Chapter 44
Waking Up
MARY
“Youraged,” Barry laughed as we left the stage. “The crowd ate that shit up.”
It was true. I wasn’t sure I should have been proud for nailing my raunchiest song yet-to-date all to raise money for a children’s music charity, but those were the breaks. We killed it. I hoped to channel that feeling into a strong performance tomorrow.
“It really felt good to play it with the piano,” I said. “Could we add that to the setlist. Pair it down sometimes?”
“Sure,” Barry said. “Whatever you want, champ.”
“Uh… hello,” Alicia tutted. “You’re not going to say anything else?”
“About what?” I asked.
“Was it worth it?” Alicia asked.
“Worth what?” I wondered, confused.
“Well, you just played a song about going down on a woman as she sat there with her entire family watching you perform,” Clarice said.
“What?” I stopped dead, praying that I misheard.
“Your girl was up there.”
“Up… where?” My throat tightened.
“The fucking balcony, bitch!” Alicia said.
“Did you miss that bit? They wished Betty a happy birthday,” Clarice said. “You know, as we were getting here?”
“She missed it,” Barry said. “She was on the phone with her dad.”
The airline stranded my father in Oslo without anyone to travel with him to Trondheim. He didn’t want to fly alone when his arthritis was at its absolute worst, so I asked him to wait for his younger sister to help him on the last leg. I’d been talking him off the ledge. He was terrified he would miss my big moment. I couldn’t stay focused on that. I had to deal with our song’s immediate aftermath.
“You’re… serious?” I asked.
“Serious as a fucking heart attack, yeah,” Clarice said. “Shit… your dad isn’t having a heart attack, right?”
“No. Thank God.” I shook my head, wanting to vomit “Look, wecannotplay this song again.”
“You have to,” AJ chimed. “It’s on the LP and it’s in the Euro Top Ten.”
I wanted to crawl out of my skin. He was right. I had no choicebutplay it. I wasn’t ashamed of the song. I was more worried about how Betty’s family might judge me. Not only was the song bawdy, but it also seemed rather cruel. It cast them in a bad light—unintentionally. I no longer believed they were there to judge her, but now the song was out in the world. It couldn’t be covered up any longer.
Alicia patted my back, “Babes, the kidsloveit.”
I pulled my hair. “The kids shouldn’t even be listening to it! Where is my phone?”
“Addison has it,” AJ said. “Remember?”
We settled in and found our new assistant, a slightly-too-perky girl named Addison. I’d been yelled at for being on myphone with my dad, and had practically thrown it at her just to get her off my back.
“Can I… have my phone?” I asked nervously.
She handed it back, confused. “You know we have to go back out if we win this for the dog charity?”
