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Chapter 11
The tour was winding down and Anne's twenty-fourth birthday rolled around. Stars had climbed the charts steadily, and had stopped off at number one for one week, but it was enough, now Anne could finally say she had a number one single. They were back in Florida now, getting ready to make up the dates they canceled due to the hurricane. On the third, Anne's birthday, they happened to have the night off, they threw a small party for her, nothing elaborate, just a nice get-together. Over the few hours of the evening about thirty people came and went. Just after people had dissected the small chocolate cake, and a few presents had been opened the guys reappeared after vanishing for a few minutes.
"Oh God, they're not going to, oh no they are..." Anne trailed off as the guys got closer to her, they each carried a rose. They made her sit in a folding chair and they gathered in a circle around her. She blushed, and was trying to not to laugh. They broke into an a capella version of All I Have To Give, one of her all time favorite Backstreet songs. It now ran in a distant second to Back To Your Heart, for obvious reasons. After practically melting into her chair, she regained her composure enough to last through the song. During the part where Howie usually does his uniquely high solo, he opted out, and instead he whispered 'I love you,' into her ear, and kissed her on the cheek, she turned bright red.
The tour wrapped up two days later, and now Anne was off to do bigger and better things, well not quite, it was pretty hard to top opening for one of the biggest bands on the planet.
Anne headed home to Michigan, it was getting near Christmas, and she had not seen her family in a long time. When she was 'home' the weekend of the concert, her parents were up north skiing. While she was home, she got a bizarre phone call. "Hello?"
"Hello, love."
"Ryan?"
"You bet, Rosie."
"Well this was unexpected."
"Well I'm just spontaneous like that."
"Yes, I know, so Ryan, what's going on?"
"Damn, you found me out. Actually it's about Les Mis."
"Okay, what about it?"
"Well, we
were wondering since you're done with your little tour and all,
if you'd like to join us?"
"What? Do Les Mis on Broadway?"
"Sure why
not? You're a big star now, and you know the part, it'd be good
publicity for you, and us."
"It sounds great, I'd love to do it. I just don't know."
"Oh come on
Rosie, what do you have to lose? The part is yours if you want
it. Our director, Ben, loves the idea, he's seen your tapes, and he even called
Graham, you could be a smash."
"All right, I'll do it. I have missed the show."
"Actually, Rosie, that's not all."
"What else is there?"
"I don't think you've heard, Shelly and I are getting married."
"That's fantastic, when?"
"Saturday, January, 12th. Back in London."
"I am so happy for you, how many people are coming?"
"It's a real
small wedding party, five of us, including the minister. I
think there are only about forty people coming, twenty of those are blood relatives."
"It should be wonderful in any case."
"Well, Rosie,
the reason I bring this up is that my part will be vacant,
and we need another Marius."
"Of course."
"Well I gave
Ben some names of people who I though could replace me, one
was that man of yours, Howard."
"Howie?" Anne asked in disbelief. "You can't be serious."
"Why not?
He has a nice voice. I heard you two sing Rain at that party all
of us were at, when you two were up here in September, it was beautiful.
You two would be great together, you've got chemistry."
"I just don't know, it would interesting though."
"Call him
up, one quick audition, and he has the part, Ben heard you guys
sing at the party too, just come to New York, and you're in."
"How long would we run for?"
"I'm taking
a leave of absence, starting on the 4th, and I'll be back on
the 22nd, so he'll play through then, and you can go for as long as you want.
Our previous Eponine was just cast in a new show."
"Okay Ryan, I'll do it, but I have to get back to you about Howie doing it."
"You know if this works, this may be the first time Marius has ended up with Eponine. I look forward to hearing from you. Bye, Rosie."
"Bye Ryan." Anne hung up and quickly called up Howie, she got his machine, and left a message. Ever since they had seen Les Mis in London, Howie had been learning a little Broadway music, he was hooked. He learned, with Anne's help, One Song Glory, from Rent, and he also learned A Little Fall of Rain, which he enjoyed singing with Anne. Howie called her back about an hour later.
"Hey sweetie, what is it?"
"Howie, what are you doing after Christmas?"
"Not much, why?"
"An interesting opportunity has arisen."
"What?"
"You remember Ryan right?"
"Yeah, from London."
"Well he just recruited me to be in the play again."
"That's nice."
"He and Shelly
are getting married, and he wants you to take his place
while he's gone."
"He what?"
"You heard me, he wants you to be Marius."
"Me on Broadway?"
"Why not?
You've said you wanted to get back into acting, well here's a
great opportunity."
"It does sound like fun, what do I have to do?"
"You have
to head to New York and do one quick audition for Mel, the
director."
"Okay, I'll do it. How long will I be doing it for?"
"Um, I think Ryan said for about three weeks. We'll know more, later."
Anne's family had
an early Christmas that year, it just fit best with
everyone's schedules. She had to be in New York over the holidays to do some
promotion work for Jake, and to begin play rehearsals, which she had not really
told him about. Howie flew up the day after Christmas, to start learning the
show, it helped that he could watch Ryan. Anne met him at the airport.
"What are you smiling about?" Anne asked Howie.
"I've got news."
"What is it?"
"Brian and Leighanne."
"What about them?"
"He proposed."
"Oh my God, no way, that's great. When?"
"Yesterday, apparently."
"Well the rest of you guys heard fast."
"We all knew
he was going to do it, it was just a matter of when. Brian
told Kevin, and then it just kinda filtered down from there."
"I am so happy for them, oh man, some of those girls are going to freak when they find out."
"Well hopefully it won't be for a while."
"Yeah, well let's go, I have to be back at the studio in a little while."
"Let's go."
That week Anne
was recording a track for a tribute album in a Manhattan
studio. Howie was going to drop by the studio later that night, he, Anne, Mickey
Shumaker, Anne's session drummer, and one of Mickey's friends were all going
out to dinner that night. Jacob blew in the office of the studio with the cold
New York air, he was not happy. Anne was taking a break when she saw him. Mickey,
who did not get along well with Jacob, and the other session musicians made
a hasty retreat from the studio.
"Rose, we have to talk now," Jacob ordered.
"Whatever you say, Jake."
"What the
hell is this, huh? You go and sign up to do the play without even
telling me? Bill Solomon was talking to me today and he said he was glad to
hear you're back in the play, and I said you're not in any play. Dammit, you
made a liar out of me, Rose!"
"It's not that big a deal, Jake."
"Wanna bet? How dare you not tell me?"
"I was going
to tell you, honest, it's just I haven't seen you. And besides
I'm trying to help Howie learn his part too..."
"He's involved in this too?"
"Yes, it was Ryan's idea."
"Hayes, that
bastard, I should have known. You little bitch, how dare you
go behind my back like this? I made you, and I can break you just as easily!"
"Jake! Stop screaming at me, please. This is just something I want to do, for me."
"You're fucking up my plan for you Rose. It's bad enough you bring him into the picture, but now this? Dammit. Think about your image. I was getting ready to put you full in the spotlight, make you this sexy, single, star, and then you have to go and stab me in the back."
"Jake, please. Wait a second, I get it now, you're jealous."
"I am not."
"Yes you are.
You're freaking out because I found someone who loves me,
and I'm making some of my own decisions. You're scared blind."
"No, I'm worried that because you're 'in love' you are going to make some stupid decisions and fuck up your career. If it wasn't for me you'd be nothing right now."
"Ha. You, arrogant pit-viper. Where do you get off saying that? Forget it, Jake, I'm doing the play."
Howie had just arrived to pick up Anne, he stood juxtaposed to Mickey who was watching through sound proof glass the carnage in the studio unfold. "What's going on?" Howie quietly asked Mickey.
"I'm guessing Foster just found out that Rosie is doing the play." Mickey was born and raised in New York, and it was apparent in his voice. "Woah I don't know what Foster just said, but Rosie's pissed, she looks like she's about to spit fire. You couldn't pay me a million bucks to be in his shoes right about now." He laughed, Mickey enjoyed watching Jacob squirm.
"I've got to do something," Howie said as he looked at Jacob and Anne's faces which were red from shouting. The argument was now on the verge of becoming violent.
"Dorough, I wouldn't go in there if I was you?" Mickey warned, in addition to having a strong New York accent, he also called almost everyone by their last names.
"Well I can't just stand here and watch," he said as he moved to the door into the studio.
"...This is the last straw Rosie, I've put up with enough of your bullshit. I'm your manager, and you do what I say. You're nothing, do you understand?" Jacob yelled, right in Anne's face, she was emotionally defeated and was on the verge of crying, the things he had said to her, and the things he had called her, stabbed like knives in her heart. "You cross me again and I'll bury you, you stupid..."
Howie cut him off, "Jake, that's enough!" Jacob was shocked and enraged, few people were allowed to call him Jake, and Howie was not one of them. "You want the truth? All right, I talked her into doing the play. I'm the one who bugged her until she said yes. Be mad at me, not her."
"Dorough, don't even get me started on you..." Jacob trailed off, he stormed out of the studio in disgust.
"You didn't have to do that," Anne said, as Howie came closer to her. "You didn't have to lie."
"I know, but it's better for him to be mad at me than you anyway. I don't have to deal with him every day."
"I wish you had not done that, he hates you already."
"I don't care."
"What am I
supposed to do? The two men who mean the most to me can't even
be in the same room together. Without Jake, my career... But without you, I
just don't know what I'd do." Hot tears began running down her face, she
was truly torn, she hated Jacob for the things he said to her, but in her heart
she believed they were true.
"We'll figure something out," Howie said. He kissed her forehead and held her tightly in his arms and stroked her hair. In Howie's arms was one of the few places she felt truly safe. Anne was not really feeling up to going out that night, so she, Howie, and Mickey, rescheduled for later in the week. Jacob figured out the possible economic advantages to Rose being in the play, so he let her continue. Howie had an apartment close to Anne's and they enjoyed sharing cabs to the theatre.
One bright day they went out for a walk in Central Park.
"It is so cold," Howie commented.
"It's not
that cold, they weather guy said it's like 33°, and there's no
wind, what more do you want?" Anne asked.
"How about forty more degrees?"
"Loser, you can't take it."
"I can so."
"No, you can't.
When it's 60° you Florida guys break out the sweaters, in
Michigan we break out the shorts."
"You're nuts, that's what you are."
"I am not,
thank you very much." She turned so her back was to Howie and
crossed her arms in front of her. A moderately soft projectile hit her in the
back. "Oh you did not just do that." Howie was turned away from her,
and he whistled quietly. Anne gathered up some soft white snow and launched
a snowball in his direction, it exploded upon impact with his shoulder. Masses
of snow flew back and forth, most missing their mark. Eventually Howie grabbed
her, and tried to get to drop the snowball in her hand, after struggling for
a few moments she flopped onto the snow.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"Making a snow angel, what does it look like?"
"You're insane."
"Well why don't you be insane with me, it's fun."
He sat down on
the snow. "Hey this is kinda fun, I haven't done this in
years."
That night they went out to dinner with Mickey and his friend Paige. They walked into the restaurant, when they entered the lobby they all stopped dead in their tracks. "Foster?" Mickey stammered.
"Well hello there, Mickey. Rosie, Howard. And who are you?" Jacob asked.
"This, Foster,
is my friend, Paige," Mickey quickly replied, stepping
forward a little, to put some distance between Paige and Jacob.
"Well it was nice seeing you all," Jacob said, as he and his latest trophy girlfriend departed from the restaurant. A waitress showed Mickey, Paige, Howie and Anne to their table. Mickey was visibly disturbed by the meeting with Jacob, Howie was curious about this, but he never asked Mickey about it. That night, after he and Anne had left the restaurant, Howie asked Anne about Mickey.
"Anne, what's the deal with Mickey and Jacob? It's like they hate each other or something?"
"They do. They have a past, there's a lot of bad blood there. Mickey and Jake have known each other for about six years, but of course they did not always hate each other. What started it was actually Mickey's sister, Cathy. Cathy was a singer, a pearl in a sea of mediocrity. Jake was her manager. She was going to be a star, she was so talented, there was nothing she couldn't do. Mickey has always been a drummer, he's actually a pretty talented singer, but he always preferred to let Cathy stand in the spotlight."
"Well that doesn't sound so bad, what happened what caused all that bad stuff?"
"Well, this was all before my time of course, and I don't think it was the best choice, but eventually Jake and Cathy began a relationship. Even after the relationship went sour, Jake continued to be her manager. That was a mistake. He pushed her even harder than he had before, he was determined to mold her into a star, she was going to been huge. She couldn't handle the stress, she quit eating, and began taking pills to get to sleep, and then pills to wake up. She got hooked. Cathy and Mickey were always close, he played for her, he was there throughout her rise. Mickey never found out about the pills, although he did see how tough Jake was being on her. The more Jake pushed her the more pills she took, one night she went to sleep and never woke up. To this day Mickey blames himself for not seeing it, but he blames Jake more than anyone. He hates him for pushing her so hard, it's sad because they used to be friends."
"That's horrible, if I was in his place I'd hate Jacob too."
"So would I."
"What's with Mickey and Paige? Is there anything going on there?"
"Nope, he says they are just friends."
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