A Dream for Two (9 page)

***

The tour bus stank. Dylan rolled over in his tiny bunk bed and tried not to inhale the accumulated scent of four grown men living in close proximity to one another. He wasn’t sure what time it was. Time lost all meaning on the bus. They just rolled from state to state, gig to gig. He slept in a tiny bunk which could barely contain his six-foot physique and showered in the cramped bathroom inside the bus. Sometimes as a treat their tour manager booked them a hotel suite when they stayed in one place long enough so that they could stretch their legs and enjoy a proper shower.

He’d been living on the tour bus for over a week. Already Dylan was tired of the monotony. After each gig the band piled on to the bus and began drinking. His band mates would drink until they reached oblivion and collapsed in various places around the bus. But Dylan didn’t want to just drink, he wanted to call Elise, to hear how she was doing but he had no privacy. Each time he called her they’d gather around him, teasing him and shouting out obscenities. They were all single. Their single status was the root cause of another issue on the bus:  groupies.

Each night a new stream of overeager female fans followed them onto the bus to partake in drinking games. Often they ended up engaging in a sexual act with one or more band members. They’d even throw themselves at Dylan, telling him that it was okay, that no one would know. But he’d know and he loved Elise. She deserved his loyalty.

His bunk was pretty much the only place he could escape the rest of the band. He hated being in there, it was so cramped and he could barely move but it was his space and he could sort of be alone. Lying there he’d text Elise and tell her how he was getting on, which state he was in. He was trying to buy her a little souvenir of each place he visited. He wanted to present them all to her when he was back in New York as sort of a visual guide to his tour. He missed her so much it made his whole body ache. Each time something funny happened he wanted to share it with her, to see her face light up. Instead he was surrounded by his horny band mates who only wanted to drink and get laid.

Lying back, Dylan held his cell phone a few inches above his head and texted Elise. He told her how much he missed her, how much he loved her as the bus rolled towards Denver, the next stop of their tour.

***

“This is your schedule for today,” Jake handed Elise a piece of paper with a neatly typed list. Her day would be consisting of almost two dozen radio interviews, all conducted from the Cloud Records studio. It was going to be a long day. Elise scanned the list and nodded at him.

“Okay, that looks fine.”

“There’s just one thing we need to discuss,” Jake leaned towards her and clasped his hands together. Elise saw the look in his eyes and knew that whatever he had to say, it wouldn’t be good. But she hadn’t done anything wrong, had she? She thought she’d done everything the label had asked of her.

“Oh?” Elise braced herself.

“When in interview you’re asked whether you’re dating anyone, just say you’re single.” Jake’s voice was low and non-confrontational. Nevertheless Elise could feel herself flying into a rage.

“But I’m not single!” she insisted. “I’m dating Dylan Cornish.”

“I know,” Jake appeared pained by her response. “But you see, it’s not good for your image to be dating, especially not the front man of a punk rock group. Dylan’s band has a reputation and not a good one. We are promoting you as this pure Southern belle, a sultry songbird if you will. It won’t work if you are dating someone like Dylan Cornish.”

“So you’re asking me to lie?” Elise asked as she blinked back tears. It felt so wrong. In interviews people were specifically trying to find out more about her. What sort of a person would she be if she gave them false information which was then fed back to her fans? She’d be a fraud!

“Just bend the truth,” Jake put on his salesman smile as he addressed her. “It’s all about your image, Elise, your brand.”

Elise could feel her cheeks burning. How would Dylan feel if he tuned in to listen to an interview with her and she was denying they were even together? She’d be distraught if he did that to her.

“You need to distance yourself from Dylan Cornish,” Jake declared warningly, his friendly demeanor suddenly gone.

“He’s bad for your image, Elise, and will be bad for your career. I suggest you end whatever you have with him and soon. You need to focus on your music now, nothing else.”

Elise absorbed the words numbly and followed Jake towards the studio where she’d be sitting and answering interview questions for hours. 

Dylan placed his earbuds in his ears and wriggled down in his bunk bed, a content smile settling upon his handsome face. He’d seen on Elise’s Twitter page that she was scheduled to give an interview with the radio station he was currently listening to and he couldn’t wait to hear her soft voice speaking out across the miles to him.

The tour bus was currently driving down a highway, en route to the next stop on the tour. All his band mates were sleeping, curled up beside their latest conquests so at least Dylan wouldn’t be mocked for listening to the interview.

“Here at Digital D-40 Radio Station we are crazy excited to have new singing sensation Elise Roberts here with us for an interview! Good afternoon, Elise,” the bubbly presenter opened the interview.

“Good afternoon,” Elise replied in her soft Southern drawl. Dylan grinned when he heard her and rolled onto his side, wishing he could focus on her voice and pretend she was there beside him.

“You’re on a roller-coaster ride to stardom which just seems to go up and up!” the broadcaster commented excitedly.

“Yes, I’ve been really lucky,” Elise said modestly. She sounded so sweet. Dylan could feel himself swelling with pride.

“You’ve got a host of new fans, an amazing new song and a fantastic debut album about to be released. But first, for everyone out there dying to know, put us out of our misery; Elise, are you seeing anyone special?”

There was a brief moment of silence. Then Elise replied in her sugary Southern voice:

“No, I’m single.”

Dylan froze. He listened to the rest of the interview but he didn’t hear anything she said. All he could think about was how she’d publicly denied him like that. Did she truly believe that she was single? As hot tears pricked at his blue eyes, making them glisten, he pulled his earphones from his ears and rolled out of his bunk.

He was thankful that everyone else was resting. He didn’t want them quizzing him about what was wrong. He stormed over to the fridge and pulled out a cool bottle of beer. He popped the top and began to greedily down the contents. As he drank the curtain of one of the bunks opened and a pair of long, lean legs came out.

A platinum blonde wearing hot pants and a bra sauntered over to Dylan. She sat down on the nearby sofa and batted her false eyelashes at him.

“Hey,” she purred the greeting at him.

“Hey,” Dylan replied a little abruptly. He was in no mood to make small talk. He leaned down and grabbed a second bottle of beer from the fridge.

“Having a rough night?” the blonde asked with a knowing smile.

“Something like that,” Dylan muttered. He dropped down next to her and drank from his bottle of beer.

She coyly crossed and then uncrossed her long legs, allowing Dylan to see just how toned and tanned they were. Then she leaned towards him and ran a hand down his back.

“You look like you shouldn’t be alone tonight,” she whispered directly into his ear.

***

Elise nodded at the instruction her producer had given her even though she hadn’t taken in what he’d said. They were working on a remix for her next track but she couldn’t concentrate. Every other second she was checking her phone to see if Dylan had called. She’d heard nothing from him in over a week and she was starting to fear that something terrible had happened. Despite her numerous texts and calls she heard nothing in response. The more time that passed the worse Elise began to feel about everything.

“Again, please, from the top,” the producer’s voice bounced around the recording booth. He sounded annoyed.

“Okay,” Elise nodded and willed herself to focus. The music started up again and she nodded along, counting herself in. But still she was thinking about Dylan. Why hadn’t he called her? What if he’d heard one of those awful radio interviews she’d had to give and now hated her? What if he’d left her? She wasn’t single. She kept telling him as much in her messages. She explained how Jake had told her to say that, how it was about protecting her image, but as she wrote the words she realized how low she had sunk. She was lying about being in love just to sell records. She hated herself. This wasn’t the sort of person she’d wanted to become.

“Elise, focus, you missed your cue!” the producer shouted at her.

Wiping her eyes Elise nodded through him at the glass and apologized for the fourth time.

“Don’t apologize, just sing the damn song like we rehearsed,” he told her.

Elise didn’t blame him for being angry. She was wasting everyone’s time at the studio including her own simply because she couldn’t stop thinking about Dylan. If only he’d call her and tell her what was going on with him. It was the not knowing which was killing her. But if he did decide to leave her she wouldn’t blame him. She’d done a terrible thing.

“Shit, Elise, you missed it again!” The producer was clearly past the point of annoyed and had reached angry. Elise removed her headphones and walked out of the booth. She couldn’t do it. It was taking all the strength she had to hold herself together.

“I’m sorry,” she sniffed at her angry producer as she collected together her things and prepared to leave.

“I just can’t do this today.”

She heard him ranting at her as she left but she ignored him. She just had to get home and get away from the rest of the world so that she could safely think of only Dylan.

***

Back in her apartment Elise ran a bubble bath and climbed in. She hoped that the cherry-scented bubbles which now engulfed her would help wash away some of her troubles. What else could she do about Dylan? She’d left numerous voicemails and messages explaining herself, all of which had been ignored.

She placed her cell phone on the floor near the bathtub just in case Dylan called while she was bathing. Lately her phone was basically glued to her hip as she lived in fear of missing his call. She just wanted to speak to him, to get a chance to properly apologize. She knew she’d messed up. Her career wasn’t worth losing him over, she should never have lied.

Lying back in the bubbles she began to relax a little. The warmth of the water massaged her aching limbs and helped relieve some of her tension. Her eyes had just flickered closed when she was jolted awake by the sharp trill of her cell phone. Desperately she splashed around in the water as she reached for the device and pressed it eagerly against her damp ear without even checking who the incoming call was from.

“Hello?” she asked, praying that it was Dylan on the other end of the line.

“Oh, so you’re alive then?” Jake retorted coldly. Elise felt herself physically wilt upon hearing his voice. She instantly regretted having picked up.

“Look, about earlier–” she began to explain but Jake cut her off.

“No need to explain, Elise. I know what’s happening, I’ve seen it a thousand times before. You’re getting too big for your boots. You think that one hit record does a star make? Well trust me, honey, it doesn’t. If you want to stay on top you’ve got to be prepared to work and to work hard. Do you think Claire Parry got to where she is by walking out of recording sessions?”

Elise wanted to object, to point out that she had never been one to shy away from hard work and she certainly hadn’t gotten too big for her boots. But she knew how bad her walkout looked and so she kept quiet and allowed Jake to vent at her.

“We need you to be as committed as we are,” he continued. “We can’t put all this time, money and effort into you only to have you flake on us.”

“It won’t happen again,” Elise promised him.

“Good,” Jake sounded relieved. “I mean, what is it you need? A couple of days off? Some r and r? Take a long weekend, I can book you into one of New York’s top spas. Then we hit the studio first thing Tuesday with you new and refreshed. What do you think?”

“Sounds good.” Elise wasn’t sure how her walking out warranted a long weekend and a spa break. She reasoned that Jake was just desperately trying to keep his starlet happy. She’d heard rumors of how difficult other recording artists could be to work with. The word temperamental was used a lot.

“Okay, great,” Jake’s voice slowed down as he was clearly satisfied with the conclusion to their conversation. What bemused Elise was that he never once stopped to ask her if something was actually wrong. For all he knew there might have been a death in the family. But all he cared about was getting her back in the studio and making him money as quickly as possible.

“Thanks for understanding,” Elise hoped she had sounded sarcastic but was pretty sure she’d failed. She only ever sounded sweet. Jake hung up and she angrily tossed her phone across the floor. It skittered across the dark tiles and eventually stopped. Elise dropped back down into her sea of bubbles.

“Oh, Dylan,” she forlornly called out his name. “Why haven’t you called me?”

She wished she could ask Gloria for advice but her friend was already on the opposite side of the country, making a go of things in L.A. She’d sent Elise a few video messages, bragging about the abundance of sunshine and hot guys there. Elise smiled as she watched them, her friend genuinely seemed happy, the L.A. lifestyle seemed to suit her. And she apparently had a load of auditions lined up which was always a good thing.

Elise closed her eyes and tried to relax and stop stressing over what was, or wasn’t, happening with Dylan.