“Yes, Kevin. Will you be my manager?”
“What about Lisette?” I ask, trying to catch up.
“Yeah, what about Lisette?” Martin steps up.
“We’re still in our trial period. We’re both allowed to break the contract at any time for the first three months. And something tells me that after tonight, she won’t mind me doing so one little bit.”
Kevin has his hands on his hips, and he’s shaking his head. “You’re really doing this,” he says, his eyes ping-ponging between Cassie and me.
“It’s already done,” I say, and I find Cassie’s hand with my own.
“Not necessarily.” Martin points a finger at us both. “We could easily explain it away. A publicity stunt. And we could have fake boyfriends for you both within the week.”
“Fuck that,” I say with a scowl.
“No, thank you,” Cassie says as sweetly as if she’s been offered a drink she doesn’t want. “No more lies. No more hiding.”
“Jesus, fuck,” Martin says. Or maybe it’s Kevin. What I do know is that they’re both alternating between pinching the bridge of their noses and rubbing their foreheads.
“So do you accept?” Cassie asks Kevin. “To be my manager and navigate this storm with me?”
Kevin glances at Martin, who shrugs, but then I notice their hands find each other.
“I guess so,” he says.
“And you’re not going to kill me?” I ask Martin, who gives me a very rare proud smile.
“Pia,” he says. “Of all the batshit crazy things I know you are capable of, I never expected this one. But also, I never thought I’d be this in awe of you. Of you both. Really fucking inspiring.”
Emotion threatens to overwhelm me, and I’m aware my heartbeat has not slowed since Cassie’s lips touched mine. It certainly doesn’t settle when Cassie uses our joined hands to turn me so I’m facing her.
“How about you, Pia? You ready to see this through?”
I don’t know if she’s talking about the aftermath of our kiss or spending the rest of our lives together, but I know my answer. I’ve never been surer of an answer.
“I’m so fucking ready,” I tell her. “I’m just sorry it took me a little while.”
She shakes her head, all that golden hair moving in soft waves. “That doesn’t matter now. All that matters now is that we do this–together. That it’s what you want.”
I use my other arm to bring her body against mine for another sweet kiss, although I keep it short, which is much easier to do now I know we have a lifetime of kisses ahead of us.
“I’ve never wanted anything more.”
“Same.” She beams up at me. “You are what I want. What I will always want.”
RHYTHM & NEWS
Saturday, March 1, 1980
THE KISS THAT SAVED ROCK ‘N’ ROLL?
Never before has the Shrine Auditorium been that silent, perhaps not even when empty but for the after-hours cleaning team. But you could have heard a pin drop when Femme Fatale’s leading lady Pia Lindberg and Cassie Everard, Evergreene’s former frontwoman, finished their duet at the Grammys on Thursday evening. Not because their performance wasn’t spectacular – it truly was – but because they did something none of us could have predicted, and indeed it sent the whole room, thewhole worldinto a frenzy.
Pia Lindberg and Cassie Everard ended their award-winning song with a kiss. And not just any kiss, a kiss that is, by all subsequent accounts, a kiss of love. While all of us were assuming they detested each other over the last year, Cassie and Pia were falling in love.
To say that this is unprecedented is an understatement. It feels like a man walking on the moon moment. Unbelievable. Inconceivable. Shocking. But it happened. And the world didn’t end.
In fact, if anything, we atRhythm & Newsbelieve it may go on to make the world a better place. We are in a new decade. We are but twenty years away from a new millennium. Did we learn nothing from Stonewall? Are the growing number of Pride events in our cities just for fun? Are we just supposed to ignore the estimated 75,000 people who marched in Washington for lesbian and gay rights last October?
