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Take Me Home
By four, only a few of them were still standing, because the rest were exhausted, drunk or both. Deborah’s legendary resistance to champagne had been seriously compromised that night, so she looked around for Tim to help her organize the group’s retreat. And found him completely wasted on a couch. Good thing Ron was still in shape to crawl down the stairs and ask the bodyguards to get the cars ready. Meanwhile, she took on the quest of kicking everybody up to their feet.
Her dizzy head got suddenly clear when she found Jim had exceeded his alcohol to an extent she’d had only seen a couple of times before. He was declaiming something at the top of his lungs, while Silvia and Liam laughed and threw snacks at him from a couch.
Deborah shook Sean, snoozing with his head on Jo’s lap, and pointed at his brother. He rubbed his face, shook Walt awake, and together they were able to push and punch Jim into the toilet. Gallons of fresh water on his head e
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No Return A Whole Day of Isolation
What they called the tech and junior crews had been working at the stadium for hours by the time the senior crew and the musicians were able to leave their rooms. They navigated their hangover the best they could and eventually found their way to one of the hotel restaurants for lunch.Soon they were all there, save Jim. Deborah counted heads one more time. Yep, he was the only one missing. She found out she still had his phone, so she called his room.Sean saw her look as she came back to the table and sighed. For a change, nobody but him dared to go knock on Jim’s door, especially knowing he wasn’t alone.“I’ll get him,” he said to Deborah, and turned to Jo. “Order my lunch, please.”Upstairs, he stopped before Jim’s door and paid attention. He couldn’t hear a single sound from inside the room. His brother was still sleeping. Sean knocked softly and waited. Nothing. He knocked again.“Ji
No Return Tonight Is Our Night
Jo enjoyed the ride to the west area of the city, to a neighborhood called Caseros, filming and talking with Silvia.Living a thousand miles away from Buenos Aires, and far from being into indie movies, Silvia couldn’t tell her much about the renown international indie festival that took place in the city every year. But she was more than willing to answer any questions about her country, their traditions and culture, and about herself too. So Jo asked away to her heart’s content.Claudia waited for them with Silvia’s sister and friends, who welcomed Jo like they’d known her for years and made her feel at home in just minutes.Silvia left them talking in the living room and hurried upstairs for a quick shower, hopefully even with hot water. The first thing she saw in her room was all her clothes, washed and ironed, folded in a neat pile on her bed.She went back downstairs with a change of clothes, an extra pack of cigaret
No Return Why We're Here
The guys in Silvia’s group joined the girls by the fence as the band played Weight of the World, their hard-rock hearts leaning to approving nods, even though No Return was much softer than anything they liked. And from the stage, Jim smiled when the girls danced, watching Silvia dance and sing as she’d done at the North Dakota inn, just for fun and just for him.“Okay, now let’s take it one by one,” Sam said from the tower.Jim handed the guitar to his assistant and jumped down from the stage with his microphone, just in case. Somebody gave him a bottle of water as he sneaked past the fence to join Silvia’s group. He shook hands and kissed cheeks as she introduced them, with that professional charming smile he usually wore for the meet & greet occasions. But he turned to her as soon as the introductions were over, forgetting about the others not a step away.“I think your friends know my songs better than y
No Return The Heart of the Storm
“Sorry to water the mood, guys, but I’d like something to finish the keys,” said Sam.Walt looked up at Jim, who tilted his head with a little smile, looking at Silvia.She would’ve liked to fear for herself, but she was already all in for Jim’s game, so she just waited. She didn’t understand what he said to Walt and the others, but saw his sign when he met her eyes again, pointing at his ear.Pay attention? She did, and she only needed a couple of seconds to recognize Save Your Soul and join him, feeling like a child in Christmas as she sang the background vocals, making Tom chuckle and throw up his hands."Save your soul‘Cause I don’t need it anymoreMy devil eyes see better when they’reNot open, that’s for sure.You were my heart My saving grace
No Return Presidential Suite
A shaken silence followed the end of the song. Everybody kept staring blankly at the stage, not registering that Jim jumped down from it and hurried to the fence to help Silvia down, take her by the hand and lead her away.All of them quivered, like jolting awake from a gripping but muddled dream. They seemed to remember to empty their lungs or fill them again. Their eyes met as they glanced around, questioning, still puzzled, wondering what had just really happened, why they were all so moved, when had Jim made that song.They all looked relieved to see the others were just as shaken. They tried a few steps to remember what was supposed to come next. And the two people that had shaken them like that came to the rescue, as Silvia’s voice echoed all over the stadium.“Son of a bitch! If you ever do this to me again—!”Jim’s laughter replaced her on every speaker. “Everybody heard that, y’know?”“
No Return Live
The space behind the stage was a fevered buzz of techs, assistants, security staff, reporters, VIP guests. The band had retreated to the dressing room to get ready for the meet & greet before playing.Jo rescued Silvia from the trailer steps and took her to join Claudia at a dark corner of the stageside, from where they could watch the show. But the other two refused to stay there. Their friends had taken the best spot against the fence, right in front of Jim’s microphone, and they intended to join them. Jo argued it could get rough in the pit sometimes, and they could get bruised out there.“Yeah, well, it’s a rock concert, not an opera,” Silvia replied.They made her confess she’d never watched the band from the audience since they’d released their first album, and they ended up convincing her to join them.Five minutes before No Return took the stage, Deborah saw Ron come running, pale as if he’d just seen
No Return Push
Keeping in mind they were playing again the next day, Deborah didn’t let the after party go on for more than two hours, and she was relieved when everybody voted to go back to the hotel.On the bus, Jim noticed Silvia was oddly silent. She’d spent the after party with Jo and Claudia, away from the people buzzing around the musicians and the rivers of alcohol that usually flowed after a concert. Now she rested against his side, quiet and still. He felt her draw in a deep, shaky breath and kissed her hair. She was exhausted.She actually regretted declining all the drinks she’d been offered. She wished she’d had some beers, or a couple of tequila shots. Or all of that together, so now fear wouldn’t be clutching at her belly with those sharp icy claws. Still shaken by so many emotions since she’d opened her eyes to Jim’s smile, her survival instinct had finally rioted, demanding that she did something about it. And it was
No Return The Red Shoes
The day was breaking when Silvia found herself awake. Jim was sound asleep, flat on his back, one arm under her neck and the other stretched across the bed. She lay still against his side, his profile a dark line against the window opening to the receding night.Nothing made sense anymore.Waking up to such a man, loving him so much.Her head was a mess of flashing thoughts and feelings and sensations that had no way to come together in any coherent idea.The way he’d made love to her. Nobody had ever made love to her like that. It had nothing to do with his legendary skills as a lover, that she’d already been introduced to when she didn’t even know who he was. His gentleness and attention, the emotions sparkling in those eyes of ice and stars, the way he’d given himself to her.Her chill brought his arm to bend around her shoulders and hold her closer.If over the last two days she’d been flowing from one momen
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