Moonlight

Part 9

September, 07, 2011, LA

Stevie sat in her living room, fire burning in the fireplace. Stirring her tea once more before she took a sip completely lost in her thoughts. Two days ago she had come back home from the first leg of her tour, and now, instead of enjoying a bit quality time with her family, she was waiting to give an interview while Lindsey was already halfway out of the house, having his last day of rehearsal before he left for his tour.

He and the kids had been with her on tour. Now she would be home with them since school had started again. They had been able to schedule everything nearly perfectly, only a few dates in October and November were overlapping, but they had been able to manage this as well. Stevie would go back to live the Rock’n’Roll lifestyle once more, jetting through California while Kristen would stay with the kids while she was away.

She sighed at the thought of leaving her babies behind. Well, they are hardly babies anymore Stevie reminded herself and laughed. They would forever be her babies, even if one day they would be thirty and have their own families. Smiling she thought she couldn’t wait for this to happen.

“You’re ready?” Karen came into the room, carrying another mug of tea for Stevie while still being on the phone. “Excuse me? ... Oh, I’m sorry Mrs. Parker, I was speaking to Miss Nicks.”

Karen rolled her eyes at Stevie. She had been on the phone with Mrs. Parker for quite some time now, trying to go over the last details for the Australian leg of the tour. And by now she was slightly annoyed.

“Of course I know what time it is in Australia right now.” Karen replied. “No, I know... Yes, this is why I want to get this over as soon as possible...” Pulling the phone down, she covered the speaker. “She didn’t care about the damn time when she was calling me in the dead of the night last week. And Lindsey had tried to call, but I couldn’t answer because, obviously, we have a problem.” She said to Stevie before she resumed her conversation with Mrs. Parker. “Sure Mrs. Parker.”

Stevie sighed again. Lindsey knew she was about to give an interview and wouldn’t have tried to get her on the phone if it wasn’t absolutely important. So she got up, made her way through the hall and was halfway in the kitchen where she had left her phone, when the door bell rang, announcing the TV crew. Turning around, she made a mental note to call Lindsey as soon as the interview was over.

She heard Karen mutter something she didn’t catch.

“I’ll go.” Stevie said, already standing next to the door and opening it. “Hi, do come in.”

“Miss Nicks, good morning.” A young woman stood in front of the door, camera team behind her. “I’m Mary Carpenter. We have an interview scheduled for 12.”

Stevie put on her professional mask of being calm and collected while inside of her her thoughts were racing. Why had Lindsey tried to call Stevie asked herself again and again. She just hoped everything was alright with him and the kids. But on the other hand she knew that if something had happened, he would have already been back home. She watched as the crew set everything up for the interview, suppressing the need to just get up and call Lindsey back.

One glance at Karen and Stevie knew her assistant was worried about her. She didn’t take her eyes off Stevie as she continued to talk to Mrs. Parker, who had obviously decided to make everything as difficult as possible. Karen too wanted to know why Lindsey had called, if only to be able to ease Stevie’s mind.

God, please don’t let her change her mind again. Karen knew it were times like this when Stevie damned her decision to completely hide her private life. She could see Stevie was nearly about to leave the room and try to find out what was the reason for Lindsey’s call. But she could also see the stoic expression behind which her boss hid her feelings. It was a mask she wore for quite some time now. A mask that was becoming more and more prominent every time someone dared to ask her a question about Lindsey.