Glam Metal (47 page)

The remainder of the week was hectic; Sam had several enquiries from artists wanting to find a gallery to represent them. There were two, that she found promising but the rest were not much better than a kindergarten art exhibition.

She was finding it difficult to concentrate on much since Jay proposed to her. She was walking on air. The morning after, he drove her to the gallery and disappeared until lunchtime and then he got on one knee and opened a small red box. Inside was the most beautiful diamond ring-the same diamond ring she had seen several times in the jeweler’s window- with the platinum band. It was so delicate and the diamond so flawless. It was perfect.

Every now and then, she had to pinch herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. Sometimes it felt surreal and that she was an observer looking into another woman’s life. Almost like a soap opera except this was her life and it was very real and it felt very right.

Sam was easily the happiest woman alive; certainly the luckiest.

Her phone rang, bringing her back to reality. It was Lisa.

“Hi Li, how are you?” She said in a happy voice.

“Oh I’m doing fine. Sam.” She was close to tears but she tried to hide it. “Can we meet?”

“Of course we can. Come to the gallery, say in half an hour?” Lisa agreed and hung up. Sam hadn’t seen much of her recently. She assumed it was because she was busy with her own plans. And Nick was working a lot at the studio with the band.

Sam was looking forward to catching up with her over a coffee. She knew that when the band left for Brazil on Thursday, Lisa would be going with them. Nick liked to have her travel with him. Sam envied her for that but a glance at the ring on her finger dispelled all negative thoughts.

Sam heard the door of the gallery open and went out to meet Lisa. But it was Jay. He whistled when he saw her. She smiled back and went over to give him a kiss.

“To what do I owe the pleasure?” She teased. He winked at her and said coarsely.

“A damn fine blow job last night!” She blushed and led him into her office. He laughed. “Is the rock star getting a private viewing then?” Sam flashed him a look which said, he would pay for that.

“Lisa is coming over.” Sam was saying. “She sounded upset. I don’t think she’s very happy.” Jay sat on the edge of her desk. He didn’t say anything. He pulled her close to him and with his hands on her waist kissed her breasts through the material of her linen dress.

A few minutes later Lisa was standing in the office, face to face with Jay.

“Hey Lisa, looking good.” He said in a sarcastic tone. “Darlin, I’ll pick you up later.” He kissed her passionately on the mouth. Lisa turned her head away.

Sam’s receptionist came in and said there was someone who wanted to see her. She went into the gallery.

It was a small man with grey hair, stout and wearing a monocle. Sam hadn’t seen one of those since her grandfather was alive. She smiled warmly and greeted him. He returned her smile and said in a polished voice, when Sam detected a slight Scottish lilt that had long been smothered by the distinct strains of the Mid-western accent.

“Young woman, my wife turns seventy next month. Now she likes this modern crap that passes for art.” He took off his monocle and looked at her closely. Jay came out and went over to her.

“Darlin, pick you up later. Have a good day.” He kissed her and left. The old man tutted and said:

“Wouldn’t have happened in my day.” Sam smiled and apologized. “Anyway lassie, my wife wants this painting and I’m here to buy it, wrap it up and send it over.” Sam took his details and he handed over a cheque for twenty thousand dollars. Smiling at the receptionist she let her finish the deal and Sam went back into her office.

Lisa was wiping away a tear. Sam went over to her and asked her what was wrong.

“Oh, it’s nothing.” She said. But Sam knew she was lying.

“Lisa, we’ve been friends for years. What’s wrong?” She sat down on the leather armchair, wiping away the tears with a crumpled tissue.

“I miss home. I’m thinking about going back to London.” Sam looked at her. She thought that Lisa was enjoying her time here. She didn’t think she was homesick.

“Oh Lisa why didn’t you come and talk to me?” Sam put her arm around her shoulder and she hugged her.

“I haven’t been a great friend to you Sam. When you were pregnant, I behaved badly.” It was true that they had lost a lot of their closeness but Sam was sure that they were still good friends. She certainly didn’t hold any grudge against Lisa for that. In fact, since they moved to LA, she thought that they had gotten back some of what they had lost during that very dark period of their lives.

“Li, we all did silly things. But we’re still friends.” Lisa looked up at her and smiled briefly.

“Sam, I’ve been so stupid,” she turned away and buried her head in her hands. “I’ve been trying some coke.” Sam stared at her. She couldn’t believe Lisa would be that stupid.

“Li, how could you do that stuff? Didn’t you see what it almost did to Jay?” Sam said gently. Lisa shook her head. “Is it becoming a problem?” But Lisa just said no.

“Sam, I got my divorce papers. Funny thing is I don’t want to be divorced.” She laughed. “Funny, how when you want something and then get it, it turns out to be bad for you, a sort of poison.” She got up and went over to the window. With her back to Sam she said. “I don’t love Nick, I met someone else and I love him dearly. But he hates me.” Sam could hear the desperation in her friend’s voice. And yet, she felt powerless to help her.

“Lisa, you mustn’t use coke again. You must get off it and talk to Nick. He does love you.” Lisa laughed a sarcastic laugh and turned around.

“Sweet Sam, always so right.” She blew her a kiss and left. Sam stared after her in disbelief. She had always believed that Lisa was the strongest person that she knew. Sam just couldn’t take in what she had said.

Jay was lying on the bed in his hotel room. It was big but not enormous like what he was used to. He hated hotel rooms. Hated the impersonal atmosphere all hotel rooms had.

Since the band started playing shows in nineteen eighty six, Jay had lost count of the number of hotel rooms he had slept in, mostly through a haze of drink and drugs.

The décor was all the same, with an almost clinical colour. The bed linen seemed to have the same orange flowery pattern.

This room was no different. Except the liquor cabinet wasn’t as well stocked as the previous hotels he had stayed in.

As he stared up at the ceiling, he remembered the first time they were wealthy enough as a band, to stay at a hotel and not on the bus. He smiled to himself.

His phone rang, looking at it, he just let it ring. He knew who it was and he certainly didn’t want to get mixed up with the Mexicans again but he got so fucked up on coke; that he had agreed, before he went into rehab to anything they wanted. But as he found out, it wasn’t the money that they were interested in. Five hundred grand was nothing to either of them. This time it seemed they had bigger plans for him than the few packages of whatever shit he carried for them in the past.

The many investments he had made after he got off drugs the first time; made him a fine fortune. Of course after he went back on to drugs again he lost several million dollars and had the house and the cars repossessed. But in true rock star fashion he came back and made even more money.

Sure he had done a few deals with some of the roadies back in the day. And he got to keep the money but he never considered himself a dealer, just a kilo here and there. But Lenny had become; a loose cannon of late. He got so fucked up on shit, even at the height of his own addiction, he never was like Lenny.

Fuckin rich kid
, thought Jay. His mother was a hot shot lawyer and his father was one of the most respected plastic surgeons in all of California. Lenny had come to a few shows on the Sunset Strip, met a few of the guys and was introduced to the Mexicans. But the poor dumb bastard was using more shit than he was selling. And he got too involved. He was in and out of rehab more times than even Jay had been.

The phone rang again. He swore.

“Yeah.” He said clearly annoyed. There was silence then a man’s voice said:

“When you go to the dressing room tonight; there will be two packages for you. One you will bring to me. The other.” Jay could imagine him smiling. “For your viewing pleasure.” He rang off. Jay got up; he would be going on stage in a few hours. There was no point in hanging around here. He may as well head down to the venue and check that the tech had tuned up the guitars.

Jay met Steve at the dressing room, he looked tired. Jay slapped him on the back and said:

“Hope she was good, man.” Steve laughed and said:

“You should know, you’ve been bangin her for a few months.” Jay looked at him.

“What do you mean?” Steve laughed and closed the door.

“Lisa came into my room last night looking for coke, we did a line together and she came on to me, before I knew it I was doing her in the bathroom.

“Nick nearly caught us. She told me you and her were havin an affair.” Jay sat down. Steve continued. “She’s cool man, Pete fucked her before we left for this tour, she’s a groupie man. Not bad either.” They both laughed. Jay looked at his friend. He didn’t feel so bad now. He knew Lisa was a skank.

“Man, I don’t want Sam to find out. Tried to end it with Lisa and she went psycho on me.” Steve nodded.

“Tonight, she’s coming to my room after the show, want some fun?” They high fived each other and went on to the stage to check on the guitars.

An hour later, the lights went on and Pete was on the drums, drumming away. Steve came out, the crowd was screaming. Then Jay came out onto the stage, as soon as the crowd saw him they went wild. The screams almost lifted the roof off the stadium. Then Nick came out, microphone in hand and the noise was deafening.

Jay went straight into the riff of their latest hit and began jumping up and down on the stage. The people at the front of the stage were jumping and screaming up at them.

Glam Metal were electrifying, sending the crowd into a frenzy of delight with their performance. Nick getting them even more excited when he formally introduced the band:

“On Drums, we have the super tempo fashionista, Pete Reyaldo, On Bass, with his seductive strumming we have Steve Demo nick. And thrilling us all with his skill on the lead guitar, that sexy guy you all wanna fuck…GM Jay.” The screams were deafening and went on for more than five minutes. Jay clapping his hands over his head went up to the mic and screamed into it.

“Let’s hear it for the smooth talking ass-grabbing gravel voiced Rock god, Nick Glam Man,” the screaming was deafening. Jay said. “Now, I don’t know about you, but let’s raise the roof in Sao Paolo tonight.” The crowd went wild and Jay began strumming on his guitar sending the women into a frenzy of lust, as only the Brazilians can do. Looking at Steve, they were laughing as they both realized they were the Rock Stars.