Chapter Seven
Tommy roused Ru from a dead sleep at three in the morning. “Just kill me now,” Ru complained.
“Told you to be home early from your date.”
“Eleven is early. Geez.” Ru crawled from the bed and into the shower. He must have fallen asleep standing up because Tommy pounding on the door jolted him awake again. “Just a second.” Ru scrambled out of the shower and into a clean pair of boxers before opening the door.
“Flight is in an hour. Are you even packed?” Tommy began pulling things out of the drawers: a toothbrush, a hairbrush, the toothpaste. He pointed Ru toward the pile.
“I’m always packed.” Ru grabbed the toothbrush and began to foam up. Once he spit out the crap and rinsed, he smiled at his best friend. “Can I tell you about my date?”
“As long as I don’t get any erotic details, we’re good.”
Ru laughed. “We kissed. That’s all.” And held hands. “He’s really sweet. Innocent. I was his first kiss. First date too.”
“Wow. Really?”
“Really.”
“So he didn’t have any boogers hanging from his nose or cigarette breath?”
“Ew. No. Gross.”
Tommy grinned. “Awesome. I told you so,” he said all singsong like.
“Bastard.”
“Uh-huh.”
“We ate at Dimitri’s. And saw a movie, which I fell asleep in the middle of. Crap. I fell asleep on him.” Ru yanked at his hair. At least it wasn’t standing up in weird ways like Tommy’s was. “I feel stupid.”
“You have been traveling for over a week. We both have. I know I’m so jet-lagged my body thinks it’s in China right now.”
And this trip back to Diego wasn’t going to make it any better. “I’m going to be crap to record right now.”
“Herb will understand.” Tommy stopped shoving things in the small carry-on bag. “AJ, however, won’t, if I sound like shit.”
Ru sighed. “I wish I could take you with me. Do some sort of duet deal or something. We sound good together.”
Tommy shook his head. “I’d drag you down. You’re more rock than I’ll ever be. Plus the tabloids are already speculating about my sexuality because I’ve been at all of your last few shows. They aren’t buying that I’m just your BFF, even though that’s the truth.”
“I’m sorry!” Ru felt sick at the idea of the world dragging Tommy through the mud too.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m a big enough man to not be afraid of it. But we so need to get our asses on the plane.” They rushed through the condo, grabbing what they needed in a last-minute rush. Binks was wide awake and chipper when he met them with the car downstairs.
They took a private entrance through the airport, got checked in, and boarded their flight to sit in first class. The flight attendants kept other passengers away as they passed to their seats in economy. Ru put his head on Tommy’s shoulder and was asleep before the plane even took off.
His producer, Herb Jensen, sat him down just after noon to discuss the music with him. Herb was probably in his early forties, a tall man with gray hair and a friendly smile. Ru knew Herb was one of the most sought-after producers in the country, which was why he was more than a little nervous to have the man perusing his new songs.
When Herb sat up and looked at Ru, his expression was kind and thoughtful. “You’ve had a tough couple of months, Ru.”
“Yeah, but I think I’m starting to pull everything back together.”
“And these are the first songs you’ve written since you left Vocal Growth?”
“Yeah.” Ru tried to read further into Herb’s expression, but the producer must have been used to not showing too much.
Herb pushed the music across the table. “They’re okay. Not what I expected from you at this point.”
