Rock Idol (Reality With a Twist Series) (17 page)

“That
won’t be necessary!” Rick interrupted. “I’m quitting
Rock Idol
tonight
so the comments of the judges are completely irrelevant.”

At
the sound of the word
quitting,
a wave of protest welled up out of the
audience—louder than the first two rounds of applause. Rick’s fans—female and
male—were definitely not happy to hear this.

Once
again, King had to wait so that his questions could be heard over the din.
“Quitting?” he finally asked. “What are you thinking, man? You’ve got the crowd
on fire tonight! You can’t walk away from this!”

“I
have to,” Rick said. “I can’t be part of an organization that would treat Ember
Blaze as poorly as
Rock Idol
did this week. Correct me if I’m wrong,” he
said to the fans, “but to my eyes, Ember Blaze sat there week after week and
called them like she saw them. She always had something good to say about our
performances, but she also
always
offered some constructive criticism.
She wanted to see us perfect our art, and frankly, the feelings she and I
developed for each other never came close to interfering with her professional
opinions. Am I wrong?”

Ember
instinctively cringed at the question, but the audience immediately shouted in
support of her. “NO!”

“Should
Ember have been fired?” Rick shouted.

“NO!”

“Do
we want Ember back?” Rick yelled.

“YES!”

Rick
waited a few seconds for the shouting to dwindle. “I can’t bring Ember back,
but I can voice my disapproval over what happened here. Thank you all for the
love and support you’ve showered on me these past ten weeks. The next time you
hear from me, I’ll be singing with Ember.”

He
tossed his microphone to King and walked off the stage.

The
crowd went crazy behind him—so crazy that Ember almost missed Mitch’s final
comment. “Ironically,” the judge announced, “I was going to tell him he’d
finally given a star class performance.”

Four Months Later

“Ember!
How does it feel to be top of the charts again?”

“Ember!
Smile for the camera!”

“Ember!
Where’s Rick? What’s your next project together?”

“Are
you going to do a whole album?”

Ember
smiled pleasantly but kept her mouth closed as she walked into the restaurant.
The hostess immediately stepped up to her to direct her to her table. “It’s
good to see you again, Ms. Blaze. You’re party is already waiting for you. Can
you come this way please?”

Ember
did as she was asked while supplying the hostess with important information.
“My boyfriend will be joining us in a few minutes. Would you bring him back to
our table when he arrives?”

The
hostess smiled beneath her brown curls “Of course, Ms. Blaze, it will be my
pleasure.”

They
maneuvered between the tables with Ember stopping twice to sign autographs.
That felt good too. The duet with Rick might be a remake but it had inspired a
deluge of new attention and interest in her whole career.

She
caught sight of Fox Atwood waiting patiently for her. She was still angry with
him, but her recent post-
Rock Idol
successes had taken the edge off her
temper and she truly believed in the maxim:
Never close a door!

Fox
leapt to his feet as she approached and came around the table to kiss her
cheek. “Ember, you look marvelous! It’s so good to see you again!”

Ember
submitted to the kiss and let him help her into her seat. Fox then returned to
his own chair and picked a bottle of Bollinger out of an ice bucket. “We’re
going to have to start with a toast,” he said as he popped the cork and poured
foaming champagne into two glasses. “To your first number one hit in twenty-two
years. I can’t tell you how delighted I was when you topped the Billboard
Charts.”

That
was probably true, Ember thought. As Fox had helped make her twice, he would
doubtless always feel a proprietary interest in her success. She lifted the
champagne to her lips but didn’t drink it. You didn’t stay on top of your drug
addictions by switching to alcohol, and she wasn’t going to mess up everything
that was going right in her life for a short-term buzz.

Fox
drank heavily, as if fortifying his courage. When he finished, he picked up the
menu. “What will you have?” he asked.

“I’m
afraid I can’t stay for lunch,” Ember told him. “Rick and I have a business
meeting in a little less than an hour and I don’t want to be late. I only
squeezed you in today because when you called last night you said it was
urgent.”

Fox
Atwood was clearly unused to people not having time for him, but he didn’t get
angry, he grew concerned. He put down his champagne glass and focused his whole
attention on Ember. “Well, let me get right down to business then. I want you
back on
Rock Idol.
I admit it was a terrible lapse in judgment to let
you go. I’d like to make it up to you. We’ll give you a five year contract this
time and a substantial increase in salary.”

Ember
shook her head. Fox hadn’t
let her go
, he had
fired
her, but with
her duet with Rick having hit number one she just didn’t hold the distinction
against him. Not that she was going to go back to him.

“I’m
afraid that won’t work for me, Fox,” she said. “I just signed a three album
deal this morning with a forty city concert tour and an option to go
international. I don’t see how I can fit judging
Rock Idol
into that.”

For
a moment, Fox Atwood looked utterly crestfallen, then he rallied, rolling with
the punch. “Three albums? Forty cities? This calls for another toast.” He
refilled his glass with champagne and touched Ember’s with another drop or two.

He
drank heavily, draining his glass.

Ember
began to feel sorry for him—not that he’d have trouble finding someone to
replace her. “Well you still have Mitch and Fawn,” she reminded him.

“Fawn’s
gone! I refused to renew her contract.” Fox said.

Ember
felt a rush of satisfaction at the words but kept the feelings off her face.

“If
I was going to fire someone to begin with it should have been her and not you.
She was never any good at critiquing the contestants anyway and I’m pretty
certain she was the force behind Hillary Tempest’s story.”

Ember
believed that too, but letting Fawn go did put Fox in a bad place. Replacing
two out of three judges would completely change the chemistry of the show,
unless…

“What
about Mitch?”

“Mitch?”
Fox seemed surprised that the name had surfaced. “Mitch is staying. It wouldn’t
be
Rock Idol
without Mitch. You don’t think he’s a problem, do you?”

“No,
of course not,” Ember said. “Mitch is a wonderful asset to the show.”

“Good!”
Fox actually seemed relieved Ember agreed with him. He began to fidget with his
napkin. “You’re sure there’s nothing I can do to coax you back?”

Never
close a door
,
Ember reminded herself. “Well, I couldn’t possibly do the show full time, but
I’m sure Rick and I could squeeze in a return as a guest act.”

Fox
brightened considerably. “That’s a great idea! Think of the ratings. Ember
Blaze returns to
Rock Idol!
”

Ember
did like the idea. That show had been part of her life for three seasons and
she really did enjoy sitting on the panel of judges.

“And
maybe, if you’d like to, you could introduce guest judges for the second half
of the season and—”

“Guest
judges!” Fox interrupted. “What a phenomenal idea! We could have the
contestants sing their music and let them critique the performances.”

Well,
yeah
, Ember thought.
You weren’t going to
bring in Pete Townshend as a judge and have the contestants sing Bon Jovi.

A disturbance at the front of the restaurant caught her
attention. Rick had arrived and half the women in the restaurant seemed to have
suddenly flocked around him. They ranged in age from a twelve year old to a
woman old enough to be Ember’s grandmother. Rick smiled and said something
chatty, but the only autograph he took the time to sign was for the child.

He
caught her eyes from across the restaurant and his smile blossomed into his
trademark cocky grin. He excused himself from his fans and began to make his
way to Ember.

“You
really are in love with him, aren’t you?” Fox asked.

“Yes,”
Ember said. “I really am.” She could admit that now. Their four months together
had been heavenly.

Fans
cut Rick off again and he paused to politely fend them off.

“I’m
happy for you,” Fox said. “Love hasn’t been working out for me so well lately.”

Ember
looked away from Rick to give her complete attention to Fox. “I hadn’t been
aware you were seeing anyone.”

“She
wanted it that way,” Fox said. “I thought that was actually a sign she was
serious about me, not trying to use me for my wealth and connections.”

Ember
reached across the table and put her hand on Fox’s forearm. “I’m so sorry. What
happened?”

“I
had to let her go,” Fox said. The euphemism was not lost on Ember. He’d broken
up with her; the woman hadn’t walked out on him.

“What
happened?” Ember asked again.

“She
convinced me to fire you,” Fox said. He looked embarrassed at the admission.

“What?”

“I
think that she was jealous,” Fox explained. “I’ve always been so proud of you,
Ember, and I guess I talk about you too much. But I discovered you, watched you
soar to the top of the charts and was so unbelievably happy for you when you
put your life back together and made a new name for yourself on my show.”

“And
that made her jealous?” Ember asked.

“I
think she had difficulty differentiating between a father’s and a lover’s
pride,” Fox said. “You know I’ve always felt paternal toward you, Ember. You
were only a teenager when I discovered you so we never got together. But in all
fairness to Gwen, I have always been attracted to younger women.”

The
idea that Fox’s Gwen could think her man was interested in forty-two year old
Ember was so ridiculous that she started laughing again.

Fox
began to laugh too. “I know. It’s utterly ridiculous. I’ve never dated a girl
over twenty-five in my life.”

Ember
calmed a bit. Considering his interests, it really was amazing Fox hadn’t made
a play for her in the old days. In his heart of hearts, he really wasn’t a bad
man. There were limits to how young his interests lay. “So she told you to fire
me,” she prompted.

“It
really wasn’t that simple. Gwen has a holy roller streak in her,” Fox
explained. “Some sort of born again, I think, on a mission to clean up Hollywood.”

“And
she was dating you?” Ember laughed again.

Rick
finally arrived at the table and placed his hand on her shoulder. She reached
up and touched his fingers.

“I
know,” Fox said, “but she was always going on about corruption and scandal and
how there were no truly family-oriented shows in Hollywood.”
He stood up and offered Rick his hand. “How are you, Rick? It looks like life
is being good to you. I’m glad to see that America
still supports a man who can stand up for his principles!”

“It’s
good to see you, Mr. Atwood—”

“Fox,
Rick, it’s Fox. If you’re going to be dating my old friend, we should be on a
first name basis.”

Ember
stood. “Not to mention working together again.”

“Don’t
think I’ve forgotten,” Fox said.

Ember
kissed Rick on the cheek. “It’s good to see you, sweetie. How are we doing for
time?”

“We’ve
got a few more minutes,” Rick said. He shifted his attention to Fox. “We have
to go interview some musicians. Did Ember tell you we signed record deals this
morning? She got me a two album deal and I’m going to open for her on concert.”

“I
didn’t get you that deal,” Ember said. “You earned it.”

“
Right
,”
Rick teased before kissing her long and sweet.

A
camera flashed, but Ember didn’t mind.

“The
news just keeps getting better,” Fox said. “Ember and I were discussing the two
of you returning to
Rock Idol
as guest stars.”

Rick
elevated a questioning eyebrow at Ember but his words were completely
supportive. “I’m glad to hear it! I love
Rock Idol.
Without it I would
never have met Ember.”

She
slipped her arm around Rick’s back. “Fox, I’m sorry, I know it’s none of my business,
but I have to ask. A holy roller? She wasn’t even sleeping with you?”

Fox
laughed. “Oh, she wasn’t that holy. In fact, she was disturbingly talented in
that department now that I think about it.”

Ember
laughed.