Chapter Text
The little sun that appears this time of year was deceiving. It made the prior nights snow sparkle like a billion pieces of glitter. It was quite pretty until you stepped out the door and realized it was colder than a witches tit out. Grimacing against the cold, Martin and Eve cross the street from his house to Papa's.
Holding her hand he looks down to see her rosey red cheeks peaking out from under her hood. He smiles, being with her made the darkness run away and allow him to push back the other demons. Thinking to himself, 'What did an asshole like me ever do to deserve her?'
'What are you grinning about?' She asks peering out from under her hood. Her question only makes him smile more, 'Nothing love, I am just very happy.' Stepping up to the door, he holds it open for her. Grinning even bigger he grabs her butt as she passes in front of him. Entering the house he hears her say, 'Pervert!' Which causes him to laugh out loud.
Stepping in from the kitchen, Heidi hugs them and points to the music room, 'Sisi arrived a bit early so the boys took her downstairs to hear the demos.' Making a stop in the kitchen for some coffee, Martin and Eve head downstairs. Opening the door they see a svelte blond sitting with a pair of studio headphones on. Her eyes closed gently swaying to the music, a smile slowly spreading across her face.
Removing the headphones, she looks in Papa's and Shawn's direction, 'Wow, this is great. I can't believe you are telling me she has never done anything like this before.' Martin and Eve stand there watching her reaction. Once she is finished, Martin clears his throat, which startles Sisi.
Reacting to the unexpected noise she jumps and turns around. Seeing Martin she jumps up and hugs him. 'Martin, it has been so long since I have seen you.' Holding his hands, she steps back and looks him up and down, 'Wow, you look good and so happy.' Martin smiles and puts his arm around me, 'Sisi, meet Eve. Eve meet Sisi.' Shaking her hand Martin continues, 'She is the reason I look so happy. I can't be sad when she is near. It is physically impossible.'
Sisi gives me the once over, 'Martin, she isn't your normal type but she certainly is cute. Plus, she blushes so nicely too.' At this point I am looking at the floor. Sisi is a bit intimidating, I can see why the use her services. Nothing is going to get by her without her noticing.
'Eve, I understand that neither Shawn or yourself have ever been part of the music industry. Just for my own knowledge, what do you do for a living?' Now on the spot I look up and answer, 'The easy answer is that I work in the logistics and transportation industry for a major worldwide producer of chemicals. An easier answer is that I play Tetris with really big pieces-like semi-trucks full of chemicals.'
As we continue chatting, I see Papa rise and go up stairs. Guessing that he heard someone arriving, I don't pay too much attention to it as we are expecting someone. Shortly we hear him speaking Swedish and see someone following him down the stairs. Guessing it is the record guy, Sisi rises to shake his hand.
'Sander, what a pleasure to work with you again.' She says as the embrace. Looking at me Sander says, 'This must be the lovely voice I heard on that demo.' Reaching out to shake my hand, 'I am Sander, so nice to finally meet you.' I smile and say, 'likewise.' He gives me a really bad feeling, like used car salesman mixed with tele-evangelist bad. Mentally I make a note of that as he walks around the room greeting Shawn and Martin.
I see Papa looking at me and giving me the, 'What's up?' look. 'Everyone, I just remembered I have to grab something upstairs. Papa, I could use your help.' He nods in understanding, 'If you will please excuse us, we will be right back.' Heading upstairs, i lead him down the hallway.
Finally stopping when I think we are out of earshot I say, 'That guy gives me the creeps and not in a good way.' Running my fingers through my hair, 'I feel like I need a shower after shaking his hand.' Now thinking, Papa rubs his chin. 'I can't say I got that feeling from him but I have, in the past, missed stuff like this.'
Holding his hand, 'You don't think that it was kind of odd that he offered us such a big deal so quickly, before he had really even had time to barely listen to what you sent him?' i ask. Nodding he answers, 'Sort of. I guess the thought had crossed my mind but I was so excited that I didn't really give it too much thought.'
Pulling me back towards the stairs, 'Whatever you do, don't shake his hand or answer his questions. Direct everything to Sisi. Okay?' Nodding yes, we head back downstairs. I enter the room but Papa stays back and quickly texts Martin and Shawn.
'Sorry about that, what did I miss.' I ask as I watch Martin and Shawn check their phones. Papa come strolling in just in time that it gives them a bit more time to read the messages. 'Hey guys, sorry what did we miss?' He asks as he sits down next to me.
Sander reaches into his bag and withdraws a stack of papers, 'You are fine we were chatting about the weather. Should we get down to business?' As he hands me a bunch of papers. I take them and see it is some sort of contract and it is written in Swedish.
Handing me a pen he explains, 'I just need you to sign on page 65 and then you will be officially signed to Universal Sweden.' Looking back at the papers, I hand them to Sisi. 'Sander, I am sorry but I don't speak or read Swedish nor do i know a thing about contracts and the laws governing them. I am going to have to have Sisi look them over before I will agree to anything.'
I watch as I see the anger slowly expand over his face. Continuing, 'Please, if you have other paperwork for the rest of the band, please also direct it to Sisi.' Sisi watches our interaction and I can see her smirking. 'As these are large complicated documents, she is going to need sometime to read over them.'
Sisi steps in, 'Sander, would you be available late Friday afternoon to hold a conference call. If everything looks good, I can have my secretary witness them signing the documents and then courier them over to you. Would that be acceptable?'
Not really having a better option Sander says, 'But of course, that would be splendid.' Looking in my direction he smiles at me and I feel like I want to barf. I smile back innocently as I can. I am pretty sure it caused his blood pressure to spike too.
We say our goodbyes and lead him to the door. Once he is gone. I shake myself like I am trying to get him off of me. Oh he gave me the heebs! Sisi watches me with wonder, 'Ok what was that all about?'
Sitting on the couch I start to explain, 'Whomever Sander is, he creeps the shit out of me. When he hook my hand, I felt like I needed a shower with bleach.' The guys have joined me on the couch and Sisi sits across from me.
'I am sorry but something is not right with this guy. I am positive he is trying to screw us.' I add. Papa then speaks up. 'Sisi, we have known each other for a long time. You know that we have been stuck in some really shady deals. After talking to Eve, I also get the same feeling.'
Pensive Sisi looks at me, 'Well it is kind of odd how he was pushing you to sign right away, knowing that you are not from Sweden. Also, the fact that there is only one copy of the contract too.' Reaching across the coffee table she squeezes my hand, 'I think your Spidey senses may be onto something.' Now standing, 'I'll go over this with a fine toothed comb and then I am going to have one of my associates go over it too. I'll let you know what we find and then we can meet to figure out what we are going to do.'
Shaking all of our hands, she heads to the door. 'I'll be in touch with you before Friday.' With that she walked out the door. Now looking at me, Martin speaks and everyone can hear the irritation in his voice, 'Ok what the hell just happened here?' Shawn pipes up and also looks at me, 'Is this like the nose itching think?'
I nod my head yes, 'I just didn't get a good vibe from that guy. After I shook his hand, I felt dirty. Something isn't right. That's why I said I needed Papa's help and we went up stairs.'
Papa adds to my thought, 'Eve brought up something too. He leaped at the chance to sign her and we all were taken a back from the four million dollar offer. I have to agree that in looking at it now, something is fishy.'
Continuing I say, 'I could also see the anger in his eyes when I told him I wasn't going to sign today. When I said the reasons why, the anger was visible not only in his eyes but also in the rest of his body language.'
Shawn raises his hand, 'When she has these feelings we should listen to her. Sisi's comment about Spidey senses wasn't too far off. She used to know when I was going to call her before the phone even rang.'
Martin just sits looking at Shawn like he is a couple beers short of a six pack. Now looking at me, 'So what you are physic or some shit?' Looking at the floor, I say, 'Yeah something like that.' Looking up into his eyes, 'I don't have an explanation for it. I just know that I would tell my mom that Shawn was going to be calling me and literally the phone would ring. I knew it was him because my nose itched every fucking time.'
He runs his hands through his hair, when he looks up his expression has softened. Adding to the story, 'With you, the itch is over here.' I point to my cheek. 'It almost feels like the muscle is twitching or spasming. With Papa, it's on my top lip. Heidi has one too. I'd be happy to try to test it all, if you want me to.'
Martin reaches out and takes my hand, 'No, I believe you love. I believe you. You see my point though, right.' I nod yes, 'If you didn't question it I would actually worry.' Papa touches my shoulder, 'Though weird, I have always said that I believed in the Force over religion. Guess this kind of proves what I say.'
'I need to use someone's computer. My Ipad isn't going to cut what I have to use it for.' I sigh. Looking at Martin, 'yours is newer.' Martin, 'No worries. Do you want me to go get it or do you want to go there?'
'Well that depends, who's got the faster internet?' I inquire. Papa points at Martin as He says, 'I do.' 'Ok that settles it. I am going to leave you all to your adventures and I am going to go make a conference call to my bosses, followed shortly by mining the interwebs for info on our scumbag. Text me if you need me.' Putting my jacket on I say goodbye and head home.