CIMORELLI : All Powered Up

FORTY : German Cakes and the Caffeine Shakes

"I think I drank too much coffee." I told Lauren, while holding up my hands in front of my face.

Yep, I definitely got the shakes.

"As long as you can still play the guitar, you'll live.." said Lauren, adjusting her in-ear monitors.

We were just five minutes away from opening for our show in Stuttgart, our last show in Germany. We've been touring for a few weeks now and this was probably one of our biggest shows. Christina was busy stretching, Lisa was in the corner, not talking and preserving her voice. Amy and Kath were tuning their guitars and chatting away. I could here the crowd cheering, my caffeine induced nervousness reaching it peak.

"Ready, girls?" Mom said, walking in, "Show starts in two minutes."

"Alright, huddle up, prayer time!" Christina yelled over the crowd.

And off to the stage we went.

As always, our German fans went completely insane when we walked up the stage, I smiled and waved, holding some hands that reached for us, I was busy looking at the back of the crowd while shaking some hands, when suddenly one person took my hand and didn't let go. I stumbled slightly, then looked at the hand that was holding me, my eyes moving up the arm and landing on his face. I gasped.

"REY?!" I screamed, "Oh My gosh, what are you doing here?!" I couldn't even here my own voice over the roaring crowd, he just smiled and let go of my hand, clapping along to the music. My eyes were transfixed, as I moved into position for our first song. He jammed through the entire thing, Amy nudged me in the hip, when she saw who I was looking at, her eyes wide with excitement.

At the meet and greet after our show, I talked to a ton of our fans, graciously accepting mountains and mountains of candy, but I couldn't help but be a little distracted, looking for his face in the queue.

"Oh my gosh, I love you Dani!" One girl named Greta exclaimed, I hugged her, and chatted for a bit, but then someone tapped me on the shoulder, I whirled around and there he was, with the biggest smile on his face, holding a bouquet of flowers.

"For you, miss." He said gallantly, handing over the flowers.

I couldn't help but feel my cheeks burn red as I accepted them. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming, you goof?!"

Rey chuckled, "It was a surprise..."

I hugged him, "I missed you! How is everyone?" I asked, remembering the lovely people back in the Philippines.

Rey nodded, "They're good, Tony and Angel say hello..and and Bee as well." He said quietly.

I felt a twinge in my heart, we found out through Kath and Lisa around a month ago that Bee was sick. We'd been Skyping almost everyday with her, but the tour had been so hectic that we've missed a few days.

"How is she doing?" I asked, but before Rey could answer, Christina saw us and screamed, "Holy cow, Rey! You're here! Guys, look who it is!"
She shouted to the others, who all came, the multitude of fans now gone.

"Hello, hello.." He said, hugging each of them.

"Wow Rey, so you bring flowers for Dani, and all we get are measly hugs?" Lauren said sardonically. "Haha, just kidding, I don't care."

We laughed. All of us just stood there catching up, asking Rey how long he'd be staying. I was particularly interested to hear his answer.

"Uhh," He looked at me, "I'm only staying until tomorrow night, but I was wondering, since all of you are here, I'd like to ask permission to take Dani out for dinner tonight?"