With a "What's up, you ready to party, y'all?" the night was truly under way. Gretchen sang a good ten songs, starting with "Here for the Party" and ending with "Redneck Woman". When Gretchen asked for a big "Hell, yeah", the Harem complied happily. They still couldn't believe they had all met up like they had planned, and were now at the show.
The house lights came up, and the three started chattering immediately. They watched as the "roadies" cleared the stage of Gretchen's things and brought out the boys'. All of them watched the two techs who were carrying Richie's guitar rack across the stage and down the side stairs. Hath and Steph looked at Lucy, who had a look of longing on her face that they could feel. They knew she longed to have Richie play her like those guitars, and also had a sneaking suspicion she'd get her wish.
Finally, a litle past 9, the lights went down. The crowd screamed deafeningly loud. One by one, starting with the 'satellite' players, the band took the stage. The stage was set up like a bar. The crowd cheered when Tico and David came out, waving to everyone and smiling. The audience screamed with delight when Richie took the stage, and Lucy was holding onto Hath's hand so tight, that the Goddess thought her bones might be bruised. Then, a light behind a white door shone brightly. Jon's silhouette showed through, and the crowd went wild. Absolutely, unequivocably wild. He came through the door, and the noise level surged to eardrum-shattering proportions. They launched into Lost Highway, and the show was on.
* * * *
Now that they were in the swing of things, Richie was on autopilot. He scanned the crowd for Lucy’s face.
He remembered her words to him earlier, “close enough to see you” -- Hell that could mean anything. He slowly looked at the ladies in the first couple of rows in the Richie Pit, making them all happy. Then he saw her. Jesus, she still took his breath away. She was there with two other women who had to be Queenie and GSA.
He winked in their direction and went over to Jon to sing into his mic with him, like he often did. When the song was done, he said, off-mic, “Bro, they’re here,” and pointed to where the three women stood. The pair strutted to the edge of the stage, making all the ladies go crazy; all of them except the three women in black, who just smiled smugly.
Jon grinned widely, and hunkered down in front of them. He said, “Well, well, well. What do we have here?” The Harem looked at each other. Although it was unrehearsed, the three women ripped their jackets open to show the fronts of their t-shirts at exactly the same time. Jon and Richie burst out laughing, and the women around the trio frowned. They weren't too happy that these three women were getting all the attention. One of the on-stage camera men got the Harem in his sights, and they found themselves up on the big screen. David and Tico joined the laughter, once they saw the t-shirts.
David called out, “Hello Harem!” which had the three girls laughing. Hathor noted that he was wearing another of those God-awful stage shirts.
Richie looked back at him. “Hey, that’s my line, NOEL!" He turned back to the girls, and saw them doubled over with laughter. That was another board reference. David had logged onto the board as "Noel", a woman who was hell bent on trying to get Kidd's attention, to no avail. All the girls were trying to warn "her" off, and Hathor had sparred with "her" bit trading barbs and innuendos back and forth. Richie had commented to Dave afterwards that Hathor was ALMOST a match for Dave's own brand of smart-ass. Dave was looking forward to talking to her, to see if she did as well face to face as she did cloaked in the 'anonymity' of online.
Richie turned his full attention back to his Harem, and leaned forward to see them better. He liked what he saw. They were all beautiful. "So, which of you is which?” He winked at Lucy, who blushed.
The girls turned around, sweeping their hair away from their backs so their names were visible.
Nobody but them had any clue what was going on, and it was a heady feeling to have an in-joke with the band. All three ladies blew kisses to Richie and waved to the others.
Jon asked them, “Are you ready for more?” to which, of course, the whole crowd screamed. They launched into “I Love This Town”, and Jon changed a line just for them.
...I got some good friends here, I mighta broke a heart or two.
It’s getting loud over there, the Harem must have had a few…
The three women just looped their arms around each other and smiled.
It was Lucy that noticed Jon turn to the fan pit on Richie's side of the stage. He seemed to be sharing a meaningful, lingering look with someone, then he winked and flashed that million mega watt smile. Lucy immediately scanned the faces of the women in the pit, trying to figure out who he was looking at, but she got distracted when the opening notes of Bed of Roses floated through the air.
Next to her, Hathor started yelling at the scream of Richie's guitar, and with their arms linked the three women began to sway from side to side to the beat of the song. They were all singing along at the top of their lungs and were getting strange looks from the people around them, but they didn't care. This was their night to get a little rowdy. As Gretchen sang earlier..."They were here for the party!"
With their eyes on Richie, they didn't even notice when Jon moved to the fan pit. At least not until Richie launched into his solo and Jon pulled a hesitant woman from the group to dance with. She was shaking her head 'no' at Jon, even as he pulled her toward center stage, not willing to let go of her hand.
"Do you believe she's telling him no?" the blonde with the bad bottle job and too tight mini-skirt behind the trio yelled. "Come take my hand, Jonny boy, I won't tell you no," she screamed right in Stephanie's ear.
Stephanie was glancing over her shoulder at the way too loud (in more ways than one) woman, when Hathor's elbow caught her in the side. She looked up to see Hathor jerking her head toward the stage. "I think that's Sam," she yelled. Lucy just nodded in agreement. Stephanie's eyes flew to the stage. She noticed the familiar way Jon held the woman in his arms, like they had danced before – if not vertically, most definitely horizontally. The woman on stage was certainly no 'skinny Minnie', and Stephanie recalled the conversation she'd had in PM's with Sam on the football forum. She smiled at her two new friends and nodded in agreement. That had to be her! The old saying goes...'The proof is in the pudding.' But for the trio looking on, the proof was in the kiss at the end of the dance. Jon's lips lingered just a little too long on the woman's, and his hands lovingly cupped her ass as he pulled her against him briefly before turning her loose. Yep, that better be Sam, or all three of them were telling!
All too soon, the band did their two-song finale, and the show was over. As the band took their bows, Jon caught Sam's eye, and gave her a look that set the Harem to sighing out loud.
"He's mine, Harem," Sam said playfully. "You can look, but you can't touch."
Richie was pointing at Lucy, who had such a grin on her face, it was a wonder her cheeks weren't killing her. Another couple of minutes, and the boys were gone. The show was over.
Let the after-party begin.
* * * * *
We are finally at the venue and the concert is well underway. My eyes have been fixed on Richie since he hit the stage. I see him scanning the crowd. Then his eyes lock on mine. I turn to Queenie and yell “He just spotted us.” About that time Richie and Jon had made their way over to the edge of the stage in front of us. Jon teased us a bit, and Richie teased David a bit. Jon even changed a line of “I love this town” just for us. I don’t know about the other two girls, but that’s the line I’m going to being singing from now on.
Since he had spotted us, Richie had been playing to us all night. Throwing his guitar picks, winking and smiling at us. I was watching Jon do one of his famous ass shakes and shaking my ass right along with him, hey I might be a Richie girl now, but I still can’t take my eyes off Jon’s fabulous ass. That’s when Queenie leaned over to me and tells me that Richie is watching me. I look up at him, and sure as shit he was watching me, so I blow him a kiss, to which I get one of his gorgeous smiles.
The first notes of Bed of Roses start and I can’t take my eyes off Richie. We see Jon trying to pull a woman out of the side stage fan pit to dance with him. She is reluctant at first, but eventually comes out of the fan pit to dance with him. I hear Goddess yell to Queenie that she thinks that’s Sam, I nodded my head in agreement. The way he looked at her, held her and kissed her was just way too familiar to be just a random girl.
After their dance Sam made her way over to us. It was so exciting to finally meet her in person. I had talked with her several times not only on the board but on the phone to and had developed a close friendship with her.
By the end of the show, we all had our own souvenirs. Goddess caught the last guitar pick Richie threw, Queenie had one of Tico’s drum sticks and Sam had the full on Jovi experience. I had the seducing looks given to me from the hottest guitarist on the face of God’s green earth embedded in my mind forever.
We sat and waited for the crowd to thin out before we headed backstage to go to the after party. Each of us going over our favorite part of the concert. I told Sam how cute she and Jon looked together dancing, to which we all laughed at how Jon hated being described with the word cute. Most of the crowd was gone and Queenie and Hathor were anxious to finally meet the Harem leader. Although I had already met him, I was definitely hoping this night would end with just the two of us in his hotel room and my favorite CFM boots under his bed.
* * * * *
Richie played to us the rest of the night, winking at us, tossing guitar picks our way, smiling at us. He kept his eye mainly on Lucy though. Watching him, I could tell he was totally taken with her. He did his job up there, playing, singing and interacting with Jon, but his eyes never left her. I nudged Lucy, “he’s watching you.” Lucy looked up at him and sure enough his brown eyes were trained on her. She blew him a kiss and he smiled back at her.
When they played Bed of Roses we all sighed, wanting to be the girl to dance with Jon. But when it came time for that, he pulled a girl from the fan pit that seemed somehow familiar to me. She wasn't a skinny stick like most of the girls around us and in the pit. I remembered chatting in pm's with Sam and damn if that wasn't her up there. They were dancing so close that not a breath of air could come between them and his eyes never left hers. Then, the kiss he laid on her at the end; well shit, it had better be her. We looked at each other, “is that Sam?” When Jon released her she headed our way and sure enough, it was her. We all laughed and screamed, hugged and kissed. It was awesome to finally meet her face to face.
When the band took their final bow Richie threw one final guitar pick our way and winked as Goddess caught it. I had a memento of my own, one of Tico’s drumsticks. What a way to end a fantastic concert and start the partying afterwards.
As the crowd dispersed, we sat down to catch our breath and compose ourselves before heading backstage. “Can you frickin’ believe it?” Hathor started, “he changed a line in the song for us!” Lucy and I agreed it was unbelievable.
“How about you and Jon” Lucy pointed at Sam, “you two were just too cute up there together during Bed of Roses.”
Sam laughed, “just don’t let Jon hear you call us cute. He hates that word!”
“And Dave” I said, “I forgot he was Noel. He’s as big a smart ass as you are Hathor.”
We shared a bout of laughter and then decided, now that the crowd was gone, that it was time for the Harem to meet their Master.
* * * * *
I watched as Richie seduced Lucy from the stage. I still felt a twinge of jealousy, after all I had had a crush on him as long as she had, but when I saw the pure joy in her face, I felt like an ass for feeling jealous. She was just so happy. I couldn’t do anything but be happy for them.
When Bed of Roses started, I wondered who he was going to pick to dance with. I was kinda hoping it was gonna be one of us, because, well, we sorta knew these guys now. But he pulled this other woman from the pit at the side of the stage. We three all nudged each other asking, “Is that Sam?” and when we saw, shit, felt, the heat they were generating on stage, we knew it was.
After the song, this really big security guard brought her over to us, and we all hugged and kissed and generally acted like a bunch of schoolgirls. We had a helluva time for the rest of the show. When the guys took their final bows Richie tossed a final guitar pick which I caught and tucked into my bra for safekeeping. Richie winked at me. Sigh. As people left the arena, we collapsed into our chairs and all started talking at once.
I couldn’t believe Jon had changed the line in the song; I’d replay that forever in my head – it was just too great. Lucy commented about how cute Sam and Jon were, and Queenie laughed about David as Noel. I was really looking forward to talking to him.
Once the crowd was nearly dispersed, we pulled the lanyards holding the backstage passes from our shirts.
“Pucker time, girls,” I said, making the rest of them laugh.
It was time.
Here we go.
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