I Will Run To You

And Not Be Left Alone

Las Vegas, Nevada
Friday, May 27, 1983
(5:00 pm)
********************

"Hey Stevie! Happy belated birthday!"

Stevie turned around from the microphone in the center of the stage at the Aladdin Theater in Las Vegas and saw a man waving at her whom without her glasses on she could not identify. Squinting a bit in the stage lights as the lighting crew worked through a few changes, Stevie brought a hand to her forehead as a visor and recognized the man coming towards her as Mike Campbell. The band had been all set to run through "Rhiannon" and "Beauty And The Beast" before they were finished with soundcheck, but Stevie abandoned that mission and just about leapt off the stage in the center and into the arms of her good friend whom she had not even known was in town.

"Oh my God, Mike!" She was laughing as she stumbled into a hug from the man who, along with Tom Petty and the rest of the Heartbreakers, she had spent the past few years trying to befriend. She held onto him tightly and asked, "What are you doing here? I didn't know you were in town!"

"Last-minute trip with a few friends to do some Vegasy things," Mike explained. "You know...gambling, drinking...seeing Stevie Nicks on opening night of her awesome tour..." He was smiling as he released her from the hug and then affectionately fluffed his hand through the top of her blonde permed hair. "Hope that's cool with you."

"Cool with me? Dude!" Stevie was smiling so hard it hurt. "Thank you so much! Of course it's cool! Who's with you? Is Tom out here with you?"

"No," Mike said, looking down at the floor. "I asked him...Jane has him doing shit this weekend, so he had to say no...but Benmont is here with me."

"Awesome! Bring him along tonight...bring whoever you want! The more the merrier! Waddy has already informed me that after the show we're going to have a whole shindig upstairs to make up for the fact that I spent the night of my actual birthday showering and sleeping and packing for a tour, so..." She ended her sentence with a sigh, looking down at the floor of the arena where they stood in the press box. She tried as hard as she could not to let the last thing she'd said remind her of how May 26 had always been like a national holiday to Lindsey, how he'd never let her birthday go by without making it special...even when things were at their worst on the Tusk tour a few years back. 

"It's a date," Mike agreed with a smile. "We'll come around for the show tonight, and then lead the way to the party." He looked all around then, and said, "Hey, is it true you've got Joe Walsh opening for you?"

"I do indeed," Stevie said with a flourish, her hand brushing through the front of the long flowered skirt she was wearing with a white silk blouse she had bought on the last shopping trip she'd been on with Robin. She could still see Robin, healthy and glowing and happily walking the Beverly Center mall with her, could still hear her saying as they passed a maternity clothing store, "I don't know why the hell the have to make clothes for pregnant women so goddamn ugly, but if I do say so myself...I'm going to have to start buying some soon. Kim and I are going to start trying."

"That's certainly an interesting turn of events." Mike moved closer to Stevie, and in a lower tone, said, "Two Eagles down already, Stevie...trying to nab a third?" He nudged her with his elbow, and she laughed. Mike knew she'd dated Don and J.D., and she had to admit, adding Joe to the bill had raised a few eyebrows already in her friend group, mostly Sharon and Lori, who never missed an opportunity to tease her. Somehow, though, the good-natured ribbing she'd been taking about her complicated love life since she'd broken up with Lindsey and branched out into several new relationships in the industry didn't sound quite so harmlessly funny coming from a man. She loved Mike, she knew he didn't mean any disrespect, but it stung a bit.