14 Years [GNR/Mötley Crüe]

72. Down In The Gutter

Nadia:

150 pages.

That's how many pages I read in the past two days along with taking notes to make changes in some of the clauses. Tomorrow, I'll have to explain these changes to my client, and I'll have to explain them to Chris and get him to agree. But right now I was too tired to do or think about any of those.

My back was aching, my vision was starting to get weird from the continuous reading and I could barely move my neck or process thoughts in my brain. Yet, people have the audacity to ask me why I hate reading?

Getting up from the bed that I had turned into my workspace, I stood up on my toes and gave my spine and neck a much-needed stretch. I grabbed the folder and my notebooks and my research books and the one pen that helped me write down the notes in my atrocious handwriting. I hope I'll be able to read that later.

Yesterday I came to meet dad, and also cos' spending the weekend at my home burying my nose in the file started to drive me insane. So for a change of scenery I came here to the Mars Mountain. Then I ended up staying the night over when I realized I was too tired and much lazier to drive all the way back home.

As I climbed down the stairs I could hear the strum of an acoustic guitar along with the meows of a cat. Then slowly when the living room came into my vision I saw dad on the sofa, playing to the black furry cat on the coffee table.

"Wow! You've come down from playing stadiums to playing to a cat," I grinned at him before sitting down on the sofa which put me at a safe distance from the cat.

The playing stopped and he looked at me.

"Believe it or not kid, but she's the best kind of audience I've ever had," He said stroking his fingers through the black fur on its neck.

"Sure," I rolled my eyes, before showing him the scratch marks on my hand. "Look, what your favorite did to me!"

They weren't really there. Because the said scratch, occurred around six months back but I clearly remember where it was and what it felt like. Personally, I don't get the gratification you get from caring for an ungrateful animal, it's a very intriguing psychology. But he likes cats and who am I to complain?

"That was six months back even then that scratch was visible only under a microscope!" He laughed before switching the TV on and almost as if he was waiting for it, a rerun of the three stooges started.

And Jesus, the nostalgia was quick to hit me like a freight train. Taking me back to the past when I was still living with him and had this theme song engrained in my brain.

"So what did the label say?" I looked back at him.

He mentioned yesterday something about a meeting with the label in New York, which he tactfully managed to not go and sent the others. The others whom I have successfully avoided for a while now.

I even stopped talking to Tommy, cos' every time I speak to him, he constantly has to bring up Nikki and keeps talking like he and I are gonna be back together soon. I don't want that.

"Doug called me, 4.5 million for starting the next record," He replied, picking up the huge black folder with the temporary draft of the contract.

He flipped through the pages and looked at me with wide eyes.

"What?" I looked at him

"I was just thinking whether that tiny head can handle all of this!" He laughed before closing it and placing it back on the table. "What's this even about?"

"It's a merger. Hotels. A hundred hotels and 23 countries," I sighed, "The preliminary proposal was made but there were a few flaws in those so this is a revised draft,"