Love You Moore (4 page)

Abby just stared at him not really knowing
what to say. Jimmy reached into his pocket and pulled out a
handkerchief and handed it to her.

“
It’s clean I promise, I always keep
one in my pocket, you know, just in case.” He continued to look at
her not sure if she did understand him, maybe she was an exchange
student that didn’t speak any English. He thought she was very
pretty though. Even with a runny nose and bloodshot eyes, he could
tell she had been crying.

“
I just came out to get some air during
intermission, how did you get out here, it’s supposed to be closed
to the public, you know, band privileges.” He said with a
laugh.

He smiled and Abby looked into his deep dark
eyes and was breathless. He was absolutely gorgeous. Abby took the
handkerchief and wiped her nose. It smelt good. She wondered if it
was the scent of his cologne.

“
Ok then I’m just going to go.” He said
and started backing up not sure what to make of her.

“
Why did you call your band Burnt
Chocolate?” Abby just blurted out before he walked away wishing she
could suck it back in and come up with something more intelligent
to say like maybe, “Thank you for the handkerchief,” but he turned
back around and walked back to her.

“
It’s kind of a long story can I tell
it to you after the show? I can get you a back stage pass and you
can come back to my dressing room.” He offered and knew instantly
that sounded bad.

He could tell by the look on her face she
thought that too and said instantly,

“
That is not how I meant it to come
out, I just mean I would like to talk to you some more.”

He was now very nervous and Abby thought it
was cute. She didn’t mind either that she no longer felt the need
to punch Billy in the throat. Jimmy was shuffling his feet and
rubbing the back of his neck trying to think of something to say
that wouldn’t imply he wanted more than a conversation. Why was he
so nervous around this person he didn’t even know, he didn’t
generally get jittery around the girls that swooned after him. He
wasn’t the type to have a girl in every town and he didn’t want her
to think that he did and that she was just another girl in another
town. He really had a need to want to know her. Was it because he
saw her crying and felt bad for her? No, that wasn’t it, but what
was it? He wanted to find out though.

“
Can you get me three passes?” she
asked, “I am here with my friend Holly and her brother and it would
be rude to ditch them.”

He smiled that beautiful smile again,

“
Of course, give me a few minutes and I
will be right back, don’t go anywhere.” He urged. “Oh what’s your
name?”

“
Oh sorry, I’m Abby, Abby Moore.” She
stuttered a bit. Settle down she thought to herself.

“
Well Abby Moore I will be right back.”
He gave a wink and a smile before he walked away.

“
Ok” Abby replied and smiled
back.

“
OMG OMG OMG” she said out loud to no
one she just needed to release some of the excitement she had
building up.

“
What is going on? Where have you
been?” Holly said coming through the door that clearly stated, now
that she was looking, “No Public Access.”

“
Holly, you are not going to believe
this…” Abby started to fill her in on the last 15
minutes.

“
Here you go three passes as promised.”
Jimmy handed the passes to Abby.

Holly was looking at Abby and then back at
Jimmy mouth open in surprise and wonder.

“
Hi you must be Holly.” Jimmy stretch
out his hand to shake hers.

Holly, mouth still gaping open and still
staring, Abby nudged her,

“
Hi, yes, sorry I’m Holly and you’re
super cute.” She stated matter-of-factly.

Abby blushed and Jimmy’s smile got wider,

“
Thank you,” he said through a laugh,
“I was just inviting Abby and her friends of course, back stage
after the show. I got you passes so there should be no issues
getting back there. Let me give you my personal cell number just in
case.

“
Seriously?” Abby and Holly asked at
the same time.

“
Of course” he replied as if it were no
big deal that he, a famous song writer and now singer, was going to
give out his personal cell phone number to pretty much a random
stranger.

Abby wondered how many times he has had to
have his number changed because of this gesture.

He told her his number and she programmed it
into her phone.

“
Can I have yours? You know just in
case.” He smiled at her again.

“
Ok, if you want.” She gave him her
number as well.

He programmed it into his phone, closed it
and put it back into his pocket.

“
Great ok so I will see you back stage
right after the show and….” He was interrupted

“
Riley…get your butt back here we have
a show to finish, Ladies I am sure you will excuse Jimmy as he
finishes the concert.” A guy with a Bluetooth ear piece and walkie
talkie said impatiently, “yeah I found him, he was out in the hall
talking up some babes.” He said into the walkie.

“
Dave!” Jimmy said sharply, no need to
be rude.” He stated while glaring at this Dave guy.

Dave looked at Jimmy as if he knew he had
crossed a line.

“
My apologies Ladies I just got a
little freaked when my guy here didn’t return to set after 20
minutes.” Dave said with half sincerity and half
annoyance.

“
No worries,” said Holly, “We were just
going back to our seats, right Abby?”

“
Right” replied Abby and they started
back through the no public access door.

“
But I will see you right
after…..right?” Jimmy asked more as a plea than a
question.

“
I’ll see you right after.” Abby
promised.

“
Take a good look at that pretty girl
Dave, you are going to be seeing a lot of her.” Jimmy shot Abby one
last gleaming smile and a wink and was pushed through the door back
on stage.

“
Ok seriously, what just happened?”
Abby asked Holly.

“
I think Billy just got replaced is
what I think just happened.” Holly said with a smile, “and it’s
about time too, the Jerk face.”

They walked back out into the auditorium
where Cliff was waiting, he shot Holly and quizzical look, she
yelled over the music,

“
I’ll tell you later but we now have
plans after the concert.”

“
Sweet” was his reply and they went
back to dancing in the aisle.

Abby was now sitting in her seat not really
hearing anything just replaying the last 30 minutes over in her
head, “Did that just really happen?” she thought to herself and as
she looked over the back stage passes in her hand she knew, it did
really happen.

“
Well what do I have to lose” she
thought still to herself, “nothing really” so she sat, listened to
his awesome voice and waited excitedly for the concert to be
over.

* * * * *

Chapter 4

Most of the auditorium had cleared out before
Abby got up from her seat. By that time, Holly had filled Cliff in
on the events that happened in the hall.

“
So do you really want to go?” Abby
asked second guessing her decision to meet Jimmy Riley
backstage.

“
Well Yeah” shouted Cliff let’s
go.

“
What’s up Buttercup, why the
hesitation?” Holly asked putting her arm around Abby.

“
I don’t know.” Abby shrugged, “why
would he be interested in me?

“
Why wouldn’t he?” Cliff interrupted
“You really are pretty cute in a sister sort of way”

“
Thanks Cliff, I guess.” smiled
Abby

“
No he is right and not just in a
sister sort of way, you are very pretty and any guy would be lucky
just to linger in your life” Holly stated. “Now stop this silliness
and let's go back there and make Jimmy Riley’s night.”

“
Righto” Cliff said a little too loud
in the auditorium that was now just about empty.

As they started down the row Abby heard

“
Miss Moore, excuse me Miss Moore?”
Dave was coming up to them with a harried expression on his face,
“Oh thank goodness you are still here, Jimmy sent me out to look
for you, he was afraid you had left. Please follow me and I will
take you backstage.”

Holly gave Abby the “I told you so” look and
they followed Dave to the backstage area.

Abby wasn’t sure what she expected, she had
read stories about wild backstage parties and dressing room
hook-ups but this was a college campus and that sort of thing she
was sure wasn’t going to be allowed. She was pleasantly please when
she realized, in this case at least, that she was right. There
wasn’t a party going on, there wasn’t loud music playing and
alcohol spilling everywhere. There were the members of the band and
Jimmy just hanging out in a large blue carpeted room that had two
couches, three chairs and a dressing table that ran across one
whole wall with a brightly lit mirror on the wall behind it. This,
Abby thought must be the dressing room for the student actors when
the school is putting on a production. Jimmy immediately got to his
feet and smiled when he saw Abby walk through the door.

“
I am glad you came back” he said and
took Abby by the hand, which by the way, sent shock waves through
her whole body.

“
Boys, this is Abby and her friends,
Holly and…” he trailed, “I’m sorry I didn’t get your name other
than Holly’s brother.” He smiled and reached out to shake Cliff’s
hand. Good memory Abby thought.

“
Cliff” he replied

“
Good to meet you Cliff, would any of
you care for a soda or a Subway Sandwich compliments of the
University” Jimmy offered.

“
No thank you.” Both Abby and Holly
answered.

Cliff was about to dive in to the remains of
the six foot party sub when Holly slapped him in the arm and shot
him a “don’t even think about it” look.

“
No I’m good, thanks anyways.” Cliff
said as he was rubbing his arm where Holly slapped him.

Jimmy laughed and said

“
Let me introduce my band, this is
Mikey on drums” Mikey waived as he gulped down a bottle of water.
Mikey looked exactly how Abby thought a drummer would look, tattoos
all up and down his arms very Travis Barkerish, the three of them
said “Hi” and waived back.

“
This is Ben on bass” Jimmy said next
pointing to a guy with red hair and a nose ring.

“
Nice to meet you.” He shook Abby’s
hand then Holly’s and Cliff’s

“
And you have already met our manger
Dave.” He leaned in pretending to whisper but saying it loud enough
for everyone to hear, “He’s not as arrogant as he appears to be”
and smiled in Dave’s direction.

“
I already apologized for the way I
acted in the hall Jimmy, but again Ladies, I apologize for my very
rude behavior but it takes more than a pretty face to keep a show
running smoothly.” He chided and pretended to punch Jimmy in the
arm.

“
Good to meet all of you” Abby
said.

Jimmy looked at his friends and they all
started to leave the room throwing out excuses why they had to
go.

“
I need to check on the booking for our
next gig.” said Dave.

“
Yeah Ben and I need to…um…work on his
timing…he is a little off.” Mikey said

“
What? Really, my timing, that’s what
we need to work on?” Ben said to Mikey.

“
Yeah it’s way off, we can work on it
on the bus.” He pushed Ben out of the room with Ben
stating,

“
My timing…that’s what we’re going
with?” They went their way to the bus.

The rest of them stood there for a moment in
kind of an awkward silence when Holly asked,

“
Cliff weren’t we supposed to pick up
that thing for Mom in the bookstore, you know that thing she
wanted?” as she looked to Cliff to catch on to her hint that they
needed to go.

“
Oh yeah sure that thing that Mom
wanted, yeah ok let’s go look for it.” Cliff stuttered.

Abby looked quizzically at them,

“
You need to go to the bookstore now?
It is 11:30 at night, they are not going to be open.” Abby informed
her two scheming friends.

“
Didn’t you call earlier and tell them
it would be a late pickup?” Holly prodded her brother again and
started towards the door.

“
Well let’s go then” said
Abby

“
No we got it” exclaimed Holly, “you
stay here and I’ll call you later and come back to take you to the
dorm.”

Abby looked at her friends, first at Holly
who looked like the cat that ate the canary and then at Cliff who
looked totally confused, but at the moment just caught on to what
Holly was doing. For a book smart guy he was a bit slow on the
uptake.

“
I can get Abby back to your dorm…that
is if you don’t mind Abby.” Jimmy stated.

Abby was about to protest that he needn’t go
out of his way for her when Holly jumped in,

“
That would be great Jimmy, thank
you….isn’t that thoughtful Abby?” She said smiling her Cheshire cat
grin.