Jul 7, 2008

Chapter Nineteen

“James, you are officially a nerd, do you know that?” Samantha shook her head as her twin paraded around Virgin Records with a pair of tester headphones playing Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’.

“Yes I am – and I’m okay with that,” James shot her an adorable grin. It was Tuesday evening and he had called her at work earlier, demanding that she meet him afterward for some music shopping. “It’s been ages since I’ve seen you, sis,” he had pleaded. “Pwease come see you brothew?”

Samantha had obliged, but now, several hours later, she was tired and ready to go home, while James had enough energy (as always) to power half the city.

She moved down a row of CDs, pretending to search for a particular artist and trying not to laugh as she watched James out of the corner of her eye. He was further down the row, scanning titles as well, but now air-drumming along to the music. He was lucky she loved him.

Sam had met Jon and Richie for another rehearsal the night before and it had run late; she hadn’t gotten home until nearly midnight. The rehearsal had gone very well – they had made a definite decision on ‘Whole Lot of Leavin’ for the duet, since Samantha was easily taking to the harmonization and had the vocal range necessary to shine. But as plans were falling into place, so were her nerves. The first night at Madison Square Garden was in exactly a month, and the onset of anxiety was triggered by the other sources of stress already weighing down on her. Though Jon remained optimistic and gave her positive feedback, she still felt that she could do much better.

The twins meandered through the countless rows of music and movies for awhile, occasionally holding up something the other would like, and giving their opinion, whether merited or not, on various others.

“Hey Sammy, I found your lover’s album,” James called, waving a copy of Richie’s Made In America in the air. He looked at it more closely. “You know, maybe I should give this guy a listen. You’d think after hearing them through your walls for years at Mom’s house I’d know every song by heart,” he winked at her. “But I’ve never heard any of Richie’s solo stuff.”

Samantha picked up a copy of Stranger In This Town. “You’ll like his first one better,” she said, handing him the CD. “It’s more bluesy rock, Gary Moore meets Stevie Ray Vaughn sorta stuff.”

“I like Gary and Stevie,” James grinned. “You sold me. Now I can kiss up to him when I finally meet the dude.”

Samantha tried, and failed, to stifle her groan. “Dang it, I was hoping you’d forget about that.”

James looked at her with wide eyes. “Why? Sammy, I insist on meeting him. Mom does too. But me – come on, now, I’m important. I can’t believe I haven’t met him before now, and to tell you the truth, that hurts me.”

Samantha didn’t even have to look up to see the twinkle in his eye.

He went on, feigning offense. “I mean, this is Richie Sambora we’re talking about. Mega hottie, high school crush, posters up all over the wall (lipstick marks on half of them) rock star status lover dating my sister and I haven’t even met him yet. It’s outrageous, it’s unacceptable, it’s – ”

“All right, all right already! When do you want to meet him?” Samantha laughed, trying to shut him up.

James shrugged. “I don’t know, I’m a little too busy to meet someone as insignificant as my sister’s boyfriends…”

Samantha punched him in the arm. James threw her a smug grin, enjoying being a pest.

“We need to talk to Mom. She really wants to meet him – a LOT. I talked to her the other day and we figured we could do a barbeque at her place or something. Summer’s coming, and patio barbeques on a late Spring evening at Staten Island are pretty much the best thing ever.”

Samantha nodded. “I know, Mom left me a message this weekend. I just don’t know, James, I mean, of course I want you all to meet, but our family’s a little…crazy, you know?”

James scrunched up his face. “Crazy? Us? I’ve never noticed.”

“Well you can’t blame me for being a little apprehensive about being embarrassed. Lord knows what kind of questions Mom will ask the poor guy. And you, mister dances-around-to-Wacko-Jacko-in-public. You aren’t much better!”

“Oh come on, Sam, seriously. We’re nuts when we’re with family because that’s who we are. We’re comfortable with each other. I know – and Mom knows – better than to act like that with someone who doesn’t know us. Especially someone you’re dating, because we love you and we respect you. And for crying out loud, it’s Richie Sambora! I wouldn’t be caught dead acting like a doof in front of him. And poor Mom will probably be so starstruck that she won’t be able to crack a joke, even if she tried.” James put his arm around her. “Don’t worry, sis. Besides, aside from all that, aren’t you the one who said Richie’s a jokester himself? So he obviously doesn’t have a stick up his ass. He appreciates a good laugh.”

Samantha snorted. “That’s true. I guess I’m just so used to having him all to myself now. It took me so long to get used to that alone, that now I have to introduce him to my family and it feels so…weird. I haven’t introduced a guy to you in ages.”

“No, you haven’t. But I promise, Sammy, I’ll be on my best behavior,” James held up two fingers. “Scout’s Honor.”

Samantha sighed. “All right…when are we going to do this? The band leaves this weekend for Denver. First stop on the tour.”

“What about some time this week?”

Samantha raised an eyebrow. “I have another rehearsal with them tomorrow, so that only leaves Thursday. They leave Friday.”

James shrugged. “Why not Thursday then?”

“I don’t know – they’re probably going to need that night to get things ready.”

“Sam, you’re stalling.”

“No I’m not, I’m serious! I’ll ask him tomorrow, okay?”

James held up a hand. “Okay, but if you forget, I’m going to his house and asking him myself. And I can’t promise I’ll be normal and mature.”

“You’re never normal and mature.”

“But I can’t promise I won’t be embarrassing.”

“What happened to ‘wouldn’t be caught dead acting like a doof’?”

“I take it back.”

They paid for their CDs and walked out into the balmy Spring evening, heading automatically toward Starbucks. They ordered their usual mocha frappuccinos and found a table in the corner.

“Enough about me,” Samantha said, sipping her drink. “What’s been going on with you lately, Jamesy? How’s work going?”

“It’s going. As you know, summer’s a slow time since the big jewelry companies downsize their magazine ads significantly. So we have a few laid-back months before the Christmas rush starts. It’s free time for me again.”

Samantha nodded. It had been the same pattern every year since James started working for Lowell’s Advertising three years ago.

“Well that’s good then – we can hang out more often,” Samantha winked. “And you’ll have to come to my little debut at the Garden June 2nd.”

“Well duh,” James raised his eyes to the ceiling. “I’ll be the one in the front row wearing a shirt with your face plastered on it and a huge sign saying ‘GO SAMMY!’ And I’ll throw my underwear up on stage for you to catch.”

Samantha narrowed her eyes. “All right, you are officially uninvited.”

James laughed. “Nah, I’ll be good, I promise. I’m really excited to see how you’re going to do. I wouldn’t miss it for the world!”

“Jon says I’ve been doing well, but I’m getting nervous. This all came about so suddenly, you know, it was kind of shocking,” Samantha leaned back in her chair. “This is a dream come true for me!”

James smiled. “I know it is. And you’re going to knock ‘em dead. You have a beautiful voice.”

“Awwww,” Samantha grinned. “You’re such a kiss-up.”

“Yes I am,” James winked. “But I meant it.”

“So how’s Katie? How was her parents’ anniversary dinner?”

James made a face. “Boring, like I knew it would be. The place was filled with a bunch of old, deaf people congratulating Marge and Dane and reminiscing about when they first met. I didn’t know anyone except Katie and her parents,” he closed his eyes dramatically, remembering the night. “And I had to wear a tie.”

“At least it wasn’t a man-thong,” Samantha shuddered.

“Katie might have liked that…”

“EW, James!” Samantha looked at him, horrified. Her brother laughed.

“I’m kidding, Sammy, relax. I wouldn’t wear that butt floss even if my girlfriend did find it sexy. And I wouldn’t date someone who found it sexy, so there you go.”

“Well…good. So how is Katie?”

“She’s fine. We haven’t talked about the marriage thing since that one night, so she’s forgiven me.”

Samantha nodded. “She was that mad, huh?”

“Yeah,” James turned serious. “I guess she had a right to be – I mean, I went about it all the wrong way. We were just discussing potential plans and hypothetical situations, and then I suddenly got this crazy urge to just ask there right then and there. It wasn’t all that hasty, really – I love her and I’ve been thinking about it for a while. But I didn’t have a ring, I didn’t have a speech, I didn’t have a planned romantic evening with an orchestra or fireworks spelling out my proposal. She deserves all that, and all she got from me was a ‘How about now? Why don’t we get married now? Come on, Katie, marry me.’” James looked at Samantha sheepishly. “I was hurt and angry at the way that she reacted, but more than anything I was embarrassed and angry with myself for being a prick. And I had had a terrible day at work, so…the bar sounded like the place to be.”

“Yeah, I could tell when you arrived at my door at 6 AM on a Sunday, sloshed to all mighty hell,” Samantha laughed. “But I’m sure Katie knows now that you regret the way you asked. The reason she got mad in the first place is because it was a hasty question, so if it’s done properly, you think she’ll say yes, right?”

James shrugged. “I hope so. But I won’t be asking for a while, that’s for sure. I want to wait a little while longer.”

“Smart thinking. Don’t make the same mistake I did,” Samantha gave a small smile and looked down at her drink.

“Hey,” James’ voice softened. “None of that was your fault; he was the prick, not you. He cheated, he lied, he lost out on the best thing that had ever happened to him. Don’t you dare blame yourself for his stupidity.”

“Yeah, but we got married too young. We were stupid and in love, and we rushed into it right after college. Had I had the sense and maturity to wait, let myself grow as a person, and examine our relationship with a different lens, things might have turned out differently.”

James looked at her, concern clouding his hazel eyes. “You can’t live your life as the coulda-woulda-shoulda kind of person, Sammy. Maybe the decision to get married young didn’t end up being the wisest choice, but you couldn’t have foreseen how it would end up beforehand. You feel it was a mistake now, but you’ve learned from it. It still wasn’t your fault.”

“I guess not,” Samantha was quiet. “I ran into him the other day, you know.”

James choked on his coffee. “Shane?!”

Samantha nodded. “Alex and I were at Noche Caliente and he sauntered up to us, riding the happy alcohol train, and didn’t even recognize us. He asked Alex to dance right in front of me, and it pissed me off, so I got the balls to stand up and mouth off to him.”

James stared. “Holy shit, what was he doing at that club? I thought he took off after the divorce.”

Samantha snorted. “I think everyone did. But he lives in Jersey – he’s a big time real estate contractor apparently. I actually found that out a couple of days before I ran into him, ironically enough,” she rolled her eyes. “My features columnist brought me a story about Habitat For Humanity signing a deal with a ‘famed’ contractor for a new project in the tri-state are. And there was Shane’s name, a nasty surprise waiting for me.”

“Oh man,” James ran a hand through his hair. “Why didn’t you mention this before?”

Samantha shrugged. “I dunno. It just happened last week, and I was busy. We haven’t talked in a little while.”

James scrutinized her. “Are you okay?”

Samantha sighed. “To be honest, I don’t know. It threw me out of whack for a few days, I‘ll tell you that. It’s still bugging me, like this nagging reminder in the back of my mind that he’s around somewhere nearby. He’s been messing with my emotions big time.”

James nodded. “That’s normal I guess, especially after such a big shock. But don’t let it go on too long,” he warned. “Don’t let this screw up what you have with Richie.”

Samantha suppressed a sarcastic laugh. Yeah…

They finished off their frappuccinos and headed back outside to walk their separate ways home. “I’m wiped,” Samantha yawned. “I blame you for keeping me up when I should be in bed.”

“Ew, you’re such an adult,” James made a face. “Who wants to be in bed at this hour?”

“Someone who was up until past midnight last night, worked all day, and has to work again in the morning,” Samantha laughed.

Her brother’s hazel eyes gleamed. “Yeah yeah, all right,” he pulled her into a hug and kissed her forehead. “Sleep tight, Sammy. Don’t forget to ask Richie about the barbeque.”

“I won’t,” Samantha said, squeezing him back. “Say hi to Katie for me.”

“You got it. G’night!” he turned to leave.

“James!” Samantha called, making him stop.

“Yeesss?”

“I love you.”


James smiled. “I love you too, sis.”

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