The Guitar Player Ch. 03

I was in so much emotional pain, and no matter how I tried to understand, I couldn't get my mind around it. If Tanya wanted to be with Todd, all she had to do was to tell me she wanted a divorce. I would have been crushed, but not like this. This was more than just a divorce. There was something else going on here, but I, for sure, didn't know what it was at that moment. However, there was no doubt in my mind that this was all Todd's idea. I really wanted to believe that Tanya didn't really know what was going on. But that didn't make any sense. I had to face the reality that none of this could have started without Tanya's willingness to go along.

I just laid there for the next two hours, feeling sorry for myself. I did a fair amount of crying. Why was it that women felt like they had to treat me like shit? And I had taken it all my life. I had never really been able to get back at any female that had turned on me. Now Tanya was not only leaving me, but she planned to leave my career in a smoking ruin. An from the wreckage of my career, Tanya was going to make herself bigger and better than before. The hatred and anger filled me until I finally explode, yelling, "I'M NOT TAKING THIS ANYMORE!"

I tried to reason through it all. First of all, Tanya and Todd had waited until the end of the tour. I was sure this was done so there would be no chance of a breach of contract. But I didn't understand why they had tried to trap me in New York. Maybe they were going to try to scoop up all the assets before I got back to Atlanta. But what good would that do? In the divorce, the company books would be examined, and everything would be split 50/50. Maybe Tanya wanted to claim occupancy of the house. I didn't care about that; she could have it. Maybe they were trying to make me feel financially desperate, so they could approach me with some kind of ridiculous settlement. They had to realize that regardless of what they offered, with what they had done, I wouldn't accept it even if I had to sleep on the street. None of this made any sense.

However, the more I thought about them trying to squeeze me into a financial box, I had to admit that it did seem to have some legs to it. But if that was their plan, they had badly miscalculated. I was pretty sure they had no knowledge of my personal accounts. Because our Partnership was, in reality, a Limited Liability Corporation, our tax accountant had insisted that we each take a salary. This was to ensure that the IRS would leave us alone. We each received a salary of six thousand dollars a month. For me, after everything that was required was taken out, I had been putting almost forty-five hundred dollars a month into a brokerage account. Tanya and I both made personal appearances, and we got paid directly for them. Tanya spent most of her money on clothes, jewelry, and artwork. I instead invested all that money with my broker also. That was just the way I was raised. Anyway, my personal account now had almost eight hundred thousand dollars. I not only had an ATM card, but I could call up and have money sent to me directly.

Even though the royalties from my songs had slacked off in recent years, they were still bringing in fifteen to twenty thousand dollars a year. And the royalties from these songs were mine. Todd had tried to talk me into putting the songs into the corporation, but I had flatly refused. In the back of my mind, I planned to sign over these songs to Tanya for our tenth anniversary. That, for sure, was not going to happen now.

Even though I had booked the room for an additional two days, I toyed with the idea of catching a flight that evening back to Atlanta. But I decided against doing that because there was nothing back there for me. Instead, I decided to call our old agent, Alex, and discuss what a mess Tanya and Todd had created for me.

"Hello," I heard Alex's familiar voice.

"Alex, it's me, Robbie," I tried to sound upbeat.

"Robbie, great to hear from you. How are you and Tanya doing?"

"Terrible," I responded. "And that's why I'm calling. Tanya has filed for divorce, citing mental and physical abuse as the reason. She and Todd have also slapped a restraining order and an injunction on me. They are trying to cut me off from any company assets and cutting off any discussion between Tanya and me. They've also retained Greg Pinder, so, right now, I'm up the creek without a paddle. I'm not sure what I should do next."

"If Greg has truly agreed to represent Tanya, then he has a serious conflict of interest," Alex said forcefully. "But that is something that can be visited later."

"I have plans for Greg in the future," Robbie offered. "But I agree, he's is a minor irritation right now."

Alex was silent for several long seconds, and then he sighed. "I'm sorry, Robbie, I should have said something when you and Tanya decided to get married. I knew you were crazy about her, but I also knew she didn't feel the same way about you. Tanya told me that she was very fond of you but wasn't interested in getting married. Then I made the mistake of casually mentioning that a wedding could generate huge publicity. Tanya immediately flipped for the idea. I realized right then that while she cared for you, Tanya cared way more for her career. She's the worst kind of publicity whore. I believe she'd sell her soul to become a superstar."

Hearing what Alex had to say just cut deeper into me. As I looked back over my relationship with Tanya, I had been way more in love with her than she ever was with me. In fact, now I questioned whether everything about my marriage was a lie.

"Robbie, I know you're in a bad place right now," Alex said soothingly, "but I'll help you any way that I can. From what you're telling me, your marriage is dead. So, what do you want to do now?

The pain that had been growing was overwhelming me. I was totally surprised by the words that flowed out of my mouth. "I want to burn the bitch. She destroyed what was most important to me. I want to destroy what is most important to her."

There was a long pause on the other end of the line. Then Alex sighed. "I'm not sure what that means, but I strongly suggest that you just walk away from her. Let the lawyers work out the divorce and the dissolution of the business. You're talented enough to start a career on your own. Don't let this turn you bitter."

"Too late to stop that, Alex," I admitted because I was beyond bitter, and I desperately wanted to burn Tanya's ass. I knew that Tanya's greatest desire was to become a superstar. But, at the moment, I didn't have a clue as to how to keep her from becoming one. Chances were that she wouldn't make it regardless of what Todd had planned. But that wasn't good enough for me. Somehow, I had to mess with her becoming a star. That was the way to hit back at Tanya. And if Tanya failed, she'd turn on Todd. That would be fun to watch.

"Okay," he said with another sigh, "I not sure exactly what you want to do about getting back at Tanya. But for right now, let's start with the basics. I'm going to give you the number of an attorney to handle your divorce. He's a real shark. And I'm going to give you the number of a corporate attorney to battle for your business rights. If you don't have the money, I'll front you the retainers."

"No, that's alright; I've got enough of my own money."

"Hang on a second, Robbie," Alex said suddenly. "There's something about Tanya on the news."

I waited on the phone for a long two minutes before Alex got back on. "Todd just announced your divorce, citing physical and mental abuse. He's also announced that Tanya is launching a solo career. They're going to cut a new album with new songs. Todd also announced that they're in the process of planning a new tour for Tanya."

"They didn't waste any time, did they?" I said with despair. Then I had a horrible feeling in my stomach. Suddenly, I blurted out, "My songs."

I dropped the phone and began frantically searching through my luggage for the shoeboxes with my songs in them. Finally, I sighed with relief when I found them, but that feeling evaporated when I lifted the boxes. I realized they were empty. Tanya had stolen my songs.

Suddenly, I remembered that Alex was still on the line. "Alex, are you still there?"

"Yeah," he answered with confusion in his voice, "what's going on."

"Tanya stole my songs," I said with despair in my voice.

"Now it all makes sense," Alex responded. "Todd is an asshole, but he's a smart one. They stranded you in New York, so they could hustle back to Atlanta and record their new album. And from what I can see, Todd and Tanya are going to try to control the narrative. They will try to elicit sympathy and make you out to be a wife-beater or worse. I can get some PR people to help you with that. Just remember to push your side of the story every time you talk to the media. Categorically deny the charges of abuse and let everyone know how they're trying to steal your portion of the company. I know everything looks really dark right now, Robby, but don't get discouraged. I'll make sure you can fight back."

After I hung up from Alex, I felt more like a man again, not the eunuch Tanya was trying to make me into. I got all the paperwork together and sorted it out to speak intelligently to the two attorneys. By the time I called them, Alex had already informed them to expect my call. I faxed the legal papers and arranged to have the retainers deposited into their accounts. Now I had nothing to do, and I was stuck in New York for two full days and part of a third. Add to this, I hate New York City. It's a dirty, smelly city filled with nasty people. Most New Yorkers I've met are rude, arrogant, and abrasive. Why anyone would want to live here is beyond me.

With nothing to do and feeling like the walls were closing in on me, I had to find something to keep me sane. If I stayed in the room, I'd obsess about Tanya and start hitting the mini-bar again. Instead, I headed out for a walk. I figured I would walk for a bit and then catch a show or something. Anything to take my mind off my misery.

The walk was actually pleasant. It was a nice spring day, and the heavy rains last night had cleared the air and cleaned the city to an extent. The temperature was in the mid-sixties, and despite the New Yorkers, I was actually enjoying myself. I hit an ATM first and took out another six hundred dollars. New York is super expensive, and I knew the money wouldn't last long, even with what I had taken out yesterday and today.

About the only place in Manhattan that I was familiar with was Central Park. So, I decided to head over there. I wanted to get away from the mad stream of people hurrying to who knows where. I stopped at the top of the stairway down into the park at one of the entrances.

A young woman just to the side of the stairs, maybe mid-twenties, was playing a guitar and singing. She was wearing a shabby sundress and had stringy blonde hair. She had a pretty face but seemed kind of on the thin side. In front of her was an open guitar case should anyone want to drop a donation in. Judging from the money there, if she relied on this to eat, it was no wonder she was so thin.

I was intrigued because the woman could barely play the guitar, but she had a beautiful voice. I studied her bare arms, looking for the needle marks of an addict but found none. The more I watched, the more intrigued I became. Finally, I reached in and pulled out my wallet. I pulled out a hundred dollars and moved up next to her.

"How are you doing?" I asked the young woman politely.

Her eyes filled with fear and uncertainty. "Okay," she mumbled.

"Tell you what," I said with a smile, "I'll give you a hundred dollars if you let me play the guitar while you sing."

"I don't do any weird shit," she said angrily.

"Look, I know this is New York Fucking City, where everyone is weird, but this is a straight-up offer. One hundred dollars if you let me play the guitar while you sing. Of course, I'll probably sing some myself."

The young woman looked hard at me, and then she looked hard at the hundred dollars. I could almost see the wheels turning in her head. The girl desperately wanted the hundred dollars, but she was wondering what else I wanted.

"Look, just to be sure that I'm on the up and up," I said to head off her worst fears, "I'll put two hundred dollars in your case right now and step over here. If you want the deal, ask someone to hand me the guitar. I'll bet that guitar didn't cost you more than fifty dollars. If you don't want the deal, I'll take the two hundred dollars back and leave."

I tossed the two hundred dollars into the case and moved away. After about thirty seconds of thought, the young woman finally asked a teenager to hand me her guitar. I took it and began tuning it. It was old and pretty beat-up, so it took a couple minutes to get any kind of a decent sound out of it. I looked over at the young woman and asked her what her name was.

"Dawn," she said softly.

"Well, Dawn, my name is Robbie. What songs do you know?"

She rattled off about a dozen, and I knew all of them. After a few seconds of thought, I decided we'd start off with Amazing Grace. That song touches ninety percent of the people who hear it. I wasn't sure about New Yorkers, but it would be great if it only touched fifty percent.

We started off a little rough. I had never performed with Dawn, and of course, she wasn't a professional. But quickly, we got in sync, and with Dawn's crystal-clear voice and the power I could generate, we started to build a crowd. The donations started to drop in. The crowd continued to grow until there had to be about thirty or forty people around us. After about an hour and a half, I saw her looking at her watch.

"I've got to go," Dawn announced suddenly as she jumped to her feet.

"What's the rush?" I asked. "People are just starting to come out for lunch."

"I've got to get back to New Jersey to pick up my daughter."

That was definitely a solid reason for ending our impromptu concert. I was a little disappointed because I was really enjoying myself. So, reluctantly, I handed the guitar back. Dawn tried to stuff it into the case, but it wouldn't close with all the money in there. I estimated, counting the two hundred I'd thrown in, she had to have close to four hundred dollars. Unfortunately, a lot of it was in coins.

Dawn scooped out the coins and put them into the pockets and in her purse. Unfortunately, now she jingled like a reindeer.

"How are you getting home?" I asked as I followed her out to the sidewalk.

"I'll take the bus out of the Port of Authority and transfer when I get to the New Jersey side."

"Look, I can't let you do that," I said. "It won't be safe. You sound like a frigging piggy bank."

"I can't afford to go any other way," she said as she sped up, apparently trying to leave me behind.

"Wait a minute," I said as I whistled for a cab. "I'll pay your cab fare."

"I told you I don't do weird shit," she with anger in her eyes.

"I'm not going anywhere with you," I said as I opened the cab door and stepped back. "Just tell the driver where you want to go."

The cabbie immediately bitched about going to New Jersey. Typical New Yorker.

"What's it going to cost?" I asked, trying to sound snottier than he did.

He thought for a second and said, "Seventy bucks."

"How about a hundred," I said, holding up five twenties. Then I turned to Dawn. "I'm only in town for tomorrow. I'll be flying out the day after. If you want to play again, I'll meet you here at ten in the morning. If you can't make it, that's okay also. But if you do show up, I think you'll do even better than today."

As I watched the cab drive away, a germ of an idea had taken seed in my brain on how to get back at Tanya. I would revisit it tomorrow if Dawn showed up.