Oliver sighed. “Just one song?”
“Just one!” the men agreed in unison.
Oliver looked at me. I gave him my biggest, most dazzling smile and held both thumbs up enthusiastically. I knew he saw right through it.
“All right. I’m in.” He leaned down and whispered into my ear, “You are absolutely incorrigible.” He pressed a kiss to my temple (Oh, shush, I told the butterflies in my stomach yet again) and walked away, following Richie and Danny to meet the rest of the band.
While the security team adjusted for this change of plans, I made my way to the front of the theater and the front-row seats that had been sectioned off for Oliver, me, and our team. I took my seat, happy to have some reprieve from the heeled boots that Dash had insisted I wear.
The thought of an outdoor amphitheater in February had made me nervous, but my concerns over the cold were quickly dashed. The venue was fitted with a retractable roof and heaters throughout. While I kept my coat on, I found I was able to abandon my scarf and gloves. The band would certainly be plenty warm with the addition of the stage lights.
As the seats behind us filled, I noticed a couple walking hand in hand. One of the men held onto two steins of beer while his partner took their seat. I watched them both get situated as the one who had been carrying the beers presseda kiss to his partner’s cheek and handed off their beer. They leaned into each other, whispering and laughing.
What would it have been like to go on a date like this—just a regular couple—with Oliver when we were younger? What would it be like now to simply let myself fall for him again, no worries about the future?
But we weren’t a regular couple. And my feelings were, quite frankly, irrelevant. We simply had to get through the next few months so he could move on and find his future wife, the woman who could give him a family.
I was pulled from my thoughts by the house lights dimming and a voice welcoming Risky Business to the stage. The sound of the drummer tapping the high hat filled the venue and the crowd surged to their feet. A giddy smile spread across my face as I thought about the surprise in store for everyone.
Richie Pot ran to the front of the stage, microphone in hand, and yelled, “I wanna rock!”
The bassist and keyboardist both echoed, “Rock!” several times as they launched into the opening bars of “I Wanna Rock” by Twisted Sister. I spotted Danny on the stage and was certain I heard a second electric guitar but didn’t see Oliver. I finally spied him in the wings, hidden just out of view of most of the crowd.
I was just about to march back there and push him out onto the stage myself when he caught my eye and gave me the same panty-melting half-smile I had loved so much when we were younger. It was that smile that had made me start to fall for him in the first place eight years ago.
You will not fall for that smile again, I reminded myself.
Falling for Oliver was easy, and I had done it more than once now, only to be let down each time. I refused to let the way his fingers flew over the guitar stringsremind me of what those same fingers could do in bed. That wasnotgoing to happen again.
There was a break in the lyrics and Richie spoke. “Ladies and gentlemen, we have a very special guest playing with us tonight!” I heard Oliver play a riff and chuckled.Someone is feeling himself right now.“Will you please welcome to the stage…King Oliver!”
The crowd erupted into deafening cheers as Oliver walked out to the center of the stage and took up a place beside Richie, never missing a beat of his guitar solo. I was pretty sure I saw an older woman faint.
The cheers and screams seemed to energize Oliver, who laid into the solo, bending down and nodding along with the bass line. He made his way to the edge of the stage, right in front of me, and shot me a wink.
It was in that moment that I knew that I was truly, hopelessly fucked.
My bottom lip curled in, and I had to bite it to keep from smiling like a complete fool or worse, letting my panties melt right off. This was quite possibly the hottest Oliver had ever been.
Richie launched back into the song’s lyrics, starting the chorus with the callback again. “I wanna rock!”
“Rock!” everyone, including me, screamed back, as the word “rock” lit up screens on either side of the stage.
Fists pumped the air across the theater as the call-and-response continued. Danny and the drummer were banging their heads, and Oliver and the bassist had their backs to each other as they played. The air was laced with adrenaline, and Oliver wore a smile that could not be contained, his eyes wide and glowing. I wasn’t sure I had ever seen him so elated and in his element.
As the final chords of the song played, theroar of the crowd somehow became even louder. You would have thought we were in a stadium with tens of thousands of people, not a small venue that held a few hundred at most.
A chant of “King Oliver!” began somewhere in the middle of the throng and was soon taken up by the rest of the audience. I grabbed my phone from my pocket and snapped a photo of Oliver smiling ear to ear as he took in the applause.
Richie handed the microphone to him. “Thank you so much!” Oliver started, pausing as the cheers surged yet again. He waited a moment for the crowd to quiet a bit before continuing. “Thank you. My fiancée Adelaide”—here he nodded toward me, waiting through another round of applause—“and I are honored to join you for the opening of this year’s Eros Festival. Today we got the chance to meet and speak with many of you, including a number of the small business owners participating in the market. It cannot be overstated how important small businesses are to our economy; thank you for all that you do.” We all clapped at that.
Oliver continued, “And finally, thank you to Risky Business for inviting me to join them tonight. Many of you may not know that I grew up playing guitar, and it has always been a dream of mine to play in front of such an amazing crowd. Music is one of my favorite outlets for processing my thoughts and emotions, and seeing the joy in this theater tonight has been a gift I will cherish for the rest of my life. For every young person here this evening, I hope you can find your own outlet, whether it be music or athletics, literature or art, or something else entirely. Explore that passion and never let anyone tell you that it is silly or unimportant.”
A shiver ran down my spine. It was so special to hear Oliver speak with such passion. The way Oliver felt about music was the way I felt about books. I loved findingcharacters I could relate to and whose words or experiences gave me the courage to navigate difficult situations.
“Make sure you tag The Thorne Conservancy in any photos and videos you share tonight, and let’s share and support their projects as much as we can. The work they are doing here in Wexstone and beyond is inspiring and so important.” Oliver turned to the band. “Now, I think it’s time I gave the mic back to Richie. Let’s enjoy the rest of this evening!” The audience cheered and he gave a small bow before descending the stairs near our seats and making his way to me.
“Thank you, Your Majesty!” Richie roared into the microphone. “Let’s keep this energy going!” The drummer hit the snare a few times and the band launched into the next song.
