by Cathryn Fox
Was he?
Amy wasn’t exactly sure. It had been at least a month since she’d seen Denny. When they were in their maybe-we’re-in-love stage, it was easier for Amy to watch Denny and judge his reactions. Recently, he had been quiet and reclusive so Amy had a sense of peace. Then came that morning she woke to find her car window broken and the inside trashed. It was a clear message that the debt hadn’t been forgotten yet.
After changing into something more appropriate for the day, Amy took her chances. She left the apartment and began to walk. Leaving her building, she scanned the parking lot, checking for any signs of Denny. Seeing the empty parking spot with her apartment number on it was just another reminder of everything that had happened with Denny, and the potential of what could happen. Suddenly, she wished she had someone to protect her. Someone like Luke? Amy rolled her eyes and kept walking. If she was going to let her mind wander like that she was better off picturing someone more realistic.
Once at the car repair garage, Amy got her car back. The glass had been cleaned up, the window replaced, and they were even nice enough to try to put everything else together for Amy. All the papers were placed back in the glovebox. All her CD’s that had been scattered throughout the car were organized on the passenger seat. Amy thanked the man behind the counter for the extra work and then took her car. To her surprise, driving didn’t make her feel much safer. Driving gave her a small sense of freedom, but she had no place to go. She knew better than to show up at the restaurant right then. Uncle Tom would probably try to honestly fire her. Amy had nothing to do, so she decided to go back to her apartment. A day off was well spent at home, relaxing. All the stuff she wanted to do the night before she could do now. A cup of hot tea. A chick flick. Resting on the couch. She knew she’d keep a notebook handy to jot down ideas for the restaurant because she couldn’t help herself. But there was something else she wanted to do too.
Amy parked and rushed into her apartment. She tossed her keys to the table and opened her laptop. In a matter of a few minutes Amy leaned back and smiled as music began to play. She now officially owned the smash hit album from Fallen Tuesday. The second Luke’s voice came in on the song, she smiled. It really was him the night before. She shook her head in amazement. She had spent time with a rockstar…
Amy’s cell phone buzzed and she saw a text from Julie, one of the waitresses from the restaurant and someone she considered a good friend. Maybe not a best friend – the kind she’d share the truth about Denny with – but she was a good friend.
The message read…
Emergency. Hurry. Open your door, help me.
Amy stood and looked down at the phone. Her eyes scrambled on what to do first. She turned the music off and rushed to the door. She forgot her keys but opened the door anyway. There stood Julie with a bottle of wine and two wine glasses.
“Surprise,” she said.
“What are you doing?” Amy screamed.
“Getting in trouble I guess… you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“You scared me,” Amy scanned the hallway.
“I brought wine.”
“It’s barely past noon.”
“But it is past noon,” Julie winked. “What are you doing on your day off?”
“How did you know I had a day off?”
“That’s kind of headline news around the restaurant world. Can I come in?”
“Of course,” Amy said. She let out a long breath.
Julie took over the apartment like it was her own. She put the wine and glasses down then looked at the computer. Before Amy could take a step Julie had the music playing from the laptop.
“Sitting alone, listening to music?” Julie asked.
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“Fallen Tuesday… I’ve heard them before. On the radio, actually. They were on the radio last night.”
Amy smiled. They could have been on the radio last night. They were, after all, local. Amy felt color rush to her cheeks.
“They’re good!” Amy’s voice went up a few notes. She coughed and said, “I mean, I like them.”
“You seem a little giddy there,” Julie said. “How was your night last night?”
“Interesting,” Amy said.
“Why’s that?”
“You wouldn’t understand…”
Amy thought about how to tell Julie everything and make her actually believe it. Julie looked up from the laptop and stared at Amy.
“I wouldn’t understand?” Julie asked. “Try me…”
Amy smiled.
If you say so.
Luke sat with his notebook. The words on the papers meant nothing compared to the thoughts in his head. He couldn’t understand why Amy still rang in his mind. Maybe it was the whole damsel-in-distress aspect, but whatever it was caused him to completely forget about his throat and the show the band was supposed to play that night.
After his encounter with Amy, Luke had spent a little while longer outside. He actually waited for the limo to return back to the hotel. Luke wanted to ensure that Amy had arrived at her apartment without a problem. The limo driver said he waited and she flicked the lights twice. Luke thanked the driver, tipped him, and then asked him to step away from the limo.
“I need a favor,” Luke had said.
“Like?”
“I need you to not be a limo driver for a few seconds. I need you to understand what I’m going to say… and what I’m going to ask…”
Luke dropped his pen and closed the notebook. There was nothing lyrically happening. Well not anything he could actually write about. It would end up being fluff for a love song. The kind that didn’t make sense.
The guys had gone out for a walk to stretch their legs and try to cure their hangover headaches. The night before hadn’t ended when the limo returned without Amy. Luke still had to face the party on the top floor of the hotel. And a party it was. The people were having a wild time and within an hour, Luke got the first phone call from Frank.
“Why am I looking at a picture of you guys playing guitar and fans in your hotel room?”
The question made Luke feel like he was thirteen and had just been busted for having a party at home. It made him laugh and there was no getting around it. He told him what had happened and before Frank could protest, he invited Frank to join the party and then hung up. Luke managed to rest his voice for the rest of the night, letting the fans sing while they all played. They played a few songs two or three times and before long, Luke noticed that the fans were taking turns coming in the room. A group would listen to a song and then shuffle out so the next group could enter. It was the ultimate sign of respect for the band.
It finally ended right around three in the morning. The band stayed up for another hour, celebrating what had just happened, and then retreated to their bed to crash, and the night – or morning – finally ended.
Luke heard his cell phone and rushed to it.
It was a call he had been waiting for.
“Dr. Hornsbury, hello.”
“Luke, how are you feeling today?”
“I’m good.”
Luke felt his throat. It was tight. Sore. Annoyed. He knew Dr. Hornsbury would be able to hear it through the phone.
“Have you been resting?”
Luke swallowed. The silence became his answer. “Dr. Hornsbury…”
“Luke, I know you’re on tour with your band, but I just want you to know that the longer you wait and push yourself with this…”
“I get it,” Luke said. “I could hurt myself permanently.”
“Not even that,” Dr. Hornsbury said. “You could end up off the stage for months if this gets bad enough. I really think you needed some rest…”
“Needed?”
“You’ve been playing shows, Luke. I’d like to see you again soon. I’d like to check to see if there has been anymore damage and how much. We’re approaching a crucial point here, Luke.”
“The tour’s almost over,” Luke said.
“Then what?”
Luke couldn’t reply. The then what? was the hardest part. The band needed to wrap up the tour and then get right into a studio. Studio sessions were worse than touring. In the studio every note needed to be perfect, both played and sung. Going right into the studio to record would ruin Luke’s voice.
“What do I do, doc?” Luke asked. “I have a band. A career. A record company on my neck.”
“It’s time to talk,” Dr. Hornsbury said. “Come see me as soon as you can, okay? We’ll see if there’s more damage and go from there. But I need you to wrap your head around telling everyone about this. Luke, it could just be a setback, nothing more. If you ignore it… if we have to operate and if you have to wait months or years…”
“I get it,” Luke said.
Just then, the door opened and the rest of the band filed into the room. Luke turned to shield the phone conversation.
“I have to get going here,” Luke said.
“Be careful tonight, Luke,” Dr. Hornsbury warned.
“Thanks. Bye.”
Luke ended the call.
“Bad news, brother?” Mack asked.
“No, not really.”
“Hey, what happened to you last night?” Gray asked. “You went out for air and came back almost an hour later.”
Luke smiled. “You know…”
“Tell me you had a woman,” Mack said. “What did you do? Pick someone out of the crowd and go to their room?”
“No,” Luke said. “I was outside. And there was a woman.”
“Unbelievable,” Jake said. “They just flock to him.”
“Nobody flocked,” Luke said. “She ran into me. She was walking home from work and thought someone was following her. She was scared to death.”
“Walking home that late?” Mack asked. “Where does she work?”
“She’s a chef at a restaurant around here. Maybe we could eat there before we leave town.”
“Yeah, sure,” Gray said. “We’ll get on that.”
“Why’s it eating you right now?” Mack asked.
“What?” Luke asked.
“Something’s eating you,” Mack said. “I can see it.”
Something was eating at Luke. It was Amy, yes, but it was also his voice. Luke had been trying to calculate the implications if the band cancelled tonight’s show. The financial implications, the way the band would feel, but most of all, the fans. Luke knew it would upset all the people who had been looking forward to the show for days or weeks if he cancelled the day of the show.
He couldn’t do it.
Not this show. He’d have to find a way to get through it. No question about it.
Then again, he’d been telling himself the same thing for the last dozen shows.
“You can’t meet a woman at midnight and fall for her,” Mack said. “That’s…”
“Nobody is falling for anyone,” Luke said. “She was in trouble last night. I called for a limo to take her home.”
“Did you go with her?” Trent asked.
“No. She was scared, man. I think some guy on a bike was following her. She got home safe but I can’t stop thinking about it.”
“Why?” Mack asked. “You want payment?”
He smiled and Gray laughed.
“I just want to know she’s okay,” Luke said. “She didn’t seem like the type that knew what to do with trouble, or the type to cause it.”
Mack put a hand to Luke’s shoulder. “Those are always the ones that cause the trouble.”
“Yeah, maybe. I don’t know. I’m all messed up right now. The bus thing yesterday, the party last night, and now we have to get to the show for tonight. I’m a little out of it.”
“Don’t let her flood your mind,” Gray said. “If you’re going to though, then check up on her. You know where she lives, right?”
Luke looked at the band. “I had the limo take her without me. She was uneasy about me going. Which I understood.”
“Damn,” Mack said. “Oh well then, right?”
“Not quite. I sort of pressed the limo driver for her address.”
“You didn’t,” Gray said.
“Yeah, I did.”
“For a stranger? For some woman.”
“It’s not going to be some woman,” Mack said. He shook his head. “Do what you have to do, Luke. We have to get out of here soon. The bus will be here.”
“The bus?” Luke asked. “Really?”
“It was just a tire,” Mack said. “It’s all fixed already.”
“Why didn’t they fix it on the side of the road last night?”
Mack laughed. “Because the longer we stood there the more of a crowd there would have been. Plus, you wouldn’t have met your girlfriend, right?”
Luke opened his mouth to say something along the lines of she’s not my girlfriend, man… but that was pointless.
“Okay,” Luke said. “Let me make a call and take care of something.”
Luke made two phone calls and then took the back stairs down to the ground floor of the hotel. He took more caution in the daylight. It was well known that Fallen Tuesday was at the hotel. Out back a black car waited. It wasn’t a limo, thankfully. Luke opened the passenger door and saw an envelope on the seat. He grabbed it and then sat in the seat.
“Where to?” the driver asked.
Luke closed his eyes and spoke. He had it memorized. He hoped this wouldn’t blow up in his face.
Amy listened to the entire Fallen Tuesday album twice. She was barely sipping a glass of wine. Her mind was bouncing between Luke, Denny, and the restaurant. Julie had rambled on for an hour straight about her love life. A boyfriend who liked sex but wouldn’t commit. A real shocker. Not.
“Are you going to listen to that all day?” Julie asked.
“Maybe,” Amy said. “I can’t stop.”
“Because you were with the rockstar last night?”
“You say it like you don’t believe me,” Amy said. “Why would I make something like that up? Especially to you?”
“I believe you,” Julie said. “I just think it’s crazy.”
“You’re telling me. I was running down an alley and then next thing I know I’m in a limo.”
“Whoa… wait a second,” Julie said. She put her wine glass down. “Why were you running down an alley?”
Amy looked up at Julie. With wide eyes, she thought, shit… she didn’t mean to slip that kind of detail into her story. For all Julie knew, Amy had walked home without a problem. Along the way, she met Luke, and he offered her a limo ride so she wouldn’t be cold.
“Amy… what happened last night?” Julie asked.
Amy sighed. She touched her laptop and turned the volume down. “Sit down, Julie.” Julie did. “I’m going to tell you something… I have no proof of anything, okay? This has to stay between us.”
“Okay.”
“My car was broken into.”
“I know that.”
“I know who did it. Or I think I do.”
That caught Julie’s full attention. “Really? Who?”
“Denny,” Amy said.
“Denny… your Denny? Your ex?”
Amy nodded. “I can’t prove it and I haven’t said anything to anyone else, but I’m pretty sure it was him. He gets into his jealous fits and… I don’t know.”
“So what does that have to do with last night?”
“I was walking home and I heard a motorcycle,” Amy said. “It freaked me out so I darted down an alley.”
“Wow,” Julie said. “Denny was looking for you?”
“I didn’t say that,” Amy said. “I said I heard a motorcycle and got freaked out. That’s all. So I ran down an alley and hurried to get here. I got into the hotel parking lot and ran into Luke. Literally ran into Luke. I had my head down. I wasn’t paying attention.”
Julie scooted closer. “Before I get to the Luke stuff… this thing with Denny, that’s kind of scary, isn’t it?”
“I don’t
know,” Amy said. She played it off in front of Julie, but just talking about the incidents had her heart racing, her mouth running dry, and she had a crazy urge to race to the window and look for any signs of Denny outside. “It’s just Denny. He looks for a reaction. We didn’t have the best relationship. The breakup really wasn’t mutual.”
“But you broke up months ago,” Julie said. “So, what is he going to do? Show up every couple months and do something?”
“I’m kind of hoping if I ignore him this time he’ll just go away.”
Julie slid a hand across the table and gripped Amy’s hand. “Sweetheart, there’s a difference between a drunk dial or a drunk text and someone smashing the window of your car. You know that, right?”
“I know,” Amy said. Her world of denial seemed to be coming down. Piece by piece. All thanks to Luke.
“I just don’t want this to turn into something else.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t want to scare you,” Julie said. “But, come on, if Denny is that crazy… what if he gets mad that you didn’t respond to him? What if he does something else? Something worse?”
“Okay, I get it,” Amy said. “Change the subject. I hate talking about Denny. I hate everything about him…”
“Fine,” Julie said. “Thanks to Denny though, you got to meet a rockstar.”
“Yeah. Some meeting. I was cold, nervous, confused. I didn’t do anything with him, not that I should have.”
“You could have,” Julie said. “Then you’d have a real good story.”
“You know, I didn’t even ask for an autograph or anything. I just wanted to get home and clear my head.”
“Maybe that’s for the better too then,” Julie said. “It’s still a story to tell.”
“That’s where I have to leave it then,” Amy said. “It was just a story.”
The song on the laptop came to an end. Amy looked at the screen. It was the third time listening to the album now. She couldn’t get enough of it. It wasn’t just Luke’s voice either, the band was really good.
