The Sauna Part 233

It was just before three and I dialed the Fan Club again but it went straight to voicemail. I looked at my watch and frowned. Where was Matt? It was after nine in New Jersey and I suspected he was simply avoiding my calls and now I was angry. I wanted to get this resolved. I shot off an email advising him that Jack had my approval and that I expected Matt to resolve the “problem” by the end of the day and I cc’ed it to Jack. It was time to leave for the airport and I closed up the laptop and looked up at Jon.

“Matt’s avoiding me and I’m beginning to lose patience” I explained. “He’s got until the end of the day to get this resolved before I consider taking another route.”

“What exactly is the problem, babe? What do you need him to do?” Jon inquired.

“He needs to give Jack the access he needs to the website in order to implement the changes I’d asked him to make and he’s been making excuses and refusing to give him the passwords” I grunted as we grabbed our bags and headed for the elevator.

“What changes?” Jon asked, more curious now.

I explained the plan we’d devised to incorporate an adult only section as part of Backstage and how we would insure that only adults could get access via a refundable fee with a credit card. Jon nodded his approval, but gave Matt the benefit of the doubt.

“Do you know what Matt’s objections are? Maybe there’s a reason why he’s been stalling” he offered as we made our way into the lobby.

“Jon, c’mon! He’s just being difficult because it wasn’t his decision. Has he contacted you about this?” I wondered.

I put my hand on his arm and stopped him from walking as I looked at him searchingly. I needed to know that Jon was not discussing the situation with Matt without my knowledge and I needed him to truly trust me on this.

“No, that’s not what I meant. I don’t know what the issue is, but I’d like to believe that Matt wouldn’t fuck something up without a good reason. I thought you wanted to get him on board rather than just demand he comply with your wishes” he said pointedly.

He was right. Maybe I was being overly sensitive as I had anticipated that Matt would challenge my authority at the first opportunity. I really hadn’t explored what his objections might be or what the inherent difficulty might actually exist with enabling Jack’s request. I looked down at the floor, ashamed at my own reactivity.

“You’re right. I do need to approach this differently” I nodded, dialing Matt’s number once more.

The call went to voicemail again and this time I left a more conciliatory message for Matt, explaining that I wanted to hear any concerns he might have or to be advised of any problems he was encountering. And I asked him to call me as soon as possible. I wouldn’t have liked it myself if someone demanded I do something and I was sorry that I’d overreacted.

Jon smiled as we joined the guys in the lobby and one of the road crew came forward to take our bags. I looked around and I didn’t see Rick and I’d kept meaning to ask Jon where he was as I hadn’t seen him hardly at all.

“I haven’t seen Rick all the time we’ve been in Europe. Jon, where is he? Is he alright?” I asked.

“Rick’s here, he’s just really busy when we’re on tour. He’s probably already in Holland to set up security. He’s usually always ahead of us, but you’ll most likely see him tonight” Jon reassured me as we threaded our way through the crowd who’d been anxiously waiting for a glimpse of the band.

*************


Matt was fuming as he read over my email and deleted my messages from his voicemail. Who the hell does she think she is? She thinks she can just dictate to me and I’m gonna jump like my brother when she bats her eyes? Well, fuck her, that ain’t gonna happen. And there’s no way I’m letting her turn this Fan Club into some forum where a bunch of frustrated housewives can drool over my brother and post all their filthy comments. He scowled as he dialed the phone, knowing his mother would have similar thoughts.

“Hello?” Carol answered on the fourth ring.

“It’s me, mom. I need your help” he said hurriedly into the phone.

“What is it now, darling?” she replied, rolling her eyes at her husband.

“It’s Trish, mom. She’s trying to turn Backstage into some filthy adult site and I’ve stalled her as long as I can. You’ve got to call Jon” he replied, sounding a little excited.

“Tell me what happened” Carol demanded.

Matt shared the recent events and made sure to embellish his role in delaying any action. He painted a picture of how Jon’s image would suffer and that he’d no longer be able to protect his brother’s shiny reputation if I was successful. Carol listened and nodded, lowering her voice so that John Sr. would not overhear her.

“I have a better idea. Let her web designer have access to the site and make all the changes they want. Go ahead and announce the new “adult only” site and make sure that you give full credit-and responsibility- to Trish for all the changes that are coming. Make it obvious to Jon that we are fully cooperating and even supporting her” Carol instructed.

“And then?” Matt agreed, grinning conspiratorially.

“When it comes time to open the “new” section, we’ll make sure nothing works. We’ll also make sure that no one who pays for the enhanced privileges gets the refund she’s promised. Once the fans get frustrated and angry, they’ll blame her completely and Jon will beg us to take over again and she’ll be humiliated” she finished with relish.

“Mom, that’s perfect! She’ll look like the incompetent fool that she is and we’ll come to the rescue when Jon realizes the mistake he made leaving things up to her” Matt chirped gleefully.

“Now make sure that you bend over backwards to show Trish that you’re 100% behind her. We need to make sure that she trusts you completely so that she leaves the details all in your hands. She mustn’t get wind of any problems until it’s too late. Understood?” Carol hissed.

“Absolutely. Mom, you’re a genius!” Matt said indulgently.

“Now get off the phone and get to work! You’ve got plenty to do, so get moving. Make sure you tell her what a fantastic idea she had and that you were able to manage all the necessary details to put her plans into action” she prompted.

“I will, mom, I will” Matt promised before hanging up.

He logged into the website and posted a notice about the upcoming changes, making certain to give me full credit for all that was coming. He smiled genuinely as he wrote his glowing tribute to Jon’s wife and encouraged everyone to submit their application fee as soon as the form was available. He hailed me as brilliant and innovative, making it crystal clear that I was solely responsible.

Matt even emailed the web designer, and apologized for the delay and provided him with the password and settings he needed to access the site. he assured him that he had the green light to add all the new features immediately and that he would take care of the procedures for registering the membership who requested full access. The only thing left was to contact his loyal flunkies and get them on board. He needed their help to set up the registration and payment scheme that he and Carol had plotted.

Matt licked his lips as he dialed my cell number as he was anxious to show his allegiance. The sooner everything happened, the sooner the fans would rebel and then he could resume his rightful place at the head of the Fan Club. And then Carol would see how loyal and faithful he really was and she’d realize how much she needed him too.


***************


We had settled onto the plane for the short ride to Holland and Vicky had made sure we all had our drinks and a snack. It would be early evening when we arrived since we’d be losing an hour and we’d have barely enough time to eat and get to the venue. We were flying to Germany immediately after the show, so I’d see Amsterdam from the back of a limo and I was beginning to understand the toll that touring could take. I lost my remaining notions of romance about the whole venture when we were whisked off to dinner directly from the airport.

We piled into the restaurant and were quickly herded over to a large table. There was no need to order as one of the crew had already called in ahead and soon the table was littered with numerous Indonesian dishes and Richie explained that this was what was called a rice table. There were more than twenty different varieties to try, each more delicious than the next, and I learned that Holland had a history of embracing various cuisines from other cultures as they had few things that were truly unique to them.

My cell phone rang just as we started to eat and I checked the number before deciding whether to answer. I was genuinely surprised to see it was Matt and I answered immediately.

“Trish?” he said, sounding pleasant enough.

“Hi Matt. Did you get my messages?” I said, swallowing my first bite of food.

“Yes, that’s why I’m calling. I just wanted to assure you that there is no problem with implementing the changes you’d asked for and I wanted to apologize for the delay. There were a few technical hurdles to overcome, but that’s all been taken care of and your web designer has all the information he needs now. We’re all excited to see how this new feature works and we’ve got the registration process set up and a few fans have already registered since I posted the announcement” he replied smoothly.

“Uhm, that’s wonderful” I said hesitantly, a bit astonished to hear him concede so easily.

“There was a bit of delay while we determined how best to enable the registration and track it, but that’s all been worked out and we should have smooth sailing from here. I’ll let you know if we run into any glitches, so don’t worry as I know you must have plenty to do right now” he added.

I was grateful to hear that he seemed to be on board since I had anticipated an argument and I was relieved that he wasn’t actually fighting me. Perhaps Jon had been right when he’d advised me to hear him out and not jump to conclusions.

“Thank you for taking care of that, Matt. We were just having dinner before the show tonight in Amsterdam, but I’ll check on how things are progressing sometime tomorrow when we get settled in Germany” I explained.

“I’ll let you go and finish your dinner. Don’t worry about a thing and say hello to Jon for me, okay?” Matt said affably.

I hung up the phone and shook my head, still rather shocked by the turn around. I noticed that Jon was watching me and I looked up and met his eyes.

“Matt said to say hello” I told him.

“Is everything okay now?” Jon asked warily.

“It all sounds good” I replied, uncertain as yet about what to think.