Tobin grinned. “Dude. You are the talk of the industry right about now. Rock and roll Houdini.” He held up his arms in offering. “You ready for your next magic trick?”
Jonah was back, two drinks in hand. Avi got in one sip before he was being pulled away by Jay, who was talking a mile a minute about set times and auction items. Avi threw an apologetic look Leah’s way, mouthing “sorry” as Jay barked out directions for the rest of them, Jonah and Tobin following in his wake.
“The girls will take good care of you!” Avi called as he disappeared into the fray. “They’d better!”
Nora cut to the chase. “Okay, Jay said we need to be on the deck for thebaruchsoon, so we don’t have much time. But I’m the master of the quick costume change. Plus I have my makeup case in the greenroom. Let’s do this.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Focus, man. I get it, she’s gorgeous and fuck me…she got you here against all odds. But youdoremember Sylvie is somewhere on this boat?”
Jay wound through the well-wishers and partiers, not slowing down for a moment. Jonah was at Avi’s heels, an outstretched arm preemptively halting any on-lookers who thought theymayhave just seen their favorite singer rush by cloaked in an old lady fur. And Tobin scrambled to keep up as Sherpa for all of Avi’s gear.
And his phone.
“Dude, where’s my phone?”
Tobin plunked the prized possession into Avi’s hand, but Jay quickly plucked it right out. “No time.” They hustled through a back hallway toward Jay’s office. “There’s damage control and then there’s – no, no, no, we aren’t putting those out!”
Jay stopped three workers who were in the process of carrying several huge marquee letters towards the main deck. “I can roll with anything except the misspelling of my event. The vendor sent over A-H , no O! I always spell ‘Matzo’ with an ‘O.’ Guys, leave it. Maybe we will put out the BALLER letters a bitlater, when everyone is too sloshed to ask where the MATZO part is. But right now, I’ve got bigger fish to fry.”
He pushed Avi into his office, the other guys trailing behind.
“Again, did you literally forget you were going to be floating in the middle the river, trapped on a vessel for eight hours with Sylvie Shapiro?”
“I’ve got it locked down.”Not quite.But Sylvie had said she wanted to talk, and he assumed she meant before they involved their friends, so he left it at that.
Tobin stashed Avi’s belongings, minus his guitar. “I’ll have this tuned up and ready for you, Wolf.”
“Thanks, Tobin. Oh, wait. This belongs to you, minus the fifty bucks. How about I come out to Philly next week and take you out to dinner? For your birthday.” His guitar tech looked genuinely touched…until he took a peek in his wallet.
“Hey, where’s my lucky condom?”
“Avi Wolfson, ladies and gents.” Jay said drolly, as Avi grinned and gave a sorry-not-sorry shrug.
Jonah hooted a laugh. “Man overboard! Respect the guy code, Avi. You gotta replace the life jackets.”
“Dinneranddessert, Tobin. I’m not going out into the cold to buy condoms for your sorry ass.”
His tech smirked at the inside joke, saluting and slipping out with Avi’s guitar in hand.
“All joking aside, I’ve got a lot riding on tonight,” Jay reminded. “We’ve got the Menorah Matchmaker herself here, Esther Weiss. And pulling off this silent auction for Free Arts NYC is going to be huge. All hands on deck?”
“Hands, feet,tuchuses,” Jonah confirmed. “Any body parts you need, man.” He turned to Avi. “You’ll catch my improv set later, right? It’s gonna be epic. And filthy.” He grinned, chewing on the rocks from his now-drained drink.
“Front row, brother.” Avi tapped his chest.
“You good to close out the night with the house band? And auction off a three-song acoustic set? And not get thrown overboard by a certain photographer?”
Avi answered in the affirmative to everything Jay asked of him as he unzipped the garment bag and pulled out his tux. It had been sealed up for the better part of the year, but still held its crisp lines from its last dry-cleaning.
He also marveled at his friend’s ability to keep all the details in place. “Thanks, And I’m sorry, man. For going dark the last couple of days. It’s been…” Avi scrubbed a hand over his mouth.
Jay clapped his hands on Avi’s shoulders before he could finish. “It’s been a minute, and I promise we’ll catch up when the boat has docked and I’ve slept. Just glad you’re here.” They hugged again. “But I have a million more things to do, and getting dressed is one of them. So scram!”
Avi stole one last look in the mirror, tugging at his tux sleeves and smoothing his wing tip collar. He’d figure out the bow tie later…or not. Grabbing a rubber band from the desk, he smoothed his curls back, snagged them with the elastic and twisted.
On his way out the door, he called back to Jay. “Hey, can I borrow a few of those light-up letters? And the karaoke setup? And maybe one of the smaller decks for like twenty minutes or so?”
