Chapter 39
Due to their long lunch and extensive shopping venture, Gen, Kate and Glad didn’t get to see the guys before the show. They had planned to meet up with him before, but by the time they got there, John had been sidetracked by so many other minor details that they decided to wait until afterwards.
When they finally made it past the throngs of fans outside, they searched the backstage area looking for John and the guys. The atmosphere in the room was one of general excitement; it was the second to last show on the tour and they were delighted to be finishing up at home. The place was packed with crewmembers and friends and family. Glad spotted her older daughter and a friend sitting on a couch chatting. She decided to break away and go speak to them while Gen and Kate continued their search. They came across Robby and his girlfriend talking with his parents.
“Hey, Gennie! Hi Kate!” He put his arm around Gen and gave her a squeeze. “These are my parents and my grandma.” He turned to his family, “This is Gennie Redlin. She did the MTV thing with us a few weeks ago. She turned out to be really cool, so we decided to keep her around,” he chuckled.
Gen shook their hands, “It’s nice to meet you,” she smiled. Then she turned to his girlfriend, “You must be Sasha. I’m Gennie. It’s good to meet you. I heard so much about you on my week with them.”
They talked for a few minutes before Kate saw someone she knew. “Gennie, you don’t mind finding my brother by yourself do you? There’s one of my old friends and I’ve gotta say hello.” She excused herself and left to see her friend.
Robby spoke up, “You’re lookin’ for Johnny? He’s around here someplace. Try down that hall. He wanted to change clothes and there’s a kinda dressing room place that I saw him in earlier. Maybe you can find him in there.”
“Thanks Robby! Nice to meet everybody.” She waived and trekked down the hall. The big room she’d just left had been extremely noisy, but down the hallway, it was dead silent. She heard John’s voice and was relieved to have finally located him.
She burst into the room with a giant smile on her face, but when she saw him, the smile turned to a look of surprise. There he stood, with his back to the door, his arms around another woman and hers were tightly wrapped around him. He’d just given her a quick but tender kiss on the lips and she now had her head resting on his chest, his lips touched the top of her head. From the looks of it, they were pretty cozy. Gennie wondered what she should do. She felt if she spoke, she’d be interrupting something. But she decided whatever this was, she deserved to know about it. “Johnny?” she uttered quietly.
Her voice had startled them causing both of them to jump. But instead of looking guilty, he had an innocent smile on his face and he kept an arm tightly tucked around this woman, whoever she was.
“Gennie! C’mere. This is Laurie.” He presented her to Gen like she was his most precious possession.
Gen put a big smile on her face. Meeting his ex-wife made her nervous, though she wasn’t sure why. Probably because he was obviously still very fond of her so she knew her opinion of Gennie would matter greatly to him. ‘No pressure here,’ Gen thought to herself sarcastically.
“Laurie, this is Genevieve,” he said with a proud smile.
She stepped away from John, “Hi,” she smiled shyly before extending her hand. In that instant, she sized Gennie up. She wasn’t a sleazy groupie, she wasn’t a dumb model who was just eye candy to decorate his arm, and most importantly, she was a woman his own age. She looked to be intelligent, kind, and when she saw the way they looked at each other, she could tell Gen loved him as much as John had said he loved her. She reached out and shook Gennie’s hand. “I know you’ll make him very happy,” she smiled. “John, I’d love to stay and visit, but I need to leave. It was nice meeting you Genevieve.” She embraced John in a hug that was tinged with emotion. “Bye, Johnny.”
Gen thought she detected a hint of tears in her eyes when she moved past on her way out. She surprised Gennie by reaching out to give her a hug that felt suspiciously like the passing of the torch.
“He’s a good man. Always remember that.” She turned to leave the room, giving one last heartfelt look in John’s direction as she passed through the doorway.
John put his arm around Gennie. “She likes you, you know.”
Gen was mystified. “How could she? We didn’t say ten words to each other!”
“I know,” he replied, but admitted shyly, “But she asked me a lot of questions about you earlier. And…” he grinned, “she approves.”
Gen noticed that he seemed really pleased by this, almost surprised. “Why do you look so amazed?” she asked honestly. “I thought she likes all your girlfriends.”
He glanced down at his feet, a bashful smile on his face; “Actually, I’ve kinda been striking out with her lately.” He turned his eyes back up to Gennie, “But it looks like I’ve finally hit a homerun.”
She laughed, “So this was like an audition?”
“Not really…. well…. maybe.”
“Why does it matter to you so much that your ex-wife like your girlfriend? It’s kinda strange, don’t you think?”
He met her gaze for a sincere moment before looking away. This was very awkward; he had so much he wanted to share with her, but didn’t know how to do it without giving her the wrong impression. “I want to tell you something, Gen.” He chewed his lip nervously. “But this isn’t really where…” he tossed up his hands and glanced around, “this really isn’t the best place.”
He’d gotten her curiosity up. “Well,” she shrugged, “it’s quiet, there’s a place to sit,” she nodded to the couch by the wall. “It’s as good a place as any, I suppose.” She took his hand and led him to sit down. “What is it?” she asked him with genuine concern in her voice.
He picked up on her worried demeanor, and appreciated that she was really concerned for him. “Um, it’s…well, it’s nothing bad,” he smiled. “It’s just that…” he sighed as he tried to assemble the words in his mind. “The reason it matters so much if she likes you is that, um, I still love her and her opinion means a lot to me.”
“You do?” This came as a shock to Gennie; she didn’t know how to react to this!
“Well, yeah. But that doesn’t mean that I love you any less.”
She was puzzled and, quite frankly, a little bothered but was determined not to get upset by this. “So...” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly as she wondered what this meant to her. “How am I supposed to react to that- say that I’m happy? Because, y’know, this isn’t exactly what I expected you to say. I mean, Johnny, if you love her….”
“Then why did I get divorced, right?”
“Well, yeah. You two seem really close still.”
“We are. But she doesn’t want to be married to me anymore.” He peered deep into Gennie’s eyes, “She didn’t want to go through it all- all the stress, time apart, hiding all the time, being away from home. You’ve seen how I live…how I have to live. It’s really hard for someone who has a career and their own goals and I’m not upset with her for not wanting that. It wasn’t exactly what she’d bargained for when we got married.”
“For better or for worse?”
John laughed quietly. “Richer, poorer. That doesn’t mean a whole lot when you say it to a struggling musician. You don’t really know what you’re getting into. She was fine with poorer, and in a lot of ways that’s harder and I really admire her for that. She was always really supportive of me, my music and my band, and still is. But when it all blew wide open… she never imagined that. My life has changed beyond comprehension.” He held out his arms while his head cocked over to the side indicating the crowd outside the room. “This isn’t what she wants to be married to.”
Gennie smiled, “I can see where that would be really difficult. I’ve only known you for a short while, but I know it’s not easy for you.”
“Or for you,” he said softly. “That’s kinda why I wanted you to meet her. I just wish you could’ve talked to her.” He sounded sad as he sighed, “I don’t think she’s ready though.”
“Ready? Ready for what?”
“Ready to meet you.” He ran his fingers through his hair and gave her that shy smile she loved. “See, I’ve always kinda carried a torch for her, y’know. But now…” He gazed at her intently with his bright blue eyes and caressed her cheek with his finger, “I don’t do that any more. I don’t have to.”
Every muscle in her face tightened while she tried to restrain the immense smile as she blushed a million shades of red. Her hands flew up, covering her face and she peered out between her fingers, making sure he was really there and it wasn’t a dream. She looked like a little kid and felt like one at the moment- she was so excited; though she didn’t always act on it, she felt this way every time he said he loved her.
He took her hands away from her face and held them to his heart. She could feel it pounding. “I love you, Genevieve. I really mean that. You’re probably the only woman I’ve ever met who doesn’t give a damn that I’m,” he blushed as he rolled his eyes, “a rock star, but you’re cool with it anyway. You understand. You even care about my fans- those girls out there,” he dipped his head in the direction of the stage he was just on. “I love that about you.”
“Johnny,” she leaned forward and kissed him softly on the lips, “I love you. You make me happier than you could possibly know.”
He laughed happily and wrapped his arms around her squeezing her tightly. “C’mon let’s go.” Taking her hand, he led her out to the crowd of friends and family that was there to wish their boys well. He introduced her to more people than she could ever remember, they had a few drinks and mingled for a little while but he quickly got bored. “Gen, are you tired of this yet? Cause I’m ready to leave.”
“Don’t you think you ought to stay for a little while? I mean, these people are here to see you!”
He got that impatient little boy look again as he groaned, “But don’t you wanna spend some time with me? You can have me all to yourself!”
She rolled her eyes at him and grinned, “You can wait.” But when he licked his lips and looked at her with his ‘fuck me’ eyes, she realized that she couldn’t. Biting her lip and giving in to her weakness for him she gasped, “Let’s go.”
They made a quick departure before anyone noticed them leaving. As they were making their getaway, John’s phone rang. He didn’t want to answer, but did it anyway.
“Yeah? Oh hi Glad. Whaddaya want? Make it quick.”
“I just want to remind you that we’re having another girls day out tomorrow- we’re going to the spa. Tell Gennie I’ll pick her up at eleven.”
“Nope. You don’t get her tomorrow. I do.”
“John, we’ve already made the plans.”
“Sorry.”
“Well, don’t you think you should ask her?”
“I’ll make it up to her. Goodbye Gladdy,” he groaned with a roll of the eyes and disconnected.
Gennie looked at him suspiciously, “You just cancelled my day at the spa?”
He glanced at her quickly, an eyebrow raised, “No. We’ll do the spa at my house and my sisters aren’t invited.”
As they neared his apartment building, she could tell he was deep in thought. He drove down the all but empty streets not saying a word, but the reassuring touch of his hand resting on her thigh made her confident he was thinking about her. Finally he spoke. “Gen,” he looked at her intently, “is it still too early to tell if you’re pregnant?”
“Well, I’m not, uh, I haven’t…” she searched for a way she could dance around this topic without actually discussing her ‘monthly visitor’ with him.
He smiled as he realized embarrassedly what she was trying to say. “Oh! No! I didn’t mean like that. I meant is it too early to take a test? I know you have to wait a while before they’ll work.”
She mulled it over for a few seconds, “Well, we’re probably Ok in that area, so it should work. Why? Do you have one in that girlified apartment of yours?”
“No. But I was thinking of stopping at the grocery store and getting one. I’d really like to know.” He smiled devilishly, “No sense in wasting a condom if we don’t need to- like wearin’ a rain coat on a sunny day.”
She just laughed as he made a sharp turn into the parking lot at Tops. It was pretty late and very few people were around, but still it made her nervous for him. He was going to be recognized; there was no doubt about it. That baseball cap he had slung backward over his head wasn’t going to fool anyone. He took her hand as they walked across the parking lot. “Johnny, are you sure you don’t want me to just go in and buy it? There’s no point in starting any rumors.”
He shrugged, “Aah, don’t worry about it. There’s not many people around. Besides, I’ve got some other stuff I wanna pick up.”
“But...”
He interrupted her, “Look, it’s not exactly a secret that I’ve had sex before, y’know. If it’s negative, no harm done. If it’s positive, they’re gonna find out anyway, right? So really, what difference does it make?” He leaned over and gave her a quick peck on the cheek.