Page 60 of His Last Chase
Life on the road was routine. Soundcheck, dinner, show, meet and greets and then bed only to rewind and do it all over again the next day. Mundane to some but exciting for us. Power of presence. I felt power through my stage presence and enjoyed the smiling faces in the crowd staring up at us. Andnow I had a smiling face behind the scenes waiting to congratulate us for a great show.
What an amazing life I had, and I now got to share it with a plus one.
Another show done and we were on the road headed to Albuquerque, New Mexico and the Isleta Amphitheater. An outdoor show in the desert southwest in summer. Hope there’s plenty of water.
When we stepped off the buses in ABQ, there stood Joey and Stoli with their security detail.
“Fuckers, welcome!” Stoli announced and Joey shook his head. Sometimes I wondered if Stoli and Seltzer were related.
“Ignore my husband. We’re glad to see you guys.” Everyone hugged then it was my turn to introduce my partner to them. A giddy feeling rushed through me as I did.
“Joey, Stoli, this is my boyfriend, Casey.”
“Daddy!” Seltzer announced as he passed us by. I wanted to smack the shit out of him.
“Ignore him,” Casey said as he shook their hands. “It’s nice to meet you both. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
With the intros aside, we left the heat and moved into the air-conditioned dressing rooms. Joey and Stoli wandered off with Chaotic toward theirs.
“Well, at least this one has vinyl furniture.” Seltzer glanced around before he plopped down on the couch.
“What makes you think it’s not leather?” Rhone asked.
“No, leather wrinkles, like old man balls.” How the fuck Seltzer said that with a straight face I would never know but I was inches away from choking the fucker.
“The fuck, man?” I was appalled and the only one of us dating an older man whose balls I was happy to report were nowhere near Seltzer’s crass description.
“Sorry, Casey,” Seltzer’s apology only made it worse.
“Dude, no,” David warned, though that usually fell on deaf ears with Seltzer’s dumbass.
“What old man balls have you seen?” Rhone asked, David was about to explode with as red as his face was getting.
“I seriously cannot believe this conversation is taking place,” David shook his head. “What old man balls have you seen, jackass?” He repeated Rhone’s question.
Casey was about to bust a gut laughing and I had no clue how to give CPR if it reached that point.
“Just in movies,” Seltzer shrugged. “But you know what I mean. Leather wrinkles and vinyl doesn’t.”
He had a point but was dumb as a fucking rock when it came to explaining things in a mature manner. Dude had no fucking filter.
“Here,” Daddy handed me a bottle of water. “Hydrate. The heat is no joke.”
“Thank you.”
He handed out water bottles to the others as well. “Drink up, guys. It’s hotter than Hades out there.”
Through dinner and when we came off stage, Daddy, Easton, and Jeremiah kept us hydrated. By the time we got off the stage calling us sweaty messes didn’t even cover it. Thankfully this show had the meet and greet before the show and downstairs where it had air con. Everyone showered and we all drug our tired asses from the air-conditioned dressing rooms to the air-conditioned buses.
As soon as we hit the road, the familiar sounds lulled us to sleep. We woke up the next afternoon in Tucson, Arizona. It sounded like Embrace would be recording their next album at Derek Masters’, the lead singer for Maiden Voyage, home studio. I was pretty excited about that. Crashing at Derek’s house versus a hotel would be a nice change. After a round of hellos and Daddy introductions, Shadow grunted and moved off to the side. What was it with these bands’ drummers being massive and formidable? Shadow was even larger and grouchier than Diamond was.
From Tucson we played a show in Phoenix and now we were headed back to Vegas where I’d have to leave Casey behind.
After having him with me for these last couple of weeks, I dreaded the Vegas show. Saying goodbye was gonna kill me.
Chapter Fourteen
Casey