That Was Then, This Is Now

Part 2

Gary POV
I mean this conference was either going to go really well, or we were going to crash and burn.
"10 bucks says Tim screws up first." Jack said to me. Him and I were standing to the side watching the conference hoping with all our hearts they were going to do it right.
"Why do you say that." I asked him. They were still setting up the microphones and everything so we were still good.
"He hasn't said anything, but I think he likes her so he's probably going to say something stupid in front of 30 cameras." I laughed at his statement.
"Well I think Faith likes him too." I warned. God I remember this day well.
"Shit."
"Yep."
"Well as their managers were going to have to manage the situation, there would be nothing worse than a break up or something to ruin the tour." Jack said.
"My thoughts exactly." Soon they had everything ready and Tim took to the stage. He said how excited he was to welcome a new artist on to his tour and all that, he was clever not to say the name so the suspense had built up. He kept looking off to the side of stage smiling sheepishly.
"Is he wanting direction? Why is he looking over so much?" I said to Jack.
"I don't know.... Shit."
"What?" I asked concerned.
"He's looking at Faith." Neither of us looked at each other when we were speaking instead our attention was directly focused on the potential train crash before us.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to give a warm welcome to my beautiful opening act," Tim what the hell, "Miss Faith Hill!" Okay, come on Faith rescue us here. Pull us out of potential tabloid headlines. God I could already imagine having to deal with rumours of a torrent love affair and having TMZ call me every 8 seconds. Please Faith, make my job easy just do it right I thought. She was getting up the stairs on to the stage. She didn't trip, good. Okay then they hugged, but it was fine it was just a short friendly tap of the back hug. That was fine. Faith took to the podium and Tim stood behind her.
"Tim we can all see you staring at her butt!" Jack said under his breath beside me. This kid was not very good at being subtle, should've kept your eyes up buddy.
"Obviously I am thrilled beyond belief to be able to tour with Tim," Faith said. The pitch of her voice had increased slightly to much when she had said his name and looked back at him. "It's a real honour for me to be asked to come on tour with a really great friend." Jesus Faith, why didn't you just say 'hey we're leaving town on the same bus' because this was not going well. "I think it will be a great tour and I really hope to see y'all on the road. Questions?" Oh lord needed to help us. There's no way we were getting through this unscathed.
"Logistically, how is this going to work? Do you see any issues working together?" Some reporter asks. Well we may as well have died. I love Faith but that girl knew absolutely nothing about logistics. She stood by the podium and laughed very nervously. I could see Tim sensing that and he stepped forward. Oh god, Prince Charming to the rescue.
"So far the only problem we've got is working out the extra bus for Faiths shoes." He said standing close to her and pointing towards her. The audience was laughing and Faith had hit him playfully on the arm. He pretended like it had hurt and they played the scene very well. If I had been Faiths friend I would've told her that this guy had seemed great, way better than Scott, and you two obviously had great chemistry. Go for it. But I didn't. I'm her friend and her manager. As important as it is for Faith to be happy I also needed to make sure she had a career that was  going well. A public break up with Nashville's favourite cowboy was going to destroy her. They wrapped up the interview section of the press conference and we made our way back to the offices.
"You did great Tim." I heard Faith say from behind me. She sounded really happy, far happier than what she had been in a really long time. I thought maybe this tour was going to be a good thing for her. I wasn't wrong, but god I wasn't right either.