Different Circles

“As soon as the notary gets here, we sign,” Pauline said.

The notary public was an overweight middle-aged woman in a cheap business dress. Pauline had found her on the internet and checked her references to make sure she was legitimate. She was. Her name was Gloria Meeker. She smelled of cigarette smoke, but she had her credentials in order and all of the tools of her trade with her. Frowley examined her credentials personally and then made a few phone calls to satisfy himself that Meeker was indeed a currently appointed notary public with the power to notarize the document. He received his confirmation and they began the process.

First, Meeker took the driver’s licenses of all who would be signing and made copies of them. She then took everyone’s thumb print in a book she carried. She then separated the master copy of the contract into six individual pages. She did not read the document, but simply asked the parties if this is what they had agreed to. Everyone confirmed that they had agreed to it.

“All right then,” she said. “Go ahead and sign.”

Jake, Pauline, and Nerdly signed on behalf of KVA Records. Doolittle and Crow signed on behalf of National Records. Meeker than put her official seal on each page of the document. Two copies of the document were then made. Meeker put her seal on each page of the copies as well, certifying that they were notarized copies of the original document. National kept the original. KVA and Meeker herself took possession of the notarized copies.

“That’s it then,” Pauline said with a smile once the process was complete. “This contract is now in effect.”

“Agreed,” said Doolittle, who was no longer hiding his predatory grin. It was quite apparent that he thought he had KVA right where he wanted them.

Pauline returned the smile. She would allow him to think that for a few more days. And then she would spring the trap she had so neatly set.

“I really thought Frowley was going to blow this whole thing out of the water,” said Jake as they sat in their favorite Hollywood Mexican restaurant thirty minutes later.

“Yeah,” Pauline agreed. “He knows we’re up to something. A rat can smell a rat. He just can’t figure out what it is.”

“Fuck him where he breathes,” said Matt, who was drinking a bottle of beer since rehearsal had been cancelled for the day. “I can’t wait to see the expression on his face when he finds out what this shit is really all about.”

“We need to be careful to not give anything away just yet,” Pauline warned. “We cannot give them a basis to argue that we did not sign that contract in good faith. When I spring my surprise on them, they cannot have any evidence that I knew what I know before we put those signatures down.”

“Frowley is going to know anyway,” Jake said.

“Of course he’s going to know,” Pauline said. “They’re all going to know that we planned this all along, but knowing something and being able to advance a legal argument for it are two different things. That means that no one blurts anything out at this meeting. We listen to whatever fucked-up proposal they offer, reject it, and try to negotiate something better.”

“There’s no reason for them to negotiate shit,” Matt pointed out. “They think they hold all the cards.”

“That’s fine,” Pauline said. “It will be a short meeting then and we can all go home a little early today. Let them have their fleeting moment of thinking they got the better of us. It will be dashed soon enough.”

“You’re sure about this shit you were talking?” Matt asked. “Really fuckin’ sure?”

“I’m really fuckin’ sure,” Pauline assured him. “The precedents are right there in the law libraries if you just know where to look for them. Had Frowley bothered to do even minimal research on this contract, he would have found them as well.”

National laid their touring proposal on the table almost immediately after KVA returned from the lunch break. It was every bit as ridiculous as they had assumed it would be. Perhaps even more ridiculous.

“Let me get this straight,” Pauline said, her eyes glaring at the suits. “You are suggesting that National Records gets to keep sixty-five percent of all touring revenue from both Matt’s and Celia’s tour, and that KVA pays one hundred percent of tour costs?”

“That is our proposal,” Doolittle said with a smile.

“You’re out of your fucking minds,” Jake said, shaking his head. “This is not negotiating in good faith.”

“We disagree,” Doolittle said. “We consider this to be a fair and equitable offer considering the low royalty rate we will be receiving for CD sales from the project.”

“Fair and equitable?” Pauline asked. “I haven’t actually crunched these asinine numbers yet, but I’m pretty sure that if KVA only receives thirty-five percent of tour revenue—half of which we are obligated to give to Matt—and has to pay all of touring expenses—the truck and bus rentals, the crew salary, the venue rentals, the promotion costs—we will be operating well in the red.”