Groupie/Rock Star Bundle (17 page)

These fans consisted mostly of females, who ran
the gamut from teenager to middle-aged. The minute he leveled those
lethal bedroom eyes on their hopeful faces, I could see them
devolve into squealing, giggling groupies.

He flirted, he teased, and by the
end of the line each girl from the first to the last felt like they
were taking a little piece of Giovanni Carnevale with them when
they left. The band left after the fans, while I stayed behind to
make sure all the merchandise was packed up and ready to ship back
to New York.

It was almost midnight when I
cleared out of the room, leaving only the cleaning staff behind. My
phone buzzed in my hand and I looked down with a giddy
smile.

“Waiting.”

There was a smile on my face as I practically
ran to the elevator.

Las Vegas – July 2008

Talia

I had never won anything before, and to be
honest I’m not sure why I tried to call into a radio station for
tickets to a concert anyway. Though I lived in Las Vegas I never
really had the stamina for shows. Most were overpriced, and my
husband Ben convinced me it was much wiser to invest our money than
blow it on a couple of hours of entertainment. We also didn’t
gamble. Neither of us were the type to throw our hard-earned money
into a machine where what took hours and days and months to make
was gone in a matter of minutes.

If Ben’s business hadn’t transferred him from
Indiana to Nevada five years ago, we probably wouldn’t have even
come here for a visit.

We weren’t showy people who needed
or wanted to spend a lot to have fun, and as such had amassed
enough money that I could stay home. My only real job was to try
and get pregnant so that we could finally begin our family
together.

The doctor said it might have been stress that
prevented me from conceiving, but I wanted to blame the litany of
pills he tried to keep me on for things like anxiety and
depression. One day, I thought to myself, I would try it my way and
see how it went.

Until then I just busied myself on the
Internet, and worked in our garden, and found other ways to pass
the time.

On that particular Friday, it was listening to
local radio. They offered the chance to go see a rock festival,
which I knew Ben had no particular interest in but I figured free
was free. If I could get out of the house without dipping into our
savings, then he could hardly complain.

Besides which, he had to work that Saturday
anyway.

So imagine my surprise when I realized I was
the 99th caller and won a special ticket to see the concert and
meet one of the bands after the show.

I went alone because I hadn’t made a lot of
friends living my rather solitary lifestyle. I knew some people on
the Internet thanks to social networking sites, but finding anyone
I could trust close to home was a little more
complicated.

I’d never really had much luck with friends,
who would always dump me if I had a bad episode or wanted to get to
know them more than they thought I should.

Apparently I didn’t know “normal limits” – or
so my psychiatrist suggested after some disastrous social attempts
when we first came to Vegas.

It seemed like the more people knew me the less
they wanted to.

So I learned to like my own company, which was
just fine most of the time.

I had no problem going to the show on my own. I
didn’t talk much to the people on either side of me, which seemed
okay by them too. And the minute a band named Dreaming in Blue took
the stage none of us even cared we were in a crowded
audience.

Dreaming in Blue is a rock band that plays
music a little harder than I would normally like, but the minute
the lead singer took the stage I was enraptured. He was one of the
most beautiful men I’d ever laid eyes on, and the minute our eyes
met while he was singing I felt this connection just sizzle to
life.

It was like I waited my whole life
for that moment.

He came into the audience at the end to sing a
song called, “Wanting Her,” which is now playing on a non-stop loop
in my car thanks to the brand new Dreaming in Blue CD I bought
after the show. It was a special pre-release copy I was able to get
signed, which makes it even more special.

“To Talia,” he wrote, “Make It
Happen.”

He sang to all the girls in the front row, and
that included me. He took my hand into his, looked deep into my
eyes and sang, “How much I want this to be real,” I felt how
sincere he was right to the tremble in his fingers.

I thought maybe I was imagining
things until I went to the meet and greet after the show. I was the
first one in line and Giovanni practically jumped over the table to
give me a hug, and pose for a picture.

I can still remember what it felt
like to be in his arms, the feeling of the warmth of his body next
to mine. His muscles were hard, his hair was soft, and I could feel
his breath in my hair when he leaned down for not just one hug but
two, before going on to the next girl in line.

Now I can’t stop thinking about him.
I went home and searched the Internet for everything I could find
about Giovanni Carnevale. The more I know, the more I want to know.
We have so many things in common, and I realized that maybe winning
that ticket was serendipitous.

Perhaps the real reason I can’t have a baby is
because this is not the life meant for me.

Maybe what is really real is what
Giovanni sings about.

Suddenly, without any question, I know that I
have to find out for myself.

I checked his calendar and I know
where the next show is going to be. The tour starts in January in
Seattle. I don’t know how I’m going to convince Ben to let me go,
but I know I’m going to be there.

And we’ll see what happens next.

Austin, September 2008

~Andy~

The Lourdes debacle ended with a fizzle instead
of a bang. She moved out of Vanni’s apartment and back to South
America by August, after she had finished filming her scenes for
the action movie. I concocted a wonderful piece about how she had
to return home to tend to a sick relative. In reality she went to
have the baby in secret out of the media spotlight, an endeavor
heavily funded by Jasper. He had paid a hefty price for his
indiscretion, including a renegotiated contract with Athena. Even
without knowing about the baby, she only agreed to stay with his
label provided he allowed her to spend the year headlining her own
Vegas show far away from her philandering husband. She insisted
upon (and got) more control over her content and a much larger
piece of the financial pie.

I heard through the grapevine (i.e. Jacob) that
no doubt she’d still bail once Lourdes came back with her “adopted”
baby, and rumor had it that Graham was secretly courting Athena in
more ways than one. The Vegas show was just an excuse to get out
from under Jasper’s rather controlling thumb so she could explore
other options, whatever that meant. Jasper had enough material
recorded to keep her name on top of the charts during her absence,
and the fact she was now more accessible to the fans with a weekly
live show was only going to help her career and his record
sales.

The only difference was he no longer
had two women on the line to play mattress ping pong, which I kind
of thought he deserved. There would no doubt be someone to fill the
void, and hopefully he could manage it without playing cosmic chess
with the lives of his talent.

Either way I was relieved to have all that
behind us. I had already gone to New York for “business” twice, and
stayed with Vanni even though I kept up appearances by booking a
hotel room anyway.

It seemed silly but with my noble escape clause
for Lourdes it wouldn’t look right to have him get involved with
anyone publicly so fast, so I was content to take it slow and under
the radar.

Iris didn’t even know, though Alana figured it
out after seeing Vanni and I together during rehearsals. It was an
odd dynamic watching her be free and open with Iain while I had to
play it cool, but ultimately I was willing to do anything to have
those stolen moments where he was all mine.

We frequented our little pizza joint, slept
until noon and made love like we were the first two people to
discover it. He wrote me songs while we lay naked in bed, and then
we’d go back in the real world like nothing but really good
friends.

By then he was being recognized
wherever he went, thanks in part to an Internet video site that
made his official video and some of the concert footage available
for a worldwide audience. A million hits later and he was being
offered gigs at colleges, which were the people they wanted to
target in the music market.

His gig in Austin was the first on the road
since Vegas, and would kick start his college tour. The band agreed
that he could handle the press on these pre-performance tours
alone, and they would only fly in one night for a concert. This
meant Vanni and I could actually have time to ourselves, and there
was no way I was going to miss it. I surprised Iris by offering to
go, knowing that her schedule was booked solid and she couldn’t
coordinate the meet and greets and media exposure like she wanted
to. Since Vegas had worked out pretty well, she knew she could
trust me. It was getting Jasper to green light the financial aspect
that required some finagling. He was still bitter about Vanni’s
decision, though he had no idea that anything had happened between
Vanni and I because of it.

He also wasn’t thrilled when Athena negotiated
on Vanni’s behalf for a new contract, and it turned out that was
more beneficial than we first thought. We learned a bit too late
that those first drafts of entertainment contracts aren’t
necessarily stacked in the signee’s favor, especially when said
signees are new to the business and unaware how to protect their
own self-interests long term. Thanks to Graham we learned the
importance of hiring and trusting a lawyer to provide revisions on
the artist’s behalf.

But in the end Jasper relented and
actually gave me my asking price, probably to thank me in his own
way how I handled the press for Lourdes’s disappearance.

I wasn’t out to torpedo anyone, and I guess
that earned me at least a little respect.

Either way, even if I had to show up as a fan I
would have. Trying to do anything in New York and stay undercover
was a challenge. I looked forward to having him at least somewhat
to myself. And from all the texts and emails he sent to me prior to
the gig I was fairly certain he felt the same way.

As usual I got to the hotel before he did. I
preferred it that way so that I could get everything set up in the
hotel room, both for me and for Vanni. Again I had to keep up
certain appearances by maintaining my own room, but we had already
planned for me to stay with him in his.

We had such a busy day I couldn’t do
much more than simply unpack and shower before he got there, but
the minute he came into the room I was in his arms. He playfully
suggested a quickie but our day was too jam-packed, so we had to
painfully pry ourselves apart and douse ourselves with cold water
to once again emerge into the world.

We had two interviews, one with the rock
station and one with local TV, then he had a student meet and
greet, with a fan meet and greet scheduled at a local bar on Sixth
Street. I don’t even think we got a chance to eat in the middle of
the crunch, but were content to grab some fast food and just take
it back to the hotel and make an early night of it.

The fast food got cold as we tumbled onto the
bed, tearing off clothing in between kisses. It was like we could
never quite quench the hunger for each other, probably because we
couldn’t see each other on a regular basis. Phone sex would do in a
pinch, but there was nothing like being in the arms of your man,
feeling his strong body meshed with your own.

Sometimes I wouldn’t even let him go
right away. I loved how he felt in me and around me and over me. I
was sated and happy as he brought me my cold hamburger and soggy
fries. “If I lived with you I’d be thin,” I declared about halfway
through. “A rigorous workout session and then I’m no longer
hungry.” I dropped the rest of it in the bag.

“Then that’s reason enough never to live
together,” he said as he ticked my rounded belly. “I like you
squishy. Like my little Andy Bear.”

I laughed and squealed as I tried to get away
from his fingers. “You’re awful.”

“But you love me,” he grinned. I
smiled back but didn’t say anything. We hadn’t yet uttered the “L”
word, and I had a sneaking suspicion if we did it would bring our
little house of cards down in a second flat.

I just cuddled against him, toying with the
hair on his chest. “It would be nice, though,” I said. “If we could
be like this all the time.”

He propped up on one elbow and gazed down at
me. “Is that what you want?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t give it much
thought beyond the moment.”