Release Me Page 19

  Jonathan laughed. “And that’s supposed to be a typical week in Aria Jordan’s life? Is she trying to win a music competition, or are you petitioning her for sainthood? I’m surprised you didn’t try to work in a couple of days of her volunteering in war-torn Iraq.”

  “It would have taken an entire day just to fly her there,” Toby answered, not missing a beat.

  “You’re full of it, man.”

  “We’re just embellishing a little.”

  “Embellishing sounds so much better than lying.” Jonathan chuckled.

  “I just want to make sure America remembers her when it’s time to vote for who they want to see.”

  “Yeah, it’ll be nice if they remember the Hard Court when they vacation in New Orleans, too.”

  “That’s why we need to make sure it’s perfect tonight.” Toby rose from his chair. “I need to head out. Aria has her first live radio interview early this afternoon, and I requested that the cameras be there so she could get used to having them in her face the rest of the week.”

  “Tell her I said good luck. I’ll see you tonight.”

  “Later.”

  Jonathan glanced at the legal brief spread out over his desk, then pushed his chair back and headed for the closet where he kept a pair of tennis and sweats. If he was going to get any work done, he first needed to clear his head. Nothing else had worked, maybe a few hours at the gym would.

  ***

  Sienna stood at the rear of the radio station’s studio with Toby at her side, amazed at how well Aria was doing in her interview. The crew from Hollywood had arrived at the studio before they had, and the cameras had begun rolling immediately. But Aria had been surprisingly calm. As the host of the local morning show fed her questions, Aria answered them with an ease Sienna had never witnessed in her before.

  They had gone through possible questions last night, and Aria had confessed that she had been doing mock interviews in the mirror. Her preparation had done wonders. Sienna found herself experiencing feelings of pride. How weird was that?

  “She’s doing great,” Sienna whispered to Toby. She could feel the tension radiating off of him.

  “It’s almost over,” he answered. “I’m just ready for it to be over.”

  Sienna squeezed his hand. “Get it together. You’re more nervous than she is.”

  She heard him pull in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

  “And there you have it,” the host said. “The next big star to come out of the south, Aria Jordan.”

  “Thank God,” Toby said as Aria pulled off her headphones, shook the host’s hand and practically skipped over to where they stood. The cameras followed.

  Aria first gave Toby a hug, then threw her arms around Sienna, surprising the heck out of her.

  “Thank you so much, Sienna.”

  “You’re welcome.” Sienna patted Aria’s back before releasing her.

  “If you had not forced me to do that bio, I probably would have stuttered my way through that entire interview. It really made me think about why I’m doing this, and it’s made such a difference.”

  “You were awesome,” Sienna said, and she meant it. Over the past few weeks, Aria had grown on her. She had this infectious exuberance that was just about the most charming thing Sienna had ever seen. It was one of the reasons Sienna was confident that Aria would win over the heart of every American within three feet of a television screen.

  Of course, she had also become a lot more open-minded toward her once she found out Aria and Toby were not attached. She had been envious, and had not given the girl much of a chance. Sienna was happy she had taken the blinders off long enough to get to know Aria better.

  “Time to go back to the studio,” Toby said. “We’re recording a new one today, and then it’s the Hard Court tonight,” he said with a tinge of fake enthusiasm.

  The reality of being on camera had affected them all, despite the fact that what was being recorded this afternoon would not be broadcasted on the web cast. The producers had warned that the initial reaction to being on camera could not be avoided, no matter how much they attempted to do so. They also claimed they would soon forget the cameras were rolling, but Sienna wasn’t sure she could. She didn’t know how the people on those reality shows did it. Having your every moved recorded was about as uncomfortable as…well…having your every move recorded.

  “I’ll meet you at the Hard Court tonight,” she told Toby. “I’m going back to the office and then I’m meeting Tianna to discuss the particulars on Jazz Fest.”

  Sienna left the radio station and was heading back to her office when her cell phone rang.

  “This is Sienna.”

  “Cee Cee, are you terribly busy?”

  “Ivana?”

  “We need to talk,” her sister said.

  “Ivana, what’s wrong?” Sienna’s chest tightened. Tosha was the overly excitable sister, not Ivana.

  “I just really need to talk to someone. Can you get away for a bit?”

  Sienna looked at the digital clock on the dashboard. She still wanted to go over Aria’s schedule with a fine-tooth comb, but she could do that after lunch.

  “I’ll make time,” Sienna told her sister. Where are you?”

  “I’m still at home, but on my way to the French Market.”

  “I’ll come and pick you up. We can have coffee.”

  Sienna made a U-turn and headed for her sister’s house. Ivana was waiting at the curb when she pulled up. She put her small folding table and the Pullman that carried her incense on the back seat. Sienna wished her sister would get a car. She didn’t know how Ivana hauled all that stuff on the bus everyday.

  “Okay, what’s up,” she asked when Ivana took a seat.

  “Coffee first, then we talk.”

  Sienna rolled her eyes. At least it wasn’t life threatening.

  Sienna turned down Ursulines Avenue then onto Decatur. She said a prayer of thanks when she found a parking spot around Jackson Brewery. They got out and headed for Café du Monde. Sienna ordered two café au laits and a single order of beignets for her and Ivana to share.

  When they were seated, she said, “Okay, spill it.”

  Ivana ran her fingers through her hair, her hands trembling. Sienna’s chest did that tightening thing again.

  “Ivana, what’s wrong? You’re scaring me.”

  Her sister took a sip from her mug and blurted, “I want to have sex.”

  Sienna stared at her, stunned. Speechless, in fact. As sisters they talked about a lot of things, but sex wasn’t one of them. Probably because there was so little sex in either of their lives.

  “Uh…okay,” Sienna said.

  “Oh, God.” Ivana folded her arms on the table and put her head down. “I can’t believe I just said that.”

  “Me either,” Sienna answered. “But, now that you have…”

  “It’s Toby’s friend.”

  “Jonathan?”

  “Yes,” Ivana muttered. “It’s driving me crazy. I keep running into him. I think he’s following me.”

  “Do you think he wants to, uh, have sex with you?” Sienna lowered her voice as a couple sat a few tables away from them.

  “I don’t know,” Ivana moaned. “He’s only asked me to have coffee. And, well, lunch too.”

  Sienna’s eyebrows rose. “You had lunch with him?”

  “No,” Ivana nearly shouted. “No,” she restated, lower this time. “He asked me to tell him about the city over coffee or lunch, but I said no and ran. I literally ran away from him. It was so humiliating.”

  “And you ran because you want to have sex with him?”

  “Shhh,” her sister chastised. Sienna could have reminded her that she was the one who first blurted out the words.

  “It has been so long since I felt this way,” Ivana admitted. “Not since Michael.”

  Sienna winced at the mention of her sister’s ex-husband. Michael had not been good for Ivana; almost as bad as their mother.

&nb
sp; “So, are you going to have sex with him?”

  “No!”

  “Why not?”

  Ivana sputtered, but no words came out of her mouth.

  “Okay, Vonnie, here’s the deal,” Sienna said, covering her sister’s hands. “I could tell since that dinner at Margo’s that Jonathan is interested in you. If you’re interested in him too, why not go for it?”

  “Sienna! You’re supposed to be talking some sense into me, not encouraging me to rip this man’s clothes off the next time I see him!”

  “I didn’t say anything about ripping his clothes off, but since the fantasy has apparently been on your mind, maybe you should. I doubt he’d mind.” Sienna grinned.

  “You are no help at all.”

  Sienna held her hands out. “What did you expect me to tell you?”

  “That I’m crazy for even thinking of Jonathan Campbell in this way.”

  “I’d think you were crazy if you didn’t think about him in this way. Jonathan is gorgeous. He’s has the sweetest personality. He’s successful.”

  “He’s a lawyer! A lawyer, for God’s sake! And he owns a nightclub. I want to have sex with a nightclub-owning lawyer.”

  “He’s a very successful lawyer, and his nightclub is becoming one of the premier spots in the city. You should come there tonight.”

  “Me? In a nightclub?”

  “What’s wrong with that?”

  “Other than the fact that it is against everything I stand for?”

  “You are not against people hanging out and having a good time. Jonathan’s club is very classy. You may even enjoy yourself. Just try not to tear his clothes off as soon as you see him.” Sienna laughed when Ivana shot her a dirty look.

  This was a side to her sister she had not seen in a very long time. Flustered, unsure of herself. It was good for her. Ivana took things too seriously. She spent so much of her time and energy on the “Cause” that Sienna was afraid her sister sometimes forgot that she had her own life to live.

  “So, am I going to see you tonight?” Sienna asked.

  Ivana chewed her bottom lip. “I’ll have to think about it.”

  “Please come, Vonnie. You’ll have a good time, I promise. And I need the moral support. This is Aria Jordan’s first performance in front of the cameras. I’m going to be a nervous wreck.”

  “It’s not as if you’ll be singing.”

  “Thank God,” they both said and laughed.

  “Still, Ivana, I think it would be good for you.”

  Ivana continued her nervous, bottom lip chewing. “Okay,” she said after a few moments. “I’ll meet you there.”

  “No, I’ll pick you up,” Sienna said. She wanted to make sure her sister got there. She would not be surprised one bit if Ivana stood her up. “I’ll be at your place around eight o’clock.”

  “Fine. I’ll be ready. What should I wear?”

  “You don’t own jeans or tennis shoes, so you don’t have to worry about the dress code. Just wear whatever you’re comfortable in.”

  Ivana’s face took on a pained expression. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

  “Yes,” Sienna reiterated. “You need to let your hair down every once and a while.” She grinned. “Besides, I think Jonathan prefers your hair down.”

  Sienna laughed as she received another of her sister’s mean looks. She rose from the table, placed a kiss on Ivana’s cheek, and headed for her car.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Toby sat on the leather sofa in Jonathan’s office at the Hard Court, then hopped back up and began to pace again.

  “Would you sit down? You’re driving me crazy,” Eli said as he continued to flip through the rich wood and glass CD case in the corner behind Jonathan’s desk. “You think Jonathan would mind if I borrowed this Sade CD? I used to roll with Sweetest Taboo.”

  “Can you stop thinking about yourself for a minute? This is the most important night of my life, and you’re worrying about a CD.”

  “How is this the most important night of your life? Aria is the one who’s going to be up on stage. Besides,” Eli shrugged. “What’s so different about this performance than the one she had last week?”

  Toby pointed toward the door. “Have you noticed all those cameras set up out there? This is real.”

  “Did you not know all those cameras would be set up out there when you decided to do this show?” Eli asked. “This is what you signed up for. Don’t start backing down now.”

  “I’m not backing down. It’s just…real. This is really happening, E.”

  “Yes, it is,” his brother said. “And you’re damn lucky it is. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, so don’t blow it by getting cold feet.”

  “I won’t,” Toby said, trying to reaffirm things in his own mind. He had been a nervous wreck ever since those cameramen flipped the switch on their equipment and his client’s life became a part of television history. There was just so much that could go wrong. That’s what Eli and everybody else had a hard time understanding.

  “What if she messes up on stage?” Toby asked, pacing the length of the massive office.

  “Then they’ll switch to another contestant. You told me yourself that they’re going to pick the stuff that makes good TV.”

  “And Aria choking on stage would make for good TV,” Toby pointed out. “Why do you think that funniest home video show is still on the air after all these years? People love to see other people make fools out of themselves.”

  Eli lowered the CD he’d been looking over. “Where is all this coming from?” he asked Toby. “You were confident as hell when you were giving Aria her little pep talk. Weren’t you listening to what you said?”

  “I just said that so Aria wouldn’t be nervous.”

  “Like I said, take your own advice. You’ve got this covered, man.”

  Toby took a deep breath and tried to tell himself that Eli was right, but how could he be calm when there was so much riding on tonight? This performance would dictate how well the entire week went. If Aria clammed up tonight, her confidence would be shot to hell.

  “Okay, I’ve got to calm down,” Toby decided.

  “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” Eli said. “Just forget the cameras, okay. Why don’t we go out to the bar? You need something to help you relax, and since you haven’t been getting any sex, alcohol will have to do.”

  Great. As if he needed to be reminded of his pitiful excuse for a sex life.

  He had been in a state of frustrated semi-arousal ever since that night at the pool hall with Sienna. He’d been dreaming about that night, remembering the way she’d licked her lips when she bent her sweet ass over and attempted a shot. Toby had nearly lost it in the middle of the pool hall.

  He needed to find relief. And now he couldn’t even get off with a damn porno flick because of her. Cee Cee was making his life crazy.

  “You coming or what?” Eli asked.

  Toby winced. Not the best choice of words his brother could have used.

  “Okay, but I’m not drinking anything. I can’t risk losing control.”

  Toby followed him out of Jonathan’s office. They walked down the small corridor and onto the main floor of the club.

  It was surreal. Tonight’s performance was the first full-fledged staged production. It had been hard enough having the two cameramen and a boom operator following them around earlier today, but tonight went way beyond what Toby had expected. There was a first camera assistant, second camera assistant, lighting technician, key grip, hair stylist, make-up artist and a bunch of other people that Toby had no idea what purpose they served.

  The location manager, whose job was to scope out the filming area and find the best camera angles, had been at the Hard Court since early this morning, from what Jonathan had told him. They had set up camera and lighting equipment at five different stations around the club in order to catch Aria at every possible angle on stage and get the best shots of the audience. According to the pro
ducers, they would do this for every one of her performances.

  Toby made the decision to take his own advice and just put the cameras out of his mind. They were a part of the scenery, like the bar stool, or the stage.

  “Toby,” Aria called out and started walking toward him. “Look who’s here!”

  Damn.

  Valerie Jordan, Aria’s mother, who was more of a bible-thumper than his own mother, was following behind Aria. When Toby had first approached her about signing Aria to his label, she’d given him a three-hour lecture on how she would not have her baby singing the devil’s music. Toby silently prayed Valerie wouldn’t give the cameras some kind of drama for the show. This had the potential to turn into the kind of stuff shows like this ate up.

  He found a smile from somewhere in his repertoire. “Mrs. Jordan, I’m happy you could make it. You should have told us you were coming out to New Orleans.”

  “It was a last minute decision,” she answered. “One of my church member’s daughter’s best friends told me she’d seen Aria singing in a nightclub.”

  Yep, they were about to make the drama clip. Hopefully, one of the other contestants would get in a fistfight during the week, so that whatever transpired in the next few minutes wouldn’t seem all that bad.

  “As you can see, this isn’t your usual nightclub.”

  “I wouldn’t know. This is my first time in a nightclub. Aria had never been in one either, until she met you,” Valerie said with a sweet, passive aggressive smile pasted across her face.

  Toby clenched his teeth to keep as much of a smile as possible for the cameras now that they were shoved in his face. Please don’t cause a scene, he silently prayed.

  “Actually, I discovered Aria in your brother’s club. It isn’t nearly as nice as this establishment.”

  “Mama.” Aria stepped in. “Why don’t you have a seat at one of the tables. Or maybe we can go upstairs and get something to eat?”