Second Chances

Chapter 32

“I want to thank Steve Carrell, Ben Affleck, the one and only Bob Seger, and the incredible Roots right over there, ladies and gentleman!” I yelled into the camera as I pointed to my left. “Stay tuned for Late Night with Seth Meyers, I hope to see you tomorrow, bye bye!”

I walked up to the camera with the album cover before placing it on top and heading up through the audience giving hugs and high fives, and a few autographs along the way. I headed into my dressing room through the door behind the guest couch and loosened my purple striped tie as I grabbed a beer from the mini fridge and twisting the top off and gulping down about a third of it. I placed it down on the desk and headed down the hall to one of the guest dressing rooms and knocked once on the open door.

“Hey Bob, I just wanted to thank you again for coming on the show, I’m a huge fan.” I told Bob Seger as he zipped up the bag on the chair in front of him.

“It was my pleasure, Jimmy,” He told me as he stepped over to me and shook my hand. “I had a blast, next time we’ll have to do something fun.”

“Oh my gosh, absolutely.” I told him enthusiastically.

“I hate to be rude, but I have a flight to catch in…” Bob looked at his watch. “Two and a half hours, so I need to get to the airport right away.”

“Oh yeah, sure, no problem.” I told him as I stepped out of the doorway to let him pass. “Have a safe flight, and thanks again, you killed it out there man.”

I gave him a quick hug before he grabbed his bag and headed down the hall where his assistant was waiting for him and I was about to turn and head out the room when I spotted the upright piano against the wall and found myself drawn to it like I had been so many times in the last few months. I sat down and lifted the cover off the keys and sighed. I still had no idea what I was going to do to try and get Maddie to talk to me again, but I wasn’t going to give up. I didn’t fight her when she left because I was in shock about what was happening, and I didn’t call her before now because I was afraid that she’d just hang up and not want anything to do with me. But now that I know that she doesn’t hate me? There was no way that I was going to just sit idly by anymore.

I placed my hands onto the keys and started playing the melody that I’ve come to know quite well at this point. At first it was rocky because I was never a pianist by any means, but as the weeks turned into months and I kept playing the song over and over when I was feeling down, which let’s face it was more often than not, it started sounding more like what I heard on the radio and my iPod.

“That’s it!” I yelled as I jumped up. “I know exactly what to do.”

“That’s a first.” I heard Gavin say behind me.

“Fuck you, dude.” I told him, shaking my head as I turned around to see him and Miles standing just inside the door. “Listen, don’t let everyone go. I need a camera man and someone to run a spotlight there’s something I need to change for the show, we’re gonna have to bump Ew!”

“What the hell for?” Gavin asked.

“For Maddie.” I said simply as I headed back to my dressing room with the two of them following me.

“Wait.” Miles said grabbing my arm to turn me around once we were inside. “You need to explain what’s going on.”

“I need to get her back, and I finally figured out how. We’re bumping Ew! so I can sing.” I told him.

“You can’t do that.” Miles said. “You can’t just change the show after the guests leave. You can’t just decide that something doesn’t air.”