The Ballad of Joey Coco

Hidden Track

     At the hands of me, the antsy woman sitting alone in a hotel conference room, the glass cup fell over the edge of the table and shattered on the floor. "Shit." No one came to investigate the noise. And I had no tools to clean up the mess so I shoved it under the table with my foot.

The door opened as I was stashing the last of it and I couldn't believe it was actually him. Prince. I quickly debated with myself on whether to stand and greet him with a hug, remembering that over the decade knowing him, we never hugged before...only tried killing each other.

"Hey, how are you?" he casually asked, stepping around the table and coming straight for me.

"Hey, I'm good," I said, popping up for our first embrace after all. Then I fell back sighing, heart crawling up my throat. "And you?"

"Amazing. Thanks for coming."

"Of course. You look nice."

"Thank you."

It had been around 3 months since the break-in. That wrestling match still had me in and out of therapy. Never again could I lose control like that. So one of the things I knew I had to do was meet with this man face to face.

His hair was longer, tied back into an unkept ponytail. Days-old curls were all over the place, but the messy head only added character to his beauty. I had to laugh to myself as he shared a small story of his flight over. Funny thoughts tickled me seeing him wearing a tux.

"I'm happy you called," I said. "I've been so worried about this ring situation. Mrs. Bernadette hasn't gotten back to me yet."

"Don't worry about it. It was just a misunderstanding."

"So you have it?"

"I need to tell you something."

"Okay..."

Prince leaned back in his chair. "This isn't anywhere near easy to say but I feel like you deserve the truth."

Oh God. "I thought we were past the truth."

"Unfortunately, you fell in love with a coward, so he hasn't said anything yet."

My stomach did a pancake flip. "Who is he?"

Clearing his throat, Prince pierced his eyes in mine. "I'm not the guy you've been talking to for the past 10 years."

Shock froze me over.

"I'm not Joey."

"What?" It felt like my heart was clogged in my ears. "I don't understand." This was a lie. "That's impossible. I have enough pictures and..." I had to stop to catch my breath.

"Look, it was me," he said, hand to chest, "who met you over the phone back in the day. But the truth is—I haven't been in contact with you since I signed with Warner Brothers."

"What?"

"My cousin kind of intercepted at some point. I'm not 100% sure when but-"

"If that's the case, why didn't you say anything when I came to your house? And why did Miss Bernadette tell me you were Joey? You're lying. And you're lying because you're just trying to clean up your name."

Prince sat still at first, as if thinking up some excuse but he had nothing. So he just turned his head to the left, resting his chin on his shoulder.

"You don't have to love me but you also didn't have to come all the way to New York to lie to me. Again."

He stood. "I'm sorry." And then he walked away and left out the door he came. Not even before it could fully close, another gentleman appeared, an ugly face I didn't know.