London Harmony: Water Gypsy (14 page)

Ronnie hugged me and dangled my feet off the ground as he said, “That was Brill Tabs!” He set me down as I blushed at the praise as I accepted my mobile back from him. I collected my bag which was on the opposite side of the table I had put it on. I looked through it quickly to make sure nothing was missing. All of my things were there.

I stepped out of the stage door... “Gleeep!”
Oh, yum.
Heat was flooding through me as Teresa hugged me in a side to side motion.

Then her lips brushed delicately across my ear, causing me to shudder as goose flesh raced down my neck. “That was so bloody hawt... my Tabby Cat.” Damn me to hell, I purred like a kitten as I heated up down below. I lapped up her praise like a cat with a saucer of cream.

She released me. “Blarg!” Paya pulled me into a hug now as Harry clapped my shoulder saying, “Well done you.” People were crowding around us, some asking where they could find my music, a couple even wanted an autograph.
How embarrassing is that?

Paya gave Harry a look that conveyed her wishes and he sort of held his arms wide and started moving toward the doors, causing people to give way to him. Paya grabbed one of my hands and Teri my other and they yanked me forward. “Gurk!”
I'm making all kinds of sounds tonight.
I giggled at my inner voice.

We laughed and chatted as we made our way back to the vehicles. We said our goodbyes to Paya and Harry then got into Teri's car. I almost deflated into the soft leather seats. “Take me home please beautiful woman? I'm so bloody knackered.”

She nodded and turned the wrong way down the lane. She was silent, just shooting fleeting glances at me. The look on her face was hungry, almost predatory. I realized a few blocks later that we were heading to her place. I internally rolled my eyes at myself, I hadn't specified which home.

We proceeded to her flat in the most comfortable and intimate silence, our hands clasped on the center console as she drove. My body was stuck in a conflicted state, I was so tired but so turned on by her fleeting glances.

The moment we stepped into her place I found myself pinned to the wall by my wrists in her strong grip as she nuzzled my neck, inhaling deeply then nipping and kissing. Good Lord I almost creamed myself on the spot. She had never let me progress beyond second base. But here she was, now kissing me as she released one of my hands and I felt hers down below, pressing against me.

I gasped out her name in question, “Ter?” Not knowing if I should respond the way my body was begging me to. I didn't want to do something to make her stop what she was doing, my body was on fire with need.

She growled into my neck, the vibration traveling through my body. She spoke into my neck between nipping and sucking on my flesh. “What kind of groupie would I be if I didn't sleep with the band after the show?”

Oh... my... god!
I surrendered to her ministrations and my own carnal desire. We didn't have sex, we made love that night. I felt as if I had shared my soul and everything I was with her, and I felt her respond in kind. I worshiped her body and let her completely own mine. I have never felt emotion like this when I was with someone intimately. I was... oh bloody hell, I was in love!

I felt tears on my cheeks as we curled in on her couch, as far into her place as we made it in our passion the past couple hours. We drifted off in each others arms, flesh against flesh, as one last tear rolled down my cheek. I never wanted this to end.

The next morning, I woke up warm for the first time in months. It took a moment for it to register I wasn't on my barge in my cabin. I curled my toes into tight balls as I basked in the warmth of the woman that was tangled up with me on her couch.

Her skin was hot against mine. I leaned in to kiss her shoulder blade, then I almost jumped out of my skin when she said, “There's my Tabby Cat.” I looked up to her glittering eyes and the most loving smile that melted my heart. She ran her fingers through my short hair. Then her lips quirked into the cutest little smirk. “You don't mind if I call you that do you?”

I sighed and kissed her, as our lips slid apart I smiled and said, “You can call me anything as long as you call me yours.”

She smirked again as she stretched cutely. “Oh, I think I did that quite thoroughly last night.”

I ran a finger along her collarbone and one along one of her luscious legs. I remembered those legs wrapped around me last night. I smiled wistfully and she half chuckled, half giggled. “You certainly are a leg woman aren't you?”

I grinned and kissed her collarbone near a love bite I gave her last night. I shrugged mischievously. “Can you blame me? Have you seen your legs?”

She gave me a crinkle nosed smile and then winked and pushed me off of her onto the floor. A moment later I was bounding up and pursuing her as she hopped up and ran down the hall to the shower, squealing. I caught her around the waist as she started up the shower, whispering, “You are so going to pay for that.”

She turned around in my arms and laid her arms over my shoulders and whispered back, “Which is why I did it.” Then she kissed me so gently I'm not sure our lips actually touched. And she was gone. I blinked in a daze until an arm snaked out of the shower and pulled me in. “Nerf!”

Later... much later that morning. We were pulling along the lane by my place. She looked longingly at me and I tilted my head and said, “Come with. I have something for you. And I'd like to talk.”

She nodded and turned off her car. We walked hand in hand down to the Persephone, I helped her up the plank then said, “Can you wait for me up top? I have to walk poor Terminator, he's probably ready to burst.” She nodded and winked and almost skipped around the corner. I sighed at her playfulness. I really loved Teresa in fun mode.

Terminator was so happy to see me, I think he may have peed a little. Poor little bloke. I brought him to shore and he almost went into orbit when he found the proper tree to relieve himself. I chuckled at the image in my mind. Then he did his other business which I placed into a plastic baggie.
Eww.
Then we went back to the cabin and I shut him in after giving him tummy raspberries and grabbing some sheet music.

I joined the object of my desire on the roof. Just the sight of her made my heart beat faster and all the colors around me seem to brighten. She was like the feeling you got when you stepped into a kitchen and inhaled the smell of freshly baked bread deep into your lungs. I bit my lower lip.

I stood in front of her and she eyed the papers in my hands and cocked a perfectly sculpted eyebrow in question. I held the music up and said in reverence, “I finally understand.” Then I added, “I wanted to give this to you.”

Then I started to sing that impossible song. The song I had believed was meant to punish, the song I had misunderstood this whole time. It was a celebration, it was joy, it was... love. I hit the transitions I had always stumbled over; switching up the emotion and intent of the music in those areas and my voice flowed through them, around them, letting them caress my vocal cords as they passed by.

I had never felt like this before when I sang. It was something wonderful, not a device of torture. I never wanted this beautiful piece to end. I let a tear fall on the final note, knowing I had touched something so pure there, something that Teri had felt then lost forever.

Ter just sat with her eyes closed through it, her hands pressed together against her lips like she was praying. Her eyebrows raising and falling with the melody. She opened her eyes when I finished the last note and a tear fell down her cheek too.

I shook the music at her letting her know I finally understood and thanked her. Then before I knew what I was doing, my mouth was moving. “I love you Teresa Marjorie McClellan.”

She stood and just held me. “I love you too, Tabitha Yvette Romanov.”

I heard Wendell below mutter almost in reverence, “My God.” And Mr. Illes say, “Beautiful my little virag.” I blushed, forgetting this was the weekend and they were both home. I looked over to see people out on the deck on the other barges, looking our way.

Then I buried my face in Teresa's shoulder before I blushed myself to death. I pulled away when I heard a single slow clapping from the shore. I looked down to see a gorgeous brunette standing there clapping. She smiled up at me, it was one of those smiles you just knew was genuine because it originated in her glittering eyes. She called up in a distinctly American accent, “Ummm... permission to come aboard?”

Teri chuckled because those were the same words she used when she first came calling. I squinted down at the woman. She looked so bloody familiar. I just nodded and Teri and I made our way down the deck.

The woman made her way up the board confidently like she did it every day. She stopped in front of us and shivered with a smile. “Brrr...”

I blinked and said self-consciously, “Ummm... come in miss? It's a little warmer in the cabin. Watch your head though.” Teresa gasped as I opened the door and I looked up. Her eyes were bulging in recognition as the woman ducked through the door and we followed.

The woman's eyes scanned around quickly, taking in everything and I blushed some more. Terminator was turning himself inside out at her feet as we all stood stooped in my tiny cabin. She absently scooped him up and started petting him. I blurted, “Oh, umm have a seat? It is warmest by the stove pipe.”

She smiled and sat on the mattress. The clothing she wore were high-end casual. Her shoes probably cost more than my entire wardrobe. They were pretty plum coloured canvas sneakers that looked custom made. They matched the plum tee that was peeking out of the black leather jacket she wore. Everything about her screamed toff, except her eyes, they told a different story, that she was more down to earth and real than most people I had ever met. She didn't seem put off about her surroundings here in the least though you would have thought they were below her station.

Teresa seemed to be bubbling with energy as we sat beside this familiar woman. I asked, “What could I do for you miss?”

She smiled at me not being able to place her and she tilted her head slightly as she scratched Terminator's ears. She held a hand out. “June Harris-West. I'm pleased to meet the woman behind the voice Tabby Cat.”

I stopped breathing, I couldn't even blink. This was June friggin' West? After a few seconds of silence, I was brought back to life by Teresa jabbing my ribs with her elbow. I shook the woman's hand in disbelief and stuttered out in a hoarse voice just above a whisper, “Tabitha please. Or Tabs.”

She smiled and said as she pulled an envelope out of her purse. “I just wanted to drop by to give you something that belongs to you that someone stole last night.”

I blinked as I accepted the envelope. Nothing had been taken from me, I had checked my bag last night. She prompted with her eyes and I opened the envelope then shut the flap instantly when I saw what was inside. I looked at her in shock.

Teresa's brow furrowed and she took the envelope from me and her eyes went as wide as her smile as she pulled the black plastic card out of it. The gold J on the front of it glittering in the light coming in from my little Plexiglas window.

I was in shock, but then remembered to breathe. I stared at the card then at June.
Was this real?
She answered the question by saying, “I want to sign you. When Nessie told me about your voice, I knew she had to be exaggerating until I heard you myself last night.” Bloody hell, she was the woman in green!

Then her voice got a dangerous tone to it, telling me that she was not a woman to mess with, ever. “That Lisa T pilfered your J-Card from your bag after I placed it there. I have no clue what she was thinking. Like we wouldn't know who we give the cards out to or something? She even had the balls to call the number on the card this morning.” She chuckled a humorless tone that did not bode well for Lisa T.

I looked at the card as Teri handed it to me, then at June. “But... me?”

She nodded and laid a hand on my arm. “You've got something. Something I haven't heard since Penny Franklin retired from music. A vocal range and control that sets you apart from the rest. I want to record your music.” She said it plainly like it was obvious.

She started to stand and we just followed by reflex. She set Terminator down and started moving toward the door. We had to shuffle out first to make room for her. She paused at the door. “Call the number, please. Have a great day ladies.”

I stopped her. “Wait. How did you find me... here?” I looked down in embarrassment for the state of my living arrangements.

She caught that and she actually looked mad and snapped at me, “Hey! Chin up lady. Don't you dare feel embarrassed about your home.” Then her tone softened. “I contacted Ronnie Marx. He's one of our contacts in the scene. He gave me your number, but your phone must be off because my call went straight to voicemail.” I absently pulled out my mobile and looked at it. The battery was dead and I had missed morning power-up here to charge it.

She grinned and said, “So he gave me the number of possibly the most protective best friend I have had the pleasure to verbally spar with. Hold on to Paya Tabs, friends like that help define you and only come around rarely in your life.” She grinned. “So after a virtual blood draw and urine test, she was convinced I was me and gave me directions to your place.” She held her arms up tight at her sides and spread her fingers wide in jazz hands and shook them. She said cutely, “Taa daa.”

We stepped out on the deck and she surprised both of us with a hug of our very own. June was a friendly sort. I couldn't help but smile at the woman in my still half shocked state.

We watched her make her way up to the lane and get into what looked like a Range Rover, where a pretty woman in a black hoodie waited... Scratch? Then they drove away. I glanced down at the card in my hands then over to Teresa, then we both looked back at the card again and squealed like bloody schoolgirls.

Moments later I was blinking in shock.
Was this actually happening? Did June West just give me a J-Card? Was I actually going to be able to record my music and share it with the masses?

I glanced up with seeking eyes to Ter but stopped at the hungry look in her eyes. She yanked me into the cabin saying in a voice two registers below her normal, “We need to celebrate... and we haven't properly christened your cabin yet.”

I eeped and said, “Yes ma'am.”

She giggled. “Ooo extra points for every time you say that to me.” I was sure I'd come up with some witty response later... much later. However, at the time fire was spreading through me as she pushed me onto my mattress and pulled the covers over us to combat the cold. Then she proceeded to make her case why she should be in charge.
Yes, please.