Heartbreak Hotel (Editing)

Chapter 95: Fed Up

For a moment I thought I was beginning to master the art of hiding things from Michael. After years of knowing him, I thought I finally did it. I didn't want to get a big head about it though, because I knew he also knew how to pretend like he didn't notice that I had anything on my mind. That's what drove me crazy. I would spend a whole hour wondering if he knew that something was on my mind or not, and when I would finally convince myself that maybe he just wasn't paying that much attention to notice, he would turn around and ask me what was wrong. Then, for some reason, I would try to convince him that nothing was wrong even though I knew I would fail at that attempt. 

The exact same thing happened that night. After Melvin had left I walked directly over to him, placing a smiling masquerade onto my face as I hugged him. I told him he sounded beautiful—while slowly freaking out on the inside. The night had went on in a blur after that, and I could only remember the highlights of the night. Like when Mother revealed the gift from all of us, which was a Rolls Royce. Or when Randy went up and sung a song to her, but he was completely off key. That was all I could remember. It wasn't until we got home when Michael asked me about him.

"Why were you talking to that guy?" He asked me.

At first the question caught me off guard, and I didn't know what he was talking about. "What guy?"

"Melvin," he said. " Why was he talking to you. What was he doing there?"

I was sitting on the bed braiding my hair. I didn't even make eye contact with him when I answered. "Joseph invited him, apparently."

"I told him to fire him." He mumbled to himself. " What did he say to you."

I shrugged my shoulders. " He was just congratulating us on the baby. He said that he couldn't wait to meet her, and I told him that he was crazy if he thought I was gonna let him anywhere near my baby."

He stopped what he was doing for a moment and crossed his arms across his chest. " You're damn right about that." He threw his hands up in the air and sat on the end of the bed. " But it's okay, you won't have to worry about him anymore, 'cause this is their last shot. This is the last time I am working for them. If he can't respect my wishes, then I won't bend over backwards for them anymore. I'm serious, Li. This is their last time. I'm out of whatever else they do."

"You sure they are gonna let you do that?" I asked. " They threw a fit when you said that you wanted to change the tour name to The Final Curtain."

He shrugged his shoulders. " I don't care. This is their last time, and I mean it. I don't feel victorious about anything that is going on right now. They wanna cheat my fans out of their money with this crazy ticket idea Don King came up with. I told them not to use him. I specifically said, ' D-dont use Don King' and they did anyway. Joseph's all like," -he deepened his voice to match his father's -"'He knows what he's doing, he's a good businessman, blah, blah, blah' He doesn't know what he's doing, and he's not a good businessman. A good businessman wouldn't be throwing things out there about race everything all the time. And I would expect them to see that he ain't nothin' but a crook after that press conference, but no...they didn't. And-"

"Wait a minute," I said. Cutting him off. " What are you talking about?"

He looked at me, his eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"You said he came up with some crazy ticket idea. What crazy ticket idea?"

" I didn't tell you?"

I shook my head.

He let out a sigh and shifted himself on the bed so that we were making full eye contact. " They came up with this crazy ticket system that-"

"Who?"