He walked leisurely out of the room, but as soon as the door was shut behind him, he rushed along the corridor to the bar, hoping against hope that she would still be there.
The bar was almost deserted. He quickly scanned the few remaining small groups of customers, distributed unevenly in all corners of the room, and at the bar. None of them contained a woman in sexy jeans and a red top. He walked over to the other side of the bar to ask the staff if they’d seen her leave, when he caught a glimpse of her at the main door. She stood with her back turned to him. He made a step towards her, but stopped half way through it.
Phoenix put his arm around her and kissed her on the lips, whispering something into her ear. The next moment they both got into their hovermobiles and flew away in the same direction.
Daniel’s heart sank.
‘Hey Eiko, why don’t you make us a decent drink,’ Phoenix said as soon as the portal of her apartment sealed itself behind them. ‘That mortal stuff didn’t quite taste right, did it.’
‘I’m ok, thanks,’ Amaranthine said quickly, ignoring his comment.
‘Come on, Amari, have one,’ he insisted. ‘Keep me company.’
‘Ok, then,’ she said, too tired and distracted to argue.
‘Cool. A Scotch and an ambrosia, then, Eiko.’
‘Actually, I’ll have a mojito instead,’ Amari said, taking off her heels.
‘A mojito?’ Phoenix raised his eyebrows in surprise. ‘When since have you switched to that?’
‘I’ve been drinking it all night, I don’t want to mix stuff,’ she said matter-of-factly, not looking at him.
‘Your drinks are ready,’ Eiko announced. Phoenix rushed towards the bar.
‘Excuse me for a minute,’ Amari said, and left the living room. She came back a few minutes later, changed into her silky nightgown, and with her hair down. She sat on the couch and took a sip of her drink. It was nice and refreshing, but didn’t quite taste right. She examined the glass against light. Just like she thought, the pink leaves were missing. She put the glass away.
‘What’s the matter?’ Phoenix asked.
‘Nothing, I’m just tired.’
‘In that case,’ he downed his Scotch, moved closer and put his hand on her knee, ‘we should just go straight to bed.’ His hand slid up her thigh.
Her hand landed on top of his, stopping it half way up.
‘I’m not in the mood, sorry,’ she said, getting up. ‘I think you should go. I need some rest.’
Phoenix’s face grimaced.
‘What is wrong with you?’ he demanded.
‘Nothing is wrong with me,’ she said firmly. ‘I’m just not in the mood, like I said. We can meet up another time.’
‘That’s what you said the last time I called you,’ he said. ‘Doesn’t seem like you have any time for me these days.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ she said. ‘Just cause I’m busy at work, trying to …’
‘Oh, yes, your work. Your super-important mortal project,’ he sneered.
‘Yes, it is,’ she looked up at him, her eyes glittering, ‘and I’d appreciate if next time you were a little bit more sensitive when speaking to my co-workers.’
Phoenix’s face expressed a mixture of shock, disgust and outrage.
‘What’s wrong with you!’ he repeated, ‘seriously, are you the same Amaranthine Quinn I’ve known for the last four years? The one who used to hate Mortals so much she would have a fit every time someone mentioned them in her presence? Now they are your co-workers?’
‘That’s a fact,’ she said icily, ‘they are my co-workers. Though it wasn’t my idea, if you remember.’
‘Oh, yes, I remember,’ he exclaimed, ‘I remember how pissed off you were at the prospect, how you hated Nectar for forcing you to work with them! I don’t think you remember, though! A few months in and you seem to be quite enjoying yourself!’
‘I don’t see anything wrong with that,’ she fired back. ‘Maybe you would, too, if you tried to see past your prejudices,’ she added. ‘You should try it some time.’
‘Who are you?’ Phoenix literally took a step back from her as if he’d just found out she was infected with some extremely contagious disease.
‘I’m someone who has realized recently that there are thousands of things we don’t even know about Mortals, and half the things we assume, are false,’ she answered calmly. ‘Come back when you’re sober, and I’ll show you, if you want.’
‘Don’t you patronize me!’ he barked, ‘so now I’m a drunk and an ignorant, prejudiced bastard, and you, all of a sudden, are a miraculously transformed Mortal advocate!’
‘That’s a huge exaggeration and you know it,’ she said, a note of warning in her still calm voice. ‘I think you should leave now. This conversation is getting us nowhere.’
‘Suit yourself,’ he said through gritted teeth. ‘Just don’t come running to me as soon as your mortal boyfriend starts showing first signs of aging.’
‘Don’t be so ridiculous, Phoenix,’ she said, ‘those people are nothing more than my co-workers.’
‘Keep dreaming,’ he said. ‘But let me tell you this – if you keep sitting astride on top of the fence, sooner or later you’ll fall off it.’
‘You are being over-dramatic,’ she replied.
‘Call it what you want, Amari,’ he said, ready to leave. ‘You think you can make friends with them, and socialize with them and everything will be cool. But sooner or later the fact that they belong to a completely different world from us, will smack you in the face so hard, you won’t know what hit you.’
At that, he turned around on his heel and marched towards the portal. His hovercar emerged outside at that same moment. Amari didn’t make a move to stop him.
She sank into her sofa, not feeling sleepy at all now. Her head was full of strange, confusing thoughts that wouldn’t go away.
Phoenix was being over-dramatic, of course. Just because she liked Daniel and enjoyed working with him, didn’t mean that she would dream of getting involved with him. She didn’t need Phoenix and his astringent comments to remind her that her and Daniel’s worlds were spheres that did not touch. She was sure that Daniel was just as much aware of that as she was.
She wanted to keep their good working relationship though, and Phoenix certainly did not help, barging in on her like that tonight. She considered what the best strategy would be when she met with Daniel on Monday. Should she apologize? She didn’t really want to own up to it that much. It would mean she felt responsible for Phoenix, and that sort of responsibility suggested a relationship closer that she wanted to admit. She wondered again if the Mortals figured out that he wasn’t just her acquaintance; she tried her best not to give away any details that would lead them to such a conclusion. She didn’t like to mix her private life with business, particularly now, when the people belonging to both of these areas couldn’t have less in common. In the end she decided she wouldn’t mention Phoenix at all. Bumping into him was an unfortunate coincidence but it was done now. The more it would get mentioned, the bigger a deal it would become. She would just thank Daniel for inviting her to the concert, and they would get on with things as usual. They still had tons to do before the tour’s kick-off, so she would just focus on that, and hopefully everything would go back to normal.
Happy with her decision, she got up and headed to the bedroom. Just before she drifted off to sleep, she remembered that she would also have to ask Daniel for his special mojito recipe.
On Monday morning, she got into the office before seven o’clock. It was completely deserted, as usual. She had woken up before dawn, unable to sleep any longer, too anxious to speak with Daniel, and make sure everything was ok. Time, normally flying on Monday mornings, was dragging today, despite the long list of things she had to do. The weekly meeting wouldn’t end; everyone in the office wanted to hear more about the Carpe Diem project. Despite Amaranthine’s simulations, and the hard data she had already collected, she could tell the
y wouldn’t believe it until they saw it all happen. Everyone was aware that the next few weeks were going to be the moment of truth; if their jobs were to be safe, Carpe Diem had to succeed, and make Elixir Vitae Communications number one PR agency again. They were hopeful, but still remembered the Paramonos Enterprises fiasco far too clearly to let themselves get excited.
As soon as the meeting was over, she locked herself in the office and ordered a connection with Daniel’s idatron. She took a deep breath and forced her voice to sound natural, despite the anxiety that she couldn’t get rid of no matter how hard she tried. She knew it wouldn’t go away until she heard his voice, and it convinced her that everything was cool.
‘Hey, Amari,’ she heard when her call got answered. It wasn’t Daniel’s voice, though.
‘Hey, Maddie,’ she said, surprised. ‘How is it going?’
‘Great, thanks,’ the girl replied, ‘Daniel’s redirected his calls to me and asked me to answer them for a while. There’s been some problems with the sound systems in a few of the venues, so he decided to test them all himself. He’s somewhere in Asia right now.’
‘Oh, I see,’ she said. ‘That’s all right, I can catch up with him later. I just have a few details that I need to discuss with him, but it can wait.’
‘You may want to email him,’ Maddie said ‘he said he might not get back to New York before the start of the tour, and this stuff is pretty urgent, he wants to make sure everything works. He’ll be checking his messages when he gets to the hotel at night, so he can reply to you then.’
‘Sure, that’s probably the best plan,’ Amari answered. ‘Thanks, Maddie.’
‘No problem. See you later.’
Amari stared at her idatron for a long while after Maddie got off the line.
Testing sound systems in Asia? Sure, it was crucial that there were no cock-ups in that department, but were there really problems or was it just an excuse? Was he avoiding her? Why would he do that? He didn’t seem upset about Phoenix’s comments, he was totally above Immortal attitudes of that sort. What was this all about, then?
Maybe I’m being silly assuming it’s even about me, she thought. The biggest project of his life is about to materialize. Of course he’s going to make damn sure everything is ready and working properly, especially something as crucial as the sound systems for a world tour of a rock band. She would do the same thing if they were her responsibility. Surely something as insignificant as a few stupid words from an ignorant Immortal wouldn’t be on his mind in the face of something so important. She was definitely being silly.
With that thought, she got down to work. Even if she wasn’t entirely convinced that Daniel’s excuse was legitimate, she decided to believe it. It was the only way she could make herself focus enough to do her job.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
‘Miss Quinn, just one more question!’ A journalist she recognized but didn’t remember the name of, managed to get to the front of the crowd of reporters and find the last opening to get her attention. ‘I understand Carpe Diem’s calendar has been planned in great detail until spring next year, but considering the incredible demand that we have witnessed over the last four weeks, is there any chance they would consider playing additional concerts in the United States at the end of their tour?’
‘It is not impossible,’ Amaranthine replied. Her words caused a stir of excitement. ‘Carpe Diem will do their absolute best to make their fans happy. However, you’ll appreciate it’s a long time away, so no such plan has been decided upon, or even discussed at this stage.’
‘Would you say the probability is higher than fifty per cent?’ the journalist had no intention of giving up. All the others froze in anticipation, gazing at her.
‘I’m afraid I can’t give you any such indication at this stage,’ Amaranthine replied. ‘It depends on too many factors and it would be unfair to raise Carpe Diem’s fans’ hopes.’
Rumblings of disappointment ran amongst the reporters.
‘What about The End of the Year Festival?’ another reporter butted in. ‘There are no concerts planned between December 24th and January 3rd. Are Carpe Diem coming to play home then?’
‘I’m sorry but I can’t comment on that.’
‘I’m afraid our time’s up,’ Ambrose stepped up. ‘Please be assured that any news regarding the band’s plans will be passed onto you as soon as they are confirmed. Please do not hesitate to contact Elixir Vitae Communications via our globesite if you have any further questions. Thank you very much.’
Amaranthine grabbed her idatron and followed Ambrose out of the conference room. As soon as they were alone, they both broke into massive smiles and high-fived each other.
‘Did you see that?’ Ambrose was ecstatic, ‘they are gagging for it! Four weeks in and they can’t get enough of Carpe Diem! I know you told us they were going to be huge, but I think I’m only now starting to believe you!’
‘I know,’ she smiled. ‘If you check my predictions, they were at least 30% lower than what is actually happening. I’m going to have to adjust everything.’
‘Do you think they would do another tour of the US next spring?’ Ambrose asked.
‘I can’t see why not,’ she replied, ‘it would cement their position as the number one rock band of their times. But the press must be kept intrigued about it; make sure the rumor of the possible next US tour gets out every so often. They should keep speculating about it till the last moment.’
‘Sure thing,’ Ambrose said. ‘When are we going to give the next conference?’
‘Soon,’ she said, ‘the more people know about Carpe Diem, the more they will want to find out, and we need to keep giving them something to broadcast every week. In the meantime, let’s make sure that what they write is exactly what we want them to.’
‘Ok, let’s get down to work, then,’ he said, rubbing his hands together. ‘Why don’t we leak some gossip about possible extra concerts in the States during The End of the Year?’
Amaranthine grew serious.
‘No, don’t do that,’ she said. ‘I’m still trying to negotiate this with Daniel and Gary.’
‘Are they still being stubborn about that?’
‘Yeah, and I’m slowly running out of arguments.’
They headed to their offices to prepare for detailed monitoring of the press articles that would follow the conference. They’ve done nothing else for the last three weeks; just as Nectar and Amari had predicted, Carpe Diem turned out to be a smash hit, and the press haven’t been off the subject since the first couple of concerts. They had to make sure the media were fed enough interesting information about the band members, so they wouldn’t go making up stories that could be harmful to Carpe Diem’s image. Every press release had to be carefully thought through; every dangerous speculation had to be rectified immediately, and most importantly, new ‘secret’ facts about the guys had to be released to keep the interest at the constantly high level.
A lot of it focused on the two younger members of the band, Joe and William, as they didn’t have children yet, which for most Immortals automatically meant that sooner or later they would change their minds and step over to the immortal side. Their personal lives were a subject of interest for millions of immortal girls. Fortunately Carpe Diem had much more than that to offer. TV stations played their music non-stop and analyzed it in great detail, trying to get to the bottom of their popularity. Never ending comparisons with bands of that caliber as Galactic, The Speed of Light and Residents of the Olympus aired in primetime on most networks. Some specialized channels had twenty-first, and twentieth century music experts go on and on about how Carpe Diem’s phenomenon could only be matched with some ancient bands like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Amari, Ambrose and Perenelle monitored all of the media to make sure that Carpe Diem was getting the best possible publicity.
Daniel was constantly with the band, providing support on locations. Amari hadn’t seen him or anyone from his team since Carpe Diem’s las
t private concert in New York. He never did get back before the tour started on April 1st, and as soon as the band played a couple of concerts, it was all over the news and none of them had time to think about anything else. Getting a cohesive message out to the press was top priority now, and all the brief moments that they had on the idatrons, they spent discussing the best possible strategies. Amaranthine couldn’t leave New York even for a few hours, she had to be on top of things around the clock. And Daniel was tied up making sure nothing unwanted leaked out to the press and that the technical side of the concerts was nothing less than perfect. He had to prepare the guys for interviews that every network wanted to have with them. They had to discuss the questions that would be asked, and how they would be answered, and choose the media that they would give interviews to. He also had to double the security to keep the band safe.
On top of the press, Amari had to deal with advertisers. She couldn’t believe it had cost her so much effort and stress before; now that Carpe Diem were breaking all records of popularity, with ‘Rollercoaster’ topping all the playlists and their other hits right behind it, she got calls from nearly all the clients who had declined advertising packages before, desperately wanting their brands to be present in Carpe Diem’s limelight. She had to be extremely diplomatic; the advertising spots were very limited now, and she had to make sure she chose well between the offers, and that she didn’t piss off those she had to decline. Her workload had never been crazier than now.
Despite this overwhelming success, she felt a bit down when she got home after work, which nowadays was no earlier than one o’clock in the morning. Her and Daniel spoke nearly every day, but there was virtually no time to discuss anything else than business. They were both completely preoccupied with it and were aware that this was the crucial time when they had to be on top of the game, otherwise all the work they’d put in, could be wasted. The incredible success of their clients was exhilarating, but the responsibility not to make a mistake was overwhelming. At this stage of the tour their personal lives had to be put completely aside; they couldn’t afford to be distracted or emotional.