Chapter 44

She’d been at the office for the better part of the day, shuttered in her office, her assistant barely able to keep up with her pace when two dozen roses showed up, amber colored with a note that read “Amber, love the name, love the color, the color of...” with the ending of it missing. It made her smile and a tear threaten her eyes. It was only signed “J”. Her assistant asked who he was, her only reply was that he was someone special. She didn’t mention the call earlier in the day when he phoned to let her know they were getting on the plane and asking one more time if she wanted to join them. Nor did she mention the call not 30 minutes earlier when he called to say they were in Pittsburgh and Richie rode with Linda in the limo to take her home. That he was romantic on the calls was a surprise, she’d never expected that from him. Never saw him as the romantic type, but now she knew better.

Her memories of the weekend and especially their goodbye this morning almost had her crying real tears and she’d vowed ardently not to do that at the office. Tonight might be a different matter, but then she’d have Cassidy, wine, pizza and chocolate to help her cope. Standing abruptly, she announced to her assistant, Brooke, that she was going into the break room to get something to drink, which Brooke immediately offered to get for her. Shaking the suggestion off, she bolted out of her office and directly to the bathroom where she wiped away those tears that managed to escape before going for a soda.

Standing at the kitchen sink, she ignored the receptionist and one of their other co-workers that she barely knew who were busy gossiping at the break room table. Once she’d gotten into the kitchen she changed her mind from a soda to hot chocolate and was busy fixing it when they’d come in. Picking out one of the pastries, she was about to leave for her office when a comment reached her ears.

“...the lucky bitch, whoever she was, he kissed her. Not one of those quick pecks that he usually gives to the girls that get the dance, but this long, deep kiss that made me about swoon. Couldn’t see her face, but geez, I would have died if it had been me.”

Smirking to herself with her back to them, she mused to herself that the kiss was incredible but his morning goodbye made it pale in comparison. Nibbling on the pastry over the sink, she continued listening.

“They didn’t have her face on the big screen?”

“No! And that’s kinda odd. I’ve been to enough shows that they almost always put them on the screens. He acted like he knew her.”

Not bothering to hide her smile since they couldn’t see ‘oh he knows her alright’ she said to herself. Then decided that she had to find out more. Turning around, with an innocently curious expression planted on her lips, that she hoped didn’t betray the truth, she asked “who are you talking about?”

“Jon Freakin’ Bon Jovi! At the show this weekend, he was practically devouring this woman’s mouth when he kissed her. Gawd! To be her!!!” Penny, the receptionist exclaimed, her tongue nearly hanging out at the thought.

“Oh, yeah, some friends dragged me to see him this weekend.” mentally cringing at intentionally using the phrase that made all of the die hard Bon Jovi fans insane.

“You went to see Bon Jovi this weekend?” questioning it since Amber didn’t seem to know the difference between the man and the band.

Nodding thoughtfully, “yeah, so when did he do that whole kissing thing? I didn’t see it.” Shrugging negligently, “I must have been in the bathroom or something.”

“When he was on the side platform. Funny thing about that, the woman he kissed, after a bit someone told me that Kevin showed up and escorted her away.”

“Kevin?” She wasn’t certain she could pull this off much longer.

“Jon’s head of security.” munching on one of the sticky buns left from earlier in the day, Penny continued, “I know the girls around her vanished just before the encore and were in the pit during it. Nobody ever gets into the pits during the encore. I was sitting down on the floor in fan club seats and even from the seventh row I saw them grinning over at someone, but she was in the shadows at the back, so I couldn’t see her then even. None of them came back out of the pit after the show either. We were all waiting to see if we could find out anything, but security made us leave eventually and they didn’t come out. There were a handful of them sitting down front with the fan club too. I know a couple of them, so I’m hoping to find out more about the mystery woman. The boards are alive with speculation.”

Choking back the question of which ones Penny knew, Amber instead asked, “Really? I’ll bet she was some cute little blond with big tits,” she was going to have to check the message boards, something she hadn’t done in quite a while. That and warn her friends not to divulge her identity to the fan club curious. With any luck Tara hadn’t gotten pictures of her dancing with Jon, but she knew better than to think there weren’t any out there. Frowning slightly, “what boards?”

“Fan club message board, other fan boards. So far nobody’s come up with a good, clear picture of the woman, not even the best photographers on the fan club board.” Frowning, “in fact, the wires don’t even have a good one of her.” Shrugging it away, Penny went back to her sticky bun, “hell, secrets like that don’t last long in Jovi World. There are also rumors of an after party at some bar with a bunch of women and the band. Eventually, we’ll find out.”

“Probably so,” Amber answered, before she got up and returned to her office. Immediately heading for Backstage and a scan of the threads concerning her and her dance. The wild speculation and the sheer cattiness of the woman had her laughing within a couple minutes. If they only knew. It all had an idea forming in her brain that she’d have to run by Jon the next time she spoke with him.