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Chapter 13
"Well here we are, ladies," Anne said as she, Angela and Emily stepped onto the tour bus she had dubbed 'the chick bus.'
"This thing is huge," Angela commented, examining the lounge of the black tour bus. "Can I just move into this thing? I could get used to this."
"See you say that now, but in a week or two you'll wish you were sleeping in a real bed every night," Anne answered.
"I just think it's cool you're sharing your bus with us," Emily said.
"It's no problem,
having company is nice, and I'm sure you'd rather be on a
bus with three people than six people."
"Yep. Sharing a bus with four guys, hmm, I'm not sure I want to even think about that. I have enough memories from college that involve road trips with guys, to last me a life time. Why add one more?" Emily said.
The Crossroads Tour crisscrossed Europe, leaving sold out shows and good reviews in their wake. The venues were a bit of a change for Anne, a nice change. As cool as it was to play for thirty thousand people, as she had done on her last time out on the road, her smaller, five or six thousand seat venues felt much more satisfying and more personal. Also she could do the types of shows she wanted, she could play more rock, more of her slow stuff, and do less dancing. The tour rolled through Amsterdam, Brussels, and they played two shows in Paris, and then on to Berlin. From the twenty-second, through the twenty-fifth, Jacob had budgeted time in the schedule for Anne to fly to Los Angeles, for the Grammy Awards. Anne knew she was going to lose, she was nominated against several women she respected, Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, and Melissa Etheridge, to name a few.
Los Angeles was a warm change for her, it was a lot nicer than cold Berlin where she had just finished up a show. She was able to go with Howie, but there was a little jealously, among some of the other guys that she got to come.
"Well how come your girlfriend gets to come and mine doesn't?" Nick asked.
"Get over it Nick," Howie shot back.
"Nick, I would
have had to be here anyway," Anne calmly told Nick. "I can
sit somewhere else if you want."
"No, that's okay," Howie said.
They walked up
the red carpet and were bombarded with camera flashes.
"This is insane," Anne said.
"Tell me about it," commented Howie. They smiled for another set of photographers, and went inside, trying to avoid as many journalists as possible.
"I love the guy and all, but when Kev spilled the beans about the engagements, he really threw me for a loop," Anne said.
"Really? How so?"
"I barely
get off the plane in Amsterdam, and then all of a sudden, voom!,
all the cameras in the whole country are tuned on me. Reporters in like six
different languages all ask me simultaneously 'Are you and Howie engaged?' That
totally caught me off guard."
"What did you say?"
"I said something
like, 'No, we're not. I do not want to get married to
anyone for a while yet, my career is too crazy right now.' And I'm sure someone,
somewhere misquoted me."
Howie smiled. "You know I love you, right?"
"I think I heard that somewhere."
They went in, tonight,
Anne was less concerned about her award, than being
a supportive girlfriend. She had a snowball's chance in Hell of winning and
she knew it, so she just decided to not worry about it and have fun. While they
were waiting to get to their seats, Howie sneezed.
"Bless you," Anne said.
"Thank you,
it's weird, all of a sudden I just can't stop sneezing," he
said and sneezed again.
"Bless you again, that is weird, I mean you don't have a cold or anything, I wonder what it is?"
"I don't know. I think it might be someone's perfume, some people are wearing a ton tonight." Brittany Spears, walked by, and waved hello to Howie. After she had passed, he sneezed again.
"Well, that solves that one," Anne commented.
"I guess so," Howie answered.
"I'll try and keep he away from you before you have to go sing."
"Thanks."
They went in, the
guys performed twice that night, and Anne lost to Sarah
McLachlan, as she expected, although she did not mind. When the guys were up
performing their first 'number' an overwhelming sense of pride hit Anne. She
looked around to see people's reactions, which were all positive. She thought
to herself, "Oh yeah, those are the guys I came with. God, I love those
guys. Now if I only could get A.J. in a tie too, the whole thing would be perfect..."
She trailed off, they were done. They performed again, later, with Elton John,
it was amazing. She loved the 'Oh my God, I'm performing with Elton John, mom
check it out,' look on Kevin's face, it was priceless. Unfortunately the guys
did not walk away with a single award, but they were the only artists asked
to perform twice, and two special numbers at that.
"Don't worry, Baby, you'll get them next year," Anne whispered into Howie's ear. He looked over and smiled at her. Besides watching 'her guys' sing, the highlight of the evening was getting to meet Shirley Manson, of Garbage, one of her idols.
"Hey Rose, I'm sorry you didn't win," Shirley said in her Scottish vernacular.
"It's all right, this was a tough year."
"Yes it was.
Rose, I am coming to see you, when you're in London, next
month. I heard you have a good show."
Anne was speechless, one of her idols was coming to hear her sing. "We try," Anne choked out, she was in complete shock. After the whole Grammy process was over the next day, she flew back to Europe to resume touring.
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