An hour and two arguments later (one regarding my hair and whether or not I would let her use a flat iron on it – I would not, and one wrap around sandal flats versus strappy heels. If you see me stumbling by, you’ll know who won that one), I’ve made my bed, fed my hounds, double-checked on my kid at her dad’s, andwe’re finally on our way to House of Rock. I’m driving. Though, I would think that would be obvious at this point.
“How close to the stage do you think we’ll get to be during soundcheck?” I ask, nervously tapping my fingers on the steering wheel. It’s catching up to me now, the reality of what’s to come. Not that I have any foolish fantasies of actually meeting the man, but just knowing we’ll be in the same room, with limited people and the house lights on, feels kind of crazy.
“I’m not sure. I’m thinking that will be up to Tara since we’re kind of tagging along with her tonight.” I notice she’s messing with the straps of her purse an awful lot. She must be getting anxious too.
“Is that fidgeting business about your big plans to snag a member of Trip Three, or are you just nervous about hanging with this Tara chick?” I ask, nodding at the way her fingers are knotted into the leather in her lap.
She looks down at her own hands. Then stops and sighs. “I’m sure she’s good people, I mean, clearly she is given how she hooked us up bigtime and doesn’t even know us.”
“But?”
She grimaces. “I don’t know. I’ve heard Stacie talk about her for years, and before tonight, she never had a kind word to say about Tara. So, either I’m related to a twofaced gossip who talks shit about her boss for no reason,” she weighs this option in one hand, “or we’re about to spend our big night out with a woman whose employee calls herThe Tarrorizer...you know, withreason.” She brings her other hand to meet the first like a scale, moving up and down, trying to decide which way our fates will turn.
“I mean,” I start, somewhat hesitant to put my current thoughts into words, “I haven’t spent much time with Stacie in recent years, but back in the day when we all worked together,” I pause before I decide to just go for it. “Well, she kind of wasthe queen of gossip. Twofaced might be a stretch, but I’m saying, there’s a lot of room for this to go in the first direction.”
“Let’s lean that way,” Arizona decides, hand number one shooting up to claim victory. “Tara will be totally awesome and we’re going to love hanging out with her.”
“Now you’re over-selling it.” Two mega-introverts hanging out with a total stranger? There’s nothing to love here. We’ll be lucky if one of us doesn’t wind up rocking in a corner mouthing the words ‘I want to go home’ on repeat.
“Fine, it’ll be totally manageable.”
Yeah. That’s the magic spot we’re looking for. Manageable leaves plenty of room to panic about the other thing...TheKnox Marley being in the same room at the same time with the lights onthing.
It’s annoying how awesome that scenario seems in every fantasy, and how much anxiety it induces in real life. Never mind wishing he was the man of my dreams. Tonight, just once, I wish I was the woman of them.
CHAPTER THREE
KNOX
“Are we doing the whole meet and greet thing open to everyone, or just VIP?” Matti asks, joining me on the stage. “I noticed they have the whole upstairs closed off.”
I shrug. “I honestly don’t remember what the setup is here.” I glance past him. Jason and Cassady still aren’t out here, and apparently, not following close behind him like I hoped. “Did you see the two love birds back there anywhere before you came out?”
“Cass was dragging Jason off somewhere. Something about recreating their first kiss. I really wasn’t trying to find out more after I heard that.” He picks up his bass from the stand and starts to put the strap over his head.
“Before you do that,” I say, holding my hand up to stop him. “Let’s go check out upstairs. See if we can get a feel for what’s to come.” I start to shake my head looking at the otherwise empty stage, then catch myself. No need to always be the grumpy boss around here. “Might as well keep busy until they show up.”
Matti reverses his motion in one smooth move and a few seconds later, the bass is safely in its stand and we’re hopping off the stage to go wander around.
“Do we ignore the velvet rope?” I ask him when we reach the stairs and he’s the only person around to ask.
“I’m just guessing,” he says, putting on his fake deep-thinking face, “but I don’t think we’re the ones the rope is meant to keep out.”
“So, that’s a yes?”
He nods. “Definitely a yes.”
I unhook the nearly useless closure, and we both step through and carry on up the stairs.
“Is that bar new?” Matti points at a corner bar all the way across the open loft.
“I think so.” We see a lot of venues, it’s hard to keep them all straight. Even the ones we play repeatedly. Somehow, bits and pieces always overlap and blur together along the way.
“Doesn’t look like anyone’s up here working either,” Matti observes. “Did someone actually let us in the building, or did we just happen to stumble upon an unlocked door and stroll in?”
“Bar manager let us in,” I confirm, even though I know Matti’s joking. “Met the guy earlier, right after we got here.”
Then, just as we’re about to accept that the whole place is more or less a ghost town for the moment, we start to hear voices from the dance floor down below.
