Steer groans. Jiggy rolls his eyes skyward as if this isn’t the first time he’s heard this complaint. Hustler laughs. Griff backs away like he wants to distance himself from the bunch of us. Remy shakes his head as if he’s never heard of such a stupid problem.
Dex eyes Pants for a few seconds. “Bro, I’ll be honest, that sounds like a you problem, not a her problem. Relax your fucking grip when you’re jerking off.”
Pants glances down at his meaty fists and laughs. “Yeah, you might have a point.”
The rest of the guys crack up.
“And maybe stop watching so much porn,” Griff suggests with a straight face. “It gives you brain damage.”
“Not-even-a-prospect says, what?” Pants says, cupping his ear and pretending to search the area as if Griff is invisible.
Dex high-fives Griff while the rest of the guys laugh.
I’m so close to punching one of these fuckin’ clowns.
I snap my fingers in front of Pants and Dex’s faces. “If we’re done with jack-off tips for the sad and single guy, can we get back to serious topics? Help me carry this shit inside.” I jerk my chin toward Shelby’s guitar case and one of her suitcases.
Even though I have no idea where we’re going, I end up leading everyone into the building. It’s the easiest way to get the pack moving. Backstage is chaos with roadies moving shit around and security checking everyone out. Dawson’s bodyguards give us a cursory glance as we pass by. I stop and ask one of them where Shelby’s dressing room is and he gives me directions.
Outside her dressing room, I nod to the guys. “Everyone has their pass, right?”
They either hold them up or dig the passes from their pockets.
“Dawson asked if I’d help his guys set up tonight. That all right with you?” Steer asks.
“That’s fine.”
We go over our game plan for the night and I set them free for now.
Hopefully everyone can behave tonight.
After I set Shelby’s stuff inside the room, Jigsaw follows me out to the merchandise booth. We pass plenty of people. Some I recognize from the tour, some I don’t.
Night after night, tons of women backstage try to get my attention. Some seem to assume giving me a blowjob will get them access to Dawson, even though the pass around my neck clearly has Shelby’s name on it. As much as I’m dying to tell them to fuck off, I don’t want to be rude to Shelby’s fans. Instead, I smile and politely—well, as polite as I can manage—decline.
She sends me a text, asking for tea, so after the merch booth, we head backstage again.
“Why the fuck didn’t we think of going into this type of work when we were younger?” Jigsaw elbows me and not-at-all-subtly lifts his chin at a gaggle of girls in short, tight dresses who keep waving at us.
“How is this different from all the club girls you’ve ridden over the years?” I growl.
“I don’t have the knowledge that any of them have fucked my brothers for one thing.”
“No, but they’ve fucked every roadie and band dude who’s passed through town.”
“So judgmental,” he scolds.
Yeah, maybe. More like, I don’t need him doing anything that brings negative attention to Shelby.
“Come on, I don’t want to leave her too long.” I hurry to grab some hot water and honey packets. Wish I could get Shelby to eat something before she goes on stage but she always refuses.
“You know, I could’ve done this for you,” Jigsaw says, grabbing a fistful of ketchup packets.
I smack the packets out of his hand and they scatter all over the table. He stares at them with wide cartoon-like eyes. “So. Much. Ouch. What the fuck, bro? We got no condiments in the RV.”
“Shelby’s allergic to tomatoes.”
He glances at the scattered packets again. “Does ketchup even qualify as a tomato? It’s mostly corn syrup and vinegar at this point.”
“I don’t want to take chances.”
“On what? That I’ll accidentally squirt ketchup down her throat?”
“Stop being a fucker.” I grab as many sandwiches as my big hands can hold. Jigsaw snags cans of soda and we head back to Shelby.
At the door to her room, I stop him with an elbow to his gut. “Do not, and I repeat not, hit on Cindy tonight.”
“Who me?”
I glare at him until he stops with the sad clown face.
“Fine, fine. I won’t say a word.”
Inside, Cindy’s busy twirling sections of Shelby’s hair around a hot iron. I set the tea and honey on the counter in front of Shelby and give her a quick kiss on the cheek.
I pass out sandwiches to Heidi and Trinity before taking a seat at the table to eat my own sandwich while answering some emails.
SHELBY
I’m buzzing with more energy than usual as I walk off stage. That has to be my most enthusiastic crowd yet. I don’t know if people are finding me through streaming charts, word-of-mouth, the Glow article or something else, but Lord, please let it continue.