk.
Ana ran to keep up, her bag of new CDs thumping at her thigh. "Christian, what's gotten into you? Why are you acting so strange?"
He stopped so abruptly that Ana barreled into his back, and then took a hasty step backward when he turned on her. "Couldn't you tell that Paul was just using you to get to me? The only thing that cowboy wants is a record deal, and you just did everything but offer him a final contract to sign."
"No, I didn't. I was just being encouraging and honest. I did like his demo tape. What's the harm in telling him that?"
"What's the harm in it? I'll tell you what the harm is. Paul Clayton saw us together, and I'm sure he thought that he could use you to get Grey Records interested in him. Obviously, his plot backfired because he doesn't know your opinion about his music won't influence me. I make up my own mind about who we sign or don't sign, and if that idiot thinks he can use you to get to me, he's dead wrong."
If Christian had been searching for the one thing to say that would cause her the most pain, Ana was willing to concede he had found it. The little bubble of hope in her heart, the one that had started to grow over the weekend, turned into a bitter stone as she looked at the angry man standing before her. Like so many other people she'd met in her life, Christian saw her as nothing more than a conduit to the talent, successful people she knew. He didn't think Paul might appreciate her opinion for anything except how it might influence his own career.
Why did people look at her as if she had no valuable opinions of her own? As if who she was and what she thought was of no consequence except for what she might pass on to those around her?
She opened her mouth.
Then closed it.
What could she say? In all likelihood, he was telling the truth about Paul, just as it had been true about so many others in her life. She'd had plenty of so called friends who were only friends until they found out that Ana's parents weren't going to help them break into Hollywood, her brother wasn't going to get them the publishing deal they'd hoped for, and her sister wasn't going to help them set the recording industry on fire. From the day she'd been born, she'd been prey to people like that. But it wasn't her nature to believe the worst about people, so rather than withdrawing from the world, she'd simply learned to deal with the consequences. She hadn't expected Christian's contempt to be one of those consequences but, like every other disappointment or disaster life had thrown at her; she tried to handle it without losing herself.
Calmly, Ana opened her purse and withdraw a twenty dollar bill. Pressing the money into Christian's hand, she walked the few remaining steps to her car and unlocked her door.
Christian stared at the bill in his hand, his uncharacteristic spurt of anger starting to fade. "What's this for?" he asked, walking to the passenger side of the Chevelle.
Ana turned the key in the ignition, glad to hear the familiar loud hum of the motor. She put the car in gear, then met Christian's gaze squarely through the window of the still locked passenger door.
"Cab fare," she mouthed clearly, stepping on the accelerator and leaving Christian standing in the street, staring after her as he got smaller and smaller in her rear view mirror.
AN: Chapter Title Song – "Set Fire to the Rain" by Adele