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| Daniel |
I smiled and shook Frank’s hand.
“More than ready”, I replied.
Frank was waiting for me in the lobby to take me to the artists’ entrance of the theatre. I was going to be on that stage for the very first time for a rehearsal. Frank, as one of the producers of this TV talent show, had approached me a month ago in Providence and now it was finally time to get prepared.
At the same time, it was slightly strange that after last night, everything had just kept going. Like I hadn’t given a sexy man 4 orgasms in a row about 12 hours ago. Daniel had passed out in my arms after we’d had sex for about 45 minutes straight. And nothing had felt better than his body against mine throughout the night. Or his breath hitting my chest over and over.
Frank showed me around the backstage area. He showed me my dressing room. There was a common area where we could all hang out. On a TV screen I saw a young woman with blond hair performing. I’d seen her at the afterparties, but I hadn’t spoken to her.
“That’s Sheryl doing her rehearsal now, she will be performing just before you tomorrow as well”, Frank explained.
It was difficult to pay attention to all of the things Frank was saying. I kept thinking about Daniel. Like how this morning, after we had cuddled in bed for a while, I had suggested to go downstairs for breakfast.
“You know we can get room service to bring us breakfast here, right?”, he had asked me.
“What?”
“Yeah, they’ll charge it to the room and production will pay. And we can just stay naked together.”
“Is that why I never see anyone else at the breakfast buffet?”
Daniel had laughed adorably. We’d had breakfast in bed together.
“This is Woodrow”, Frank said.
I snapped out of it. Frank pointed to a black guy who was sitting at a table in the backstage area. He was in his 50s, bald, but with a white goatee.
“Woodrow is going to take you through your staging.”
I shook Woodrow’s hand as Frank and I sat down across from him.
“For Adam I really just need a stool of some kind and a mic stand”, Frank started.
“OK”, Woodrow said as he started writing in a notepad. “How tall are you?”
“Oh, about 5’11’’”, I answered.
“Anything you would like to add to that?”, Frank asked me.
“No. Simple is good”, I replied.
“That’s what I was thinking”, Frank smiled.
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| Daniel |
“Wouldn’t it be awesome if after this, you could quit and do music fulltime?”, Daniel had asked me.
I had chuckled.
“Yeah”, I’d said.
But there was no part of me that even remotely believed that would happen. I was going to do the very best I could, but making the actual TV show seemed out of reach for me. The people that performed there, might get their songs played on the radio or something and have a chance at a career. I just knew that wouldn’t be me. Maybe I would get some more followers on Instagram or something.
After Woodrow, Frank took me to see Donnie, who was in charge of sound. It was the first time I would be performing with an in-ear monitor. He patiently walked me through it, even though I knew I was probably the only one who had never played without one before. He hooked up a small mic to my guitar. Then there was a backstage soundcheck for my audio levels.
I could feel myself getting more nervous as I could finally make my way to the stage. Frank told me he would be right there with me. As I waited to go on, Sheryl came off stage. She had a big smile and shook my hand.
“You must be Adam”, she said.
“I am!”
“I saw your name below mine on the screen all week! I’m so excited!”
“How was your rehearsal?”
“So much fun! Can’t wait for tomorrow!”
She was very bubbly and spoke fast.
“Awesome!”
“We are now ready for Adam Potter from Rhode Island, song 6. No orchestra.”
A low voice announced that I could go on stage.
“Have fun!”, Sheryl said.
I walked on. The stage was so wide. A stool and a mic stand were waiting for me as I walked to the front. A man walked up to me.
“Thanks for giving us a break”, he smiled. He must have been the conductor. “Good luck.”
“Thanks”, I replied.
In the pit I saw lots of people walking out, leaving a bunch of empty chairs and unattended instruments.
I sat down on the stool and the mic was at exactly the right height. Frank sat in the first row. I looked out and there were empty chairs as far as I could see. I could feel my heart pounding. This was a lot. It was great, but it was also overwhelming already.
“OK Adam, we have half an hour to do a few run-throughs of the song. First off, go for a warm-up and we’ll see how it sounds here.”
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I tried to pretend I was at home but I could feel my heart beating. This was only the rehearsal, I tried to tell myself. I couldn’t get myself to calm down, but maybe I’d relax if I just started playing. I hit the first chord and I immediately dropped my plectrum on the floor.
A second passed before I realized I had to get off the stool and pick it up.
“Adam?”
I looked at Frank in the first row before I sat back on the stool.
“Yeah?”
“Have a spare pick in your pocket tomorrow night, OK?”
“Yeah… Yeah, OK.”
I was mortified.
I managed to make it through the song a few times. Frank gave me very helpful pointers. He asked Woodrow for a lighting change after my second runthrough. The third time I played with the cameras. Frank tried to make me look into the camera at certain times in the song. It was a lot of information to remember. I was exhausted. And most worryingly, I hadn’t played ‘A Fantasy of More’ very well at all. None of the times I got to play it. I felt so uncomfortable on that stage, even after 30 minutes of getting used to it.
Frank guided me back to the lobby and said that we would run through the entire show at 5:00 PM the following day.
“You’re going to do great, don’t worry”, he promised me.
I smiled. He was probably trying to comfort me.
I went back to my room. I laid down on the bed and stared out the window. I didn’t mind that I was probably not going to make it to Saturday. I just didn’t want to look bad.
“Oh Lord, what if I go viral for being awful?”, I whispered out loud to nobody but myself.
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| Daniel |
“You’re going to absolutely love it”, he’d said.
He’d been wrong. Eventually he had jumped into his clothes and joined me in the elevator down. He got off at his floor and gave me a peck.
“Have fun.”
I smiled thinking about him. Usually after I slept with a guy I liked, I would worry about them viewing it as just a hook-up. Daniel and I didn’t really know each other that well just yet and we had sex on the second night of knowing each other. But after the sex we had, I felt confident that there was more to this.
I took a short nap when my phone buzzed. I had a text from Kimmy.
‘How was it?’
I realized that she was going to be performing tonight. For the judges. For realsies, as she had called it. I decided to shift the focus away from me.
‘I was so nervous, but I got good instructions, I think. How are you?’
‘I am feeling some nerves as well, but mostly excited!’
‘Good. You’re going to do great.’
I also had a notification. Daniel had followed me on Instagram. I smiled. We never exchanged numbers. I followed him back. I put my phone down. I was in a better mood already. I hummed a few bars of something and realized it was something I had written. An idea popped into my head.
I spent the afternoon perfecting the song ‘You Deserve This’ that I wrote about Kimmy. Once I had a verse and a chorus, I video’d myself playing it. I sent it to her at 5:32. It took a while for her to respond, but she was obviously in rehearsal.
I noticed I had a DM. It was from Daniel. He was asking me if he could take me to dinner. The message included his phone number. I smiled wide. I didn’t miss a beat and texted him.
‘Absolutely’.
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| Daniel |
“I… I have something I need to confess”, he said.
I chuckled nervously.
“Oh. OK”, I said.
“When I came up to your room last night, I… I just wanted to celebrate”, he looked at me with those beautiful eyes. It’s like they’d switch colors between green and brown depending on the light.
“Just to let off some steam after the performance, whatever”, he continued. “You were hot and I just had a feeling you’d have a great dick.”
He said the last thing a little quieter as he looked around and smiled.
“Which was a correct feeling, by the way.”
Daniel raised his eyebrows. I couldn’t help but laugh.
“But last night, it was… wow, I… I didn’t even think I’d spend the night, but… I felt something I haven’t felt in a long time. In here, I mean.”
He touched his chest.
“Not just in my, you know… hole.”
I laughed.
“So that’s why I wanted to take you out. Get to know you.”
“Good. I don’t really do one night-stands”, I replied. “I want to get to know you too.”
As we ate, I told Daniel about how my Dad had encouraged me to play music throughout my childhood and how I was finally taking it seriously now that he had passed.
“I got into music because of my neighbor Aniyah. Whenever there was trouble at home, I would stay at her house. Originally to play with her two sons, but I mainly loved going over because she had cassette tapes of Ella Fitzgerald. I would always ask her to play them. I didn’t want to play basketball with those boys, I wanted to sing along to Ella. Or be her, I guess.”
I chuckled. Daniel had the biggest smile thinking back.
“Was there trouble at home? If you’re OK talking about that, of course.”
“Oh, Mom had a few years where she had to deal with alcoholism. It wasn’t great. But we’re as close as we could be now. My Dad wasn’t around a lot, he was just avoiding having to deal with her and kind of left me there. I made my peace with it, but we’re not that close.”
I took his hand across the table.
“Did I just tell you everything about my childhood on a first date? That’s so not me.”
I laughed.
“I really like hearing about that. It means a lot.”
After dinner we made our way back to the hotel. In the taxi I saw Kimmy had replied to my video.
‘Oh my God, thank you sooo much! That means a lot! Did you write that?’ she texted. ‘I am now more than ready to give it my all and kick some ass!’
I smiled. I texted her back.
‘I’ll see you on the other side! You Deserve This!’
Daniel and I went straight down to the theatre in the hotel building. I was so excited to see Kimmy perform, she was going to rock it. We found Matt. He hugged Daniel and then me. I realized I never knew what transpired between him and Kimmy the night before. But I’d get the full summary from her later. The three of us sat together near the front of the stage.
John introduced the first performer which was Mack Williams from Delaware. He sang well, but I knew Kimmy would crush him.
“Now it’s time for song number 2, ‘Obvious Feelings’, please welcome from Ohio, Kimberly Dow!”
She walked on and I was cheering and clapping as hard as I could. Matt whistled. She had a smile on her face. She looked so at ease. She gave the conductor a nod and the slow piano intro started. Kimmy showed off her vocal skills and boom, the song exploded into a happy danceable tune. Kimmy worked the stage in a pink top, white pants and sneakers. She looked awesome. It was very clear that she was an amazing performer. She nailed it.
Matt, Daniel and I stood and clapped when she finished.
“Yeah!”, Matt shouted.
Kimmy noticed us and blew us a kiss before she walked off stage.
“That song is fantastic!”, Matt exclaimed.
Right after Kimmy it was Greg’s turn. I had only shortly spoken to Greg at the airport, ever since then I had just looked at him when I saw him at an afterparty and thought he was hot. His song ‘Those Memories Never Fade’ was a cute song and he sang it well. But Kimmy was the one who stood out so much so far.
But it was a great show. Kimmy definitely had some tough opposition. Jess Decker from New York performed fifth. She had a classy midtempo song and she exuded professionalism as she sang flawlessly in her glittery dress. Jorge from Florida blew the roof off the place with a brassy Latin song. And Thomas from California had written his own hip hop song, which, to be fair, the orchestra managed to translate very well. Thomas did a dance routine that got the audience very excited.
“It’s going to be a tight one tonight”, Daniel said.
“Yeah tough group to be drawn into”, Matt agreed.
“Kimmy’s going to make it though, without a doubt”, I said.
“Yeah, absolutely. I think Jess is out”, Matt agreed.
“I think dancey guy is out”, Daniel said.
“Yeah, Thomas”, I agreed, “would surprise me if he went through.”
All ten performers stood in a line just like the previous two nights. I waved at Kimmy and she enthusiastically waved back. She looked smiley and happy.
“The first performer that we will see on Saturday’s live show… is….”, John Walz was keeping the tension as usual. “singing… song number… 7! ‘Light Memories’ by Jorge Figueroa from Florida!”
I felt that was fair, Jorge did a really good job. With his half-open, dark blue patterned shirt he looked sexy as well. John interviewed Jorge after which Jorge pulled the number 11 from the bowl.
“Next… qualifying to the live TV show… Saturday night primetime… Thomas Chew from California! Singing song number 8, ‘A Legend on the Dancefloor’!”
Thomas cheered. John interviewed him. He seemed so young still, but there was no denying his many talents.
I looked over at Kimmy. She was getting a little nervous now. Her smile was a bit more forced. I remembered when she said she hated how the winners were being interviewed one by one, making everyone else wait. And now it was her turn to wait. Yet I was convinced the judges wouldn’t let Kimmy go.
Thomas drew the number 1 and was going to open the Saturday show. John was now asking him how he felt about that, making the interview even longer.
“And finally… the third and final of tonight’s songs to qualify for Saturday’s TV show… is… song number 5, ‘The Morning After’. Jess Decker from New York!”
“Oh no…”, Daniel said as applause erupted around us.
I saw Kimmy put on a brave face and clap for Jess, Jorge and Thomas before she walked off stage with the 6 other people left in the line.
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