Incidental Happenstance (35 page)

            Lexi turned to Jessa. “What do you think, Jessa, is she really going to have fun, or is she going to be pining all day and just pretending?”

            “We’ll just have to make sure she has fun,” she answered, “and I think we have that pretty well covered.” They shared a knowing smile.

            Tia sat up. “What?” she asked suspiciously, eyeing the looks on her friends’ faces. Their expressions suddenly turned falsely innocent, and they shrugged at each other. “Spill it—now.” Tia said, folding her arms across her chest and giving them scolding looks.

            “What, and ruin the surprise?” Lexi replied secretively.

            “You have a surprise for me?” Tia asked. “Now why would you do that? You know I hate surprises!” When that didn’t elicit a response from either of them, she tried whining. “Come on, tell me! Please?”

            Lexi stood. “Maybe in the hot tub—isn’t that our next stop?” Lexi bolted out the door and the girls followed. They showered off and slipped into the deep tub that had wonderfully scented bubbles rising a foot off the top of the water. 

            “Mmmmm,” Lexi moaned.” This is already a great day, and it’s barely even started.”

            “Alexis Marie, tell me my surprise!”

            Lexied at Jessa. “Hmmm, what do you think Jessa? Should we tell her?” she asked innocently. “Or make her wait?”

            Jessa shrugged, “I don’t know,” she pondered, “I keep remembering that first night in Chicago when she let you figure out that she was with Dylan by watching him dedicate the show to her from the stage—seems to me she can dish it out, so maybe she should be able to take it, too.”

            “Exactly!” Lexi agreed. “I’m still pissed about that! You are a wise woman, Jessa, maybe we should make her wait.”

            But Tia wouldn’t have it. “Listen girls,” she said. “Neither of you would be here if it wasn’t for him, so leave Dylan out of it.” She stuck her lower lip out in a pout and lowered her head. “Don’t make me beg!” she said. “Tell me!”

            “Oh, alright,” Lexi drew out the words as if she’d just surrendered, but Tia knew she wouldn’t have been able to keep the secret from her for long. “After the spa, we have a personal shopper set up for us at Harrods—it’s time for your birthday present!”

            Tia could hardly contain her excitement. “Oooh, seriously? That’s going to be so much fun! I can’t wait! But you know you don’t have to do that Lex, it’s too much, really.”

            “Oh stop it,” Lexi scolded. “You’ll let me do this, and you will enjoy every minute of it, or I’ll kick your ass.”

            “I will enjoy every minute!” she exclaimed, “and since you’re being such a smart ass about it, I’ll make sure it costs you!”

            “I’m counting on it,” Lexi smiled. “But Jessa set the whole thing up for me, so you have to thank her too.”

            “You are pretty awesome,” Tia said to Jessa. “I can see why Dylan keeps you around.”

            Jessa smiled. “Happy birthday, by the way. When is it, exactly?”

            “July 28
^th
,” Tia said, and immediately added, “but not a word from either of you about it to Dylan!”

            “You mean you still haven’t told him about your birthday?” Lexi asked.

            “Why in the world not?” Jessa added.

            Tia just glared at them. “Hello? Could the man do any more for me? We’re all sitting here enjoying this pampering because of him. This entire summer is a gift to me—I couldn’t ask for more. But if he knew it was my birthday, he would do more, and I don’t want him to feel obligated…”

            “Obligated?” Jessa interrupted. “I think he’d want to know. It’d be up to him if he wanted to do something special, and I think he’d be ticked off if you didn’t let him make that decision for himself!”

            “How has that not come up in conversation?” Lexi asked. “You know that he hates cauliflower, for God’s sake, and you don’t know each other’s birthdays?”

            “I don’t know,” Tia defended, “but it hasn’t, and I’m not going to g tell him and look like I’m asking for something else from him. If he asks, I’ll tell him, but I’m not making a point of it, and neither should you. It’s absolutely enough for me that I get to spend it with him—and in Paris no less! That’s the best gift I could have.”

            Lexi and Jessa rolled their eyes simultaneously and then laughed at each other and at Tia. “Fine, whatever,” Lexi said, “subject closed. Now let’s get back to shopping, shall we? I was checking out their website from home and Harrods has designer everything—I’m going to do some serious damage to my credit card, there’s no doubt about that!”

            “I’ve wanted to go there since we got to London,” Jessa agreed. “I’m so ready to splurge a little, and I couldn’t think of a better place to buy overpriced clothes and shoes!” she said, doing a little happy dance through the bubbles.

            “We’re all going to get decked out in new digs and then hit the town tonight,” Lexi said. “Here’s to girls’ night out!”

            The next three hours were heaven--massages, manicures, pedicures, haircuts and make-up. By the time they left, they were all feeling pampered and spoiled, and they grabbed a black taxi to Harrods. The store was enormous, and they rode the Egyptian escalator up to meet their personal shopper.

            Dylan hopped off the train and looked around at the familiar station in Northampton. The one thing about the old cities in England, he thought, is that they never changed much. They’d stayed pretty much the same for hundreds of years, and it was like stepping back into his past. He hadn’t bothered with much of a disguise today, just a sweatshirt with the hood up and a pair of dark sunglasses. He’d gone unrecognized on the train, but as he scanned the station, he caught a familiar pair of eyes that recognized him right away. “Dylan, mate, it’s great to see you!” His old friend Max grasped his hand and then pulled him into an embrace.

            “You haven’t changed a bit,” Dylan remarked, clapping him on the back. “You look great!”

            “Yeah? Well you certainly have,” his old friend commented. “Big hotshot celebrity now, aren’t you?”

            “I guess it had to happen to one of us,” Dylan grinned. “I’m damn sure glad it was me!”

            “Ah,” Max said, shaking his head. “Some things don’t change, though; I see you’re still full of shit!”

            They laughed together and headed out of the station, Max’s arm slung companionably over Dylan’s shoulders.

            “This place hasn’t changed at all,” Dylan said, “it still feels like home. So what’s on the agenda?” he asked, adjusting his backpack. He’d brought a change of clothes and his punk rock disguise, in case the guys decided they wanted to be out and about. It was a college town, and he’d be sure to be recognized at a public club.

            “Actually, we thought we’d have kind of a private party,” he said, “if that’s OK with you. Collin’s uncle is giving us the pub for the night—it’s a Tuesday anyway and summer break, so business isn’t exactly booming right now. Besides, he knew we’d fill the place and buy plenty of beer.”             “That sounds perfect!” Dylan agreed. “Who’s going to be there? What’s everyone up to? It’s been so long since I’ve seen you guys—I can’t believe you’re all still stuck in this little town!”

            “Yeah, well, not all of us get to run off to Hollywood and tour the world, you know, but a lot of us are still playing. We’ll have the stage at the pub—maybe we could jam.”

            “That’d be great.” It would be, too, he thought. He couldn’t wait see some of the guys from his early bands, and it would be fun to play with them again.

            “A bunch of the guys are there setting things up,” Max said. “Collin, Les, Chad, Brett, Dex and Leroy should be waiting for us. Leroy’s married, you know—he’s got two kids.”

            “I did hear that—I think you emailed me. I sent a gift.”

            “I’m sure I did. Danny, Andy and Will are going to show up a bit later—they couldn’t get the day off work. Who else,” he pondered, “Gina and Margo will be along tonight, and probably Juliet and Scott—they’re a hot item right now. There’ll be a few people you don’t know, but we tried to keep it pretty private. We know that if we bring you out in public, we won’t get two seconds with you! We’re catering food in and everything.”

            “That’s perfect,” Dylan said, recognizing the names and looking forward to seeing them all. “I really just want to catch up with everyone—it’ll be a long time before my path crosses this way again.”

            “So, tell me about the tour. What’s it like to be adored by tens of thousands of fans every single night? The Wembley shows got great reviews.”

            “That part of it’s pretty awesome—you know the feeling, and then multiply it by a thousand. The pain in the ass is that I can’t go out in public anymore. Sometimes I envy the simple life.”

            “Yeah, but then you park your Porsche in the garage and walk into your mansion and the feeling goes away, right?”

            Dylan smiled. “Yeah, something like that,” he laughed.

           
Underground
hadn’t changed a bit either. Same worn wooden bar stools, same jukebox in the corner, same dusty decorations on the walls. When he walked in he was greeted like an old friend, and everyone queued up to hug him and welcome him back. They’d known him before he was famous and refused to give him the celebrity treatment, which he appreciated immensely. The last time he’d felt so comfortable in a public place was at
Paddy’s
, when everyone in the place was lined up to greet Tia, and he wished suddenly that he could introduce her to his friends. She needed a girls’ day, though, and he understood how much having her own identity meant to her. He didn’t want to smother her.

            He’d barely greeted Collin and Brett before someone pushed a beer into his hands. Most of the rest of them already had pints, and they raised their glasses to welcome him home. He teased    Les about his receding hairline and congratulated Leroy on the birth of his second child. When he’d made the rounds, he sat at a table with his former band mates and settled in to shoot the shit. They chatted easily for an hour, reliving old times and catching up on each other’s lives.

            “So which Hollywood starlet’s heart are you currently breaking?” Collin teased. “I read that you’re doing your next movie with Penelope Valentine—she’d be pretty easy to wake up to in the morning!” The rest of the guys agreed, and bumped their glasses together.

            “I’m done with starlets—have been for a while,” Dylan said. “They’re nothing but trouble.”

            “So you’re still living the bachelor life, eh?” Chad replied. “Gina’ll be glad to hear that. She was beside herself when I told her you were coming out.”

            The thought of seeing Gina again bothered him, just a bit. She’d taught him one of his first hard lessons on dating celebrity style. They’d been dating almost a year, and his band,
Slingshot
, was opening for
The Tuesday Warriors,
a popular London band perched to make it big. He’d gotten Gina back stage, and within a week of the show, she’d dumped him for their lead guitarist. Two months later, he dumped her, and she came begging Dylan to take her back. It was painfully obvious to him that it was the guitarist’s celebrity that drew Gina in, and he wanted no part of it, and refused to continue their relationship. Over the next year, they slowly rebuilt a tentative friendship; she even played with his band for a while, but he knew he could never trust her again.

            “I didn’t say that,” Dylan said. “I’m pretty involved with someone right now—I’ve actually brought her with me on the tour.”

            “Wait a minute,” Max interjected. “The mystery Wembley woman! I read about her in the paper—she’s the one, right?”

            Dylan smiled, remembering Tia’s reaction when she saw her picture in the tabloids. “That’s her. Her name is Tia,” he said.

            “What, and you didn’t bring her to meet your oldest and dearest mates?” Brett said. He held his hand over his heart. “I’m crushed. Aren’t we good enough?”

            “Obviously,” Dylan teased. “One look at you blokes and she’ll wonder what she ever saw in me!”

            The guys took the ribbing easily and Chad continued, “Really though, she’s come with you for the whole tour? What is she, a bloody heiress or something that she can run off for the whole summer?”

            “Actually, she’s a school teacher,” Dylan said, “so she has summers off.”

            “A school teacher!” Collin exclaimed. “How in the world did you hook up with a teacher?”

            For the next half hour, Dylan recounted the story of him and Tia; the first crazy night, the whirlwind weekend, their first night together, the first month and a half of the tour so far, and when he finished, the guys were all staring at him gap mouthed, incredulous looks on their faces. “What?” he asked, taking in their stunned expressions.

            “Bloody hell,” Chad spoke up. “Miller’s in love.”

            Now it was Dylan’s mouth that hung open” he said again.

            “It’s brilliant!” Max said, taking in Dylan’s look. “It’s written all over your face, mate.”