Limelight Love Story

3. Possibility

After soundcheck and a nap that did not feel long enough, Lucy woke up in time to get ready for her concert. The first thing she felt was her wedding band. It was sparkly and beautiful yet hollow. It was originally supposed to be a promise of her unending commitment to Emmett, but he broke her heart, and the ring was repurposed as nothing more than a piece of costume jewelry for the part of "wife" that she had to play. What once she was so excited to wear became a reminder of something out of her reach again- marriage, life-long companionship, and love. There was no time to feel sorry for herself. She had to focus on her warm up exercises and allowing her team to apply her makeup and style her hair.

Tamara entered Lucy's dressing room with the brightest grin. "You're BLOWING up! The whole world is so happy about your romantic, secret wedding. Some of your fans are even buying Tim's hockey jersey!" She reported.

"Great," Lucy replied ruefully. There were others in the room that did not know the marriage was fake, but she was not necessarily in the mood to put on a happy face yet. She knew she would have to once she went out on stage, of course.

"It IS great. The news cycle would've been completely different if not for this morning. I know you have a thick skin, but..."

"The media can be mean. Yeah, I know. I get it. I..." she glanced at her hair stylist in the mirror then back at Tamara to continue, "I'm just adjusting to married life."

Understanding that they could not have a candid conversation, she pursed her lips and nodded. "Focus on a great performance tonight in front of a sold out crowd! This is what you love, right?"

"Yeah, I love my fans and listening to them sing along with me."

"There you go! Enjoy it! Forget about everything else. I'll take care of it, okay?"

Lucy reached out to squeeze her hand gratefully. "You always do. Thanks."

After giving her an encouraging smile, Tamara left Lucy to finish getting ready as she scrolled through the media storm that swept across all social media platforms.

Hearing the cheers and calls of her name, Lucy already felt electrified and excited about going out to face her crowd. She went onto the stage causing her fans to shout louder. As with every performance, she scanned the faces looking up at her and paused when she caught sight of Tim, Angela, and Wes in the floor V.I.P. section. Lucy had a part to play, so she waved and blew a kiss to the section, and everyone turned to see Tim wave back. He seemed stunned and only reacted because Angela nudged him, which made Lucy want to laugh if she was not in the middle of singing a song. The audience seemed to love her kiss to Tim based on how they screamed.

The only word Tim could use to describe Lucy was: amazing. She so effortlessly commanded the stage and captured the attention of thousands of people that filled the stadium. It was also quite amusing to watch Angela and Wes unabashedly sing along with every song and not miss a single lyric. Tim would have teased his teammate about knowing the words to a bunch of pop hits had he not gained a new respect for Lucy's music. Instead, he wished he had come to the concert more prepared.

Though she tried not to direct all of her attention towards Tim, something kept pulling Lucy's gaze back to him. She almost stopped singing when she noticed that he seemed to know most of the lyrics to one of her songs and was trying to sing along as best as he could. For some indescribable reason, she felt her chest warm that he knew her music that well. By the time she was meant to perform her last song, she was equal parts exhausted and invigorated by the crowd. Every night, Lucy took a moment to thank her fans for attending her concert before the final song, but because of the day's news cycle, she decided to add something to her usual message. "Thanks so much to all of you for coming out tonight!" Lucy regarded the audience. "I don't know if any of you heard, but I have a husband now." There were loud cheers for a minute. "Yeah, so I want to take a minute to thank my new husband for being here with me tonight. I'm sure this is exactly how he imagined our honeymoon in the middle of New York City sharing me with thousands of people," she smiled and met his eyes. "He's a really good man, and one hell of a hockey player. He scored a hat trick last night just for me, so I guess it's only fair I perform a song for him. This one's for you, babe," she said and motioned for her band not to start playing the accompaniment of her usual final song of the concert's setlist. Instead, Lucy took her guitar and sang an acoustic version of Tim's favorite song of hers.