World tour, p.14
World Tour, page 14
I curl one side of my mouth up. “Sure.”
Pulling the bow off, I lift the cover up, revealing tissue paper and something that looks red underneath. I pull the tissue paper up and see the piece of red paper with a piece of white paper glued on top, leaving an inch margin for detail. There is writing scrawled on the white paper that I dare not read aloud. “Thanks, Amanda.” I chuckle. “Next year…buy me something, okay?” It’s another one of her passes, just like I suspected. This one gives me a free pass when she makes fun of me for still being a virgin, now at age twenty. She’s not delicate in pointing that out, either.
“What? Give it up, girl!” she says.
I stuff the tissue paper on top before anyone sees it. “I’ll use it, but still, next year, just buy me something.”
“What does it say?” Danny asks.
“Nope. Not telling.” I close the box and stuff it between the garbage can and the counter, making a mental note to throw it out with Monday’s garbage pickup.
“Okay, mine next.” Mom says. After I open everyone’s presents, with various goodies like gift certificates, a sweater from mom, a pink microphone from Booker, which is so cute I can’t wait to use it, and a pair of pink headphones from Phil, and a bunch of other smaller items, I almost forget that I haven’t opened Danny’s gift.
“Alright, we saved the best for last.” Danny says, handing me a small box, similar in size and shape to the one Amanda gave to me.
“This isn’t another one that I’ll have to stash, is it?” I ask.
“Well, it is in true Amanda style, but no, you won’t have to hide this one.” he says, giving me a warm smile.
I pull the bow off and open it. Inside is a giant pink heart made out of construction paper. There are three words on it that make me smile. Not ‘Happy Birthday, Diana,” But three words that I’ve been dying to hear from him for a while.
I look at him, pulling the heart out of the box, and I snake my arms around his neck, still holding the heart in one hand. “I love you, too, Danny.”
He kisses me softly once, twice, three times. “Okay, so your real present is outside.”
“Yes!” Amanda shouts. “And for the record, sista, what I got you will go great with what he got you.” She winks.
“You’re funny.” I say flatly.
“Come on, break it up.” Danny chuckles, taking my hand in his.
It takes a minute, but when we’re all congregated outside, Kramer hands Danny something and he clicks it, like a remote control. I notice that all his vehicles are parked outside, but he said it was because he was getting someone to come and take them for a wash. Turns out the remote is to his garage door, and when it opens, there’s a shiny car with a big pink bow wrapped around it inside, parked sideways so it’s clear as day. I look at him and he smiles. “Happy Birthday, sweetness.”
Mom cups her mouth with her hands. “Oh my goodness!”
“Thank God!” Amanda barks. “I’ve been dying for you to axe that pile of shit forever!”
The car is a Ford Mustang GT, and my jaw drops once I realize what it is. I can’t help but feel excited, even though I try to act ruffled, but it lasts only half a second. I squeal and grab Danny’s face, kissing him all over, as he chuckles. “Go see your new baby, baby.” He says.
I run to the car, still squealing. It’s so gorgeous. I’m in love. It’s white, convertible, with red leather interior. Danny approaches and hands me the keys. “Here you go, sweetness. She’s all yours.”
I open the door and slide in. The muscles in my cheeks are already hurting I’m smiling so broadly. “Oh my gosh!” I must say a hundred times as I look around, checking it out. Danny climbs in on the passenger side and gives me a tour. “Turn it on so you can pop the roof.”
“Oh my gosh! I forgot that it’s convertible!” I squeal again.
He’s laughing.
“Man, this shit is bitchin’!” Booker compliments. “Sexy as hell.”
“It is, isn’t it?” I gush, turning the key in the ignition. Danny presses the button, so the top comes down, and I watch it, in awe, until it settles in the back seat. “Oh my gosh, how cool was that?”
“Very cool. None of my cars do that, babe.”
I can’t help but look at him. “Gosh, Danny. This is…so wonderful. Thank you so much.” I kiss him, letting it linger, a couple of times.
“You’re welcome, baby. I love you.” He says as we’re nose to nose.
“I love you, too.”
Chapter 12
Danny
What a feeling. To see that smile on Diana’s face. Nothing beats it. That card and that car…worth every second and every penny. I wasn’t sure if she’d be upset with me for the Mustang, since she told me point blank, that I shouldn’t buy her a car. But I guess a gift is something entirely different. We pack everyone we can inside the car, including the boys and Amanda, and we go for a spin around the block. Diana is over the moon with joy and I’m all but fucking glowing I’m so happy for her.
“This is so bitchin’!” Booker shouts, whistling and carrying on, as we pass by streets.
People are staring, and someone shouts. “Are you the guys from ‘Risk It’?”
“Yes, we are.” Booker answers. “Woohoo!”
“Easy, tiger.” I say to him, grabbing his shirt tail before he falls out of the back of the car.
“Woohoo!” Diana shouts.
I look at her and smile. “Not helping.”
“It’s my birthday! I’m allowed to get a little crazy! Woohoo!”
“You go girl!” Amanda stands in the back seat, like we’re on a float. “Woooooohooooo!!”
We cruise up and down streets. Booker even hops out to do an autograph. It’s a hell of a gas, and then we reach the freeway, and Diana suggests that we head back, since we left all the adults alone. “Shit, they’re probably sucking back brewskies and eating the rest of the cake.” Booker says.
“They better not be. I want more cake.” Diana says.
“Girl, it’s big enough for a football team. There will be some left.” Amanda says, tousling Diana’s hair from behind.
When we return, the adults are playing cards, and the cake is half eaten. “See? Lots of cake.” Amanda comments.
“You want some, sweetness?” I ask, offering to cut Diana another piece.
“Definitely. We’ll freeze whatever’s left.”
“You and your cake, girl.” Amanda nods.
Diana shrugs. “It’s my drug.”
“I think you mean crutch, sweetheart.” Booker says.
“Whatever.” Diana mumbles with a mouth full of cake. I have to laugh. She’s so cute. I had no idea she liked cake so much. I’ll have to remember that. Forget flowers, just buy her a cake.
Soon, my mom gets tired, and dad packs her up and takes her home. Booker and Amanda have dried out from being rather toasted earlier, and Phil and Kramer are in the basement jamming, when Sherry and Douglas decide that it’s time for them to get going home, too.
“Make sure you make copies of all the pictures you took today, mom.” Diana says as Sherry is out the door.
“I always do, dear. You would think that after all these years of taking pictures for you, that I would have thought to buy you a camera for your birthday.” Sherry points out.
“Well, get it for her for Christmas.” Amanda suggests.
“But, see, now she’ll know what she’s getting.” I point out, trying like hell to irritate Amanda. It seems to spur Diana on, and it’s fun, too.
“She’s not two.” Amanda whines.
“Well, aren’t you a party pooper.” I jibe.
“Shut up or I’ll kick your ass.” She warns mockingly.
“I dare you to try.”
“Let’s go.” Amanda prompts.
“Booker?” Diana calls to him. He’s standing next to Amanda. He looks at Diana. “Take your girlfriend home, please?”
“Hell, yes.” He growls. “Let’s go, baby.” He takes Amanda’s hand and practically drags her out the door. “Later!”
We look at each other and laugh. “He’s such a horny toad.” Diana says.
“Anything if it’s for sex.” I agree, pulling her close. “So, do you like your gifts?”
“I would have been happy with just a cake.” She says lovingly. “Everything else is gravy.”
My eyes are on her lips. Her eyes are on my lips, too. The charge in the air changes as we slowly close the gap between us, but we’re interrupted by Phil and Kramer barreling up the stairs. “Yo, where’s Booker?” Phil asks, completely oblivious that he has ruined a moment.
“He and his horny playmate just left.” I answer, still staring at Diana. I decide to give her a soft, chaste kiss, much more chaste than it would have been five seconds ago.
“Damn.” Kramer says. “We wanted to try out some shit with him. Are you up for it?”
“Does it look like I’m up for it?”
Diana gives me a pleading look. “It’s okay, Danny. You go.”
“Well, hey, if Booker’s gone, then we need a singer.” Kramer points out.
“You feel like jamming, baby?” I ask, still holding her close.
“Sure, I’ll jam with you guys.”
After I hook up Diana’s new microphone, she sings from some lyrics that Booker had made up a couple of weeks ago but hadn’t finished. We add in bits and pieces, and jam it out, and then we record some rudimentary stuff on the cassette player. “This is sweet. We’ll have to go through some of this stuff with Murphy and Leonard.” Kramer says. “Not sure if the female voice cuts it, though.”
“No, it’s definitely for a male voice. Especially since it talks about…well…doing things to girls.” Diana states.
“Well, it could be that type of song.” I say, alluding to it having homosexual content. We have a chuckle.
“Okay. We’ll leave you two lovebirds to it.” Phil says, and I’m so happy to hear him say that, that in my mind I kiss him for it.
“See you later, guys.” We both say to them. When the guys walk up the stairs, I look at Diana, wondering what she’s thinking. I can hear Inga cleaning upstairs, and as much as I love her, I’m dying to be alone with Diana. I’m not sure what that means, but I feel like something has changed between us, especially since it’s official…we both know that we love each other.
“I’ll be right back.” I say, trotting up the stairs. I try to shoo Inga out, seeing as the kitchen is spotless again, like there was never any party here. She’s even picked up all the decorations and put everything away. The woman is relentless, and still fussing five minutes later. “Good God, woman. Go home.” I finally say, half irritated, half teasing.
Diana comes up the stairs and says that she’s tired and going to get ready for bed. If I could light a fire under the German woman’s ass I would. “Okay, Diana. Have a good sleep.” Inga says to her.
For the love of God, woman, get out! Is what I want to say, but I bite my tongue. “Inga, Inga, leave it.” I urge as she starts rearranging the inside of the fridge, making more room for the cake.
“Danny, what is your problem?” she asks, and I don’t know if it’s because of the look on my face or what, but she gets an ‘ah ha’ look on her face. “Okay. I go.”
“Thank you.”
She pats me on the cheek. “You be gentle, Danny.”
My eyes widen. My face heats. “Goodbye, Inga.”
“You read her present from Amanda. You will know why.”
Face palm. “Really, Inga. Please go.”
When I finally get her out the door, I see that Inga has left Diana’s card from Amanda on the counter. I’m about to open it and be nosey, as did my housekeeper, but the phone rings. I grab it on the first ring. “Hello?”
“Danny. Murphy.”
“Oh, hey. Man, you’re calling late. What’s up?”
“Not late by your standards, man. It’s only ten o’clock.”
“True. What’s up?”
“Do me a favor and tell Diana that Ritchie over at WM wants to meet her. Darren says that he’ll sit in with her.”
Darren is our manager. Ritchie is the rep over at WM who signed us up to WM Records. “No shit?”
“No shit.”
“Oh, man. If you were here right now, I’d kiss your fucking face, man.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” he says with a chuckle.
“So, when does he want to meet her?”
“Tomorrow. The sooner the better. He’s got that itch, man. You know him.”
“Fucking aye, man. I’ll tell her. She’s just…err… indisposed.”
“Yeah, and I’ll bet you made her indisposed, too, you dog.”
I can’t help but laugh out loud. “Fuckoff, man. She’s getting ready for bed. She sang at a funeral at the crack of fucking dawn today, and it’s her birthday, so she’s worn the fuck out.”
“Too bad for you, man.”
I laugh again, too happy, otherwise I’d ream him out for the comment. “Fuckoff. I’ll call you in the morning.”
“Sure, man. Two o’clock they want to see her. You come along, too, man. I’ll be there.”
“Sounds good. And hey, Murphy, thanks a lot, man. I know you had a part in this. You’re the best.”
“That’s why you pay me the big bucks, my friend.”
“True enough. See you.”
“Yeah, see you.”
I walk into my bedroom, wondering which room we will occupy tonight, pulling my shirt off and draping it over the chair. My socks come off, too, but I place them in the hamper beside the bed. We seem to be playing musical bedrooms, having shared the same bed since Diana’s second night here. Miraculously, we’ve managed to keep things chaste between the sheets, but somehow after tonight, that gets more difficult. Or not. It’s up to Diana, and I’ll be respectful, whatever she decides. I hear her exit the washroom and pad into the kitchen.
“Hey,” I say, walking towards her. She’s in something different tonight, and I have to focus on training my eyes on her eyes, because it’s a nightshirt, and in my peripheral vision, I can see that she’s not wearing a bra. Her nipples are quite pronounced. It’s a red nightshirt that goes down just above her knees, and it has a teddy bear on it, laying on a pillow, with a bunch of ‘z’s floating in a thought bubble. Fine, so I did look. Sue me. “That was Murphy who called earlier. I wasn’t sure if you heard the phone.”
“No, I didn’t, actually.” She’s grabbing a glass from the cupboard above the sink. The shirt creeps its way up, and my eyes go to her legs. Fuck…me. “Is everything okay with him?”
I clear my throat, changing my stance slightly, so it doesn’t look like I was just checking her out, even though I was. “Yeah. He um…he said that WM wants to meet with you tomorrow.” A ghost of a smile is on my lips. She looks at me, sipping her water, and we’re looking at each other, as if we’re stuck in some kind of trance.
“So, what does that mean, exactly?” she says, and I get it. She’s hesitant and confused. New to this, she has no idea.
“It means that they liked your songs and they want to meet with you.” I say soberly.
“What do I need to do? You said this is tomorrow? Oh my gosh! What am I doing to do?” she sets her water down and I can tell that she’s unprepared and freaking out a little.
Stepping towards her, I pull her close to me, looking her straight in the eye. “Sweetness, there is nothing to panic over. Murphy and I will be there, so will our manager, Darren. It’s all good. I’ll make sure you’re comfortable and that everything is looked after. You don’t need to worry about a thing.”
“But…does this mean…I’m going to cut a record deal?”
“I can’t speak for WM, but I think that when they ask you to come meet them, and they’ve heard your material, it’s a good sign. If they didn’t like you, or if they were just paying you lip service, they wouldn’t be acting so quickly to get you in to seem them.”
“But, don’t I need a lawyer or something?”
“No, but if you feel better, you can run anything you want by my lawyer.”
She’s searching my face. I can tell that her wheels are turning.
“Sweetness, there’s nothing to worry about. The only thing you need to be thinking about is if this is what you really want. Do you want to sing professionally? That should be the only question in your mind right now. If you’ve already made your decision, then there’s nothing to fear.”
“I feel like I want to do more, though, you know? I don’t want to just cut a record deal and go on tour. Every time I’ve ever sung since the day I could sing, it’s always been for a good cause. I’ve been thinking.” She pauses, as if she’s trying to find the right words. “I know that you might not be comfortable with this, but I thought about, you know, if things go well, maybe I could do a concert to fundraise…like, for MS…for your mom.”
It’s like falling in love with her all over again. The expression on my face is poignant, strong, meaningful. “Do you have any idea how wonderful you are?”
“Well, Danny, I can’t just sing for myself. I’ve never done that. I feel like if I do that, that it will take away the meaning for me, and it won’t be as purposeful.” She licks her lips. “And then your mom could come see me…and maybe even you.”
I add to her thought. “Like you could open for us or something, and the whole thing can go to MS research.”
She nods. “Yeah. That’s kind of what I was thinking. Net proceeds could go directly to MS research, and we could get the PR people to advertise that. This way you can enable your mom to come to your concerts, and at the same time, it keeps the charities from hounding you in the future.” She rolls her eyes. “As much.”
“Yeah, they’ll always find ways in. I’m sure that Darren’s phone never stops.”
“And you’re sure that he won’t mind sitting in tomorrow?”
“No. Not at all.”
We’re looking at each other, searching each other’s eyes, like time is standing still. “Are you okay?” I ask her.
“I’m just…in shock…a little.” She shakes her head. “Man, talk about having a day.”
