Life Without You

Chapter 14 - Rehearsal

Leon was flabbergasted.

Angel texted him that he saw Ariel at Beth's wedding which he missed. Why none of her friends told him she would be there? They knew he had spent whatever he could to get hold of her. At least, they could've texted to let him know.

He felt betrayed at being left out, but later remembered in her letter how she did not want to see him. Perhaps and obviously, she would not want her friends to let him know she was there. At least Evan notified him, but this time, Leon did not want to express much interest. If she did not care, why should he?

If it was not for that urgent meeting with some of his distributors on salvaging his skincare business which was going into the red, he would have attended the wedding. But even if he did attend the wedding, would she take him back? Part of him desperately wanted to see her, but a growing part of him felt like giving up.

But right now, he had to keep his focus on more pressing issues.

Due to a serious dip in his skincare sales, his distributors decided to end their partnerships with him, much to his dismay. As a result, the goods were returned back to his warehouse, giving him added headaches on coming up with ideas to get rid of them. Now he was left with one and only major distributor on his side who still had not given up on him.

And the world continued to rub salt in his wounds with unflattering gossip and fake news.

How much he hated it when they kept harassing him and pushing their cameras into his face, bombarding him with personal questions that were sensitive, offensive and disgustingly intrusive. No one respected his privacy and the fallout with his skincare distributors would be news tomorrow.

Life was indeed getting messier in both his professional and private lives. Was fate so cruel to put a wedge between him and Ariel when they were so close to seeing each other again? No one understood or cared about his ongoing torments, not her friends whom he thought he considered close. And not even Ariel herself.

He opened a bottle of red wine to drown his sorrows, no longer caring about the state of his health.

———-

"One more time, the last verse," said the sound producer as Leon adjusted his throat with a few coughs. He was rehearsing for his performance on stage for an upcoming major open-air concert that would feature other major artistes.

"If I could... oooohh... I'll runnnn-nn-" Leon tried to hit that high note on "run" but his voice faltered into a horrible coarse-sounding pitch.

"You alright there?"

He could not stop coughing as his throat felt awfully painful. Usually, he could sing that high but this time, that pitch was ridiculously hard to hit.

"Vinny, my painkillers."

Vinny rushed to his bag and got out some pills and a bottle of water.

"Gimme 5 mins," Leon flashed his full five fingers on his hand.

"You've already taken ten 5 mins," moaned Arnold. "You know we ain't got time for this."

Whatever.

And among the audience, was someone with whom he always had relationship friction.

Sheldon Avon, the mega-rich multi-millionaire CEO of Avon Music who was in his 60s and well-known for his shoulder-length white hair, clean-shaven razor jaws and his love for black suits, was standing next to Arnold with crossed arms and adjusting his large round-rimmed glasses every now and then, observing the star whom his company had groomed for many years. He had taken more than a year off to focus on his fifth new business venture in real estate and left the running of Avon Music to his wife and staff. He was known in the industry for his shrewdness, and his distant and menacing personality earned him the reputation of being the male version of Anna Wintour.

Sheldon terrified any new artiste signed to his label with his demanding ways and unforgiving stare until their dance steps perfected on reddened toes and their singing voices modulated from painful throats. Once his artistes proved to be profitable, he would loosen his reigns on them and gave them greater creative freedom in carving out their own music.

It was when Leon's third album that became the world's best-selling album that earned him multiple Grammy awards that Leon was finally able to pay off his label's advances which were in fact his debts to his label and renegotiate the unreasonable 360° deal in his contract that required a share from any of his earnings which included movie deals, modelling, merchandise, endorsements and other streams of income through his entertainment pursuits.

Because Leon was Avon Music's best-selling artiste in their history since the company started two decades ago, Sheldon agreed to take a much smaller cut. It was from there that Leon actually began to grow his income significantly and become rich, which enabled him to diversify his income into his skincare business and rental properties.

It was no secret that many of Avon's music artistes have a love-hate relationship with Sheldon, Leon included, although it was more of hate than love for him. That was why he always used Arnold as his go-to middleman for communication between him and Sheldon.

Today, the CEO was observing him with his signature squinted look which used to terrify Leon on his first day of training.

"I need a break," Leon coughed as the pain in his throat surfaced once more.

"Not again!" Arnold rolled his eyes.

"Let him," Sheldon said to Arnold as Leon came down from the stage.

"You don't look ok," Vinny remarked.

Leon coughed a few more times as he popped the pills into his mouth and gulped the water down until the entire bottle finished.

"Vinny, give us a minute," said Sheldon. Vinny nodded and walked away.

"How long a break do you need?" he asked.

"Can you not see I'm not feeling well?"

Sheldon placed his hand on Leon's shoulder and inched close to his ear, "A break right now won't give us the next big break. The ocean's not short of new blood, you know." His last line left Leon reeling as he knew what he meant. Sheldon flashed his white-polished smile, which was not a smile of sincerity but of a warning.

Leon cleared his throat with a few coughs and reluctantly walked back up the stage.

"Okay, I'm ready, let's do this again."