Rock Radio (22 page)

“What...?”

“You heard me.  It’s over.  I’m done.”

She hung up the phone, her hand shaking.

She didn’t want to be home when he left again.  Her bags were packed and she had the weekend off.  Suddenly she knew where she needed to be.

She got in her car and began to drive.

Cody knocked on Alex’s door at the hotel.  They were in Tampa and had a show that night.  Alex was glad to see Cody when he answered the door.

“Hey...did you come to congratulate me on my big news?”  Alex walked over to the small table in his room and removed a bottle of vodka from a brown bag.  “Want to join me in a toast?”  He began pouring the clear alcohol into a glass.

“No, I’m fine.”

“C’mon...it’s a toast to my good fortune.”  His tone mocked his words.

             
“Take it easy.”

             
“I need to medicate first.  Kylie’s meeting me at the show tonight.  I told her we didn’t get in to town till much later today.  I wanted to avoid the whole big conversation pre-concert.”  He took a swig of vodka and let the alcohol drown his frustration.  “She wants me to marry her.”

             
“Do you want to marry her?”

             
“No.”

             
“Oh.”  Cody proceeded delicately.  “Did you think of that before...”

             
“I know.  You all said it to me already.  Don’t you think I know this?”

“Well...”

“Point taken.”  Alex refilled his glass with vodka.

“So what will you do?” Cody probed, asking questions he knew he didn’t have a right to ask, but ha
d to.  His childhood made him feel for this unborn child.  Alex had no idea what it was like to grow up without a dad or worse, with parents that hated each other.

“I asked her about another option...ya know, terminating the pregnancy, but she’s super religious and wants to keep it.  I can’t imagine how the hell she’s gonna raise it...”

Cody bristled.  “Not ‘it,’ Alex, your child.”

“Whatever, she’s a young kid...only twenty.  What’s she gonna do with a baby?”  Alex’s voice grew angry.  “And if she was so damn religious then what the hell was she doin’ sleeping with me?  Don’t the ultra-religious frown on that whole pre-marital sex thing?”

“How do you feel about her?”

“I like her, I mean, maybe I love her...I don’t know.  I do know that I don’t wanna be married now with a kid.  Dude we are on the way up...we’re gonna be huge rock stars.”  Alex leapt onto the bed and opened his arms to an adoring imaginary crowd.  “This is the beginning of the best time in
our lives.  Sex, drugs and rock and roll man.”  He downed the rest of his drink.

“Alex, this is your reality now.  You have to deal with it.”

“Do I?” he screamed, throwing his vodka glass hard against the wall.  Shards of glass flew around the room.

Cody shielded his face with his hands.  “Alex!”

Alex jumped from the bed and flew out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

“Alex!”  Cody ran after him.  Alex was drunk and depressed, not a good combination.

He chased Alex through the halls of the small hotel drawing stares from other guests.  He followed him to the pool area where Alex finally stopped.

“I’m trying to get away from you, can’t you just leave me alone?”  He was breathless.

“I’m trying to keep you from ruining your life.”

“It’s already ruined.”  Alex sat down on a lounge chair and let the tears that had pooled in his eyes fall down his cheeks.  He quickly wiped his face with his hands.

“You need to talk to Kylie and try to figure this out.”

“I know deep down that I should do the right thing and marry her.  I don’t want my kid to be illegitimate.  But, I’m not ready to be a dad or a husband.  I don’t want that yet.  And as far as Kylie...I’m not in love with her.”

Cody felt sorry for his friend.  “I don’t know the answer, but it’s here somewhere.  Give yourself some time...it’ll come to you.”

Alex dropped his head into his hands.

“C’mon, let’s go back inside.  You should sleep this off before the show tonight.”

Alex turned to Cody.  “Thanks, man.”

“Anytime.”

The two friends walked back through the hotel.  Cody made sure Alex was okay, took the bottle of vodka from his room and left.

He thought about calling Dana, which was odd since he didn’t even know her that well.  Reality was she was still on his mind.  It felt so different that night.  He trusted his instincts and didn’t think he imagined the connection.  What could have happened?  He hated loose ends.

He flipped opened his wallet
and pulled out a piece of paper.  He had copied her number down when he’d gotten back to his room in Miami.

             
Did he really want to get rejected again?

He shoved the paper back into his wallet
and got on with his life.

Larry Carter could not believe how smart he was.  All those people that said he was a loser.  That he had no brain.  What did they know?  Just because you’re quiet and shy doesn’t mean you can’t think.  Larry laughed at their gross misjudgment.  He had a special kind of intelligence.

He figured out that Dana Drew was Dana Hill.

He’d show them all.

He went to the white pages online and typed in her
real
name.

Dana Hill popped right up.

An address and a phone number.

See, he reassured himself, Dana didn’t lie about where she lived.  She just mislead him about her real name, but that’s only because she’s famous.  Dana would never be dishonest with him. Never.

He pulled out a yellow legal pad and took out a bright red pen.  Carefully he printed her name, phone number and address.  Now he could call her.  Or visit her.

The thought gave him chills.

He moved from the computer into his bedroom.  He had to get dressed.  He was working tonight at the bookstore.  He didn’t want to go, but he needed the money and he’d already missed too many days.  He couldn’t afford to lose his job.  All the people there thought of him as quiet Larry.  They didn’t realize that soon he’d be the husband of the most famous woman in South Florida.  Once they got married, he wouldn’t have to work anymore.  He could just relax at home and listen to his wife on the air.

His wife.

That meant other privileges, too.

Larry pulled the picture of Dana from the night at Scully’s out of his wallet and brought it to his lips.

Soon my sweet.

Soon.

Dana drove into the night, heading north on the highway to clear her head. She cranked the radio to maximum volume, mad at herself for being so naïve, for taking Sam back in the first place.

She felt stifled.  She rolled down the windows of the car, letting in fresh air.  It didn’t take away the weight she felt on her chest.

Dana chided herself.  It wasn’t Sam she wanted back, it was the idea of Sam.  The idea of the family she wanted.  If she was honest with herself, she’d admit that things hadn’t been that good since he moved back.  She hadn’t felt the same closeness.  Little things started bothering her about him:  the way he rolled the toothpaste up from the bottom, the way he sucked his fingers after he ate making an annoying smacking noise, the wet feeling on her cheek after he kissed it.

Had she never noticed this before?  Or was she just blinded by her feelings?  Suddenly, everything was glaring and annoying.  Did she really think a weekend away would change anything?

And then there was Cody.

Why did that picture of him in the magazine bother her so much?  If he was a fantasy she needed a reality check.  She needed to see him and get him out of her system.

She turned onto I-75.  Tampa was now only three hours away.

If she saw him she could put this teenage infatuation behind her and move her life forward.

Three more hours.

The Cody Blue Experience took to the stage with a vengeance.  The crowd roared, but the band was off tonight.  Alex had a hangover from his afternoon with the bottle and his mind was elsewhere.  He’d seen Kylie just before the show.  She was putting tremendous pressure on him to get married.  He really didn’t want to.  The music didn’t matter tonight.

Cody walked over to him between songs.  “What are you doing?”

“I’m just a little out of it tonight.”

“Well get it together.”  Cody hated sounding anything less than professional.

On the next song things didn’t get any better.  Bobby and Harper looked at Cody and shrugged their shoulders as if to say, “It’s not our fault.”

They finished the set to a receptive crowd, but they knew they sucked.

“What the hell happened?” Eric yelled as he entered the dressing room.  He was not pleased.  He wore his long blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail, black leather pants and matching leather jacket.  He
was the rock star manager wannabe.  “I thought you all wanted this!”

“It was just one bad performance,” Cody defended, glancing briefly at Alex.

“Yeah, won’t happen again,” Harper confirmed, backing up his friend.

“The music reporter from
The Tampa Tribune
doesn’t know that the next show’s going to be better.  He’s going to write what he saw tonight...and I don’t think it’ll be pretty.”

The band stared at their feet.  Cody spoke up.

“We’re not a machine.  We’ve been working hard, we’re tired.  Things happen, you know, we weren’t that bad.  People responded.”

“The people don’t have the trained ear of a music critic.  He’ll write that CBE live is not as polished as the studio CBE.”

“Who fuckin’ cares?” Alex said.  “Really.  It was one bad gig, just drop it.”  He stormed out of the dressing room.  Eric started to go after him.

“Back off, Eric,” Cody said, following Alex out the door.

He hung back, watching Alex approach Kylie with a kiss.  Soon their warm welcome turned ugly.  Cody saw them exchange words and then Kylie leave, crying.

Alex turned and spotted Cody.

“What are you, my guardian angel or something?”

“Just a friend,” Cody said, putting his arm around Alex’s shoulder.  “Why don’t you go back to the room, take a shower, get some sleep.”

Alex looked weary.  “I’m out...thanks man.”

“No problem,” Cody said
, heading back to the dressing room.

He
was walking past the bar when he saw her nursing a glass of wine.  He stopped dead in his tracks to focus.  Yes, it was her…the long mane of dark hair, full red lips and then the flash of her green eyes.

She met his stare.

“Dana?”

“Cody Blue.”  She drank him in with her eyes.  He looked amazing.  Tall, broad shoulders, lean muscular frame.

“So, what, you were in the neighborhood and decided to drop by?” he said sarcastically, his tone cold.  The image of her kissing that guy in the parking lot flashed before him.

She didn’t miss the anger in his voice.  “At least I show up.  Or do you just make plans with girls all the time only to stand them up?”  She drained her wineglass.

“Oh I only do that to girls I see making out with some guy before I’m supposed to meet them.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“You, in a parking lot, some guys lips on yours.  Pretty clear to me.”

Some guy, some guy...she searched her mind for the answer.  Two glasses of wine weren’t helping. 

Oh.  Sam. 

He saw her with Sam at Ivy’s parking lot.  That’s why he didn’t show.  He didn’t ditch her.  She ditched him.

“I...I can explain,” she stammered, though she had no idea how.  She began to regret this trip.  She had no business being here.

Cody was angry
, but didn’t walk away.  She looked so beautiful.  The air between them was charged with desire.  He wanted to grab her and kiss her, but she humiliated him.  She played him.  “Do you fool around with all the bands you interview?”

“It’s not what you think.  It was my ex...he wanted to see me.  It had nothing to do with you.”

“So, this ex is still an ex?  That did not look like a kiss goodbye.”

Dana felt his hurt and emotion drip from every word.  She hadn’t imagined her feelings that night at Luna.  What she felt was real.

“He asked to get back together,” she whispered.

“And...?”

She swallowed hard.  “I said yes.”

Cody shook his head.  “So why the hell are you here?”

Dana began to cry.  Silent tears fell down her cheeks.  “I don’t know.  I...I had to see you again.”  She felt humiliated.  “I never should have come.”

Dana ran out of the club into the nig
ht feeling like a fool.  It started to rain.  She put her hands over her head in a pointless attempt to stay dry.