“Good… We just had a few business things to discuss.”
“Security?” Emma asked as she wrapped her arms around Cat’s shoulders from behind the couch.
“No… Not yet. I’m starting to think that I don’t really need it. He said my followers are up. So, it’s not all bad news.”
“I’m glad,” Emma said as she kissed Cat on the cheek. “Will I make us some coffee and eggs?”
“That would be amazing,” Cat said, turning to find her lips.
Chapter 31
January 10th, 2016
Emma stopped walking and brought her camera up to her face, closing one eye as focused on a seagull perched on a wet rock, a wave crashing in the background.
She pressed her finger down again as the seagull took flight.
I could definitely get used to this weather. Seventy degrees in January…
Emma glanced back at the trail her bare feet had left in the sand and crouched down to take another photo.
She’d had a busy few days trying to organize herself out here. She just bought a car yesterday with the money she had from selling the one she had in Philadelphia.
It was nothing special, just a six-year-old black Honda, but she needed to have the same independence she was used to having.
When Emma had unpacked her camera, she made herself a promise to take a least one photo every day. She needed to get back her confidence if she wanted to even think about having a chance of doing this professionally.
She’d hardly seen Caitlin but Emma had expected that. Caitlin didn’t have a Monday to Friday, nine to five job. Every day she had to work if she wanted to make it.
If Caitlin wasn’t writing or playing music, she was interviewing people to work with her and help her build up her social media following.
They’d spent the last few nights together in Caitlin’s room and even though Emma had been looking at apartments online, she was wondering if she really needed to get her own place.
They were living together, properly, and Emma having her own room had been pointless.
This walk on the beach had done her some good though. She’d had time to think and she realized that there was no need to rush anything. She could stay at Cat’s for another week or two and see if they were still happy.
The only thing Emma was worrying about was getting in Caitlin’s way. She didn’t want to disturb her writing process or distract her from making new music.
Emma used her camera as an excuse for being out these last few days, but she just wanted to make sure she didn’t turn Cat’s life upside down. She needed to stay focused on her music, especially now that she was back to being an unsigned artist.
Emma knew she was being overly cautious, but she didn’t think she could handle it if things went wrong again.
She knew how lucky she was to have a second chance with Caitlin and she wanted to make sure they had the best possible chance this time.
Emma knew Cat was stressing about money even though she never talked about it. She could see the strain on Caitlin’s face and Emma guessed that her savings were dwindling.
She knew Cat wanted to hire a social media manager, but it would be a gamble because Caitlin probably didn’t have a backup plan other than going back out and playing as many gigs as she could get.
That was another decision she came to when she was out walking. Instead of thinking about whether she wanted to be a photographer or go back to running a hotel she decided to do both.
She’d make enough money to cover the two of them if Caitlin needed a few months to regroup and she’d be out of the apartment enough to give Cat plenty of uninterrupted time to write and work on her songs.
Right now, she wished she could call Tori and ask her for advice. She’d always wanted Emma to take her photography seriously, but Emma had dismissed her encouragement, telling her she was happy where she was.
And she was but Emma knew that if she could have those two streams of income coming in, Cat could relax, and they would avoid any arguments or stress about money.
She never wanted Caitlin to regret having Emma out here with her. She could have stayed in Philadelphia and while it would have been hard to make a long-distance relationship work, they could have. They were older now. They both would have had the comfort and stability of their jobs.
Now, it was all new… Especially for Emma. She was in a new city, facing the prospect of having two new jobs and she wished she could call Tori to tell her all about it.
Emma still couldn’t believe what her best friend or ex-best friend had done. She didn’t think Tori was capable of stooping that low, to follow Emma and Caitlin while they were having a romantic evening together, to take a photo of them and then sell it to the highest bidder.
She just couldn’t believe it and Emma probably never would have found out if she hadn’t accidentally read that text that Tori had got from someone looking for more photos.
Emma felt sick when she thought about it. She’d lost her best friend, who didn’t even seem that sorry about the whole thing, and Tori almost ruined Cat’s career by outing her when she wasn’t ready to come out.
Emma never told Caitlin about it. She put it down to embarrassment. Her best friend almost cost Cat everything.
Eventually, Caitlin would probably ask about her, if Emma would invite Tori out to L.A. for a few days but for now Emma decided not to bring it up.
Emma needed some new friends, people she could trust. She decided she would get involved with a local photography group or something. She wanted to make the move out here as easy as possible and having a few new friends wouldn’t hurt.
By the time Emma reached her car, she’d made a list of things she needed to do and made some serious decisions about how she wanted her new life on the west coast to look.
Chapter 32
Cat made eye contact with the barista and motioned for another coffee. She wiped her hand across her face as she sat back in her usual booth in her favorite coffee shop and stretched her hands above her head.
This was the first time she’d ever conducted interviews and she was wondering why she never asked Jeff to help her out with this.
Probably because I promised myself that if Jeff was no longer being paid to do this, it wasn’t fair to ask him to help even though he would.
She’d spent her Sunday afternoon interviewing potential social media managers. She’d had six Skype calls with people from all over the world and met two people in person who lived in Los Angeles.
She checked her watch. The last applicant that she had scheduled for today was supposed to be here in forty minutes.
That gave Cat sometime to relax. So far, none of them had really stood out. One or two were definitely qualified. Their stats were amazing but they’d never worked with a musician before so that put Cat off.
And it was probably old fashioned of her, but she wanted someone she could meet in person and have a coffee with while they discussed their next move.
She didn’t want to Skype or email with someone that was halfway across the world. She was used to working with Jeff and a few local producers. She’d never worked with anyone virtually.
The barista left her coffee down on the table in front of her and Cat thanked her. She knew most of the people who worked here and a few of her songs had been written while sipping on their cappuccinos in this very booth.
She loved working from this corner of the busy coffee shop where only two or three tables could see her. Not that she was that famous that people ever interrupted her, but Cat liked the privacy she had here.
Sometimes she couldn’t write in silence and the constant hum of people chatting and coffees being brewed were the perfect background music for her.
She glanced up from her laptop and met the eyes of a beautiful black-haired woman sitting two tables away. Her gaze was intense but somehow not creepy and Cat wondered how long she’d been looking over at her.
She must recognize me?
Cat returned he
r attention to her laptop and tried to look busy. She normally loved meeting fans but today she wasn’t in the mood. She wanted to get through this last interview and get home to Emma.
She’d hardly seen her these last few days. They’d both been so busy.
Cat glanced up again a few minutes later to see if the woman had left yet and found that her table was empty. She breathed a small sigh of relief and went back to reading the resume of the last person she’d be meeting in a few minutes.
“I’m sorry to bother you…”
Cat’s looked up to see the black-haired woman standing beside her booth. Her pale blue eyes confidently held her gaze, waiting for Cat’s reaction.
“It’s okay,” Cat said as she gave this woman her full attention.
She’s probably just looking for a selfie.
“You looked pretty stressed out, so I thought I’d bring over a few of those chocolate chip cookies they have. They’re actually the best I think I’ve ever had…”
“Thanks,” Cat said as she watched the woman leave the plate down on the table beside her. She wasn’t sure what else she could say. She wasn’t about to invite this woman to join her.
“Anyway… I know I’m a few minutes early,” the woman said quickly as she tucked a lock of her jet-black hair behind her ear. “I’ll come back over when it’s four o’clock.”
Cat’s eyes darted from the woman over to her laptop. “You’re… Melissa?”
The woman nodded.
“Sit down. Please… Unless you’d prefer to wait until four?”
“No not at all. I’m just extremely punctual…”
Cat smiled warmly as Melissa slid into the booth and sat down across from her.
So, she’s not some creepy stalker or overly friendly fan…
“Melissa Harris…”
“That’s me,” she said with a warm smile.
“It’s nice to meet you. Sorry if I seemed a little preoccupied there. I’m new to all this… To thinking about marketing and trying to hire the right people.”
“I get it,” Melissa said. “Nearly everyone I’ve worked with has been hesitant to put money into marketing, especially social media marketing. It’s all so new and they may not fully understand the platforms.”
Cat nodded. “I’ve been on the main sites for a while now, but I feel like I need someone to come in and really help me use them more efficiently. They’ve been personal up to now… I think I need to approach them more systematically… With the intention of getting more followers and reaching new people.”
“I’d love to help you out with that.”
“So how long have you been doing this?” Cat asked. She looked like she was in her early or mid-twenties and she wanted to make sure that she had some real experience.
She could have spent a few minutes rereading Melissa’s resume and she probably would have if she hadn’t arrived early, but it was nice to hear her story directly from her.
“Well, I was doing much the same as you,” Melissa said. “I was on these sites and apps to catch up with old friends and maybe make some new ones. I wasn’t looking at it with a business eye.”
“What changed?”
“I wanted to start a juicing business. It all started with a cleanse I did, a juice fast, maybe five years ago. I fell in love with it and I thought juicing in general could help a lot of people. I felt amazing when I started juicing every morning. So, I started a blog and eventually got into video marketing. I needed to learn everything there was to know about social media marketing if I wanted to succeed with this blog.”
“So that’s how you got into all this?”
“Yes,” Melissa said with a smile. “I still have my juicing website, but it runs on autopilot now and I credit it all to the time and effort I put into figuring out these platforms. It was a side hustle for me at the time, so I was working with an extremely tight budget. Social media was the perfect fit. It was practically free, and I could reach people all over the world.”
“Well, you’re doing a great job of convincing me that I’m doing the right thing here,” Cat said as she sipped her coffee. “Tell me why I should choose you specifically.”
“I’ve taken my business from nothing to six figures in two years and it wasn’t a fluke. I’ve been freelancing for the last year and every single person I’ve worked with has seen growth month on month.”
Cat nodded. “Okay, this all sounds great. Just one last question… Have you ever worked with anyone in the music industry?”
“Not formally… My ex… When she was first starting out, I helped her get more gigs. You might have heard of her… Ally Harrison?”
“The DJ?”
Melissa nodded.
“Yeah of course I’ve heard of her. She’s huge. She does a lot of pride events.”
“Yeah so, I took over her social media accounts for about eight months, until we broke up, and she’s had a lot of success so…”
“Wow. That’s impressive.”
Melissa laughed.
Cat met her eyes trying to figure out why she was laughing.
“I suppose it is impressive… I’ve never really looked back at that campaign and felt a sense of accomplishment. I think that’s why we broke up. She got so much attention and she loved it. But we weren’t used to it and I could see that she wanted to go back to being a ‘player.’ But I guess it’s something I should be proud of.”
Cat closed her laptop and reached for her coffee.
“You should be proud of it,” Cat said as she took another sip. “Because that’s the reason I’m going to hire you over the other candidates.”
“Really?” Melissa asked with a smile.
“I love that you’re all about results and not what college you went to or what agency you worked for… And you’ve got experience in this industry. Assuming that we can agree on a price and a plan, I’d like to hire you.”
Melissa pushed herself out of the booth and leaned in to give Cat a hug.
“Thank you so much,” Melissa said, her smile infectious. “Sorry, I’m not normally like this. I just… I love your music. I did before you came out but when you posted that video… I was so proud of you…”
Cat smiled back up at her. “Thank you.”
“It would be an absolute honor to work with you. I think it’s crazy that you lost your contract because you came out… I’m going to make it my personal mission to make them regret the day they let you go.”
Cat scooted out of the booth while Melissa gathered her things. She knew she made the right decision. She loved Melissa’s enthusiasm and energy.
“I’ll be in touch,” Cat said as she extended her hand.
Melissa firmly shook it, her blue eyes bursting with pride. “Thank you. I can’t wait to get started.”
Cat sat back down when Melissa left and felt a wave of relief wash over her. She hadn’t realized how worried she’d been about her future but meeting with Melissa… Cat was confident now that things were going to be okay.
That’s why I’m hiring someone. I can go back to focusing on my music and not worrying about all these little things like marketing and hiring people.
Cat shut down her laptop and finished her coffee, anxious to get home to Emma and tell her the good news.
Chapter 33
February 1st, 2016
Emma looked away when the tattoo artist leaned in and pressed the needle into Caitlin’s forearm. She didn’t have any tattoos, so she didn’t know how much it was going to hurt Cat.
Emma was more nervous than she was.
“Emma, are you okay?” Caitlin asked as she glanced over at her.
“Yeah,” she said as she looked back over at her. “Does it hurt?”
“A little but it’s not that bad.”
Emma dared herself to watch what the tattoo artist was doing and saw tiny specs of blood pool before he wiped them away and continued working.
She didn’t know if she’d ever get a tattoo but judging by her reactio
n to all this, it was unlikely.
Emma heard the shuttering of a camera behind her and tried not to get in Melissa’s way. She was slowly getting used to Melissa being around almost every day.
Not only was Melissa managing Caitlin’s social media accounts, but she was helping to document her life. She said that it was the best and easiest way to create content. People would get to see what Cat was really like and it required no extra effort for her to do.
So, Melissa was always around either taking videos or photos. She even started a YouTube channel for Cat and started putting together daily vlogs.
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