The day had finally arrived. Today we would be filming our DVD in the beautiful Paris and Rihanna would join us on stage for Princess of China. Professionally, it was fantastic. Personally, I was on edge.
After our two-week break, we had returned to the tour in a happy and relaxed mood. We were all smiles and jokes and I felt as if our time spent in Hawaii had brought a fresh air into my relationship with Chris. However, as September approached and with it, our very important commitments, our focus turned to them. It had been almost ten years since we had officially released a DVD and we were all keen on getting it completely right, also, it would be the first time that we would appear on a Closing Ceremony for the Paralympics Games and we also were nervous about that, but also terribly excited, it had been such an honour for us when we had been asked to participate. Everyone had worked and was still working really hard to make it perfect and memorable. It seemed the last ten days of me as a 34- year-old fella would be indeed very busy.
However full our schedule was, the mood was cheery and quite laid-back, sometimes it even felt like we still were those four -or five rather- careless college students enjoying the world and our friendship, which was; thankfully, better than it had ever been. I felt great, but as the date came nearer and Chris’ enthusiasm for Rihanna’s performance at our show grew, so did the feeling of uneasiness within me. He would talk of her visit more often with each passing day. Sometimes it was a three minute-speech about how awesome it had been our managers could make this possible and sometimes it was just a tiny comment, but having the events of Hawaii still fresh in my mind I could not help feeling a bit weird about it.
A part of me told me I was just being paranoid, but another part was convinced that there was nothing wrong with being a little careful. What I knew for a fact though, was that I was not letting Chris out of my sight again. Better safe than sorry, they say.
All day, there had been a glimmer in his eyes when he talked about her, a sort of dreamy voice when we planned our performance, I hated it; totally hated it. It seemed as he could not wait to see her, asking if she had arrived yet and things like that.
We had flown early to Paris and had to do sound check, it was always important, but more so today that we would be recording the show, she had apparently just arrived at the train station and would be joining us as soon as they could drive her here. Besides my apprehension regarding Chris’ obvious crush on her, I was content. The tour was going great and Will and I had just had a lot of fun playing on the PS3. That had helped me relax considerably.
Chris suggested we went through Don’t Let it Break Your Heart once more and we did, I knew how he loved my riff here so I paid extra attention not to mess it up.
“That was great, fellas,” he said grinning. We had almost finished, only her part needed rehearsing, especially the movements on stage. Will, Guy and I would be almost quiet, playing on our respective corners during the song, but with an extra singer on stage, Chris and her had to at least practise it once.
“I feel this is gonna be amazing!” he told me with eager eyes. He had been talking about this day for months. I smiled in response. I was trying not to think too much of the DVD so as not to get too nervous, but I was well aware that this night was important.
Guy turned his head sharply, squinted ahead and we followed, we saw people walking through one of the stadium entrances and soon realised what the fuss was about. She had arrived. Chris’ smile couldn’t be bigger.
She stalked towards the stage with an attractive and confident stride, sunglasses on, a tight pair of shorts and heels. Any guy’s dream, her presence was intimidating, I had to admit. Had my judgement not been clouded by the resentment I felt when she shot those lascivious looks at my husband, I would have probably admitted she was indeed quite a beautiful woman.
