Real
It was real. I had won.
Two weeks later, I found myself sitting in an Italian café that was so far out of my price range that it was almost enough to make me cry, waiting for Loveless’s manager to meet me so we could hash out the details of the tour.
I had been at the small table for only a few minutes, just enough time for my coffee to be delivered, when a tall woman swept into the room and surveyed the crowd. She was obviously looking for someone, and seconds later, she realized that someone was me. She was gorgeous. She had a supermodel look to her, with long legs, perfect hair and a stylishly baggy outfit.
“You must be Colby Green,” she said, practically floating down into the seat across from me. “Montana Lewis.”
“I—umm, yeah,” I stuttered out. “That’s me. Nice to meet you.”
“Have you ordered yet? Just a drink?” She asked, hardly even waiting for me to answer before hailing a waiter and rattling off an order for each of us. Clearing her throat, she turned back to me. “So, maybe this is kind of weird, but the band is busy so they figured I could take care of things. And I know you’re totally indie, so it seemed like a good idea to meet in person. One on one.”
“I guess I just didn’t expect…” I mumbled, feeling stupid for even starting the sentence.
Montana gave a surprisingly good natured laugh. “Yeah, well, I happen to be the lead singer’s wife, too. I got into modeling and acting for music videos and found the background work—like management—even more interesting. So after Declan and I got together, it just made sense to keep things in the family, so to speak.”
Just like Hanson, I thought to myself, wondering what I had gotten myself into. Forcing a smile, I replied, “I’ve worked with a band like that before. Selling merch.”
“Well, good,” she said, giving me a wide smile. “Then you have touring experience. I know we left it totally up to fan votes, and we weren’t going to go against that, but it is a little scary to think about taking someone who hasn’t toured at all on the road with us. I think the band doing the west coast leg has been at it for a few years.”
“I don’t… I don’t have a van or anything,” I blurted out. I suddenly felt like I didn’t deserve this opportunity at all. “It’s just… it’s just me, and Tobias I guess—he plays piano and guitar, too. And, well… there’s my daughter. I can’t leave her behind. I’m sorry, I don’t think you want to tour with me.”
Montana held her hand up to silence me. “I guess you haven’t done your homework, then. Declan and I have a fourteen month old son, and I wouldn’t dream of touring without him. You can share our bus; it’s just our little family and some of the girls who sell merch. Quieter and baby friendly. Your boyfriend—Tobias, was it?—he can share with us, too.”
“Oh, no, Tobias isn’t my—” I cut myself off. It didn’t really matter what she thought he was.
“We can make this work,” Montana said, giving me a genuine smile. “I promise. I listened to your music—I really like it. I don’t think there’s anyone else who deserves to be on this tour more than you.”
“I don’t know about that,” I replied, glancing down at the table.
Before we could debate the point further, our food was delivered. She had ordered sandwiches and salads that were absolutely delicious. For several minutes, we were both too occupied by our food to say anything else besides a little small talk. It wasn’t until our plates were cleared that Montana seemed to get back down to business.
There were so many details to consider that I hadn’t thought about, and although Montana—who insisted that I call her Monty—was all business as she leaned over the table to tell me all about the tour, she made me feel at home too. I was overwhelmed but excited.
“Alright,” she said, once the check was paid. “I think we’re all ready! I think you and I are going to have a lot of fun on tour, Colby.”
“I hope—I mean, I think you’re right,” I stuttered out.
This woman might have been friendlier, but she was every bit as intimidating as the Hanson wives. Dorky, awkward little me didn’t measure up at all—not that this was a competition, but what could someone like her even like about me?
“I’ll see you in three weeks!” She chirped, pulling me into a hug as we both stood to leave.
It was awkward, but she was reassuring. Maybe this tour wouldn’t be so bad.
We parted ways, and I actually had something like a spring in my step as I walked down the street toward Avery’s to pick up Layla; I had so much nervous energy that I decided to walk rather than catching a bus or a cab. Along the way, I realized that even though I was happy about winning, I was still so unprepared for the tour. I decided I could kill two birds with one stone. There were a few people I knew who could help me prepare for a tour, but only one of them was related to someone I wasn’t speaking to who I still thought out to know about said tour.
I pulled out my phone, looked up his contact and after just a few rings, Taylor answered. “Hello? Colby?”
“Hey, umm, so this is kind of random but if you give me a chance I’ll explain…” I began, already feeling stupid. “It’s just, I was wondering… if you could maybe hook me up with somebody to design some cover art and t-shirts. I don’t really know how much I need…”
“Okay, okay,” Taylor said, chuckling a little. “What do you need all that for? And you do realize I run a record label, right?”
“Yes, but I can’t ask you to do any of that for me,” I replied. “I have other friends in the business. I mean, really small time indie stuff, but that’s fine. And the thing is… well, I may have recorded some songs. And they may have won a contest. And the contest may have been to open for a pretty big band. So it occurs to me that I may need merch—when they said I could sell some on their merch table, I didn’t mention that I don’t have any.”
Taylor chuckled again. “That is a lot to take in. Wow. Okay. Yeah, I think I can get you some names, phone numbers and emails.”
“That’s great!” I replied. “Sorry, I’m just… it’s a little overwhelming and the tour starts in like a month. Less than a month. There’s so much to do and I am so not prepared for this. I wouldn’t even be doing it if Tobias hadn’t entered me in it, so I really should be bitching at him right now, I guess.”
“You should be breathing right now,” Taylor replied.
I stopped walking and took a few deep breaths. He was right. I was getting myself all worked up again. How was I going to handle the tour if I was panicking already?
“I don’t mean to get you down or anything, but… have you told you-know-who about this?” Taylor asked.
“Why would I tell him?” I asked.
There was a pause on the line and for a moment I thought that Taylor had hung up. “Well, because… I mean, I get that you two aren’t talking and you’re not married or anything, but you are family. Something like this, some big change in your life… I don’t know, wouldn’t you want to share it with him?”
“I’m not even going to list all the things he doesn’t share with me,” I replied. “If we were on speaking terms, maybe I would tell him. But the way he acted the last time I saw him? No. He doesn’t need to know.”
“So I guess you didn’t call me in hopes that I would maybe tell him?” Taylor asked and I swore I could hear his self-satisfied smirk.
“I’m not saying I did,” I replied, “but if you do tell him… well, just don’t let me know you did. And don’t let him come after me to bitch or whine or whatever.”
“It’s a deal,” Taylor replied, but I was pretty sure he was still smirking. “I’ll shoot you an email later today or tomorrow, alright? And good luck.”
“Thanks,” I replied.
“Later, Colby.”
The line went dead then, and with that spring in my step renewed, I hurried on to Avery’s apartment. I had been very vague about why I needed her to watch Layla, although knowing that Montana and Declan had a kid—I clearly hadn’t done my research on Loveless—made me think it might not have been a mistake to just bring her along. In any case, I hadn’t had a chance to catch up with Avery for a while, so giving her some time to bond with her niece was the least I could do.
It only took her a few seconds to open the door after I rang the bell. Her eyes lit up, and so did Layla’s, who was crawling up her legs. I was impressed that she managed to answer the door that quickly with my child latched onto her, but I had to remember that Avery came from a big family. She was used to the craziness that came with kids—and a child that mixed mine and Zac’s DNA was about as crazy as possible.
“Hey!” She chirped. “How did the super-secret meeting that you couldn’t tell me about go?”
“It went really, really well,” I replied, following her into the apartment and trying not to fall when Layla latched onto my leg. “And I guess I can tell you about it now. I’m… I’m going back on tour. But this time, as one of the artists.”
“As one of the… what?” Avery slapped my arm when realization hit her. “You’re what?! How?!”
Feeling sheepish, I replied, “It was one of those opening act contest things. I’m, umm, I’m the opening act for Loveless on the east coast leg of their tour.”
“No, you’re not!” Avery cried, sweeping me into her arms. “Colby! That’s great news.”
“Yeah,” I agree. “I guess it is.”
Avery pulled back and eyed me. “Aren’t you happy about this? Why aren’t you happy about this?”
“I am, I am,” I assured her. “It’s just, you know, it’s a lot of work to get ready for it. I only have a few weeks to make myself look like an actual musician, you know? I mean, I am one—but you know, a touring musician. Although your brother is helping me out with that.”
“Zac?” Avery tilted her head to the side.
“God, no,” I said. “Taylor. Who I am sure will tell Zac all about it. But Zac is… I don’t know what he is.”
“Is he in one of his moods again?” Avery asked.
“You could say that. Or you could say he’s probably been on a bender ever since I told him his drinking is getting out of hand.”
Avery’s mouth tightened into a thin line, and I could tell that her instinct was to fight me on Zac’s alcoholic tendencies, just like Taylor had. But she didn’t. She just sighed and shook her head.
“I’m sorry, forget I said anything about it,” I continued, but my apology was pretty lackluster. From the look on Avery’s face, I could tell she thought so too.
She shrugged and waved a hand dismissively. “It’s fine. Let’s focus on the positive, huh? Tell me about the tour.”
“Okay,” I replied, then gave a nervous laugh, which seemed to be my overall reaction to the tour.
I let Avery lead me to her couch, where we sat down and Layla proceeded to amuse herself in the floor with one of her teething rings. I took a deep breath and tried to remember everything Montana had told me about the tour. I tried to sound happy about it, too, because in truth I was. I was just wary, as always, that in some way that happiness would be spoiled for me.