All That She Desires: The Stranger by Melissa Morgan Read Free Book Online Page B

and it all
went sour."
     
    "So she was telling you to give up your dreams
of being an artist and do what? Work in an office or something?"
     
    "That's a simple version, yeah," he said.
"And I can see her side of things. She doesn't want to be poor. And she's
working on her own career, but from her point of view, she's got this husband
who just sits around all the time working on paintings that don't make money.
Not real money."
     
    Fiona held his hand. "She doesn't sound very
supportive. Maybe you're better off."
     
    He shrugged. "Well, she made some good points.
She kept saying that I didn't care about making money, that all I cared about
was art, and that I would be happy being poor my entire life as long as got to
paint. And I think she's probably right. I don't need very much. All I really
care about is being able to create."
     
    Fiona leaned back in her chair. "I am actually
intensely jealous of you," she said. "I mean, you're broke, which
must suck or something, but you actually care about what you're doing, and
that's awesome. Your situation is the exact opposite of mine. I make a whole
bunch of money, but there's absolutely no art in what I do. There's no
creativity. That's why I hate it so much."
     
    Fiona's bag of weed was there, and Mike started
preparing a joint. "I think it's silly to say this, because I know a lot
of people who wish they were in your situation, but can't you quit? Or change
what you're doing somehow? Don't you have any control over your situation at
all?"
     
    "I don't know," she said. "I feel
like I'm an employee in a big corporation. The Fiona Luxe company. But I don't
really run it. I do a lot of work, but so do a lot of other people. The Fiona
Luxe company pays a lot of people. A lot of people make money off me being
Fiona Luxe."
     
    "Do you know what it sounds like to me,"
he said, pausing to light the joint, "It sounds like you fired your
parents as your managers, but you kept the same pattern. Nothing really changed
on your end, except that your mom and dad aren't there. But you still work for
other people, doing what they tell you. You still have no control. Your
management team, or your label, or whatever, is now doing what your parents
used to do."
     
    Fiona took the joint from him. "Yeah, that's
pretty much true." She took a drag.
     
    "So why not quit?" he said. "You must
have some money. You could fire everybody, go underground for a while, and
figure out what you want to do. If you want to continue on as a singer, you can
do it, but on your own terms."
     
    "Maybe. It wouldn't be that easy. I've got
contracts and shit. My record label would probably sue me."
     
    "You can probably get out of it somehow. Or
just fulfill your contracts and then get out."
     
    "It's not that simple though," she said,
passing the joint back to him. "You get addicted to the income and the lifestyle.
I don't even think I really own anything, you know? My place is rented, my car
is leased, I've got all this staff and shit. If I stopped getting money from my
record company and touring, everything would just get all fucked up. I wouldn't
know how to deal with anything. I'm paralyzed by my own wealth and power."
     
    He shrugged. "Time to start downsizing. Time to
start learning how to live like a grownup. You live like a grownup here."
     
    "Yeah, maybe. I owe the company another album,
but maybe I could just do a Scarlett."
     
    He exhaled a cloud of smoke. "I don't know what
that means."
     
    "You know Scarlett Johansson? She made that
album, and it was all covers of Tom Waits songs. Someone must have said to her
like, Scarlett, we'll let you make an album, but are you sure this is what you
want to do? Just Tom Waits? And she must have been like, yeah, just Tom
Waits."
     
    "Sorry, I'm not thinking very clearly right
now," he said. "Are you saying that you want to do an album of Tom
Waits covers?"
     
    "No, I just mean I could do an album of just
whatever I want," she said. "The only problem is I