O'Malley arranged a showcase at Potbelly's in Tallahassee, FL and Flom was sold on the band's material, which included the future hit "3 A.M." Kevin O'Malley's brother John, Jay Stanley and John Goff financed a new recording session in Atlanta which yielded recordings of new material (the songs Tired, and Swing) as well as refreshed versions of "Forever December" and "3 A.M." Also that year, songwriter/producer and representative for Atlantic Records, Matt Serletic, approached the members of Tabitha's Secret concerning a long-term record deal with his production company, Melisma, which neither Jay Stanley nor John Goff were interested in, believing that it would be better to sign an album deal directly with the label and not with Serletic's company.
It is commonly believed that Serletic was more interested in helping Thomas find his voice than he was in the band Tabitha's Secret.
Stanley and Goff's refusal to sign a long-term production contract, along with alleged pressure from the record company to drop the two guitar players, convinced Thomas to leave the band and take the deal for himself.
In 1997, guitarists Jay Stanley and John Goff filed a lawsuit against Thomas, Yale, Doucette, and Serletic, along with attorney David Mantel.
The lawsuit claimed fiduciary breach of contract against the former bandmembers and tortious interference against Serletic and his attorney[citation needed].
The first post-breakup Tabitha's Secret album was entitled "Don't Play With Matches" (a thinly-veiled reference to Stanley's ex-bandmates), released in 1998.
In 2001, Jay Stanley joined with Tony Miceli and George Spatta to re-mix, re-master and overdub the original recordings from the self-titled EP, much to Thomas's disapproval.