YESTERDAY, I MET YOU

CHAPTER 1
February 2006


The accident
It was on a common semi-bucolic street in a non-descript town that Holland Blair almost met her own personal Waterloo. In spite of an almost disaster and the morning’s inauspicious beginnings, it was a day that would forever stand out in her mind as bright and as clear as if a searchlight had illumined the day.

She was to think later as she pondered that day she supposed she was not unusual. Every woman had that special day the day that she’d never forget. But Holland somehow felt that her day was different. More than special, it had been magical. But it would be a while before she realized it.

For her grandmother that particular day had been the moment when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Those memories had survived in the mind of her grandmother Tommy and as it had been repeated to Holland more times than she cared to remember those memories had become intertwined with whatever else had been going on.
Bitter sweet, nostalgic memories were what Tommy called them. They conjured up recollections of Holland’s now deceased grandfather, in the same way that old tunes from the fifties and sixties still did for Tommy.

Violet, Holland’s mother too had had her own memorial day. Holland had come to understand through tales told on rainy evenings near the fire that for her mother the most unforgettable day of her life was 9/11, the day the twin towers in New York City were felled by the terrorists. Her mother and grandmother had told her many times exactly what each of them had been doing right before, when suddenly things changed forever.

Alas, Holland was not to have nearly as much drama or notoriety associated with her special day. For Holland Blair, the day that would forever remain prominent in her mind was also a day associated with tragedy but fortunately for sure, it was not the all pervasive kind. No it was a tragedy that was limited to one person and that person was herself. But again unlike the two memorable days that her mother and gran remembered, it was not all bad for it also was the day she met Toni for the very first time. And it has been noted earlier she would not appreciate that fact right away.

Regrettably she did not meet him until after his car had felled her in the tiny town of Briarville’s busy street that was located in a nondescript corner of the world, insignificantly tucked away between San Francisco and the I-80 Freeway to Reno. Forever after, everything that came before the accident was crystal clear.
Forever etched on her brain like a drawing on a stained glass window.

But the crystal memories were to come later. Starting at the moment of impact and progressively after that, her memories all became like a mirror dulled by dross. The last thing that she remembered was the looming bulk of the front end of a car; she didn’t even know what kind; but incongruously, she thought that the car must have been powerful for the engine had a mighty roar.

She didn’t remember the impact, the next she knew, perhaps only moments later perhaps it was long moments after; a concerned man, in the street next to her cradling her head while she moaned in agony.

Later when she reflected on that day she knew that it was not the picture that she would have planned for their first meeting. It was not the way to impress a man, with a scrunched up face and blood pouring from a head wound. She would have wanted to, let’s see, perhaps to have come to him floating down a spiral staircase in a designer gown covered with jewels. Yes. That would have been better. Oh and let’s not forget the four inch heels. She needed high heels for height.

As it was, as she faded in and out, she was aware that he had been calling for help in a surprisingly deep voice. She hoped that he had had the foresight to block off traffic. In an almost disembodied way she wondered idly how many people an unsuspecting speeding motorist had killed while the victim was still felled at the scene of the accident. It would be too bad to be run over while… waiting… for… help…

She thought that he must have gotten help because now he was back within hearing range. Perhaps he had never left. Perhaps it was she who had faded out. Yes, that was most likely if the slight dizziness and iron-like taste of blood in her mouth was an indicator. Most certainly it had been she who had momentarily left him.

By now she was shivering, feeling nauseated, and the shard of pain in her head kept her from opening her eyes to look at him. But she held on to his unique and strong voice as if it were her lifeline.

“Help is on the way miss. Try not to be afraid.” She heard him murmur in her ear.

“I can’t see you,” she managed to choke out, all the while swallowing and hoping that she could keep from throwing up on him.

He gave a groan of hopelessness. She distinctly heard him say, “Oh God!”

“Why did you say that?” she clutched at his arms ignoring the familiar shard of pain. “What’s wrong?” Holly tried to sit up alarmed at the tone of his voice. “Am I going to die? “

He did not allow her to rise. “You are going to be fine miss, do you hear me? You are going to be OK.” This he said not at all reassuringly, he sounded as scared as she, but even so, somehow she felt better just hearing him say it.

“How much blood is there?” As she asked, she attempted to place her hand about her head to see if she could feel any wetness. He gently but firmly moved her hand away from her head. She clutched his hand, tough as a truck driver’s in her smaller softer hand.

“Not much, uh…do you know where you are?” he asked. She could not miss the hopeful tone in his voice. He seemed to be willing her into having knowledge, into being better. She smiled, or tried to. She wanted to please him. How foolish is that? She was the one who was hurt.

“I’m on Douglas Boulevard, or perhaps ’in’ Douglas Boulevard would be a better way of putting. Waiting…”

“That’s good.” This was said in a tone that she felt he reserved for infants and old people. Too much praise for such a small feat. “Ok you know where you are…”

Yes, she knew where she was and before he could put her to the next testing question she took the conversation away from him. “The sun is hurting my eyes.” She reluctantly released his hand and attempted to lift her hand to shield her eyes.

He held on to the tips of her fingers. “You can see? You can see? Thank goodness, I thought you had been blinded.” Holly could hear the relief in his voice. Strangely she was doubly delighted that he was pleased.

“I could see if it didn’t hurt me to open them.” This was said peevishly she knew but her contentment quickly faded and she wanted to cry of a sudden.

“Try to relax.” The sun was no longer in her face; he must have shielded her in some way. “I’m not going anywhere.” He continued as she realized that she could smell him. She supposed it was a combination of the heat and not being able to use her eyes. Her sense of smell was heightened. He smelled like… soap and faintly of man’s cologne. She was grateful that he went light on the cologne. She suspected that a strong fragrance at a time like this would put her over the edge and she’d hurl her lunch and who knew what else. But he smelled ok, a least not bad actually, just like a man should smell. Much better than the acrid smell of her own blood she thought as she let her mind roam until his voice brought her back to the moment. “I‘ll be right here with you.” she gathered he said as she faded out yet again. The last thing she heard was the notes of his voice suddenly quite loud and resonant” What’s taking that damn ambulance so long…?”

As she regained consciousness seconds later, almost in slow motion she reviewed the scene immediately before she was run down in the street. She saw herself look both ways, she thought, but she knew that at the moment when she dashed out into the street she had been negligent. She was late for class and she hated being late. It was just not like her to be so careless though. That poor man, she wondered if he was worried that she would sue him. Provided she lived, she thought as pain swiftly continued to move like a slice of glass through her head. She took a swift hard breath and swallowed and as she did she felt his hand squeeze hers reassuringly. She was not alone. As she faded out once more, she was not aware that short-minutes later the ambulance arrived. She never knew that she made the quick trip to the hospital alone.

Urs Toni Buhler patiently gave the officer who responded to the call all of his information, and he stayed around while witness information was gathered from several bystanders. As he waited, random thoughts darted through his head. Thank the heavens that he hadn’t been speeding, hadn’t had a beer earlier or given any other reason to be detained by the police. The rental car wasn’t badly damaged. He hoped that the young girl who had run out in front of him was going to be well again. He could have killed her. He didn’t think it was his fault but no matter that, no one wants of injure another living thing.

As soon as he was free to go, he knew he couldn’t leave without finding out how she was. He had a week before he had to be back with the band and he’d spend a day of it with the girl before going on to the Sierra Mountains at Tahoe to ski. He ignored the heat and the fact that he had made good time on the trip up from Los Angeles. All that progress went out the window. For now he had to figure out how to find the girl and he didn’t even have her name. But, he could remember the name of the ambulance company if he thought about it and pictured it in his mind. He jumped into his car and flipped on the GPS system. It showed the EMT headquarters was as being located less than a mile away.

Soon he as there and by turning on the charm the receptionist at the window let him know that the girl had been taken to the nearest trauma center that was less than five miles away. One Sutter- Briarville Hospital.

THE VIGIL
It took him five long hours to find her. By then, even though he was able to ignore his sore muscles and general tiredness, this was not about him, he was beginning to wilt a little and if he cared about his looks and his general person, which he did, he would have gone for a shower and dinner. It was more important that he find the young woman.

If she had been unrecognizable at the scene because of the blood and debris on her person from the accident, she was even more so now. He stared in horror. Her head was swathed in bandages, her face swollen and bruised; he could only rely on the slender hand now devoid of her ruby ring. Nails neatly clipped, a French manicure, he would know that hand anywhere. He had just spent the better part of an hour holding it at the scene of the accident.

She had been cleaned up. There was no longer the sight of overt blood, but he ached for the pain that her wounds must cause, or rather would cause when she awakened. She was out cold, and he could only stay by her side in short increments. And that by lying and saying that he was a relative.

Evidently she was in some part of an intensive care unit because the nurses here were a curious combination of Mother Theresa and drill sergeant. They were able to both hover over and care for their patients with loving care while at the same time taking the hard line to keep away any influence that might interfere with their patient’s progress.

And so he spent the night, visiting when he could, drinking coffee and waiting for a prognosis. He unashamedly eves dropped on the unwary doctors’ conversations after he found that they tended to retreat to the hallway for their discussions. It seemed they believed that the patient could possibly hear them even though all signs pointed to her being unconscious.

He learned that her intracranial pressure was not elevated, a good sign he surmised, that there were no other injuries except the actual head wound which they thought came when her unprotected head hit the pavement. They said that she probably would not need surgery if she woke tomorrow after the light sedation had worn off. After hearing this, he steeled himself for a long uncomfortable night in the waiting room chair accentuated with his five minutes per hour visit to her.

One thing he tried was talking to her at each visit. If the doctor’s thought she could hear, perhaps she’d know that she had someone with her and that she was not alone.

Holly awoke slowly to the feel of her hand still in his. She was not aware that a whole evening and night had passed. He was still dressed in the same red shirt and distressed jeans that he had worn yesterday so she had no gauge to assess the passing of time. “Where’s the ambulance?” She realized that her voice was a croak but she couldn’t seem to make it any better by clearing her throat.

“Hey you.” he smiled a big grin. He seemed very glad that she was waking up. “You’ve been out of it for a night and most of the day. Today is Friday.”

“You’ve been here all that time then?” He watched as she fumbled around the giant bandage on her head.

“You’ll have a head wound and a big bump for awhile, the doctors say, I haven’t seen what’s going on under there but I heard them say that if you woke up today, and were in your right mind, that you’d most likely be ok. That is if you don’t let that wound become infected.” By the time he finished this sentence, she, too sleepy to stay awake, had already fallen back to sleep, but it was a natural sleep this time, without the stillness of either coma or drugs.

Urs had already decided to cancel his reservations at the Tahoe ski Lodge; knowing that he needed to see to the girl even though the cops had absolved him of responsibility, he felt that he had a moral obligation to stay.

Perhaps her parents needed to be notified. He thought someone would be looking for her when she didn’t show up at home last night. And, she had mentioned going to class, so he was sure that the school would wonder why she was a no show. While she slept, he left the hospital and got a hotel room up the hill, showered and shaved, put on a clean pair of jeans, threw the old ones away as they were too bloody to keep anyway and in a couple of hours he was back by her side.

He spent the whole week with basically the same pattern. He did go to the Galleria shopping center up the street to buy a couple more changes of jeans and some T-shirts; also he bought some flowers at the florists and had them at her bedside when she was released from intensive to the medicine floor.

By now she was feeling better. She was eating but still not getting out of bed, but overall out of the woods. Additionally, he could now literally spend as much time as he wanted sitting at her bedside. During the night whenever she woke, he was there.

Since the level of care was much lower on the floor when compared to the Intensive Care Unit, meaning the nurses each had to take care of more patients, he saw to her needs, giving her back rubs when she ached and getting the bedpan for her when there was no speedy answer to her nurse call light. When she napped, he’d listen to his I-pod, filled with heavy metal music and when she was bored, he’d place his ear pods in her ear so that she too could enjoy the music. In this way they came to know each other on a level that would never have occurred if the accident had not thrown them into such close proximity.

“Where’s your family?” He’d asked her on the next to the last day. “Why are you always alone? Aren’t you too young to be left alone like this?” He had waited to question her until he knew that she’d be awake long enough to give a lucid answer. He was surprised to find that her family lived on the East Coast, that she was a city girl from New York. And now that she was healing nicely, as she put it, she didn’t see any need to call her mom or her dad. “They’d just get upset for nothing.” She said in that very practical way she had of speaking. “I also have a brother in Atlanta but I’ll call them all once I am home and this episode is history.

“Who do you live with? Who’s going to take care of you at home? Are you sure that you’ll be all right by yourself?”

“Oh don’t lose sleep about me. I’ll be fine, and don’t worry that I’ll hire a lawyer and try to sue you. The accident was all my fault.” She twinkled at him but because of the swelling and bandages, it looked a little less like a twinkle and more like a grimace. Her eyes were now black as if she’d been in a prize fight. Her face was still swollen and sore. When she saw that he was seriously concerned about her she stopped joking and said.

“Well, I do have a boyfriend. He’ll be around to lend a hand.”

Aren’t you a little young for boys? At least young to have him stay around and take care of you.” Still she was an American and he knew that the behavior of many of them would be labeled ‘fast’ in Switzerland.

She laughed a laugh that she quickly ended due to the pain. “No, I’m old enough thank you. But I do appreciate your concern for my well being.”

“Why hasn’t the boyfriend called you? He must have know that you were absent from school.”

“He’s been out of town. But he is due home tomorrow.”

“Then I’ll leave you in good hands then. I’m planning on moving on tomorrow too. I have to be in L.A. by tomorrow evening. Is there anything that I can get for you, do for you, call your school for you?”

She shook her head slightly to each of his questions, not wanting to jar her head more than necessary, but then she murmured, “I’ll miss you Tony,” and she realized that it was true. Though she had known him for only a week, during that time they had spent almost constant uninterrupted time together. “If you ever come back this way, look me up OK?”

“I will. I definitely want to know that you are all right. You never did tell me which school you attend. You only told me that you were late for school when I hit you. I think it would be better for me to find you there and maybe meet with your teacher so that they know why this old man is asking for a young girl. Probably not wise for me to visit you at your home either. Folk might not understand.”

“Well, Tony; thanks for the compliment. In the first place, you did not hit me, I ran out in front of you. I should have been paying attention. Secondly, I didn’t say that I was a student, I didn’t say that I attended school, I said that I was late for my class. I am a teacher. I teach at the University over in Davis and I was just rushing to my car. I was going to jump in it and run over there when, instead I ran into you.”

“I don’t believe you.” He said bluntly. Ok I can believe that you just might be out of High School, given your injuries and all its hard to tell, but your voice and your behavior tell me that you are too young to be a teacher; especially not a college teacher. Are you sure that you are in your right mind?”

“Now if I weren’t in my ’right mind’ I wouldn’t be able to tell you would I? No, my mind is as sound as yours. I’m not that young. I finished High School at 15, By 19 I had finished college and had a graduate degree. I’ve been teaching for 8 years now, tenured and all. I am almost 28.

He continued staring at her, apparently startled, she went on…”I majored in music and math. Music won out over physics. Music is less impersonal.”

“You teach music?” He was still skeptical.”

“I teach voice.” she said, more specific. Lyrical classical voice; and I do a bit of arranging too. If you like, when you come back, take a few lessons from me. You have a beautiful speaking voice; I’d be willing to bet that you could be taught to sing too.”

“I am very sorry. I did not mean to talk down to you. I truly thought that you could be even ten years younger than I thought. Eighteen at most.“ He reddened a bit. “I… don’t know what to say.”

“Don’t say anything. I loved listening to your music even though I am an ‘old lady‘. I have been made aware by my colleagues that I look youthful, and in a way, I am still a girl, well sort of. But didn’t you notice that I am responsible for myself? That I signed for my own care? I guess you wouldn’t have noticed that huh? I have lived on my own for five years now since I came out West.
You’re headed for Los Angeles you say? How soon?”

“Now. I guess I’ll be on my way then, this morning I have about a six hour drive before me. And especially now that I know you’re OK. You’re sure about that are you? What about your car, shall I bring it to the parking lot so that it can be picked up? “

She shook her head no saying “One of my friends or my boyfriend will pick it up for me if it wasn’t impounded.”

“Well then, goodbye Holly Blair,” and he came over and kissed her hand since her face was pretty messed up. “I’ll look you up for sure. That’s the University in Davis?”

“Yes. Dr. Holland Sinclair Blair, Professor of Music at the University of California Davis. “I’m in the campus phone book and in the city directory. Look me up“.

She laughed when he shook his head in incredulity that this young woman who had the appearance of a teen could have a doctorate. Unbelievable. Yet her voice was very cultured and there was certainly poise about her, perhaps …

After Tony had left, Holly called her girlfriend Brenda in Dixon only to find out that Brenda was frantically looking for her. “I even called your mother in New York and she is looking for a flight out here tonight. When we get off the phone, call her and let her know that you are all right. We thought you had been snatched off the street or something. The only thing that kept me from getting the posse out after you is that I know you like your privacy that and they said that you’re a grown woman and perhaps were with your boyfriend…” Brenda was so glad to hear from her that her voice started to crack. “Thank God you are safe.”

“Yes, I’ll call my mom in a few minutes. I’m OK, really. I was crossing the street and a car hit me. I was out of my head for a few days, but the guy that was driving stayed with me until this morning. I was never really alone. And now I’m able to make calls I don’t have a clue as to what happened to my cell phone. I need you to call the phone company and get it disconnected or whatever you do when one is lost.”

“Yeah I know. I’ve been leaving messages on your mobile phone but your messages filled up and the battery finally went down a day ago. The police wouldn’t even begin to look for you until at least 72 hours went by. We even called all of the local hospitals in Sacramento. We didn’t think to look for you in a hospital in Briarville.”

“I was on my way back from Tahoe and stopped for lunch. I was running late and ran out into the street to get to my car on the other side, and that’s what happened. I’m lucky that I wasn’t killed. I’ll have to tell Jeff to get my car when he gets into town this evening.” There was silence on the other end but Holly thought it was because Brenda was planning to get it together to drive up to Briarville, a distance of maybe fifty miles from Dixon.

An hour later when Brenda had made it into the little town and was at Holly’s side, one of the first things she asked after seeing that her friend was truly on the mend. “Have you heard from Jeff?”

Jefferson Peterson, Assistant Professor of Philosophy was the man who was the closest thing to a boyfriend. Over the past two years they had dated on and off but in spite of the length of time they had seen each other, the relationship did not seem to be progressing. It could only be described as lukewarm. Financially and intellectually they would have made a good couple. Which is to say, on paper they sounded ideal. The reality left something to be desired.
Holland was not sure just what was missing though.

Bringing herself back to the question at hand, whether or not she had heard from Jeff, Holly answered, “No. not yet.” Holly kept her answer short and used caution because her boyfriend and Brenda her best girlfriend had never been the greatest of buddies, in fact Jeff and Brenda couldn’t stand each other.

“He is driving back into Davis from a three day get away in San Francisco today. He should be home around seven after the traffic clears out; at least that is what he usually does when he goes away on his little retreat to meditate. I left him a message on his answering machine before I called you. He’ll show up tonight I’m sure. What? Why are you giving me that look Bren? Do you know something that I don‘t? ”

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, I’ve always known what he was but I couldn’t say it to you but something has come out and I can’t say that I’m surprised. There was always something about that man… He was arrested yesterday before he could leave San Francisco. That’s how I learned that contrary to what the police thought, you were not away on a little get away with him. His little get away included an under aged high school girl. She took off with him, and apparently has done so in the past. Her parents swore out a warrant for him, she’s a minor. She’s only sixteen Holland. He had been running around with the girl for almost a year.”

The first thing that Holly thought was that she should have felt was hurt. She was surprised when she didn’t. She gave herself an interior check and found that while she was stunned by this news and took it in silently she now understood why they could never heat up. “Do you remember when you asked me if he and I were getting it on? You know, sleeping together? That’s why we weren’t. Remember I told you that he had never asked me and you thought that I was lying. Well, this explains it Brenda. He was using me for propriety’s sake to keep up appearances while he was with his real deal. I’m so glad that I didn’t fall for him. I even thought it was me. That I wasn’t sexy enough or appealing enough for him.”

“Yes, that was strange that he would date you for two years and not even ask? Every man who is a man needs a little love now and then.”

“Oh come on. That’s all you think about. It’s perfectly normal to have a platonic relationship until one gets married.” Holly had to smile; she and Brenda had been over this territory so many times.

“Well you see where it got you don’t you?”

“Wait a minute. It is not my fault about the under aged girl. He did exactly what he wanted to do. And the more that I think about it I believe that his ‘romance’ with me was a cover for it”. She voiced her thoughts aloud. “That is the only foolish thing that I did, let myself be used. Even if I had let him into my bed he would have done the same thing.”

“Maybe yes, maybe no. But good riddance to him. There was always something about him.” Brenda repeated.

“And you let it be known.” Holly smiled even thought she was growing weary and beginning to have a headache.

“I’m moving in with you until you can take care of yourself.” Brenda looked at her friend sympathetically. “You look like a plucked chicken with a hat on.”


:affraid:

CHAPTER 2
RECOVERY

About two weeks after she was discharged from the hospital to home, Tony came by. Her office secretary called her at home to say that a young man was looking for her. Though surprised, when she found out who it was, she realized that she was very pleased to see him. She had not expected him to follow up on his promise. He still looked as she remembered him. Jeans, shirt, shades, big smile. This time he came on a motorbike.


When he first arrived, she had been self-conscious because her hair was still chopped off in sections, growing back as if she had some scalp disease and she couldn’t wear make-up because of the swelling to her face.

She soon realized that he was just as kind and non-judging as she remembered him to be when she was so sick. When he first walked in to her two-bedroom condo she gave him a big smile that might have looked grotesque due to the swelling and a quick hug without even thinking about it; after all he had helped her get onto her bedpan one night, if she remembered correctly. They were not strangers, or perhaps they could better be described as intimate strangers.

“Tony! How are you? You kept your promise to look me up. Are you here for long?”

“Nope, it’s a rolling stone life for me. I will be leaving the states later tonight. I just flew up from LA to tell you goodbye and to make sure that you are going to be all right.”

She wondered at his vagabond lifestyle, he was always in jeans and t-shirt and wore sunglasses constantly. She hoped that he wasn’t into something illegal; like drugs for instance. After her experience with Jeffery, she knew that things could be going on in a person’s life that weren’t quite right and they could still compartmentalize their lives. But… he was nice, as far as she could tell and had never done anything to her to indicate that he was anything but straight forward. Still, sometimes it was better not to delve too deeply by asking too many questions.

He walked around with his loud boots admiring her place as he went. She was proud of it too. It was comfortably decorated, neat, and upscale. Davis was a small city known for its little shops, and because it was a university town, it was known for its high standard of living, yet, it still maintained a genteel countryside that allowed one to have a flower garden in the back yard and Holly used it liberally to fill her home with their scent.

The evening turned out to be quite pleasant. She cooked dinner for him. This too she was proud of. She was a very good cook and liked to get in the kitchen when she had someone to eat her food. He seemed to enjoy it. While eating what she had prepared, he bragged about his mother’s cooking and his girlfriend’s cooking and said that those two women were the best cooks that he knew, and hers was right up there with theirs. “Now I’ve met the three best cooks in the world.” he had bragged.

After dinner they took their hot coffee and dessert out onto the covered patio and they sat in the cool evening breeze with the scent of spring flowers wafting over them. He had asked her about her head wound, “Oh it’s good. I still have residual headaches but they are getting better.”
“You still have quite a lot of swelling, it seems to me,” he had remarked.
“Are you sure that there will be no residual?”
“Such as drooling and the like?” She kidded. “No, the brain is still functioning. At least I still know more than my student.”

Urs had been a bit self conscious when he had found out that she was a professor in voice. He had had a lifetime of that and he knew some who were very good. He had not been in a mood to tell her that he was a singer. It would be lowering to mention his group and have her either fail to recognize them or worse, to disparage them as not true artists. Some of the real classical kind could be snobs. At one time when he had been convinced that he would be an opera singer, he had been one himself.

Holland surprised herself and told him about Jeff’s indiscretions and the trouble that he was in. Tony didn’t defend the man but he did express concerned that perhaps Jeff hadn’t known the girl’s true age. “After all”, he said, “young girls are pretty physically mature by that age, and a man almost has to card a girl before taking her out, even then, the ID could be faked” he had laughed.

Holly was not so eager to give Jeff a pass. Even though she had not been in love with him, he had deceived her in the worst way. “I doubt very seriously that he was deceived. She was still in high school and he knew it, had known it for a whole year. She was in the 10th grade when he started ‘seeing’ her for gosh sakes.” Holly clearly showed that seeing was a euphemism by making quotation signs with her fingers.

“How did that make you feel? I mean that your competition was a school girl?”

And then she told Tony something that no one but Brenda and Jeff knew. “I never slept with him. Everybody around here at the school thinks that I was two-timed, but I wasn’t really. I don’t feel hurt, I don’t feel deceived even, and I don’t even think that I loved him. We were both using each other for companionship; I mean he couldn’t very well take her to faculty dances could he? And he is a philosophy professor so, as you can imagine he liked to talk, hear himself ‘expound’. I can’t imagine a high school girl wanting to listen to that. But he found a willing participant in me. We would talk about the ‘unmoved mover’ and the ‘unchanged changer’ all of the beginning theories about the existence of God and why we are on the earth until the early hours of the morning.”

Tony nodded his understanding and that surprised her. Whoever heard of a truck driver who knew philosophy. But then whoever heard on one traveling out of the country. Still, she was quiet and allowed him to continue the line of conversation about Jeff.

“And yet he never came on to you? I don’t understand how that could have happened.” He sipped his coffee and she watched the steam waft gently into the evening sky. “Men generally don’t have a ‘friendship’ relationship with a woman for two years without at least testing the waters so to speak, at least to see if she is receptive to a little…” He seemed to hunt for a way to put hat he was trying to say in a delicate and acceptable manner.

She supplied the word that he was seeking “hanky panky” she added dryly. “It’s simple really Tony, he was banging her and I had my work to keep me company.” She ended a bit defiantly. She did not feel the need to be the least refined.

His eyes had widened at her use of the term ‘banging’. For a second his face was blank. He didn’t know just what she meant and then it dawned on him and he smiled. “That’s out of character for you Holly.”

“I’m just letting you know the real me. I am irreverent and I’m proud of it.”

I’m beginning to wonder how I ever mistook you for a teenage girl.” He said this as if he was proud that she wasn’t. If you had been, I would never have visited you here like this. A man has to watch out for the really young women. They look like they’re of age; I mean physically mature but their minds are not. And they should be protected from older men because they don’t have a clue about protecting themselves.”

“Do you have first-hand experience Tony?” she ventured.

“No. My girlfriend is five years younger than I and I’m thirty five. But when I was dating, seeing no one in particular, I always dated women that I knew were of age; unlike your Jeff. I like to have conversation with the lady that I am seeing. Without something to talk about the relationship becomes an empty shell.” He turned towards her and smiled. “You were smart not to let yourself be used.”

Too soon it seemed to Holly, he looked at his watch indicating that it was time for him to go. She had really enjoyed his companionship. She felt that he was a friend that she could talk to without flirting and being coy but also without having to rebuff his advances. They hugged lightly and he rode off. That was that. As she cleaned up the kitchen she wondered if she would ever see the young man with the wild hair. Of course he was older than she but so were many of her students and they were by no means grown men.

By this time Brenda had gone back to her home in Dixon and Holly was returning to work the following week - wig firmly on her head. She wasn’t completely well but work obligations called.

As it turned out, it took her nearly five months to fully recover, to get back her old stamina and looks and into her old routine. She realized when her life and looks were back to normal and it felt pretty good. She wasn’t vain but like most young women she had not realized how it felt to be completely ignored by all men. She could nave been invisible and she had not enjoyed it one bit.
Now she had her deep red almost mahogany hair back, her face was back to normal with its clear complexion and to insure that it stayed that way she kept her weekly appointment at the nearby spa where she got the works, hot wax, pedicure, facial. She also went to San Francisco and bought a new designer wardrobe to have a dual celebration of her return to health and her newfound freedom from Jeff.
Most of her colleagues thought that she was on the rebound. But she wasn’t. She knew that she was ready to start a new phase of her life; a life in which she definitely would not waste time with a pseudo intellectual looser like Jeff.

September came and ushered in the perennial batch of new students. As she dressed for class she knew that her students, especially the Master’s candidates most of whom were older than she would still be surprised at the youthful appearance when they found her behind the desk on the first day of class. Maybe one of them would become more than a student. Before that idea could fully enter her head she discarded it. It just would not do. Older or not her student was still her student. Nothing could disrupt a class quicker than favoritism and secretly seeing a student was definitely showing favor.


:flower:

CHAPTER 3
INVITATION TO A CONCERT


October 2006

After the first few weeks of class, with her self-imposed interdiction against noticing her male students, Holly became restless. She never considered that it might, in some small way be related to meeting Tony. She began to think that her life was dull as dishwater. She still enjoyed her work but after five years of the same thing, for the first time, Holly considered moving on. She realized that she had accomplished just about all that she could at the University. Oh, she could still continue to teach and coach her students until she was past her prime, but there was not really any more challenge in her work. Besides, she needed to build a life of her own, that is, if she was to have a life.

There had been a note from nomadic Tony, (he had called himself the speed demon) saying that he was going to be coming her way and would try to stop by to see her again. In the end, he wrote again and said that he had had to cancel his plans to see her, just not enough time. She tried not to be disappointed; after all, the man was taken.

Then just as she got over her disappointment and much to her surprise, a week later in the late evening just before dark she received a fat envelope brought by Fed Ex addressed to her.

She and Brenda had just returned from going out for Chinese take-out when it arrived.

“The return address is some corporation out of London. Wonder what it is?” Holly had said as she turned the envelope over and looked at it from every angle.

“Open it! Open it and see” Brenda urged “probably one of those sweepstakes deals where no one ever wins.”

“It doesn’t have the look of mass production” Holly had muttered as she struggled to break the tape that bound it and finally had to get a knife to cut it. “It’s from Tony. You remember me telling you about the heavy metal guy from the accident.”

“Hey, you said that he was cute; maybe he likes you.”

“Not like that. He couldn’t sing his girlfriends praises enough and he never gave me any eye, you know, like when we were alone, like he wanted to be … she stopped I think he just feels badly that it was him that hit me and wants to make sure that I am ok, that’s all. Hey look at this. There are some tickets here…” She fell silent while she sorted them out. “Flight tickets to New York for next week. Tickets to see ‘Il Divo’ at Carnegie Hall. Oh here’s a note, it says ‘Do something impulsive and come see me on stage, your friend ‘T the Speed Demon.’”

Brenda came over to take a look. “Well, he sure does have a distinctive handwriting doesn’t he? Bold, big and heavy. Are you sure that there’s nothing between you two? Guys don’t usually send girls tickets that cost what these did for nothing. First class flight too.” she flipped through the pile. “Hey, there are two tickets here. Do you think that he intends for you to bring a friend?”

“I think that he wants to impress me with his music since he knows that I work in that field. He doesn’t know that I have no interest whatever and could never be interested in what he likes. He played a bit of it when I was sick. I remember the ear plugs in my ears and even though he turned it down really low, it was still loud and cacophonous to me. Heavy metal is just not my thing.” She raised her nose in unconscious snobbery. “But,” she added with a twinkle “he doesn’t have to know that. He’s been nothing but kind to me when most men who had hit a woman with their car, even though it wasn’t their fault, would want to get as far away as they could. I wouldn’t want to hurt him for the world by refusing because I don’t like his music“.

Holly searched in her desk and took out her pocket calendar. “I can go. Can you get away to go with me Bren? We could take an extra day, visit my mom and dad and be back by Monday. “

Brenda didn’t have to think. “I can go, I’ll make a way if I have to but what’s the deal? Il Divo is not a rock band and it doesn’t have a member named Tony.”

“I don’t know; perhaps two bands are doing a show together. Sometimes they have pre- show attractions. It’s likely that’s what Tony is doing. Or it could be that he is going to meet us there and has the seats next to us. I do know that I heard of IL Divo months ago but I didn’t pay much attention to what they do. I know that they take opera and try to turn it into pop. I can’t imagine that that is a good thing to do. I like opera just as it is, pure and melodious.”

“Maybe it’s not so bad. Simon Cowell is their artistic creator; he created both them and American idol.”

“Enough said” Holly nodded. If the show is like American Idol, we can tolerate it. It will be trivial but fun. Look, he even sent hotel tickets for two nights. He didn’t have to do that; I can afford my own hotel and my own flight for that matter.”

“All right Miss Independent. Let the man give you a night out. And me too it seems.” Brenda was busy going on line on Holly’s laptop finding the site that might give a schedule for IL Divo. “Ah, here they are…there’s no mention of any other band, but from their pictures, I’d say they don’t need any other help at all, in any way. The men of IL Divo are major fine Holly, come take a look at them.”

“Let’s see.” Holly leaned over Brenda’s shoulder, careful not to drop Chinese food onto the computer or onto Brenda. After she got a better look she pointed to the one with the longish hair and said. “I think that’s Tony.”

“Your Tony is a Divo? No. You mean you met one of those guys, let him into your house and don’t even know it?” Brenda exclaimed.

“Apparently I did just that. But he didn’t look like this when I met him. His hair was loose, wild, coming forward into his face, almost covering his eyes. He had on jeans for god’s sake and a beat up old jacket. I could be wrong. In this professionally posed picture, this guy looks a little bit like Tony, same cheekbones and lips, but…his name isn’t even Tony, its Urs. If it is the Tony that I met, I wonder why he lied about his name?”

“Maybe if he had used his real name, you would have recognized him and he didn’t want to be recognized. Maybe he thought if you knew he had money, you’d sue.”

“I don’t think I would have recognized him but then he couldn’t have known that. But perhaps you are right. If he thought that I knew he had money, conceivably that would have influenced me to try to get some of it away from him. By the time I told him I had no intention of suing him, it was too late. He had already given me his false name.” Holly speculated.

“Wait, here’s more. It says here that this one’s name is Urs Toni, with an ‘i’ Buhler with two little dots over the U. Does that change the way it is pronounced I wonder?” Brenda squinted into the screen for a better view. He is from Switzerland Holly, and his nickname is The Swiss Bliss. Hmmmm, bet he doesn’t get called that for nothing.” Brenda added suggestively.

“He’s not like that. He’s a nice guy, if this guy is him. I’m still not convinced. He looks similar but different. His hair combed back gives this guy a completely different look. The clothes too. I don’t know. But why would he send me tickets if it’s not him? And the middle name of Toni. If I had known, I would have paid more attention to his eyebrows, and to his lips. It’s hard to identify someone when you don’t know that you will need to do so.

“If it is he, you hit the jackpot kid. If you don’t want him, I do.

“I keep telling you, we don’t have that kind of relationship. He is a friend; as in just a friend, as in on friendly terms, with nothing at all romantic about it.”

“Well, he’s single. It says here that the only one of them who is married is the Spaniard.”

“He might not be married yet, but he lives with his girlfriend He told me that early on, and talks about her like she is his wife he compliments her and acts like he is really in love with her. But none of that matters to me. We can go and hear them sing. Even if he is Tony, excuse me Toni with an “i”, I can’t get too excited about a group of men who try to make opera sound like pop. But, if we get a chance to talk to him after the show, then I’ll know for sure, and please don’t flirt with him Bren. I don’t want him to think that I am trying to turn this into something that it isn’t. Promise me, I would die of humiliation if you caused him to think that we are a couple of groupies.”

The flight to New York was good. Holly wished that she had bought some of the music that they would hear at the concert later tonight so that she’d know what to expect. Both women decided to dress up since the men in the picture were dressed nicely.

Holly wore her new shoes, four-inch Prada booties they were called, Brenda called them “come fuck me shoes” With those shoes that had cost her a week’s salary, she wore a short black skirt, crisp white on white shirt that also cost a fortune with the lightweight jacket. The skirt and jacket gave the suit effect without being formal and then the blouse negated all of that primness by plunging to show an almost alarming amount of cleavage. She wore her finest black sheer nylons and thought she looked chic. Her dark red hair she queued back in a sophisticated version of a ponytail that with bangs showed her green eyes to perfection.

When Holly came out of the dressing room of their hotel suite, Brenda did a double take. “For someone who is not interested, you are going to a lot of trouble to dress to impress.”

“Now that I am back in New York, I feel like I am home again. I want to drop my dull ‘school teacher look from the suburbs’ look and become a New Yorker again. Which earrings should I wear with this outfit? And she held up two different pair of dangling ones, both equally lovely. After Brenda pointed to her choice, Holly busied herself putting them on. “Toni called me to see if I made it, he’s sending a limo to pick us up in about half hour.

By the time the two ladies arrived at Carnegie Hall, both women were firmly into their facades of worldly and slightly bored city bred females. It was acceptable to look around in wonder when one is in Davis, California, but the Hall, in New York is not a time to act like candidates for the turnip truck. The limousine let them out onto the sidewalk directly in front, they had only to walk through the narrow door and turn over their tickets. An usher accompanied them all the way down front and center, and waiting there was Champaign, enough for the front row.

Others were there. A group of women who looked very comfortable who seemed to know each other for they carried an assortment of signs, flowers, teddy bears, and of all things, something that looked like lingerie. As Holly and Brenda sat silent, listening to their chatter, they gathered that these women followed the group from place to place and they each had their own personal favorite. They mentioned meeting up in Los Angeles a few days ago, and other occasions when they had met up together. Surprisingly not all of these women were the average stereotypical groupie type. They were all ages from grandmothers to girls, all races too. Apparently Il Divo possessed eclectic appeal.

Holly was silent when from the pit, the orchestra started to play an introductory piece in which sounded very nice, full bodied and rich. She was sure that the Champaign added to the rosy-cozy ambience.

A few minutes later, the orchestra glided into what must have been the signature piece for the band because the audience began to clap. Caught up in the moment, Holly and Brenda both clapped too. Holly heard the first male voice before she saw him. He started in shadows and gradually brought himself forward into the artificially created dappled hazy light. Gradually each voice continued to add to the other until all four of them were out on the stage in semi silhouette. The clapping and cheering reached a fortissimo. But, the stage was tiered. The two women had to wait while the song progressed and the four singers slowly worked their way down the stairs first to the second level and finally to the first and lowest level of the stage.

And voila, finally there they were. All four looked liked models, dressed in what had to be custom made suits judging from the way they fit their various body types. Also, all of the suits were very much alike but with individual differences as if each performer had had a say in what his own individual preference was. Yet some things were the same. Each sported a red rose in his lapel pocket and even though the ties were similar they were different. Their shoes too were custom. They were long, sleek and impressive as only custom shoes from Italy can be. Holly was stunned. Not by their looks, for many men are handsome, but by their voices. They could really sing. In solo and chorus they were magnificent. Her training as a professor of lyric voice was not fooled. These had had years of voice training that proved itself in the ability to control their breathing and in the crescendo-like closing as they ended their first song.

As they arrived at the lowest tier, level with the stage, all four walked forward to the edge and sang the most beautiful love songs. Holly was lost in the music. Before it ended both she and Brenda and a good number of the others had tears running down their faces.

Yes, Urs was Toni. She could see that clearly now. The face might look a bit different without the unruly hair but she’d know that body anywhere. Yes it was he, although it was a different Toni from the one that she had met. His body language was the same, but his hand movements, his graceful walk and his stage persona was personal and friendly, even flirty. This was a side of him that she had not seen before. He had been friendly with her but never did he flirt.

The show was about half way over, just after the intermission, when Holly realized that Toni didn’t have a clue who she was. As he sang, his eyes wandered, restlessly she thought over the first two rows. She thought that perhaps he searched for her so she raised her hand and since the first row put her right up very close to the stage, the raising of her hand caught his eye and they made eye contact. She received his professional smile and a winky blink, beautiful, but now that she was the recipient of it, she saw it was impersonal, all in a day’s work for him. Of course the others didn’t know that because they had not been on the receiving end of one of his real smiles as she had been.

Later as time to close drew near, the singers sat on the edge of the stage, each far apart from each other to allow the audience to come up closer and greet each of them personally. As soon they sat, Holly watched as the women, girls and a few men charged forward. Holly and Brenda exchanged glances as the band and their audience engaged in what she could only term a love fest. They took pictures from an arm’s length distance, some leaning on a Divo, some with hands in the air in triumph. Even so, the men each sang his part and they got right back to the business of signing autographs, taking pictures and receiving gifts. Some of the bolder women pulled their chosen idol forward for a kiss. The kisses were always delivered on the women’s cheeks no matter how they pursed their lips and posed to receive a lip kiss. Bras, panties and other unmentionables joined the piles of gifts as the men continued the song, each taking a part. Holly could tell the song was reaching the point where they would all join together as a quartet and sing the finale so she said quickly to Brenda, “I might as well go up.” And with that she hurried towards the stage.

Holly had an advantage since she was in the very first row. She had only to stand and there he was. Of course she had to usurp the position of the women who had already lined up all the way back on both sides of the isles. So late in the song they had almost no chance of reaching the front and it was a friendly group so… She realized that putting her hands on him in any way would be misconstrued as being too forward and would not work because he was very sparing of his body and allowed only remote contact that he controlled. One had to be watching very closely to see that this was going on however. So, she stood, directly in front of him aware all the while those others behind her were impatient for her to move on. She stood until he finished the portion that he was singing and in the space between the song and the silence she held out her hand to him. He looked at her hand, hesitated momentarily and then took her hand in his and mouthed “Holly?” At her nod and smile he laughed and said, “Wow. Thank you for coming. I wouldn’t have known you but your hand I know. I spent the better part of a week holding it you know.”

Urs had noticed the lovely young woman sitting there, so modest and contained but yet so animated. Of course he had noticed her but she bore no resemblance to how he imagined Holly Blair would look. He had only seen her bleeding, swollen or bandaged. He had imagined her as pretty. He had not thought that she would be gorgeous. But she was. Her hair, formerly chopped off from the care that the head wound required had grown out to a glorious length of darkness that he could see, now that she was in the light wasn’t brown at all. It was a shining dark auburn mane. Only her hands were the same. He had held those manicured fingers in his for hours during the time of the accident as they waited for the ambulance and later in the hospital. He had cleaned those fingers of blood that had escaped the notice of the hospital staff.

Before the show ended, he sent someone to get her and usher her backstage. Brenda, of course, came along, still excited because the Frenchman had sang a portion of the song holding her hand and looking directly into her eyes. “That guy has the prettiest bedroom eyes that I’ve seen in a long time” Brenda extolled. Holly had answered, “I wouldn’t characterize Toni’s eyes at bedroom at all they’re…

“No one is talking about your Toni, the other one, the one who always starts the songs off. That’s who I’m talking about.“ Brenda clarified.

Backstage was Chaotic. Lights were coming down, instruments were being cased and there was lots of noise. The women followed closely deeper into the area backstage until it became quiet. Shortly after they arrived at the dressing rooms, there was one labeled for each man. Each room side by side. The guide led them to Toni’s door, labeled “Urs”, removed the nameplate gave only one knock and Toni opened it and welcomed them in.

“Usually no one comes back here unless they’re asked, but now and again one of the others,” and he gestured towards the dressing rooms to his right, “will have an inquisitive guest who feels free to visit me also.” He closed the door and continued with his slightly accented voice, the accent now easier to detect because of the many languages that they had been singing.

“Holly, you are so beautiful. Why didn’t you tell me you were stunning?” He gave a generous and sincere smile. “Did you feel my eyes on you? I confess that I had no idea who you were but I enjoyed seeing a lady who would stand out in any crowd.” With that he reached for her arm and slowly turned her around. “And you have the whole package too. Little did I know last year that I was holding the hand of a goddess.”

“That’s enough of your flattery Toni. Anything would be an improvement over the way I looked then. You didn’t know that I came this close to throwing up on you did you?” She held her thumb and forefinger close together to indicate just how close it had been. “I want you to meet the lady that took care of me after someone that I will not name left me high and dry for his teeny bopper. Toni, meet my best friend Brenda Lambert.”

They continued exchanging pleasantries.

All too soon Toni told them that the band would be flying back to London later that night. “But if you two will come back to the hotel, we will have a couple of hours to catch up.” He sounded as if they were old friends, and she supposed in light of the fast paced life that he must lead someone that he knew as a constant for almost a year was an old friend especially since he was away from his ’real’ friends and family in Switzerland.

Due to logistics, the four men left by the back way together and took the two ladies with them. Mostly silent after the exertions of the show, they took the short ride back to the hotel together. It was obvious that the other three were very curious about Holly and Brenda. Brenda noted silently to herself that even though the Frenchman sang most touchingly to her and looked into her eyes, he did not remember doing so. He did not remember her, and Toni only introduced them by name and not their relationship to him. After two of the guys, the Frenchman and the Spaniard announced that they would stop by a local club, the two remaining band members continued on to their hotel with the two girls. Surprised, Holly realized that they were all staying in the same hotel. When the last band member said goodnight to the group, it was obvious that he was the American, but he quickly agreed to Toni’s suggestion and invitation that he hang out with them as they waited for time for their flight to the United Kingdom.

The four of them, Holly learned that the American was David, spent the next two hours and it turned out really great. They had a good time. At first, David, the American seemed unsure whether this was a romantic visit or not. He seemed unsure if Toni wanted his presence to help serve to deflect any chance at intimacy, but his wariness was soon taken care of when he learned that this young lady was the same girl from the accident. David remarked, “Urs told us all about how he almost killed an American girl. He thought you were in High School and had to go through all the trauma alone. Said he spent a week with you in the hospital. He didn’t say that you were… let’s say that he didn’t do you justice.” That was all that he said.

David was even more delighted to find that she was a music major as was he and that they both had even attended Oberlin. David’s studies there preceded Holly’s by several years due to their age differences but they had fun comparing notes and deciding that things hadn’t changed much over the intervening years. In turn, Holly was gratified to learn that David had achieved his Master’s degree in music. She was on very familiar territory as she had one class composed all of candidates seeking their master’s degree. She entertained them with tales of her students’ accomplishments and challenges, things that they understood well. They realized that they were leaving Brenda out of the conversation except as a spectator and soon changed the conversation to something that would allow her to join in.

They sat around the huge fireplace that almost made one forget that this was indeed a hotel. There was a spread of food that Toni nonchalantly dismissed as ’hotel food’ by saying that he’d rather have a home-cooked meal. They were then treated to a narrative about his mother’s Swiss cooking, and then his girlfriend’s French cooking and then he ended with how Holly’s American cooking rivaled those two paragons and she was much younger, although he laughed and said that he’d better not tell his girlfriend that.

“Did you tell your girlfriend about me? The accident, I mean.”

“Yes, I told her. It had to be over the phone of course, I haven’t seen her for several months, as you can imagine, I miss her very much. But we decided that we both would make the sacrifice to get IL Divo off the ground.”

Naturally Holly wanted to ask him more about his girlfriend, if no more than her name, but she restrained herself. Had he wanted her to know, he would have told her, besides she did not want to give the impression that she was hoping for any more than friendship from him.

She was interrupted in her musings by David asking “And what good old American food did you cook Holly?”

“Actually, it was from a lot of different countries, which is what America is about. The wine sauce made it Italian I think.” She laughed. “I used braised fish with pieces of bacon sprinkled on them and bok choy laid out over this delicious recipe for red wind and sauce made of….”

“Stop it this minute” Toni interjected. You are making me so homesick. My girlfriend is a sauce person tool. She says that is what makes the meal.”

“Well we can certainly change that subject can’t we, Urs homesick is a sight to see and get along with” David said to no one in particular.

“How did you like our concert?” This he directed to Brenda.

“It was wonderful. I just let myself get lost in the music, and don’t you agree Holly?”

“Yes, I do agree. I was very surprised. Knowing nothing of your band, I am afraid that I had some preconceived notions, fueled I’m sure because on my deathbed you played rock music to me Toni.” She cut her eyes at him and smiled. But I must give kudos to Mr. Cowell, his idea was a gift to the world, and you men have taken that idea and elevated the very nature of pop music.”

“Urs is that the woman speaking or is it the professor?” David asked

Holly didn’t wait for Toni to answer. “That was the woman. I don’t give my professional opinion unless I’m asked.

Both Toni and David straightened and spoke at once, both asking in essence the same thing, “What is your professional opinion?”

Holly also sat up and glanced thoughtfully from one to the other. “I think the fact that you are all grown men works both in your favor and against you. As you’ve probably noticed, men’s voices mature a little later than women’s, and the fact that you are all, or at least appear to be in your thirties gives you excellent tone and resonance, wonderful vibrato. All of you, even the one with the untrained voice of your group, have the voices of men, not boys.” Holly then heard Brenda interject in sotto voice that they should not have heard but evidently did because both pairs of eyes shifted to her briefly, “They have the bodies and everything else of men too.“

Holly waved Brenda silent even though she had to mask a smile at Brenda’s cheekiness. She continued still trying not to smile. “It works against you because you all have had careers as solo singers. That is what gives you such superb confidence up there. But at the same time, some of your harmony could be improved upon just a fraction. When you have four voices and all are singing in harmony with no lead, that leaves one voice to mirror the other but at an octave lower.” The men glanced at each other evidently they had already experienced this and had formed just the solution that she put forth. David sat up straighter, leaned forward and asked her she knew of additional options that they could use.

“I can think of one alternative that I have used. Allow the odd man out to start at the bottom of the scale and run it to the zenith. All the while repeating what the others are saying. There is one song in particular that you sang Tonight that would benefit greatly by that effect. It was one of the Italian songs but the name of it does not come to mind right now…

“Toni went to his other room and came back with a CD “I think I know which one you mean. Is it “Dentro Un Altro Si?” and he placed it in the CD player and she recognized the tune immediately. Both Toni and David sang along and she joined in to demonstrate exactly what she meant. Even Brenda, who had no voice to speak of joined in as everyone tried to keep from laughing and breaking up.

After that, nothing else was said about singing but there was new respect from both men. It is one thing to have the title of teacher, and quite another to command admiration based on a common ground of knowledge.

Before long, it was time for the ladies to go back to their rooms so that both men could get on with getting ready to go. Toni had already slipped into another room and when he returned he was a strange combination of Urs/Toni. He was dressed just as she remembered him from their exclusive hospital week but his hair, still straight, had no hint of the riotous curls that he had sported then. Out of the blue she remembered his hands, strong, rough, just like a man’s should be, but now, still rough but beautifully manicured, the nails looked pink and healthy. His color or lack of it was something else that she remembered. He was becoming familiar to her again and she felt as if she had found a lost friend.

She was lost in her thoughts of Urs/Toni but something caused her to look across the room at Brenda and she found Brenda watching her. She knew that look. Brenda was sending her the look that said ‘take care’, this is just a passing thing Holly, don’t let this guy take your heart back to Great Britain with him.’ Holly sighed. She knew that Brenda was absolutely right. She set her mind on what fun they’d have in New York. How pleased she’d be to spend some time with her parents. Anything was better than fixating on the handsome guy who was even now preparing to escort them to their rooms and then a final ‘goodbye, it’s been good to know you’.

David returned to his room to as he said “shower and get out of my uniform” as he pointed to his Armani suit. Toni seemed ready for the flight to Europe but he expressed concern as to whether Holly and Brenda would be able to get back to the Airport easily from the hotel the next day. He, who was a native of Switzerland, busied himself explaining to them how to get the cab, where to get the cab and to allow lots of time to spare when arriving at the airport when Holly reminded him that New York was her home. “Remember that my parents are only a few miles away.” When she reminded him of that he regretted that he had not sent tickets to them also. But that he’d forgotten that she was from this side of the country. After David left and as Toni was walking them to their rooms on a lower floor, she asked him why he had introduced himself as Toni and not Urs. She had been thinking about this knowing that Brenda had suggested that he had been trying to cover his behind from a lawsuit.

He had explained. “I always introduce myself by my middle name to Americans. When I first came to America, I did not remember that most American’s only speak one language and really there is no need for you to, but in Europe, we are all so close together it is not unknown for us Europeans to speak four, five and sometimes six languages. Even if we don’t speak languages, we have heard names from other languages spoken as they should be spoken and pronounced in that language. In America, no one has much heard of the name Urs which you’ll admit is not a name used in America very much. It came back to me sounding like it rhymed with horse or even sometimes even ers. Americans don’t seem to have a sound that duplicates Uwrst and then added to that there is the little matter of the rolled ’r’ that you don’t have. Over time, it became simpler when I am in America just to say my middle name, Toni. But there’s hope, David, after two years can now say my name perfectly. When he really tries.” he added with a laugh.

At their door, he gave both Brenda and Holly a goodbye handshake and then ending with his appreciation that they flew to see the show, he was off to prepare to return to the UK.

CHAPTER 4
ON TOUR



Holly never knew just when she began to feel a good deal of discontent. It grew into more than the vague inchoate feelings that she had previously felt when she thought that her life just wasn’t going the way she wanted. It was not as soon as the next day, for while Tony winged his way home, she visited her mother and father.

Needless to say they were so glad to see their daughter. Holly was genuinely glad to see them too and she told them all about their trip this far, told them all about how things were going at work and on the West Coast and most importantly, that she was well and staying out of trouble. They seemed to have a hard time realizing that she had become an adult and was thriving on her own. Still, they worried about her. They lived with the dread that something would happen to her similar to the young student from Modesto who had had an affair with a Senator and then disappeared.

Her mother reminded her whenever they talked to be careful, to look around her condo door and make sure that no deranged person was hiding out and “cut down all of the bushes around your door Holly and get one of those motion lights.”

The parents had not met Brenda before but they seemed to like her. Brenda was on her best behavior, nary a curse word around her mother, nor did she talk about ‘getting it on with a man’. That was in itself remarkable because getting laid was one of Brenda’s favorite conversations.

The three women did some shopping and too soon, it seemed, it was time for the young women to return to the West Coast. Back to Davis, California. Back to work. Back to boredom.

Perhaps it hit her on the flight home. Brenda waxed on and on about the great time they had had. She then fell asleep leaving Holly with only her own thoughts and vague feelings of loneliness. Could it be that she missed Toni? It was during these hours of the flight that Holly wondered, idly it seemed, what Toni was doing. She knew that she had no right to these thoughts; he could never be more to her than a friend. She was smart enough to realize that any man, if he intended to have a lasting romantic relationship had to either put women into two categories, those who were friends and those with whom he would like to have a more intimate relationship with. The thinking man who wanted to keep a lasting relationship quickly discarded all thoughts in connection to women to whom he was attracted to in a sexual way. The others, the ’friends’ had to stay firmly in that category and if by some chance they were not content to be a friend, that thinking man would also drop all association with her. She thought that it had to be that way or either the man would become so undisciplined in his love life until he couldn’t keep a woman. And women either wives or girlfriends always found out if they were going around with a man who was attracted to every woman he saw… and acted on that attraction.

She could never let him know that he appealed to her in a very non-friendship like way, not if she wanted to remain his friend. Then, she realized that it didn’t matter because she had no way of getting in contact with him anyway. Smart guy that he was, he hadn’t left her a clue as to how to get in touch with him. So… perhaps it had been taken out of her hands. With him in the UK and she in California it seemed unlikely that she would ever hear from him again.
***
In London, Urs Toni’s life had definitely seen better days. After landing at Heathrow, he went straight away to his flat; put a call in to his girlfriend to let her that he was only hundreds of miles away from her instead of thousands. He found her answering machine on, and so, although disappointed, he left a message asking her to call him on his cell. He then took a shower and crashed. He had never been able to get a comfortable sleep on a plane. Even first class was too cramped.

He awoke the next morning having slept through the night, hungry as a bear and horny too though he’d never dwell on that. A long distance relationship was hard on both parties he thought as he checked his messages and found that she had not called him.

He was determined to stay faithful to Chloe. They had pledged that they would both be true to one another so when on the road he avoided situations that could land him in trouble. He also worked out daily when he could and cold showers were his best friend.

He tried her again since he still had received no return call from her.

He planned to invite her to London to spend his three days off with him; instead if she could not come to him, he decided to fly to France to be with her. It was like this, while across the Atlantic he could pacify his body because his mind, generally in control could impose logic. But… now that she was a hundred miles away and not a thousand, his body was fast becoming a run-away horse with his mind holding on for dear life.

After a quick breakfast, he followed his mind and his body and headed out to find Chloe.

After hanging around at their place for hours like he was lost, he finally decided that she was not coming home. He regretted the hours spent there because he had known in the first few minutes of his arrival that she was not coming back soon. The place was completely cold. The plants were withered, the furniture was dusty.

He had waited because he was not one to make his business public easily. Now becoming alarmed, he called his sister Irma in Switzerland. He knew that Chloe and Irma kept in close contact in spite of their physical distance from each other.

He knew from the sound of his sister’s voice once she recognized his that something was wrong. You don’t grow up in the house with someone; hear all of the excuses that he and all of his siblings had learned in their teen years without knowing when one of them is lying. Or maybe avoiding the truth would be a better characterization.

Ultimately Irma couldn’t continue to lie and say that she had no idea. She told him the truth after hemming and hawing for a while, hoping he guessed that she wouldn’t have to tell him. Her love for him won out. “Urs, I think that Chloe has found someone else.”

This statement was met with silence on his end. He couldn’t say why he was shocked. He couldn’t ever remember one of his girlfriends leaving him. Usually the end was a mutual thing, done only after much talk and consideration given to the why’s and wherefore’s that they could no longer stay together as a couple. Then he felt rage. That was unusual for him too. Most of the time he was a level headed guy. Was…had he been that much in love with her?

“What do you mean ’found someone else? You mean that she has another man?” but he really didn’t have to wait for her to repeat it, he understood what she had said the first time. “Why didn’t she call me? Why didn’t you call me?”

“Don’t blame me Urs! If I had called you, you would have told me to stay out of your business, you know you would have.” She blasted him; that was their history with each other. They loved each other but being the two siblings who were closest, there was always a fight brewing just below the surface. Then Irma continued, mollified when he didn’t round on her. “She told me Urs, that you hadn’t called her in eight days, and that was two days ago.” What Irma didn’t say but the tone of her voice implied was, ’what do you expect from her?’

He was counting back the days in his head, wondering if it had really been that long. “And so what? She and I have been together for a long time, what does she think, that if she doesn’t hear from me every day that I no longer love her? But you don’t know the answer to that Irma, do you?”

“All I know brother dear is that if my Andreas could go almost two weeks without a word I would think that he had forgotten me.”

“Andreas works right down the street, for Pete’s sake. You see him every day. What happened? What makes you think that she found someone else? Did you see her with him, or did she just tell you? She might be just trying to call my bluff, make me stay at home you know. She is always after me to quit.” Chloe was having a really hard time adjusting to his schedule and was forever threatening to find someone new. Until today he had taken that with a grain of salt. She liked him to be famous and to make good money but she also wanted him home with her.

“Well, she met a guy on the bus and…”

“Bus?” he cut her off. “Why would she take public transportation when she has a perfectly serviceable and new, I might add, car to drive.”

Since that was obviously a rhetorical question, one that Irma hadn’t a clue to the real answer she gave her own thoughts to why Chloe would do such a thing. Irma’s voice cut into his thoughts. “She and I talk all the time. She says that she gets lonely, with you gone so much Urs she get into the habit of riding the bus around for a couple of hours a day. Well, one day, this military guy got on; you know how they have them ride public transportation for their call up? Well, she continued, “he got on with his uniform and his gun, he looked good to her, they struck up a conversation and they hit it off. The rest is history. After a couple of weeks of this, they decided, I guess to call themselves a couple. ”

“Where are they now?” He asked with deadly calm, his voice gone flat.

“Don’t go running off to find her Urs. What would that do for your career? What if you get into a big fight with a military guy and she still stays with him? What if he shoots you? What do you do then? With your name all over the news, all over the world brawling like a boxer or something, they’d probably fire you and find another Divo to replace you. That is if you survived.“

“Oh cut out the drama. I wasn’t thinking of fighting him. I was thinking of whipping her ass.”

“Oh.” was all Irma said, but she relaxed. She knew that while her brother would fight another man, he would never hit a woman. Well he’d never hit a woman since the time when she was ten and he was eight and for the first time he was able to get the best of her. Prior to that she was used to bossing him around and beating him down if he protested. After that she episode when he reacted unfavorably, she left him alone, at least physically. That was one rule that their parents had always enforced. The boys were not allowed to hit the girls. She knew that she and her other sisters had taken advantage of their two brothers.

After his conversation with Irma, Urs saw no reason to linger in their old home. As he traveled back to London he wondered why he wasn’t more broken up than he was. Perhaps he had seen it coming and just would not admit it. If the band kept doing well, and there was every sign that it would, he would be traveling almost constantly for maybe the next ten years. After that he thought that perhaps he would tire of public life and would want to retire to some quiet place in the Alps and maybe raise goats or something. Maybe even become a ski instructor, or maybe do nothing but enjoy life since he was missing a hell of a chunk of it now.

He had pondered before that there seemed to be no way out for him and Chloe. If he stayed away she was lonesome. When he was home she became increasingly anxious as the time for him to leave drew near.

For a man, there is nothing pleasing about a woman who mopes around all day when she could be making love. Instead she wanted constant reassurance that he had not fallen in love with some girl while he was on the road. What did she think, why would he be here with her if he didn’t want to be there?

He had gotten the idea that perhaps she should travel around with him for a bit and see just how busy they were and how serious he was about his art. When he made that suggestion; that she go with them she had looked at him as if he had grown two heads. There had been no way to win with her. “No thank you, I will not become a groupie, following you around.” She had offered up with distain.

Then they performed in France. He drove them both to Paris for the show. Once she actually saw him perform, she was then able to put faces on the girls, some of which followed the band from place to place. The sight of his fans gave her something else to focus on. She now had particulars. She then wanted to know how he had liked the blond in the red blouse or the brunette with the big eyes.

God help him, he didn’t know how he liked them. They sort of ran together after the first show or two. Of course, there were his loyal fans that followed the band sometimes for weeks at a time but eventually they too had to drop off when the band’s performances took them to Australia and China. The band took them all over the world in fact. Those fans were mostly ladies who just loved good music. Many were married with children and grandchildren. They had been no serious threat to Chloe. But she didn’t even give those ladies a pass.

He had finally come to think that she enjoyed finding something to be unhappy about. Here they were a couple who had more than they had ever had in their lives, the freedom to enjoy it since she’d never have to work again unless she wanted to, and she could not be happy and enjoy it. No she wanted to be in charge of him, and she might not have realized it but he would never allow that.

He had decided to leave their apartment, their home, as it was for the time being. He knew that even if she came back to it without a damn good explanation that did not include sleeping with soldier boy, he would never take her back. He’d had many opportunities to sleep around, too many to count. But, because he knew that route could only bring unhappiness for her, he hung out with David most of the time. But tonight would be different.

When he landed back in London, he took a cab to a hellhole that he had visited before with Seb and Carlos called the ’House of blues’ Two drinks he signaled to a woman across the room and moments later he and a willing lady were dancing to a slow tune called ’I haven’t had any you know what since I don’t know when”, and he thought ‘exactly my situation‘. Of course that night he remedied that.

The next day he came to the conclusion that some remedies were worse than the disease. The girl had been pleasing enough and he was left physically satisfied, but disconnected.

He was a little bleak when he considered the situation the next day. Finding a girl for him would be like finding the Holy Grail he thought. He shouldn’t complain but having a certain amount of notoriety was not a good thing. He could not be happy with a woman who was a groupie. A groupie signified a mentality that ultimately, he thought, indicated low self esteem. Making a singer an idol and screaming every time he came into view was too juvenile.

At his age he was past wanting a woman who was basically not a grownup and let’s face it, that is who he saw almost on a daily basis now. Groupies were grown women who acted like teenage girls, spoke like teenage girls and he could only guess, thought like teenagers. He thought of the women who flocked forth to the stage almost lying on him and then on Seb and then on Carlos and David. Taking pictures, smiling at all of them as if they were interchangeable with each other. The fellows were like his brothers now, but that did not mean that he would share his woman with any man, not even a blood brother.

A picture flitted into his mind of one woman. Holly Blair, coming straight to him and she didn’t even seem to notice that the others were there. Afterwards, she was friendly, but not flirty. She had never been so, not even with him. Not even when she found out who he was. Not even when he told her goodnight. She didn’t posture or become coy or try to entice him to come in. Not at all.

Her friend Brenda was a flirt and probably more, he smiled at the thought. This he knew from experience, but he also knew from experience that Holly the professor was not like that. How would he go from good friends and what almost amounted to a big brother position in her life to getting in her pants? That was the question. He knew that if he gave it some thought, he would figure out a way. After all, there was no reason that they could not be more than friends. She was single and so was he and she did not work for the organization. Fellow employees were always off limits.

On Tuesday morning when they met for rehearsal Urs found that David had told the other two about the professor that had once attended his graduate school and her suggestions for improving one of their songs. Since they spent uncounted hours working on just one song and one successful revision could bring millions, the musical director and producers were all fired up to create a job for her.

When Urs heard this, that they wanted to bring her into the organization, his heart sank. He could always cause them to change their minds about hiring her but would that be fair to her? It seemed he would have to make a decision. Leave her strictly alone and allow her to try out for the job, then, if for some reason she didn’t make it, he could always go to plan “B”. She’d make an interesting girlfriend.

Fortunately, David had not told them just how he met her. He’d merely said that one of his old college professors had some good ideas that could improve their work. Immediately they had had the orchestra make the changes necessary in their music and were waiting for Urs to make his appearance so that they could try it out. Since in this case, he was the fourth man, he was the fellow that made the run up the scale. It was perfect.

Urs was not pleased but only halfway disgruntled. The entire band liked to keep their professional lives separated from their personal lives. They had an unwritten rule that if a woman worked with them, for them, or even around them, she was off limits. He hadn’t realized how much he had liked her until it seemed that she had slipped away from him. In general he agreed with the non fraternization rule. There were good reasons for this he knew and he could not think of one good reason to call off the plans for a new position or for Holly as the prime candidate. He wasn’t that self-centered. The change would be good for the band they would get new arrangements, better harmony. The trade off was that he would have to put any plans for a romantic liaison with Holly out of his mind. Well back to being the big brother.

A few days later when he wrote to her, he congratulated himself. He had done just that. He was able to write as a friend, and not as a wolf masquerading as a sheep.


Dear Holly,
I hope that you will be pleased to hear that David has presented the ideas that you gave to us off the cuff, as true possibilities. I trust that you do not mind, for I want to inform you of what is anticipated to be good news. The band liked your idea and right away put it into practice. That led to a discussion of our needs, and we (the corporation) want to hire you in as a full-time professional consultant to the team. As this is a new endeavor, the job description is being written now.

You will soon receive a formal offer. I encourage you to consider the offer carefully, especially the salary. And ask for more than offered. That will be a sign of esteem for yourself, and will increase your value to us. (Believe me we can afford to pay your asking price.)

It is only fair to let you know that neither David nor I have revealed that we have met you other than that you are a former colleague or perhaps instructor in one of David’s college programs. It will be better if the corporation has no knowledge of our friendship or they might suspect nepotism. I assure you that even though I have come to regard you as a friend, almost as a family member, you are one of the best. Your qualifications are superb. Rest assured, if you apply for the position it will be yours based on your education, skills, knowledge and ability and your experience.

We are hopeful that you will consider joining us in London shortly after you receive the formal offer.

Yours Truly,
Urs Toni
Phone +44 7816171081

Toni’s letter made Holly happy in a way that she did not bother to analyze. Even before she officially received the offer, she began to plan. Her trust in him was just that complete. The first person she called was Brenda who drove the 20 miles or so East to Davis from Dixon in record time that evening. “They want you with them in London? Are you going?”

“I’ll consider it after I get the contract, read it and see what the job entails. If it is a legit offer, not a chance to hang out as a groupie, I might do it. It will be good for my resume. I wouldn’t get to travel a lot but I am sure there would be some travel. And if not, I could travel around Europe on my days off and you could come and visit me, spend your whole vacation and we could have a really good time. I could even learn another language.”

“Don’t forget that you will be around those four gorgeous men much more. Who knows what could happen?”

“What could happen is that I could get into a lot of trouble that’s what. I plan to keep my emotional distance from those four because any one of them could be a major seduction, even Mr. Swiss Bliss.

“Especially Mr. Swiss Bliss, I would think.” Brenda said dryly.

CHAPTER 5
NEW JOB

Sure enough, the contract, when it arrived, looked almost too good to be true. She was to have her own office in the building where they band recorded and practiced. She would see them on a daily basis when they were in town. She was to examine their recorded voices individually and collectively for harmony and balance.

They wanted an eclectic collection of songs, not too many of any one type. She was also to advise as to the appropriateness for any particular country or language. It seemed that when they practiced they rehearsed each song in several languages, Spanish, Italian, French or English. She was to advise from a layman’s point of view, which language was the best for a certain song. There was more about arrangements, fortissimo, crescendo (which they invariably included at the end. She had thoughts about changing that.)

After reading the contract several times, all in all, she thought it an excellent offer.

Nevertheless, cognizant of Toni’s advice, she penned a counter offer that nearly doubled her already generous salary offer and before she could rethink her decision sent the package to London by overnight express.

They accepted her offer the next day. Signed and certified. She had only to give notice at the university.

One month later, as the quarter ended, she was ready to go. She leased her condo furnished, sold her car knowing that she would buy another when she arrived. She emailed her parents, and since it hadn’t been long since she had seen them, told them that she would see them either if they came to visit or when she came home in about six months. Knowing that those two would have objections, she didn’t bother to read their reply.

When she arrived in London, a packet was waiting at the airport. It contained directions to her apartment, phone numbers to the office, keys to a car, and start time Monday morning. There was a welcome note from the administrative assistant asking her to call her as soon as she arrived.

Holly went straight to her apartment in a cab and once there, she found the refrigerator stocked with fresh foods. She showered, made a few calls including home to let the folk and Brenda know that she’d arrived safely and took a long nap. She also tried to call Toni but when his answering machine kicked in, she didn’t leave a message. She would not call him back. She intuitively knew that she did not want to appear needy or to start the business relationship off as if it was more than it was. She was actually glad that he had not answered.

The next morning, Monday, she made herself an omelet and called in to her new office. She talked to Kelley, whom Holly later found was older than her voice sounded. Kelly let her know that she could report either today or tomorrow.

Holly decided to get over there so that she could see what to expect.

Twenty minutes later Kelley arrived at Holly’s apartment to pick her up and show her the ropes.

Kelley was in her middle to late forties. Attractive in spite of being a little overweight and she was quite friendly. Holly was glad that she wasn’t the stick up her rear kind.

As they drove, Kelley talked. “You did exactly what I would have done, forget trying to learn your way around, come home for a rest and then start fresh. I think you’ll like working here she said as she pulled into a brownstone that was at least 200 years old and very well maintained.

The inside had been completely renovated, modern furnishing, computers and a large recording studio with all of its equipment. Holly’s office faced East so she had the morning light and shade in the afternoon. She was on the third floor, up far enough to get a good view of the traffic and people going by but not too far that one felt removed. It was only a little over five minutes from where she was to live. “We try to keep everyone fairly close so that you’re available. If needed.

The next morning she found her way to work with no problem. Her office had been changed to include a keyboard, audio/video equipment and stacks of sheet music. “The guys will be back in town this Friday, and then you’ll get a chance to meet them. They are very nice men, always professional, always hardworking and most of the time serious. They come here almost every day when they are not on tour or otherwise out of the country.
“The coffee break room is down the hall. Of course we can make up a pot for you in your office if you like. Your Administrative assistant, Rosemary is right through that door. Take a few minutes to get oriented, and then I’ll take you to meet her.”

Kelly talked on a mile a minute but Holly had no trouble keeping up with her. “I don’t mind telling you that Rosemary has been on pins and needles wondering if you would bring your own assistant with you. She’s young, newly married and hopes to keep this job, but then, if you don’t want to keep her, I’m sure that we can find something for her to do.”

“I’m thinking that unless she’s very difficult to get along with, she’ll do. Having an assistant who knows the ropes in invaluable.” Holly managed to murmur before Kelley continued. “Il Divo’s popularity has increased so much over this past year until it is hard to keep up with all of the work.”

“Yes,” Holly responded, I can imagine how hard it is on them, doing all of that traveling. It’s good that they’re young and motivated.”
Holly sat and took a few deep breaths. When she left the East Coast years ago for the West coast she thought that was a big move that required moxie. Now she was even farther from home. She rubbed her hand idly on the top of her smooth desk. She wasn’t lonely, exactly, she knew that she made friends easily but she did miss her mother and she missed Brenda too. She curbed the longing to pick up the phone and call Bren. She’d have to find out what time it was back in Dixon before she woke her friend in the middle of the night.

After meeting Rosemary, who turned out to be pretty, unpretentious and friendly, Holly sat in her office, pondering just where to start. She took out her job description and read it very carefully for the third or fourth time. This time she was looking for the major components and then considering the minor. Then she started categorizing the sheet music into piles, trying to find a system for determining how much variety was already there and what else the band might need to incorporate.

By the end of the week she had a good handle on how she wanted to conduct her work.

When she met Carlos, Sebastien, David and Urs together as a group, she was polite but impersonal. In no way did she indicate that she had an already established relationship with any of them although David clearly indicated with his big smile that he was her friend. She had a hard time believing that these men, in their jeans and shirts, super casual were the same guys that she had seen perform in stage. Only Tony looked normal. They were loose, joked a lot, laughed when one of them made a mistake but they were serious also in that there was no flirting with her, no looks, nothing just business.

Carlos and Sebastien did not remember her from the short cab ride back to the hotel, and David and Tony were also friendly and impersonal. She met the producers and found out that the guys of IL Divo were their own executive producers meaning that they had the final say over any works that they did in public. She met some of the band members, the lighting and stage people, and she met makeup women and men, all of whom had been on the road, actually in Scheveningen, The Netherlands for the past week. Due to flying and performing, most of the folk who had come in that morning came to drop of equipment then cleared out before noon to get some sleep.

Later, before she closed down her desk for the day she made a trip to the break room and like most break rooms it was a repository for the local gossip. Holly kept her mouth shut, asked no questions, especially about the guys but she kept her listening ears on. She learned that Sebastien was on the verge of proposing to his girl, Rana and that Urs and his longtime girlfriend Chloe had broken it off.

Surprisingly she was sorry to hear that even though if she would admit it, a small part of her was jumping up and down cheering. She was torn. She thought that Urs had really been attached to the woman and would be sad. But she knew that the Toni that she knew would bounce back. At least she thought that he would. She had never seen him with a broken heart before. She didn’t stop to examine why she thought that his heart was the one that was broken she just had him sized up as the stead faithful type. His Chloe must have either become too lonely, or and called it off with him in a fit of pique.

Later on in the day she paused to congratulate Sebastien and they took PM break together. Toni came in to get coffee and eyed them but did not come over or even speak a word to her. He got coffee and then chose not to linger.

She wondered if she should have mentioned her condolences at the break off of his romance but really, he had given her no opportunity to do so. Sebastien did not know that she knew Toni. It would have looked intrusive; and perhaps even knowing him it would have been for her to blurt out how sorry she was to hear that he had been … what? Dropped? And what if she had it all wrong? What if he had Chloe’s replacement already lined up? No she’d save her thoughts on the matter for herself.

Later, once home she allowed her mind to roam. The news about Toni was an astonishing piece of news for Holland. She rehashed all that she had heard and all of her thoughts. Again she wondered exactly what had brought about their breakup. She wondered if he was brokenhearted and was just hiding it well. She thought back to the short time that she had spent with him, in the presence of the other guys for sure and tried to look back to find any change in him. There had been nothing that she could detect. She didn’t want to be happy but yet she was although she’d never admit to it. She acknowledged that she had been interested in him for a while and was probably already in process of falling in love with him. This self knowledge came to her with a rueful interior smile. She had not allowed herself to acknowledge these feelings because of the hopelessness of her position, but now… she admitted to herself that she wanted to be more than a friend to him.

Oh, he had talked quite favorably about his girlfriend when she came to the concert in New York three months ago, that in itself had been deterrent to the softer feelings and had served to put a damper on her emotions but now perhaps, who knew?

When Holly talked to Brenda later on that evening she told her how she felt about the whole Toni situation.

“I just can’t stop thinking about him. I don’t think he reciprocates though.” Holly had grumbled. She was hoping that Brenda would remind her that Toni had looked at her in a special way, or say that he had shown some interest. But Brenda didn’t do that. She was truthful.

“Then you will just have to make him change his mind. Now is the time. If you wait too long, he will either go back to her or will replace her with someone else. If he gets a new woman she’ll be new to him and you’ll have to wait for that to cool down. You know that the cooling down could take months, maybe years, maybe never. He won’t be alone for long Hol. Men never are.” Brenda concluded.

“And if you were me, would you ask him?”

“Ask him what?” Brenda had asked.

“Ask him if he would be interested in me, you know, in that way?”

“He’s a man isn’t he? Of course he would be interested. But I think you want more than a one or two-night stand don’t you?”

“Of course I do.”

“Then, if you are going to ask him anything and I said “if”, at least ask for what you want. The only thing that he can do is let you down easy. I don’t think he will be cruel, not to you, he likes you even if he isn’t prepared to like you in the way that you want.”

“That doesn’t make sense to me. You think that because he’s a man, he’ll hook up with almost anything, and then you tell me that he might not be interested in me. What’s on your mind?”

“It can be tricky. He probably has you firmly in his mind as his friend. He might pass on you because he won’t want to hurt you. And admit it, you would be hurt if he took you out for a couple of dates, slept with you, and then lost interest. He knows that although he might not have thought it out. It will be easier for him if he keeps you safely away from anything personal and not threaten your ’friendship’ because believe me, if he sleeps with you and then dumps you, you can’t go back to whatever you have with him now. So you’d better think carefully before you open a can of worms.”

“I don’t even know what kind of women he likes. Maybe I’m too bookish, too into my career.”

Well, whatever kind he likes, you have the first prerequisite and you know what that is.” Then laughing, “Seriously; I read an article about IL Divo in the New Yorker Magazine and it said that, wait I have it here somewhere. I’ll read it to you.” ‘IL Divo is composed an American Guy who’s like the boy next door, a Spanish Guy, beefcake, A French Guy. Dreamboat, and a Swiss Guy, sophisticate.’ So, if this article has them analyzed correctly he should love your intelligence and your sense of style. My advice to you is that you go for it. You might lose his friendship, end up with nothing, but on the other hand, you might snag him. Using the fishing analogy if you do snag him, it might be harder to land him but you’ll have fun trying.”

After that the two friends had signed off.

The New Yorker article was still on her mind the following week when they called her office from the studio where they were rehearsing and asked her to come and give them an opinion on a song. When she walked in, Toni said, “Hi Holly“. They used first names around here. She’d have to learn to call Toni by the name that everyone else called him - Urs. “This,” he continued, “is a song called, ‘Every time I Look At You.’ Will you listen to it and let us know if you think it is a chick song or not?”

She had nodded her head in assent before she understood what he was asking. She’d pretty much do whatever he asked of her. She was sharp though and before too many seconds passed she paused. “Wait before you start, what do you mean a ‘chick’ song? Many of your songs are what I would call chick songs. What specifically are you asking me?”

“You’ll see. Some of the lyrics are words that I don’t think a man would say to a woman. It sounds to me like some things a woman would say to a man.”

They played the recorded song back and Holly immediately knew the parts that they might be having a problem with. “You mean ’Lead me through the night, but please turn out the lights ’cause I’m lost, every time I look at you?”

“Yeah” Carlos continued. Those are exactly the lyrics. I don’t know of any man who thinks that way. Begging her to turn out the lights and lead him through the night.” The others sniggered a bit. Sebastien added, “men don’t think or talk like that. Sounds like something a girl would say.”

Holly cast an involuntary look at Ton…Urs. His expression said that he agreed with the others. Holly thought for a while, the words going through her head. Then she said in her professorial voice in an attempt to keep it impersonal. “I don’t know much about how men think, never having been a man myself, but this I do know, women like to think that men think like that.” Does that make sense?” For a woman, that is what romance is all about, being in perfect accord with her mate. Now, I think that the women of your audiences want to feel, whether it is about you four or about the men sitting next to them that they, the women, have certain power over their men. And while you are singing that, the females will be imagining some poor man fumbling around (and even she had to smile at that) because he loves her so madly.”

“It is only David who fumbles around,” Sebastien said” All of them were laughing and grinning. “European men don’t fumble.”

Holly ignored the laughter. “Consider this. If you changed one word. Instead of saying ‘Lead me through the night.’ What about ‘Lead me through tonight’. That could imply anything. It could mean that you don’t know what you’re doing but more likely most women would interpret it as caring. Again, I don’t know much about women from a man’s point of view, but I would imagine that in a situation of that sort,” and she felt herself turning red “I mean… women are pretty different from each other in such situations aren’t they?” but she couldn’t look to see if they nodded or shook their heads. “So,” she rushed on “It could mean that you don’t know what she likes and you want very much to please her and she has to show you, or tell you or something….” she could not continue, she started to smile and had to restrain herself from covering her face it felt so hot.

She could feel four pairs of eyes on her but Carlos took pity evidently and asked, “Why would we want the light out for that? Seeing in good.” He laughed.

“Perhaps you will see something that is too beautiful for you to endure. Is that possible?” She was still embarrassed but she was a working woman for Pete’s sake, they hadn’t hired her to be a blushing girl.

“Someone added, sotto voiced, “It would depend on how long I have to endure it.”

Holly ignored that remark and got out of there, leaving them to their business.
***
Over that next week she started working on harmony. They came to her individually. She isolated each voice and reviewed how he harmonized, pointing out options that made for a richer sound. All four were very bright, especially Carlos but he hid it with his propensity to joke. They were also very talented which was refreshing. Not many of her University students had been as talented as these men. Music and singing is like any other talent. Some are much better than others. And there is generally a zenith above which one cannot go and no amount of practice will get you there. The challenge is that the apprentice or the family rarely recognizes that the student has reached his peak. All of these singers had fully developed his own individual talent and was very well acquainted with what he could do or not do. Also, in addition to being bright & talented they were respectful. They might joke and kid when in group but alone they treated her like a sister. Their individual progress was so spectacular that she soon started working with them in group.

Before she could get too much further with them she learned that during this down time that would last for a full month they were going to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, and she was going with them for a week of nothing but rest and recuperation.

“But is it safe?” was her question to Kelley as soon as she had a chance.

“Yes, it’s safe in Dubai. They are a very materialistic country. Not very religious thank goodness. This means that they will not allow bombers and other disrupting influences into the country. Their main industry is tourism, and they will go to great lengths to preserve that revenue source.”

In preparation for the trip, Holly packed a few clothes, including a new knock-out bikini that she brought in California and a pretty red lace halter dress that fit her just right and the sales person said made her look like a model. She took the time to dash off notes to her parents and to Brenda letting them know that she’d be out of pocket for a week. She also sent her mom a key to her place, just in case. ’Who knows what might happen,’ she had thought to herself as she readied to board the chartered plane. At least if her mother had to retrieve her things, she could get in to get them. But she brushed off that thought. They all would be fine.

CHAPTER 6
BREAK-AWAY VACATION TO DUBAI

Holly was tolerably perceptive and she could not detect any sign of sorrow in Urs because of the breakup of his relationship. He didn’t seem sad, he didn’t seem to compensate by being overly happy; he seemed his usual self. On the flight over he sat up front with the other men, talking about his first love, which was motorcycles, and sports and the like while the women, who were fewer in number than the men, got to know each other better. There was Kelley and Rosemary of course but also Ingrid, who was married to the Limo driver.

Ingrid she didn’t know as well because she kept their wardrobes in order for every performance. When they were performing she usually flew on a later flight because she stayed behind to collect all of the various pieces of their wardrobe from suits, ties and even socks, she labeled them, see that they were washed and dried or cleaned and pressed as may be the case and hanging on the rack in each performer’s dressing room before the next performance. This season as before they were dressed exclusively in Armani suits, a better advertisement for that designer couldn’t be found, but now two more designers were giving Armani a run for its money and trying to lure them into their haut couture.

Also on the plane was the pilot for Il Divo’s private jet. It was not large enough to carry the larger group or to fly all the way to Dubai without stopping for fuel, thus the chartered plane.

They checked into the Burj Al Arab hotel famous for its unique shape; that of a billowing sail. It was nice but after the long flight Holly was too tired to take note of her surroundings. She crashed as soon as she reached her room and didn’t wake up until morning.

The next day she could see that of course the hotel was beautiful and she learned at breakfast that the food was too. Breakfast was an informal buffet renewed often. It was probably handled that way so that those who chose to arise later could be assured of freshness. There was a mix of western and Arabic foods both used fresh fruits and vegetables to the max and were blessedly short on meat. She soon learned that the Divo guys tended to wander in late, usually around ten, so she timed her entrance after that so that they would be there. Once there she established the habit of eating with them and making light chatter.

One question she had for Carlos and Sebastien, since they both spoke Spanish and French respectively and were relatively new at speaking English, what language they thought in. Carlos had said “English is becoming more like a second nature to me now because I am around people mostly who speak to me in that language and it is the one language that we can all speak to each other in. So, when I am around all of you,” and he gestured to include all of the UK group, I tend to start to think in English which means that I don’t have to think about what was said, translate it to Spanish, then formulate my answer back into English, but when I go home, or when my wife comes to visit and we spend time together alone, I revert to Spanish because she and I communicate almost exclusively in Spanish.”

Sebastien answered that he was not as fluent in English as Carlos, he, he stated, was just about as fluent as David the American. They all had laughed at that. They loved to tease David because probably he had the quick wit that American’s are known for and he always enjoyed a good laugh. David always paid them back by using American slang with them that at the time of its first use they were confounded but were quickly catching on to all of the nuances of American speech.

She had a different sort of question for Urs. “Do women often ask you to go out with them?” She was interested in his answer on a personal level, but she didn’t want him to know that. She hoped that she had masked her interest well.

“Yeah, they do occasionally. They also use more subtle methods, they throw me keys, presumably to their hotel rooms, they give me addresses in flowers, you know on the little tag that identifies the sender, I give all those things to Sebastien though.”

“I give them to Carlos.” Seb added“ and Carlos gives them to his wife. He removes the addresses and notes though. He says that his wife is not jealous but… there’s no use getting her annoyed when in fact the notes were meant for someone else.”

Urs continued. “One time a woman stopped the limo driver by standing in the street. She then ran around to my window to ask me if I would take her out. I said that I was sorry but that I had to decline.” David then reminded Urs of the time when a woman jumped up on stage in the middle of a performance and kissed him, and then didn’t want to let go.

“Yes, that was frightening.” I was trying to get the mike to my face so that I could sing my lines and she was in the way kissing my face, trying to get to my mouth but I managed to push her away. She then dived…dived mind you into the audience. I am surprised that she didn’t injure herself, but evidently she was all right. Security went over and talked to her, I don’t know what happened after that. But I do know that after that we had to get security around the stage at every concert. Our security bill jumped tenfold.

Holly had learned something from this short conversation. Urs did not like aggressive women. But there was a difference between aggressive and assertive wasn’t there? She knew that there is a fine line between being just forward enough and too forward. This made her all the more nervous about asking him if he could care for her. Perhaps he would be turned off. But she wouldn’t let that stop her. She was determined to try. She didn’t earn her doctorate degree at nineteen by giving up. It was time to start putting some sort of plan into action.

After lunch she took a short nap and then decided to go down to the water. She put on her killer bikini and wore a cover up as she walked through the hotel. Before going out onto the beach she spotted Sebastian and Urs standing on the path talking to each other, well ‘seeming’ to be talking to each other. What they were really probably doing was looking at the girls.

There was certainly a well rounded variety of women. Kelley had been correct when she said that tourism was a big business. There seemed to be women cavorting from all over the world. Many were with their families, but a goodly number were alone or with their other female friends. Well, Holly decided, if Urs could look at those women, he could look at her. She made the quick decision to slip out of her cover-up and then she walked toward them.

The path diverged before it reached them but they could not help seeing her, this she knew. While she did not have the nerve to look at them as she passed, she knew that they could not miss her. After she was well past them she casually looked back over her shoulder hoping for any reaction. Actually they had reacted. They had turned away. They hadn’t even noticed her.

And so the rest of the week went. When they had talked, Brenda mentioned Holly snagging Urs like a fish, but Holly found that she couldn’t even get him to take a look at her hook.

Too soon the last night in Dubai was fast approaching. There was to be a private party for the IL Divo group in one of the ballrooms before the flight to home the next morning. Holland knew that she would have to force herself to speak to Urs tonight. Somehow, somewhere she would have to find a way to isolate him from his almost constant company of men and find out if he had even had the minutest thought about her in a romantic way. If he had not, she planned to ask, could he please try the idea on for size. If he said no, at least she would know that and could carry on with her life.

She had saved her very chic red dress for tonight. It was perfect for her and was subtle, in spite of the color. She admired it because it was a dress that she wore, rather than the dress wearing her.

Understated, it fit perfectly, had the halter style that she loved and gently flared around her hips to end in a length that showed her legs, which were a good feature, she thought, to advantage. She recalled that she had once won a contest based on her body alone. She had entered on a dare from one of her college friends, and the general premise was that no matter how pretty, ugly, or indifferent one’s face might be, the figure was all that mattered. It was called the ’Miss Brick house Contest’ and she later found that it referred back to an old saying in the day when people had outhouses. Most were built of wood, but if one had a brick one, it was through to be really fine.

Surprisingly, she won the contest, but being in college at such a young age, her mother found out about the contest, made her return the prized trophy and threatened to get the sponsors of the contest in hot water for letting an underage girl into it. It made no difference to her mother that she had shown them her college transcript to prove that she was really in college. From her mother’s point of view, she should have asked for her birth certificate. Holland brought herself back to the present.

During the party she had plenty of opportunities to dance. She danced with Seb, with the pilot, with Carlos, with David but no Urs. He stayed away until over two-thirds of the party had passed.

Finally, when one of their own CDs was put on, he approached her.

“Hi little girl or would you prefer that I call you professor?” He said this with a smile even as he held out his hand to ask her for a dance, seemingly assured that she would accept. Her interior monologue said “Call me sweetheart or darling” but she answered, all the while forcing herself to sound cross. “What took you so long? I’ve never danced with you and I’d love to see if I will have my feet left when you let me go.”

The song was Dentro Un Altro Si or Inside Another Yes and it was about a lost love, of feelings that changed over time and how he would find her again. Holland thought he might be pining for his girlfriend but didn’t ask that. “This is the first song that you made into a new and improved version for us. Do you remember?” He asked. “It was the one that David followed up on and what made us want to hire you.” He pulled her into his arms and started to move to the music that had a stately, almost march-like quality to it.

“Oh yes! I do remember it now, and I remember that I love the melody to this song.” He pulled her closer and held her tighter and did a wide turn and a little lean back that practically forced her to lean into him. She was completely dependent upon him to lead her through the steps and she found it very sensual. She could feel every movement of his legs even as his front provided the support that she needed to stay upright. He leaned his head into hers and was silent for the rest of the dance after that. She felt like he was enjoying himself in spite of his silence.

When the song came to a close he kissed her softly on the forehead and thanked her for the dance, walked her to her seat. Then he left her and rejoined the guys. “Hey guy, where’d you get that move?” she heard one of his companions say but after that she could not hear a word that was being said from where she sat.

About half an hour later, he left the room and walked out onto the balcony. She had been wondering what that intimate dance had been all about and it was that dance that gave her the courage to follow him out onto the balcony. She looked neither right nor left as she neared the door. She suspected quite a few watched her follow him out but she couldn’t help that.

She closed the glass door softly behind her. It was desert windy out there because they were on one of the upper floors. In spite of the breeze, the sea below was as calm and clear as glass. She knew that had it been day, it would have been a beautiful azure blue.

“Hi Urs Toni, do you mind if I join you?” She used both of his names in hopes of reminding him of a simpler time when they were friends without the company of all of these people. She didn’t realize that the very friendship that she treasured might be the thing to keep them apart.

Urs didn’t answer her but made an expansive motion with his hand that said it was OK. He continued looking down at the sea.

“Are you unhappy Urs? I heard that you and your girlfriend have broken up. I was surprised because you spoke so highly of her to me.”

“And you are here to offer me your sympathy? If you are, there is no need.”

“I said that I was surprised. I didn’t say that I feel sympathy for you. What I feel can be more accurately called urgency.”

That got his attention. He turned and looked at her. “Urgency? As in the need to rush? Or do you mean… What do you mean?” he ended, seemingly puzzled. But beneath the confusion she heard perhaps a little interest in his voice. She continued.

“I know that if I wait too long, you will have found someone to replace her. I want to ask you if you would consider me?” There it was out. Her cards were on the table.

He didn’t show any surprise at all which surprised her. He was also silent for a long time, contemplating his shoes as if they were the most interesting thing in the world while the sea almost as if in tune to his mood, began to move then crash against the south bulwark built to protect the building against the water. The breeze ruffled his hair. She wanted to fill the silence with words, or apologize for invading his privacy or even to run away but she had learned in college to hold her ground. This she did and waited with seeming patience in spite of her inner turmoil for him to answer. She forced her breathing to normal and stood her ground.

Finally, after taking a quick look at the door as if to insure that they were still alone, he answered. “You caught me off guard.. I am sorry. I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable but I don’t know what to say.

“You don’t have to say anything. I think it was the dance that we just had a little while ago. If you didn’t know… If you didn’t feel something, you shouldn’t have danced with me like you just did. If you hadn’t done that, I would have never gotten up the nerve to follow you out here like a common groupie.

“Oh come on. I could never think that you are a common groupie or common anything. You are right, perhaps I did feel something in there with you and I really should not have. I will be more careful in the future to guard my feelings.”

“Why do you have to guard your feelings? I am not underage and I am under the impression that you are now free for the first time in five years. Is it that you still love your girlfriend and you hope to get back with her?”

“Chloe, her name is Chloe.” Her name rolled off his lips in a very pretty way.

“Chloe then. So it seems that it is not over, was this just a blip on the radar, or were they just rumors?”

He didn’t respond to that question but said instead “It is complicated, but it is for your sake.”

“I can’t believe that you are doing anything for my sake. Why not be honest and just tell me, are you too jaded and even think… possibly that I am perhaps too naïve for you? Please don’t give me platitudes, just tell me truthfully. Maybe I just don’t appeal to you in that way. And if I don’t that’s all right.”

He had smiled at the word “jaded”, and then said. “I hadn’t thought of that excuse professor. If I had, I would have used it on you. But you asked for it and I will be honest with you.” He took her hand and led her farther away from the door, and since it was a glass door, he walked even closer to the stone edge, out of site of anyone who chose to look at them. “Kindly remember Holland just what you are to us, to IL Divo I mean. Even though you are young and beautiful and tempting as hell, you are still employed by the organization. And you have a bit of authority when it comes to most of the women who work here. Also all of the men respect you. Believe me you do not want to lose that respect. If you did, it would be impossible for you to do your job here.

“That’s not fair. My expertise in music has nothing to do with me as a woman. If I were a man you would not be saying this to me.”

“You are right about that. But fair or not it is the way things are. Why is it, do you suppose, that none of us has hit on you? Did you think that we are blind to your assets? You are pretty. As beautiful as the most beautiful woman that we have seen, and we’ve been all over the world. And yet, you come and go, walk around, parade yourself around almost naked and no one has stripped you with his eyes, or said one word to you that is unseemly. Do you think that we are saints or just idiots?”

“You wrong me! I do not parade myself.” He had never criticized her before and it hurt.

“What do you call your little bikini stroll Tuesday? What was that if not a parade?”

“You didn’t even notice, so how do you know what it was?”

“So you were intent on being noticed were you? I noticed, Sebastien noticed, and every other male within a hundred meters noticed, some who were looking out of their windows upstairs noticed. I heard a couple of guys on the elevator wishing they could have been closer so that they could have recognized your face else, how will they find you again. I can tell you exactly what I noticed… do you want to hear?” But he continued without giving her a chance to answer. “You have small but significant dimples high on your butt, a dimple on each side. Am I right? Is that enough notice for you? Shall I tell you about your breasts? Will one fill my hand? Yeah I think so or perhaps not. Shall I continue? What about your hair down below. Is it as deep dark and red as the hair on your head? How’s that for conversation?”

He continued, “When you walked down that path there was nothing else that I or Seb could think to talk about. So in order to remain respectful to you we both turned away. He remarked that today was a particularly fine day, weather wise he reminded me, and I of course agreed with him and followed with a query of if he knew how many inches of rainfall they get here each year. Of course, all that I said to you tonight are from a man’s point of view. These are the things we think about. How would you explain it from a woman’s point of view?”

Still taken aback from his assessment, she struggled to focus on what he‘d asked her. “From a woman’s point of view, every female at this resort wears a swimsuit bikini, or swims without clothes for all I know. I don’t see anything wrong with me doing it.”

“And why do you suppose they wear those little tiny bikini’s like yours, perhaps they are trying to attract the attention of one man … of men? As David says, ‘go figure’.” This he said in his ‘Ah Ha’ voice.

“But what is wrong with trying to attract a man.?”

“Absolutely nothing. Just don’t try to attract one of us. Remember that to us you are sacrosanct! We cannot flirt with you, take you out, fuck you, without interfering with the work that we all do including what you do, and that is good. We could bring untold damage to the harmony of this organization.” His accent was now more pronounced.

“And that is how you see it?” her voice was one of disbelief.

“It’s the same in any office or work situation. There is nothing that can get a man in trouble quicker than becoming too familiar with a woman who works under, beside or even above him. Pretty soon we’d start fighting over which one of us you prefer and then there goes the group. You know that there are no replacements for us, we are it. As soon as David was hired they cut off auditions. One of two things could happen. Can you imagine the four of us sauntering around on stage when what we really want to do is punch out the lights of one of the guys? The audience would pick up on that really quickly. Or we could decide to work you just like we work a solo piece of sheet music. Each of us would take a share of you and then go about his own business. I don’t think that you are the kind of girl who would be contented with that treatment.”

She had to laugh at his exaggeration. What a piece of hyperbole. “I don’t know… that might not be too bad. Four gorgeous guys who look like models and they’re crazy about me…”

“Wait just a minute. Nobody said that we’d be crazy about you. In fact, we would be guaranteed not to give a damn about you. There’s not a man alive who is a man who can stand sharing a woman that he cares for with three other guys. But you are right. I would never let that happen to you. Right now, when we keep to our self-made rules, you are off limits. If you and I ignore these rules and you become my woman, you open yourself up to their attentions too.”

“You are not saying that you share?” she asked in horror.

“No, it’s nothing like that. Again I’m speaking from a man’s point of view. The thinking will go something like this… If Urs got to her, then perhaps I can too. The thoughts will become especially strong when you and I break up.”

“But Urs, who’s to say that we’ll break up? We might make a good couple.”

“Maybe not when, perhaps it is if we break up, he continued, and we might not break up but if we do, you become like lamb chops right out of the oven. Brown and hot. They’ll think that I have left enough for a meal for them too.” He was ruthless in his assessment of the situation.

“And just my dating you will turn me into a piece of meat in their eyes?”

“Oh you have always been lamb chops to all of us. The difference is that you were frozen and in the deep-freeze. It is up to you if you want to thaw out and place yourself on the stove.”

“I don’t know if I believe you or not. They are such nice guys. I can’t believe they’d be anything but respectful to me.”

He looked at her for a long time. Finally he said slowly. “I have nothing to lose. It is not my job or my reputation at stake, besides, I do want you. I suppose you could tell even though I tried to hide it. I really do want you, so I propose that we try it and see if you believe me then. But you’ll have to promise me that if we do break up you’ll leave and find yourself another job. It would be… I mean I couldn’t stand to see you mistreated and passed around. That would kill me. So you must promise me that much.”

“You are saying that you will see if we can get along as more than friends, if I will promise you that I’ll leave if we break up? It’s not just me is it, I’m not forcing you to do something that you don’t want to do am I?”

“I want you happy Holland.” He said seriously. “If being my woman makes you happy, then I am ecstatic.”

“Should we announce it then?” I don’t want folk to keep talking about your last girlfriend when I am your new one.”

“Lord no. I don’t think that one announces, ‘Holland and I are dating now folk‘. Then everyone will feel like they are a part of the relationship and will want to have a say in it. No. I think we should keep it quiet until we get back to London and then slowly ease into it. There’s no rush.”

Holly thought to herself…‘well so much for eagerness. He has just about the same enthusiasm for me that he’d have for a shot of antibiotic.’

:cheers:

CHAPTER 7
THE ATTRACTION IS ALMOST TOO MUCH TO BEAR


The very next morning she awoke and when she looked out of her window, she saw the four IL Divo singers frolicking on the beach with four girls. They were pretending to play volley ball but it was obvious to her that the women were using this opportunity to fall into the arms of handsome men. So much for her being a new girlfriend of his. She realized that she had no idea at all what he meant, what their relationship meant to him.

Perhaps it was time to find out before she made any more assumptions.

She showered, dressed, got coffee and croissant and went over to find Kelley to see if she needed any help getting ready for the trip home. The two women worked together gathering up the incidentals that the men would never think of, and soon everything was ready for takeoff.

Once again on the plane the men all gathered together, laughing, joking, talking and kidding each other. Just how much male bonding did they need? Holly thought crossly. She waited until the plane made the turn to fly westward then she headed up front, took a seat next to Urs and giving them no time to adjust to her intrusion she started a conversation.

“I have been wondering gentlemen, when you look back on how things worked out so perfectly, the payoff after years of preparation, the smoothness of your coming together, do you think it was by accident or might it have been fate?” That got their attention. She knew that guys liked nothing better than talking about themselves. Even the Pilot and Limo driver got involved. Once they had become animated and into their conversation her attention was off her she slowly turned to Urs and engaged him in a more private conversation.

“You were really polished with that move Holly,” he smiled. He wasn’t sure just how he felt. He didn’t want to go too fast, get all involved and then find out that they had almost nothing in common. He preferred to let his relationships develop slowly over time, but evidently Holly Blair was not of the same mind. Because she said, “We didn’t finish our conversation last night.”

He bent his head closer to her so that the others couldn’t hear or read his lips, just in case. “I thought that we agreed to wait until we got back home before we made any plans or did anything.”

“You said. I didn’t agree to your plan, I just listened.”

‘She has claws too’ he mused. What do you want to do, stand up here on this plane and announce that you are auditioning for a new position, as an IL Divo girlfriend?”

“What do you mean auditioning? See we are already having a disagreement if you think that I view this as a trial. Besides, audition implies that there is a competition.”

“You can’t think that we can just decide to let this happen. We don’t even know each other.”

“In my opinion, there’s no better time to start getting to know each other than now. What do you need to know about me that you don’t know?” No wait; tell me, what is it that you already know about me?” She leaned in to him so that their heads were now very close together. She didn’t see Carlos hunch Seb and point to them but Urs did. He ignored both of them.

“Let me see.“ he said. I know that you are a contradiction. Very intelligent, very savvy, even bold once in a while, but yet you throw me off because you seem quite naïve at times. I don’t know even one woman who after her machinations didn’t work would follow me out onto a balcony and ask me what you did.”

“That’s because I had an unusual childhood. I was really smart, precocious they called it. I was called a prodigy. I was shuffled through school, always understanding the lessons so I was always with kids who were older than I.”

“And thus you developed an air of confidence and boldness.”

”My mother was always afraid that I would grow up too fast, so she kept sort of vigil over me. I went to my high school senior prom with my brother.”

“Your mother sounds like she is wise. But ouch! That must have hurt going with your brother. How old were you then?”

“I was about 13.” she stated flatly. “And all of the other seniors were 17 or 18. I could only dance with my brother and even that was a concession on my mother’s part. She and my father were going to come with me until I decided that I would rather stay at home than go with my parents.”

“It’s not good for a 13 year old to be with 18 year olds. Too much testosterone and 13 year old girls don’t have much sense, at least not the kind she needs to deal with boys that old.” He observed. “But that was over a decade ago, what else happened. Did you catch up and finally blend in with your peers?”

“Sometimes. At least I thought I did at the time, but now in retrospect I realize that things were actually worse. Here I was a kid, running around with people who thought they were adult, in reality they weren’t grown but they did adult things.”

“I can imagine. I’ve seen some of the college kids tapes of spring break, and of course, the ‘Girls Gone Wild on Television, pretty rowdy. And by then your mother was allowing you to participate in those kinds of things?”

“No, she did not. I grew pretty good at pretending that I could but I had a thousand excuses for why I would have gone to the beach or to the party if something had not come up. When in fact, there was no chance that she would let me go. So, I knew all of the dances, even the dirty ones,” and she smiled, “and I did them with great relish, but only at school, during the day. The boys all thought I was hot. I wasn’t hot at all, just a scared kid who wanted to fit in.”

“What happened? Were you found out? Did someone call your bluff?”

“In a way, my ignorance got me into trouble. You see, I fell in love with one of the most popular boys, he was a campus hero. Debate team, political club, I’ve always been drawn to the brainy types rather than the football hero types.”

“And, of course, he had clay feet.”

“Big time. We had only been seeing each other for a couple of weeks, only at school mind you. I was working into asking my parents if I could go out on a date with him, well, he had buddies, a group of them that he hung out with all the time, just as most men do I have found. And one of them approached me, by now I was fifteen but I looked and acted eighteen…”

He looked skeptical so she said “What?” …

“You barely look eighteen now, so I don’t think you looked as mature as you thought. Remember when I first met you I thought you were a kid.“

“Let’s just say that I acted eighteen. His buddy,” she continued” came up to me one day on campus and asked me if the boy that I was seeing could,…” and she blushed, paused and searched his eyes as if deciding whether she should continue.

“Go on” he urged.

“I don’t know if you, being a foreigner to American slang know the meaning of this but he wanted to know if my new boyfriend could ‘lay pipe’.”

He grinned at her and his eyes twinkled. “Some things a man doesn’t have to have heard before to know what’s being said, especially in that context. I get the picture. Continue. I imagine you told him, the buddy I mean, to mind his own business?”

“Remember I was very young. I should have told him to mind his business and to get out of my face, but… I didn’t do that to my regret. I told the truth. I said that I didn’t know because my boyfriend had never asked me to do that with him.”

Urs laughed out loud, causing some of the others who were dosing by now to look to see what was going on. “Let me guess, you never had a moments peace out of your boy after that did you?”

“You know that‘s right. We finally had to break off whatever we had going because I just wasn’t ready for that and I had stepped on his ego and he needed to prove to his friends that he was a man. He also felt the need to pay me back. He broke up with me very publicly. One day I missed school because I had a cold, the next day when I came back everyone, all of my friends, were eager, as only high school kids can be because they love to gossip, they met me to tell me that Sean was seen kissing a girl out by the football field the evening before and that they had gone under the bleachers. There was only one reason that a boy and a girl went under the bleachers.”

“Of course you were hurt?” When she nodded he continued, “were you hurt because of his betrayal, or because he humiliated you?”

“At that time I couldn’t make the distinction. I just knew that he had hurt me badly. Now I know that I didn’t love him. Most teenagers probably love themselves too much to fall very deeply in love. But I was angry with him. I was no fun being laughed at. The whole school knew what he had done and I wanted to punch his lights out and if I had told my older brother, he would have done it for me, but I didn’t see any need to get my brother in trouble so I didn’t tell him. But I never let myself like a guy after that. I graduated high school soon after, started college, expecting it to have a more mature population, it didn’t, so… Jeff, you know the guy that I was seeing when I met you, the one with the young girl, and I let my guard down, he humiliated me again.”

“And so the lesson in this for me is ’don’t hurt me? Is that it?”

She laughed. “Of course not. I’ve grown up now and I am pretty resilient. No the lesson that I learned from Sean hurt. Jeff, did not hurt me, he hurt himself. I would never put myself in such a position of weakness asking, no, begging a man not to hurt me. No, the lesson in all of this for you is that I want to get to know you better, to know your character before I commit myself to you physically.”

“Wow! I didn’t see that coming at all. That sounds ominous. Can you be a little more explicit as to what you mean; exactly.”

“I will be as explicit as I am capable of being. I want you to be my lover, without sex for the time being, until we get to know each other better.”

“Sounds to me like you are still the little fifteen year old, playing at being in love, and really afraid of life and afraid of what your mother might think. What you are asking isn’t possible; at least it’s not possible for me. How do a couple of adults get to know each other if they don’t sleep together? We are already doing everything else, the talking, having dinner, dancing, what else is there?”

“You are wrong Urs. You have gotten used to having it your way but folk used to; years ago do it all the time. They courted. They waited until they were married.”

This caused him to close his eyes briefly. “So now we get to the crux of the matter. You are planning to marry me? This is crazy.” He looked like he would have bolted had she not occupied the aisle seat.

“I see no reason to deny that I would love to be your wife, if we could coexist in any way at all, but no. No, I am not planning and scheming about how to ’get’ you, but even though you, like most men have learned to cringe at the thought, a marriage would be to your benefit also.”

“Yes, that’s similar to caging an animal to a zoo for life for its own good?”

“Exactly, especially if it’s an endangered species” she joked. No. That’s not what I mean at all, now stop joking about this. This is serious stuff. Don’t you want to know why you need a wife?”

“I get the feeling that you are determined to tell me whether I want to know or not - have at it.”

Even though he was trying to look disdainful, she could tell that he was enjoying this conversation. He might not be buying her theories and suppositions, but he did enjoy the banter. “Number one“, she began. You are certainly old enough. I know that it takes men longer to grow up and in your public interview’s you band members, you included, are always saying that one of the reasons that you get along so well is that you are all adults. So, shouldn’t an adult act like an adult? If you keep waiting around, people will think that your children are your grandkids.”

“Not only does she have me married, now she has me with kids.” he said sotto voiced but continued in a voice that she could hear. “What people think of me doesn’t bother me a bit. I will make sure that my children’s mother is young enough to keep up with them while I doze on the couch.”

“You rogue! Perhaps I will be their mother.”

“Nope. I don’t think so. Not if you say no to sex.”

“I didn’t say no. I just asked that we wait a while, not forever, until we can see if we suite each other and…”

“No. No. No. You are asking me to be celibate, to sleep alone while we see if we can get along? I can tell you now, under those conditions, we will not get along at all. I’ll be as agreeable as a bear. I tell you again, I like you. I like you a lot, but grown men, of a certain age just don’t do that. That is guaranteed just not to work.” he placed his hair behind his ear and gave her one of his innocent but certainly wolfish smiles.

Both were silent, thinking. Then he said, “You said that Sean and the other guy in California both of them walked out on you. So, I get it that this celibacy thing is not some far out torture that you reserve just for me. I would think that you would come to the conclusion that I will probably follow the pattern that the other two did and do the same thing that your other two men did.”

“I don’t see it that way at all, because you like me. They didn’t. You are kind and they weren’t. And, no it is perceptive of you to recognize that it is not just you, it’s really all about me. My upbringing, my hang-ups, my fears. It is just that I have never gone in for that kind of thing before and I need to know that I mean something to the man that I give my heart to.

“Give your heart to.” he repeated slowly. “I am getting confused here, are we talking about sex or are we talking about falling in love? I thought we were talking about sex. Are you changing the subject?”

When she shook her head wordlessly, she was very solemn, perhaps near tears he thought. “Don’t cry on me Holly. I’m not trying to hurt you I just want you to be very clear with me so that I can understand what we are dealing with here. You told me about Sean, in high school ten or fifteen years or so ago. Then you told me about Jeff, just recently. You said that you didn’t sleep with either of them. Then you told me that there’s been no one in between those two. I guess I would conclude that you’ve never really had sex? Is that possible at your age? You’re a college professor, you’re young but not that young. For most women today, eighteen is late.“

Now she really looked close to tears. He placed his free are around her shoulders and pulled her closer still. Holly spoke softly “I know that. I feel like an old maid. Like I am a freak of nature, it’s not a good feeling.”

Urs was quiet for a moment. Then, “I had a cousin. He was sick for most of his life, never went to school with other children, never got to go out on dates until one day voila, there was a miracle cure. Physically he was fine, but emotionally, he was a wreck. He went the other way and couldn’t get enough of it. In the end he assaulted a girl because he had never learned that no means no. He didn’t understand how to play the game. I think perhaps you never learned either and you pride is making you afraid to jump into the water.”

“That’s always been my fear and now you know my secret. I have always felt that I am a kid masquerading in a woman’s body. When one masquerades, there is a façade that must be kept up. I just can’t tell a man that I don’t know how it’s done, not at my age. I thought that if we could get to know each other, then perhaps I would be able to finally grow up and learn to swim, without letting my partner know of course.”

“Yes, I can see that you think you have to preserve your pride at all costs. Grow up and swim is your euphemism for having sexual intercourse?”

“Do you always have to be so blunt?”

He ignored that. “Let’s examine this, and I’ll try not to be too blunt for your sensitive ears.” he raised his eyebrows at her to accentuate what he was about to say. “I am a fairly patient man. I think that we can do this if you are willing to put your foot in the water, do you understand the analogy?” He paused and she nodded. “We can then see where that goes.” Warming to his own metaphor, “We don’t have to jump into the water, certainly not off the diving board, but if that is the goal, I think I can be your swim coach.” He laid his head back on the seat-back and looked at her with half closed eyes. “I am going to sleep now. Are you staying here with me, or are you going back to your own seat?”

In answer she fastened her seat belt tighter and reclined the seat all the way back to a sleeping position.

“One more thing, I have the distinct impression that you were trying to decide between me and the Frenchman…what was that all about?”

“You refer to seeing Sebastien with me in the break room? There was nothing about. I just like him, I still do. But not in any way that matters. You were always my goal. Just you.”

He ignored his twinge of jealousy that he felt when she said she still liked the charismatic Sebastien. Aloud he said “Bulls eye.” And turned as if to go to sleep.

Urs closed his eyes and waited until Holly was asleep. He lay for a long while listening to the hum of the engines and watching her while she slept. Full pouting lips, in the dim light hair so dark that looked midnight until she was in the sun and then it turned into a banked fire. Slanting green transparent eyes, physically a perfect ten, emotionally, who knew? She was a curious combination of sincerity and daring. His heart felt pulled towards her in a way it had not towards any woman in the past. He thought of Chloe, the exact opposite of this one in so many ways. He had been quite fond of Chloe too, at first, before she became so emotionally needy.

But Holly was right about one thing, he thought tiredly; although he had vowed never to marry perhaps it was time that he rethought that position. He now realized that it was based on his own emotional insecurity. His history with his mother and father among other things has contributed to his negative view of marriage. Now things had changed. He needed a partner. He would have preferred someone from his past who knew him before the fame. He knew it was fleeting and that it came and went. How did one trust that a woman loved a man for himself when he had so much? Would that woman still love him when the group ended and he became almost anonymous again? His mind went to Holly almost automatically. Before she knew who he was, this one had been uninterested in gaining for herself. She had not threatened or sued. Even after she knew she stood to gain from their relationship she had not tried that tactic. That was out of character for Americans who were, he knew, known to try to settle everything in court. Perhaps it was time to consider… at least stop ruling out … marriage. Of course it was much too soon to think about that with her. Just saying, he smiled to himself, perhaps he shouldn’t be turned off because she was already thinking that if they loved each other, that should logically lead them to marriage. She was so naive she didn’t know that marriage was the last thing a woman should bring up to a man when the romance was in its first stages.


She was naive in other ways too. It showed in the straight forward way she dealt with men. He didn’t mind the lack of sexual experience so much, although he didn’t glory in either. He was not a person who thought he had to be the only man who had been in a woman’s life. He could put up with her inexperience, unless it concealed damage to her psyche beyond repair. He would not want to find himself tied to a cold wife. That was a recipe for unfaithfulness, unfortunately since he was now on the world stage, she would then think the humiliation of her past two relationships minor to being confronted with stories, and pictures of him with whoever was his current paramour. Then would come, tears & arguments; not good at all. He wanted to be faithful to his wife for her own happiness.

His thoughts drifted in another direction. All of the work associates would know his business. This he didn’t like at all and wasn’t used to. But it probably couldn’t be helped. Holly had already aroused suspicions by sitting with him for most of the trip. He had added to that by pulling her closer and speaking privately for her ears alone, now they were, in the truest sense, ’sleeping together’. But he knew that what they had done, the talking, they seeming intimacy of conversation was reversible. If they reverted back to the old way of dealing with each other that they had adopted when she came to work with Il Divo the organization, if they resumed the façade of almost strangers who happened to be business associates the newly hatching gossip would die in its tracks.

It was up to him if he would allow it to continue or not. If he got up now and moved to another seat that would change the perspective considerably. If he got up now … he should move. He thought about it for a few seconds and found that he could not do that to Holly. She was a sweet girl. There was no reason for him to reject her. He relaxed his tense muscles and stayed where he was. As soon as they were off the plane the word would spread, the speculation would start, nosy eyes and ears would be on them. His thoughts went round and round. Up until now, he’d pretty much kept his business life separated from his private life. The guys hadn’t met Chloe nor had he wanted them to. They knew Holly. If he wanted her … and he did, and in fact had reached an agreement with her on this flight, he wouldn’t be able to keep her for years in the limelight. He decided then and there, if…and that was a definite ’if’, things worked out and there were compatible, he would give her the honor of asking her to marry him. Perhaps he would do that. Yes he would.

He relaxed completely and would have drifted off to sleep but a new chain of though drifted into his beleaguered over thinking brain.

There were things left to do. One was pleasurable and to be anticipated, the second a duty that could not be avoided. That settled in his mind, the pathway clear, he was asleep in less than two minutes.

I am hoping there is more Yvette I really am enjoying this and am surprised I have never seen it before.. You have a outstanding way of telling a story.


Please More soon.


Laura

CHAPTER 8
THE FLIGHT HOME

Morning didn’t arrive soon enough. Flying had become routine for the band, but also boring. Even with Holly sleeping quietly beside him, Urs was eager to start putting his plans into action.

The wakeup call came when they landed back in London. It was a cloudy day which was not a surprise, but there was no rain. A car for Il divo was on the tarmac waiting to take the singers where they wished to go. A luxury bus waited for the remainder of the group.

Meanwhile the rest of the guys got their back packs and assorted items down from the overhead, all the while conscious of Holly sleeping beside Urs. He shook her gently. She came awake instantly with no confusion. She knew where they were.

After unfastening her seat belt, she started to get up to go back to her own seat he was sure but he stopped her with a hand on her elbow. “Wait a moment, and I’ll get your things for you.” She looked deeply into his eyes. He seemed calm and resolute. She smiled up into his face and he returned it. She got the feeling that had they not been surrounded, he would have kissed her lips.

Shortly after they all piled out of the plane, Urs and Holly together; he carrying his baggage and hers too. He didn’t let her go to the bus but directed her to follow him and then touched her arm indicating that she was to stay and ride with him and the other guys.

Since he was carrying both their gear, when they walked over to the vehicle he motioned for her to get in first. This she did and he came in next to her indicating that she was to sit next to the window. This forced Sebastien to sit next to Urs instead of placing Holly between the two men per the norm. David and Carlos squeezed into the front next to the driver. After that there was silence in the car and though they must have been curious, not a word was said to indicate so.

Holly learned that the four guys lived in four flats situated next to each other. Urs said that they were identical in order to convey the idea that everyone of the group was equal to the other. She presumed that the other arrangements mainly financial were also divided equally.

When the limo dropped them off at their flats, the normal routine would have been to perhaps wave in the direction of each other and be off to take up whatever they did when not together. Today, as an indication that things were different, each man said goodbye to Urs and to Holly, but didn’t leave to walk to their apartments. They waited, pretending to chit chat, interested in seeing if the two here headed into Urs door.

They were.

Once they were inside, out of sight of the other’s eyes, Holland couldn’t wait. “What are you doing? You have just broadcast to the world that we are… something and I thought we were going to wait.”

“I know that, but I have been thinking. There is no use or need to hide ourselves away like criminals. I would be only a matter of time until we’re found out anyway. Are you moving in with me or shall I come to your place?” Speechless, she just stared at him. “Look,” he continued. “I only have another week off; I will be back at work next week and out of the country for two to four months after that. I want to spend time with you and get to know you.”

These developments made her quite happy, so happy that she stood on tiptoe and kissed him on the cheek. You won’t be sorry. I will make you happy I just know it.” She rubbed the spot that she had kissed affectionately. “And I have no doubt that I will make you happy too he countered. “I hope that it takes more than my agreeing to move in with you to do that. You must learn to value yourself and see yourself as I see you.”

Without lingering they drove to her place in his car; they found that all of the fresh foods were now stale so they set out to shop together. Holly couldn’t believe how easy it had been. She didn’t know that Urs had merely reversed plans that he had had for her before she became a part of Il Divo. She had no way of knowing that he was as much attracted to her as she was to him.

At an open stalled market they found all that they needed of fresh fruit, vegetables and produce then headed for home where they together busied themselves putting the things that they’d bought in the refrigerator and pantry. Urs had to feel his way around but the place was small. It only took opening a cabinet door a couple of times until it became clear.

It was only a little after noon. “What do we do now? Holly asked after they were through. After that six hour flight I need to shower. I only have one, would you get in first or shall I go ahead?

Urs took this as a good sign. ‘Maybe just maybe she was on the same page that he was’. “I’ll watch the TV, we’ve been out of contact for a week and I want to catch up on the news. Be my guest.”

As Holly showered, she was very nervous. Apartments in London, unlike many in the USA tend to be smaller. Hers consisted of a spacious living room into which the front door opened; a kitchen that one could see from the front door even though it was to the right of the living room. The bedroom that had a queen sized bed and one bathroom that though remodeled was small. It was certainly large enough to meet her needs while in London but she didn’t know about two people. There would be no place for privacy or to hide out. She would be in sight when she left the bathroom if he looked in from the living room. While in the bathroom she brushed and flossed, wrapped herself in a thirsty towel, put her hair in another, took a deep breath and stepped into the bedroom.

Of course he was not in the living room or lounge as he called it. Urs was already in the bedroom. He’d stripped to his jeans, feet bare and was waiting for her to finish. He had a knockout body, a muscular chest with a patch of dark hair and abs to die for. As if sensing her self-consciousness he didn’t waste time though, he went didn’t make a big production of her in the towel but went straight away into the shower and stuck his head out in just a few minutes. “Look in my pack and get my razor and shaving crème will you Holly?” He then closed the door again while she rummaged around, found the items and going to the door, cracked it to hand them to him. He was visible through a wall of steam, nude, with a really beautiful body. She could have reached into the tiny room and given him a pinch but she restrained herself.

By the time he came out, neat, and clean-shaven, she was dressed in sweats and a T-shirt and waiting for him in the living room. He threw on some sweats and a t-shirt, padded barefoot to where she was and there they sat, uncomfortable with the newness of it all. She flipped on the TV and after watching it for a while Urs then drifted off to sleep. She sat and watched him sleep; hardly believing that he was here, on her sofa, fast asleep. She looked at his feet, feet that nicely matched his hands. Nice, slender, but not too slender, a little square compared to hers. She wanted to touch him to see if he needed a sheet or some other cover. His breaths were deep and slow and relaxed. She decided to start something for them to eat. She was getting hungry and thought that perhaps he was too.

While he slept she prepared oven stuffed pork chops with mashed potatoes and a simple salad. She didn’t even stop to wonder if he ate pork or if she should have made pasta or something less heavy. She liked to cook and most men, she knew, liked to eat. She didn’t think he’d be that particular unless Chloe had been a gourmet cook and if she was, the Holly knew that she’d just have to learn.

The smell of food woke him and he came to life when he discovered that lunch was almost out of the oven. He praised her thoughtfulness and when they sat to eat, all traces of awkwardness passed.

They had a nice meal. Wine loosened them both and the fruit and cheese with a little coffee after the meal seemed to go over well. The cheese was Holly’s idea of how the European’s did it. She later learned that Urs could down chocolate cake with the best of them. They had fun and they laughed a good deal throughout. He told her about the time when he was little more than a teenager and his mother expected him to stay at home with her when he came to visit. He didn’t get too far into the story when she interrupted. “You didn’t live with your parents when you were a young man?”

“I said that I was little more than a teenager. That meant I was 20, 21 or so. I lived away at the Lucerne School of Music or sometime with my older brother if it was break time. But I did come home occasionally to see my mother and she wanted me to sit in the house with her and watch her knit, I guess. I told her that she should have had all girls if that is what she wanted.”
“I think it is just semantics in America if we say someone is little more than a teenager, it means that one is really a teenager.”

“Are you sure that you’re not making it up as you go?” he teased.

“I don’t know, it’s entirely possible that I am getting a little creative.” She laughed.

He helped her put the dishes in the dishes washer; while she wiped down the counter he straightened the table. She hated to think about how he had acquired his housekeeping skills. She was reminded that he had lived with Chloe for a number of years. When they had finished she asked him what he would like to do next. It was still daylight, afternoon in fact. He surprised and dismayed her by saying, “I really would like to go to the bedroom, get in bed and have a little fun under the sheets.”

“But…”

“No buts. You have said that you would try to get to know me and I to know you. I think a part of that is learning to trust me. I won’t cause you any harm. What’s this? Your little pulse is jumping out of your neck and I only mentioned the word bed.” and he reached out to touch the madly pounding beat.

“But” she picked up where she had left off. “We said that we would get to know each other before we had intercourse.”

“Nothing has changed. We can have an intimate relationship without having intercourse.”

“What’ll we do?” She had the look of one going to the guillotine.

“I think in your mother’s day it was called something else but today it is called ’I did not have sex with that woman.’” he teased.

“They said that Monica was under the table in the oval office on her knees. If you think that I am going…”

“Shhh he cut her off. You don’t have to do anything, anything that you don’t want to do. Except you must put forth effort by going in that room and trying something with me, that is what you agreed to do. Have you changed your mind?”

She had not. It was just that for her, it was easier to talk about what she would do hypothetically, than to actually do them.

Seeing her willing to move forward he continued. “I don’t know what we’ll do. Do you remember our song, “Every time I look at you?” Do you remember what you said to us when you were explaining how that song could be interpreted? I think, just like the song says, you’ll have to lead me through tonight and teach me what you like.”

“How can I lead you when I don’t know exactly, I mean I know, in theory but I don’t know in reality” How can I lead you?”

“You’ll see.”

“It’s too quiet; shall we put the TV on?”

He shook his head no. Looking as if she had been asked to walk off a cliff she headed for the bedroom and after checking to make sure that the lock was on the front door, he followed her in.

“I need to close those blinds to block out the daylight.” Her voice shook a little in spite of herself.

“Yes, close them.” He waited patiently until she had closed the last one then he swooped, picked her up and dropped her onto the bed. She bounced and came after him with a pillow. They got into a wrestling match for the pillow, tore the bed up, and left both of them laughing and a bit breathless. Her hair was all over her head and so was his. This was the Toni that she remembered. She was also a lot less nervous. And then he kissed her.

It was a soft whisper of a kiss that caused her to catch her breath. This was their first real kiss. The kiss on the cheek that she had given him didn’t count. Thereafter followed so many kisses, some soft, some deep and searching some mere plucks, there were so many that she stopped feeling self-conscious and answered him with her tongue and even softly with her teeth. He had the most delicious mouth; she could not resist sucking and licking his lips along with his tongue. After what seemed like forever, he began removing her clothes. He was so close to her she didn’t feel any distance so she still didn’t become self-conscious. It seemed as natural as breathing. When everything was off, the T-shirt, the sweats, the underpants, the bra, he pulled the cover that was so much in disarray over her and she grasped it gratefully as if it were her security blanket.

While he stood to take his clothes off he watched her with eyes that seemed dark and inscrutable. His eyes had always seemed a little slanted to her, as if he had Siberian blood, now they seemed more so. His cheekbones slashed his face causing him to look stark and beautiful, like, she imagined, an angel would. He didn’t turn to shield himself from her eyes. When he stood before her in full frontal nudity she felt her eyes drift shut. He truly was too beautiful to behold. Then he came onto the bed beside her warm, heavy and scorching with his heat. He smelled of soap and clean linen. She clasped him to her breast but he gently pushed her back so that he could have access to her body. The drug like kisses began again but this time, he soon moved his mouth to her collar bone near her chest, then down and near her breast, around them, he licked between them, he placed each breast in his hand in turn as if to weigh its density and size.


She squirmed, praying that he would touch the tips for they were crying out for his hand or his lips to just make contact with them. But he ignored them until she was forced to take his hand, place it directly over her nipple and bring his forefinger and thumb together in a satisfying squeeze. That felt so delightful; she let out a long sigh. He chuckled deep in his throat and said. “That my sweet liebling is how I want you to always let me know what you want. How’s this?” and his mouth replaced his hand. She caught her breath and braced herself. It was almost too much to be borne. As he continued his manipulation of her breasts, she grew more and more restless and agitated until she crescendoed. She couldn’t have contained herself if her life depended upon it. She screamed out his name. She thought that she startled him because he raised his head to look at her with surprise. He held her while she shivered and trembled. He felt in the area of her heart. It was pounding, by now it was dusk dark so he turned on the light and could see her flushed face and chest. She let him do all of this. She felt limp and spent so she lay there with her eyes closed and allowed her breathing to return to normal.

“That was for real. You weren’t pretending were you? Are you wet?” he was already reaching under her piece of protective sheet to see for himself.”

She tried to close her legs against him but she couldn’t keep him away. “Oh please don’t touch me there, you‘ll make it start again.” she pleaded but he did touch her and the touch sent her into another tumult of feeling.

“Oh professor, you are so easy.” He sounded pleased. His voice contained a smile.

“I don’t know why you should be happy. I am the one who should be overjoyed. I did it. I am a normal woman aren’t I?”

“I have never known a woman who could be brought to climax with just kisses to her breasts. Never. That’s not normal but it’s nothing to complain about. Perhaps I will have to ask…”

“Don’t you dare ask anybody! Not a soul. Or if you do, make it someone who doesn’t know me and is unlikely ever to know me.” She laughed. I would become the laughingstock of London and probably New York too.

“I’d never mention this about you. Someone would try to steal you away from me. I’d have guys lined up on the street waiting for you to come out of the house so they could take you away.” They continued to talk and laugh as lovers do until finally she grew sleepy. She remarked that he seemed wide awake and he answered sardonically, “Guess why?”

“Oh, we forgot about you! Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it. Tonight I can do anything.” And she felt that she could. Her voice was relaxed and her body limp as if she’d been in a hot tub too long.

“Just keep relaxing, I can take care of myself.” With that he got one of the towels from the bathroom and placed his now aching member between her legs but outside her body and began to move. “Are you protected?” He asked her as he was just beginning to grow a little breathless. Protected from what?” he narrowed his eyes and she laughed, “never mind, I know I am not that naïve, I started to ask you…”

“Don’t talk now.” This he whispered; his voice both deep and raspy. Moments later he let out a long blissful sigh and a groan and promptly closed his eyes went to sleep.

Ironically, Holly remembered an interview with some silly women’s group with just David and Urs from IL Divo, and one of the women asked if they liked to cuddle. David had attempted to answer while Urs stayed quite silent. She knew he was like that. He was too private to answer questions about what he did in bed. Anyway, David struggled on while Urs had tried to mask some interior mirth. Holly now thought ’I could answer that question for them now’. She lay there, having her own amusement because she was in bed with him…unbelievable.

A few moments later she found that she was mistaken. For he woke up again, holding her dearly as if she were precious to him. For the first time she could now understand why women who didn’t even enjoy having sex would do this because men, at least this man became vulnerable to her very soft and very tender in a way that he hadn’t before and it was a wonderful thing.

They spent the whole of the week almost always in bed; yet in spite of that, they did not truly consummate the relationship. Not that she knew that she was perfectly adequate as a woman, more than adequate he would say, her goals had changed. She now said that she was adamant that she save that last step for her husband and she refused flat out to do oral sex. “No. That too is for my husband.” stubborn wench she could be easily. Urs argument was what difference did it make she was now a virgin in name only. “If your future husband had any way to know what you’ve done here with me, I don’t think he would make a distinction. Do you think he would say, ‘Oh that’s all right, I am so glad that you saved this little piece of yourself for me?’ No, he’d want to kick my ass.” But she would not be moved. On their last day before they were to go back to work he said to her. “It is a good thing that non-penetrating conception is a very rare think or we might find ourselves with a little junior band member running around singing “Mama.”

Holly had been spent most of her life in school had never heard anyone say that this was possible. In fact, she was shocked. “What do you mean very rare?” I don’t see how that is possible.” He had soothed her by saying for all intents and purposes it is impossible. “There was one movie, and it happened to a little fifteen year old girl, she and her boyfriend got carried away and she was still a virgin, had a hymen and all but she was pregnant. That hymen was the only thing that kept her dad from disowning her. He thought it was a miracle from God, just like The Virgin Birth.”

OK i am caught up again and Yvette I am totally confused they didn't do oral or anything so are they really in love and will they move forward to a real relationship.. I think if they ever get pass the ideas she has they would make a great couple..


Laura


MORE PLEASE!!!!!!!

CHAPTER 9
How is Chloe?


Back in New York, Violet, Holly’s mother was worried about her. Holly had no idea of her mother’s sentiments and if she had she would have thought that mother’s are always worried. Violet had not received another email from Holly since the original one when she’d up and announced that she was packing up and moving to London. Then she’d received a short note from her daughter letting Violet know that she had arrived, had a small apartment and that she was well and happy. There had been no phone number where she could reach her, just the address. Then, she had received that last note from Holly, saying that she was traveling to Dubai with a band and in that letter she had enclosed a key to her apartment.

After that last piece of news which was frightening to Violet, right away she called Holly’s friend Brenda the nice woman that she met the last time Holly had come home.

Brenda tried to sooth Violet, saying that the band was perfectly respectable, that Holly had a legitimate job with them but the more Violet heard, the more concerned she became. Especially when Brenda said that they were four men, all in their early thirties.

Violet cornered her husband one day and demanded that he stop his unrealistic thinking that consisted of giving her platitudes such as ‘all is well darling’ and ‘Holly has a good head on her shoulders’. Who knew what a woman would do in search of a man? She put her foot down and demanded that he help her determine a course of action to insure that her daughter was truly OK.

She had spent most of her life worrying about her gifted daughter. Her husband thought she was too protective. She knew her daughter still needed her guidance. For a while she had relaxed, Holly was working at a conservative and respected University, even though it was far away in California, Holly was living the small town life.

Her peace was shattered when she heard that Holly had been hit by a car and fast upon that news she heard about the pedophile Jeffery, the boyfriend that Holly was having an affair with. She would have sworn that Holly had more sense that to date a loser such as he but she hadn’t.

She had not met Jeff but Violet imagined that as a college professor he was or at least appeared upstanding. Even so, Holly should have seen through him. All of that was cause for her to fret. Now Holly had moved to London and to work for four Romeo’s. Would she have any better sense in this situation? Violet thought not.

She had gone on line and looked the group IL Divo up right after she received Holly’s letter announcing her new job. They looked like temptation for her daughter – and most likely it would be the other way too, Holly would be temptation for them. She was too sweet, pretty and innocent to be around worldly wise bachelors with the ability to have women any place in the world. She hadn’t spent her life protecting her children, especially Holland to have all that intelligence wasted on some Euro trash that would break her heart and then discard her before a year was out.

After she talked told him how she really felt, Violet’s husband William agreed with her and together they decided to send Holland’s brother to check on her. Later that same day when she had talked to her son on the phone she had said, “You know that your sister is independent, and thinks that she knows it all so don’t go over there and let her know why you’re really there. Just spend some time with her, see if things are going ok and if not, see if you can talk her into coming home before she takes up with one of her single employers. I don’t want her hooked on drugs or living that kind of life.”

And so it came to pass that Edward (Rambo) Blair, who made his living in music videos home based in Atlanta established a link in London so that he could combine his work with checking on his younger sister. In one week he was ready to go after the key to Holly’s apartment arrived overnight sent courtesy of their mother.

Ram Blair had more faith in his younger sister than their mother did. He knew her to be bright and resourceful. After her debacle with the professor they had talked a few times specifically about how he had duped her and he had been glad to hear that in a way, she had been using him too. It had been a convenient relationship rather than a romantic one although it seemed that neither party had acknowledged it as such.

Ram was a man’s man meaning that he could drink with the best of them, if called upon to do so. However on his own he almost never took more than an occasional beer. He and his sister Holly were almost diametric opposites. Holly had a PhD. He could spell PhD but he had had a hard time making it though high school.

It was a lucky break fate placed him in a field that he loved and it had been good to him.

Additionally, where Holly was small and petite, he was a bruiser. He sometimes wondered where he had come from. Neither parent was over five ten but he was about six two but weighed well into the two hundreds. If he had not resembled their dad in so many ways he would have suspected their mother of stepping out on dad. Whenever that thought flicked through his mind he had to smile. Mom was the original straight arrow. He supposed that was why Holly was so… well, he’d be nice and say that was why she was such a late bloomer, that and keeping her head in books day and night.

No, he wasn’t worried about Holly, he knew her for a good girl. But at eight years her senior, and being one himself, he did know men. When his mother had told him that Holly was working for a band, the alarm bells rang loudly and he decided, unusual for him, to agree with their mother that he’d better get over there and check on Holly Holly.
***



Back in London, in the middle of the week, out of the blue it seemed, Urs informed Holly that he had to find Chloe his ex and close things out with her. They had their first argument over this pronouncement. They didn’t exactly have a full blown argument but Holland let him know that she didn’t want him to go after her.

“She left you Urs, not the other way around. If you’re not happy with me and want her back you should let me know.” She had not meant for that to sound as needy as it had when it left her mouth. She did not think that he wanted Chloe back. She knew that he was pleased with her but she also knew that what they had was only weeks old and he had had years, five to be exact with Chloe. She thought that sentimental reasons might be causing him to reconsider.

He had answered her in a way that seemed sincere to her. “Finding her has nothing to do with you. She and I are through, but I owe it to make sure that she is all right. If she’s living in Zurich Canton with a man that she met on a bus, I want to know that she is safe and not in any danger. Wouldn’t you want me to do the same for you?”

Even though all that he said sounded reasonable, Holland was still sullen, so she answered “And what will you do if she is in danger, bring her to live with us?”

“I hope you’re being facetious. Of course I wouldn’t bring her here. On the other hand, I could always set up a harem and bring a girl from every town that we appear. How would that suit you?”

She realized that she was being a pain and that brought her around. “Now look who’s being an ass hole. If you decide to set it up, the harem I mean, just make sure you leave enough of yourself for me, enough to meet my needs and I need a lot.” She was in a teasing mood again in a flash.

“I like the sound of that.” He started towards her and she put up her hand to stop him. “When do you leave, and more importantly, when will you return?”

He had already thought it out evidently. “We have less than a week left before the tour, so I had better go tomorrow, I’ll get a flight to Switzerland. I estimate that it will take me another day to find her; my sister most likely has an address and phone number for her. I’ll call her up and if I’m lucky I’ll be able to see her for lunch. Then I’ll come back to where she and I lived in France, close out our apartment, let it out or see if someone in the family needs it and then I’ll be back here.”

“You’re worried aren’t you? Why? Is there something that you aren’t telling me; what are you thinking?”

“I think she’s impulsive. She just might have pulled some stunt to try to control me and is now unhappy because it backfired. I didn’t come after her to bring her back home.”

“She’d run off with another man to get you to come for her? That seems extreme to me.”

“She might. She’s had a hard time adjusting to the changes. We met before I got this job so we had a couple of years of life when I was on the opera circuit. She got used to the slower pace. I was home most evenings’ we had a normal life then the call came that Cowell wanted me in the band.”

“You had to move out of your home didn’t you, and leave her there?”

Yes. She and I were living in Holland. That was when we made the move to headquarters in London. She could have come with me but she didn’t want to do that. It would be in essence her giving up her life for mine” she said. “She would not leave her girlfriends, her work, everything to follow me. And then after that I started touring where I was out of the country for long stretches of time. She made the decision to go back home to Lille in France and I came to her during my off time. This we did for a couple of years although my time there grew shorter and less frequent.”

“Could she have come on tour with you?”

“If we had married she could have. Without being married, or having some legitimate job, the Visa’s into the various countries are too hard to get, more so since this was after the bombings in the US and Spain. She said that she would not place ’camp follower’ on her Visa as reason for being there.” his smile was a bit sad Holly thought.

“Then, why didn’t you marry her?”

He thought for a while and then said, “She was just not the right woman for my new life. It was too hard on her. She is basically a small town person, as are you, but the difference is that she couldn’t stand; I mean she detested my profession. If I could stay in the studio and record with no audience she would have loved it but…”

“But it was the crowds?”

“But it was the women. She didn’t believe that I could resist them. She couldn’t see that any smiles and winks and comments were a part of the routine. She would watch a video clip and see me wink at someone out there, she didn’t know or care who, and she would become insecure. I tried to show her several clips of different shows to let her see that the gestures, the flowers the winks were always the same no matter who occupied what seat in the audience. But she wouldn’t accept that the recipient was many different women, not just one. We traveled from Hong Kong to Australia and she wanted to interrogate me whenever I came back to France to our apartment. She didn’t want me out of her sight while there because she thought I may have brought a woman with me and set her up in an apartment.”

“And you do have the finances to do that so it’s not unreasonable for her to suspect it. But it sounds as if she has been badly deceived and hurt before.”

“Yes, I had the finances. For the first time in our relationship I could have done that without even knowing that the funds were going out. That was a second problem that we had never dealt with, money. I didn’t ask her to marry because I could see problems on the horizon. I thought deep in my heart that we would eventually get a divorce. I was starting to resent her carping, but was trying to stick it out. But I knew if we did divorce, it would not be the simple thing that it would have been before IL Divo. Most likely we would have been tied up in court for years.”

“So here we are you and I. You are trying it with me, another small town girl. What makes you think that I will be any different?”

“You’re different already. You’re a transplanted small town girl. You grew up in New York City, and that’s the least small town one can get. But like I said, you’re different already.” When she looked askance at him he continued. “I don’t want to talk about Chloe to you and I hope that you can appreciate that. But…I will say this once. Her small town mentality carried over into our bed. You are a whole lot freer.”

“But you and I have never really…”

“I more than anyone I know knows that, but I can tell, after one time with you, I could tell. You make me very happy Holly.”

“You won’t give me any details about you and Chloe will you?”

“That wouldn’t be wise. You might be free and open and liberal but I think that if I told you details, no matter how innocuous, you wouldn’t like it. I know I don’t want to hear any details about you and another man.

“I don’t have any details.”

“If you had details, and I’m pleased that you don’t, I wouldn’t want to hear them. And, if you every get any details that don’t include me, don’t tell me because I know myself well enough, I would get angry and want to kill the SOB.”

“But Urs think of it this way. If I knew what went wrong with you and her maybe that would help us.”

“Nope, I don’t think so. Knowing what she wouldn’t do will not help you to do it. Besides, I’m not a fool.” He smiled.

He left the next morning.

The expected three days passed, he didn’t come back. He didn’t show on the fourth or fifth days. The sixth day was the day that they were to leave on tour. Holly thought that he wouldn’t be irresponsible and miss their flight so she packed his travel bag, his toiletries, underclothes, jeans and t-shirts, a book and his guitar. These things she took to work with her in anticipation that he had to show up before time to fly.

They were starting this leg of the tour in their own plane; they would fly to the farthermost stop and slowly make their way back towards London over a four-month period. She was feeling down because most of the staff had guessed or perceived that he was visiting his ex, she thought that they were looking at her when they thought she wasn’t looking, perhaps in pity, perhaps in curiosity. Most of them knew about the week she had let Urs spend in her home.

On their first day back Kelley had pulled her aside and told her that it was buzzing all over the building. They’re saying, “Urs and Holly were seen going in and coming out of her flat several times over the week.” Kelley’s only advice had been “Be careful Holly. I hope that you know what you are doing.” Kelley had then changed the subject and nothing more was said.

He showed up about ten minutes before the final window for takeoff. Holly had gone to the metro airport when all she had wanted was to run away. She felt ashamed. Had she been played? He could have at least called her. His mobile had been turned off, she knew because she had checked it.

He came rushing, driving his car like mad to make the deadline, he jumped out of the car, ran over to Holly, grabbed his gear, kissed her on the mouth and whispered, “I’ll explain later. I’ll call you. Thanks for looking out for me and getting my things here.” He started to board, remembered his keys and tossed them back to her. She wondered if the Il Divo folk would be able to disguise the long scratch on his face with makeup.

She had managed to only drive his car to her place, and park it when he called from the plane. “I’ve missed you Holly girl.” was how he started. In spite of her feelings of turmoil, she was glad to hear his voice.

“That’s good to know. I wondered, especially when you didn’t call for six days.” She then remembered that he hadn’t called Chloe for a period of… she thought he had said eight days, and that was what caused their final breakup. She willfully reined in her anger. She didn’t want to ruin what they had, if anything, by being overly jealous.

He continued. “I apologize for not calling. But… I was out of pocket. I found Chloe. We went to the mountains, got a cabin and stayed there. I was trying to talk some sense into her.”

“What was the problem, was she angry with you, irrational? What?”

“Well, you know, she still blames me for what happened. She thinks that if I loved her I should have come after her. There was no other man, I suspected as much although my sister thought that there was. Irma, my sister, didn’t know that Chloe was lying. When I first heard about the guy, I was supposed to come find her, be her knight in shining armor and declare my love. From her point of view I failed her miserably. I think she thought that I would be so sorry that she almost got away that I would… I don’t know… maybe she wanted me to quit the band and the life that I live would go back to the way it used to be.”

“Tell me, did she try to convince you to stay, try to get you back?”

He knew what she was asking. “I didn’t sleep with her and that’s the truth.”

Holly took a deep breath. “So, how did you come to have that scratch mark on your face?”

“Usually women that you sleep with leave scratch marks on your back, not your face Holly. When none of her tricks worked, and nothing she could say made me say that I would stay, as you can imagine, she became incensed. I had to hold her down so that there wouldn’t be too much damage for me to make the tour. Before I left her, I think that she had reconciled herself to ‘us’ being over.”

“You don’t think that she will hurt herself do you?”

“I was worried about that. I couldn’t leave her alone so I took her back to her parents, took her inside. They were angry with me too. I had never let them know about our problems over the years, about her manipulations, so they think, no they believe what she has told them, that I made it to the big time and want to get rid of her for a new trophy woman.” He lowered his voice even more. “I hate to admit this but a part of me is glad that it turned out like this. And her parents are partly right. She was a sweet girl as long as things went her way but she turned inflexible. She wouldn’t admit to herself that I enjoy what I do. She never supposed that I would chose this life over her.”

“Is it over?”

“Yes completely. One of my cousins is in our old apartment. Chloe is home with her parents until she decides to leave. But no matter what, she and I are through. I did leave a sum of money with her father just because I feel responsible for bringing her back on them when I’m positive they thought we’d marry. Maybe that was to soothe my conscience because I feel a little guilty about wanting to get out. Look, this plane is no place to be having a personal conversation. When we get to the hotel sometime late tonight, I’ll call you, so get some rest early so that we can talk ok?”

CHAPTER 10
AWAY FROM HOME


Back in New York, Violet, Holland’s mother had just answered the telephone. It was Ram Blair, Holly’s brother calling to say that there was a delay. His boss had another job for him to do before he’d release him to travel to the UK. Violet was disappointed he wouldn’t be able to go over to London as soon as he thought. As fate would have it, he would not arrive before April. April was just the time that Urs current tour would end. So, it only remained to be seen which man would arrive at Holly’s apartment first.

In London, Holly carried on with her work. She found that true to his word, Urs called her just about every night. That meant that it was usually day time on his side of the world. One evening he asked her to follow their performances on the IL Divo.com web site and let him know how they were doing. It seemed that within sometimes three hours after the performance some diligent fan would post a song or two from their repertoire.

She watched these clips closely. She loved “Si Tu me Amas” and Urs pure voice. The fans loved it to for when he sang that stanza they cheered and he gave a smile, even thought he had to keep singing. A few lines later in the song when David and Carlos were singing a part as a duet, Urs closed his eyes and looked as if he was trying to absorb the beautiful sounds. It was so beautiful that tears came to her eyes. Later she looked at the result of a poll taken by the fans that asked, “What first attracted you to IL Divo Style, Voice or Looks? Eighty three percent said it was the voice. She agreed. When she talked to him next she asked him about that moment of the song.

“We frequently get carried away by our own music. It is a gift that we can give to the world and to ourselves. We, alone, do not have the sound. We were surprised as Simon was when he heard the take of our first track. We were blown away by the sound. But no… at that moment actually, I was thinking of you. I was wondering how I would stand to be away from you for two more months.”

“I miss you a lot too. I know that we haven’t been together for long, but the short time we had was heaven for me. I didn’t want it to end.”

“It doesn’t have to end. Why don’t you and I make it official and get married?” He finally spoke what had been on his mind since they got together.

“Oh My God! Are you kidding with me Urs? You really want me to be your wife? Do you remember on the plane when I even mentioned the subject as a possibility for the future you almost parachuted out? What has happened to you? Are you that homesick?”

“Not at all. I do miss you but I am not homesick. The road is now my home. All I need is for you to be here with me, and the only way you can do that is as my wife. Do you think you can stand to be a part of the life that I live?”

“Well, I hope you don’t want a wife just so you can have a female traveling companion. Why do you want a wife?”

“I don’t just want a wife, I want you; only you. I wanted you long before you approached me but I didn’t have the balls to take a risk for you. But you did. And for that I am glad. I have been thinking and you are probably the perfect woman for me. You are close enough to our beginning and your knowledge of music assures that you won’t look up to me like I am some kind of super hero. By the way have you seen those other clips on You Tube? All that ’Massive Seduction, Swiss Lord crap? Our fans, God bless them, take clips from everything and everywhere and put together the most embarrassing pictures and set them to music.”

“Is that why you are always careful to make sure that your coat is closed over your lap when you sit down on stage?”

“You noticed huh? Yeah… Ummm yeah. It’s a necessity else they’d take a picture of just my crotch and put it on the Internet. As it is, they whisper ’left” or ’right” about each one of us. You know what that means don’t you? “

“Left or right? They could be talking about whether each of you are a lefty or right handed but I doubt it is anything that tame.”

“Give it some thought, you’re so smart, it will come to you. What about the idea of marriage? Are you going to say yes?”

“Urs, I don’t know anything about you. I need to know how you think. What marriage means to you. What about children, finances, travel. Honesty. Where we would stay? I need to know all of that.”

“Whoa, we will get to that. We can take it one at a time. I’ve got two more months before I come back. But if we can work it out… Will you say yes?”

“You still didn’t say why you wanted to marry me. Holly the woman, not Holland the professor or the musician.”

He was quiet while he thought for a while. Holly too was silent knowing him well enough to know that he would speak when he was ready. “I could say that I am madly in love with you but I don’t know if I am or not. I know that I like you a lot. I like you in my bed a lot. If you had experience, you would know how good we are and will be together. But the main reason is that I need stability in my life. Being a Swiss, we are pretty regimented. With this new life, I find that everything about my life is movable. I need one thing that I can count on. A North Star, a constant, you would be my true north. My home would then be wherever you are. That is probably the biggest reason. And that is as honest as I can be.”

“What about all the things I mentioned, you know, getting to know each other better?”

“If I commit to call you daily will you promise that you will make a list of everything that you feel we need to discuss and we will take the time to go through every item. If we can reach agreement on most of them, will you say yes?”

“I will say yes, provided the thing that we cannot agree on is not a deal breaker. If we reach an impasse on one of those items, then my yes will turn into no because I will take it seriously and consider that we are doing this for life, not just until we run into hard times.”

“Place a star next to the things that you cannot compromise on and I will do the same. But go ahead and plan our wedding in your head. I think we will be getting married in May or possibly June. It has to come when we have down time.”

After they hung up, she thought about all that they had said. If he wanted to marry her, then she had better let him know that while he was with his Chloe; she had gone out with Sebastien. For some reason he had a jealous streak when it came to Seb.

True to his word Urs called her on a daily basis. He fell into the habit of calling her after his performances, so, quite often, she had to adjust to the time change from his point of view. If it happened to be daytime in her world, and she was at work, she locked her office door and closed the blinds. “Isn’t your voice tired?” she asked him the next time they talked. He had laughed; his voice mellow and told her that he was used to singing. He had done it for over fifteen years and knew how to protect his voice.

“Do you gargle your throat before you go to bed or something like that?”

“No, I don’t have to do anything in particular unless I feel a cold coming on, then I do. “

“I always taught my students that they had to protect their voices because it is their instrument, perhaps I overemphasized that point.” She was killing time she knew, leading up to telling him about Seb.

“Just like all body parts, I think, as we get older, we do have to be more careful. We were taught that vocal cords become more fragile and we should one day have to limit the amount of exposure that we give them. But now, there’s nothing about my body that I have to limit. I can still walk, run and do just about anything that I like, except I don’t like to dance in public, when I am on the stage I mean.”

“I saw you moving the other night. All of you seem to be loosening up a bit. David, in Wales, he really can move. I always think of him as the shy one, but he is becoming more like the rest of you I think.” He had laughed at that. And said, “Moving a little bit to the beauty of the music is not dancing. David is starting to grow up a bit; I think he will one day be the showman.”

“Back to limiting yourself” she interrupted. “You should be limiting yourself to you know what.”

“No. I do not ‘know what’. I want to hear you say it.” At her silence he filled in the words that were on her mind but she was too inhibited to say. “Phone sex with you and my hand? Is that what you are trying to get out with all the tripping over your tongue?”

She couldn’t keep up this bantering. She blurted it out. “While you were gone to Switzerland with your ex, I want out with Sebastien. Did he mention it to you?”

The light teasing note left his voice as if it had never been there. “You had a date with the Frenchmen? Why’d you do that? I warned you…”
“No. He didn’t come on to me. I asked him, and it was just for coffee Urs. We met for a couple of hours over on Bond Street by the river and we talked, that’s all. I just thought I should tell you after that last phone call where you and I are talking about marriage one day, I should tell you especially since you seem super sensitive to him.”

“So you called him huh? Were you trying to hedge your bet, thinking that I would return reconciled with Chloe and you didn’t want to be alone? Was that it? Tell me because I’m trying to learn how you think. I mean you flirted with him at work, and now you call him.”

“That’s exactly what I am trying to do, learn how you think too. I thought that your friend would be able to tell me if you are a person who is basically honest and one that keeps his word.”

“He doesn’t know the answer to that. How a man keeps his word with other men and how he keeps it with a woman are two different things didn’t you know that?” What did Seb say?”

“He said that you were a straight up guy. That you always keep your word and that you herd them around like Father Benedict, one of his old parish priests. Was he correct?”

He laughed at that. “I am pretty time conscious. I hate to be late, and so, we have a reputation for being reliable. Since none of us are drunkards or dope heads, it is pretty easy to keep our commitments. Now there are some of us, who will forever remain nameless, like to stay out clubbing until all hours of the night. That might be what he means by ’herding’. I’ll give you a little tip though. We just don’t tell on each other. Even if I was the most corrupt guy of the group I don’t think he would tell you. Granted, he might give you some vague warning, like ’be careful’ but no, we know too much about each other… in retaliation I might tell on him. Minding our own business is how we remain friends. But you’re sure, you’re certain that he didn’t hit on you?”

“Yes. I am certain. Why are you so suspicious of him?”

“We’ve always had this competitive thing going. I’ll tell you about it someday but not now.”

“Do you want me to still stay away from the others? You know the thing about them thinking I would have an affair with one of them because I had one with you?”

“When you make the decision that we are going to marry, and I tell them, then you are completely safe from them and with them. You could travel anywhere in the world alone with any one of them. They will treat you with the respect that they would treat their mothers. That Holly is the difference between being a girlfriend and a wife. That is how European men think at least. David too, though he is American, is honorable. He would never trespass.”

“It really is a man’s world still. I wonder when women will have the same options.”

“I guess from your point of view men still rule the roost so to speak. You know, I listen to blues music sometime too just because I like the quaint lyrics. The other day I heard this song by an American singer named Bland, and the name of his song was ‘I don’t allow no kicking in my stall.’ That was hilarious to me.”

“What did you find funny in that?”

“That was his way of saying that he owns that piece of property…whatever it is. Men have to have these rules because we will fight each other and even kill over a woman. With women it’s different. You women might have a few words, but you are pretty harmless to each other. When women start respecting each other, in spite of the relative low level of threat, you will have a better time of it.”

“If women adopt the unwritten rule that men have and stay away from each other’s husbands like men stay away from each other’s wives and girl….

“Wives. The rule generally does not apply nearly as strictly to girlfriends for lots of reasons and in a way women probably brought that on themselves too. But yes, when a woman’s friend is married, if she is a true friend, she does not come on to her husband. That mean’s she doesn’t flirt, be coy or look at her friend’s husband as anything but completely out of bounds. When that happens, when women respect other women, you will all be better off and we men will not have such an easy time manipulating and playing you off one against the other.”

“So, if I allow your friends to talk to me they think that I am inconstant?”

“Not just talk, if you are a little too friendly. As of now they probably have not formed an opinion but might just check you out to see if you are willing to be inconstant. What you may call casual banter, especially if it is of a sexual nature they will see it in an entirely different way. The natural attraction is there. You’re good looking, it is impossible for them not to be attracted to you. But because none of these things are ever put into words, a man will not know the difference between a true signal and an empty one. If he is attracted to a woman, and he almost always is, he will test the waters.”

“I have thought over the conversation that I had with Sebastien when we were out, and I don’t think I sent him any signals at all the other evening. I was funny and laughed a lot and he did too, but I didn’t flirt.”

“I don’t think you sent any signals either because he still has a lot of respect for you. When he talks about you he says that you are a real lady and he has taken on the role of your champion, cautioning me not to fool around with your feelings too much. If he was after you, he’d make snide remarks about you. That is just the kind of guy that he is. Are you getting sleepy yet?”

“I am still wide awake but if you’re tired, we can let go.”

“I can tell you how to make yourself sleepy if you like.”

“And I can tell by the change in your voice that this is something unspeakable. Goodnight.” And she rang off with a smile on her face.

The next night he was all business. “So”, he began. “have you had enough time to make your list of things we need to know about each other?”

“I made it ten minutes after we talked about it.”

“Why hadn’t you started talking about it? This is serious business.”

“It’s pretty comprehensive. I didn’t want to frighten you away.”

“I’m not going anywhere. We agreed to work together to compromise until we came to a bottom line item, and when it is a bottom line item, we should let the other know so that if at all possible we can work it out.”

“Yes, I agree with that. Well, my first item is children.” Which of course was not strictly true. The first item was fidelity, but she knew that one couldn’t get the truth out of a potential cheater by asking. It was almost guaranteed that the answer would be a lie. “Do you want any, do you have any? How many do you want?”

“The answers to those three questions are yes, no, and I don’t know. I hadn’t really thought about it. Now that I am thinking, I would say not many. My mother had five, which was good in that day but not now I think. Perhaps one of each, and if we have two of each whether boys or girls, we have one more to try to break the tie, and if the tie isn’t broken and we end up with three of one kind, we stop trying. Of course my vote doesn’t count as much as yours in this instance since I won’t be their mother, I won’t have to carry them, and I won’t have to give birth to them, So I will defer to you. What are you thinking?”

“If you had to give birth to them we’d have none. Seriously, my brother and I, I wish I had a sister, he wishes he had a brother but that would have meant four children in the family and my parents both worked all of their lives. I think we should go with you suggestion, but reserve the option of more if they are exceptionally smart and pretty children.”

“How could they not be with you as their mother?” Now that I think about it, planning on having no children would have been a deal breaker for me. Its different if one cannot, then there are always other options if one wants to pursue them. What’s next on the list?”

“Where will we live? My folk are in New York, yours are in Lucerne, I don’t know if we can be near both our families.”

“We can’t. But we can travel anywhere in the world at any time. If you want to live near your mother its fine with me.”

“I don’t know. My mother would love for us to live in New York, but that place is not the best place for children. I’m thinking that we should have a home in Switzerland, someplace quiet and then visit my parents once or twice a year, or allow them to come to visit us. Do you think that your mom and sisters will accept me?” They must have been quite attached to Chloe, especially if everyone expected that you’d marry her.”

“After they get to know you, it will be fine. Anyway if they don’t like you so what, you are marrying me not any of them.”

“I just asked because I think it’s important that the two families become like one family. I would like to become as comfortable being around your mother as I am around my own. I would like for you, if you are performing in New York and I am not with you, to feel the desire to visit my parents just as you would if I were with you.” She stopped for a few seconds and then continued. “I would like to get married in your home town. Did you worship there?”

When Urs heard her speak of where she would like to get married, he knew that she had already said ’yes’ in her mind. He didn’t indicate his thoughts just yet. Instead he answered her question. “It has been a long time since I was in church in my home town. I was singing religious music in Holland for almost eight years before. But it has been a long time since I was in our little church in Willisau. It was too small to host an operatic company.

“I would have to see, it, but I think that is what I would like.”

“We’re gonna do it then.”

Yes. I think we are, but I would still like to know about finances before completely saying yes. I make a good salary with IL Divo, but yours dwarfs mine. Are you thinking that we should have a prenuptial agreement?” This she decided to introduce into the conversation as a way of letting him know that she wasn’t a gold digger.

He seemed pleased that she had brought it up first. “I don’t know, I honestly don’t know. That was one of the reasons why I didn’t marry Chloe. I thought that we couldn’t last. This I held deep in my heart and tried to forget but, the thought was there. To me marriage means for the rest of our lives. But for it to last both of us must be committed to creating the elements that make it last. It is not about happiness, in other words, if we stay in it only as long as we are happy then we will divorce. We are guaranteed at some time over the years to become unhappy about something. I would like it if we decided that divorce is not an option as long as one of us doesn’t become abusive. Even then we should try counseling.”

“Sounds like no pre-nup.”

“Not if you can tolerate my lifestyle. You know that reporters are always on the lookout for something to write about. Some of the rags that are into sensational writings are not above manufacturing news, they crop pictures, change the context of perfectly innocent words to make something out of nothing. So you must have some faith in me. I frequently will take a picture with a fan. But if you see me escorting some lone woman somewhere like into a hotel, or into a restaurant or anything else untoward, know that it is a fabrication. Either I was tricked or someone tampered with the picture. If some woman says that I hit on her, or tried to take her out, that too is a lie. What you see me do on stage is true. I enjoy the applause, I enjoy the smiles, I like to smile back but it is forgotten as soon as the show is over.”

“Well, I don’t know about escorting a woman into a hotel, you took me into your room back in New York after the show, remember, not that you had any intention of doing anything with me.”

“I didn’t have any before the show but once I saw you, I already had a little bit of intention, but after David and Brenda were with us, I had to let the idea go. Besides I was single then. I know, I had a girlfriend and I kept reminding myself of that and it worked. I restrained myself. Seriously,” he continued, “you should have your own financial accounts If you don’t have as much as I do, I will subsidize you up to the point where we both have an agreed upon amount of free money. We will also need a household account from which we both can buy things that we need for the household. But I want you to be free to do anything that you like, within reason.”

“Hmmm. Within reason. What kind of things would you consider not within reason?”

He had a ready answer. “Any addiction. Like to alcohol, drugs, gambling. You are allowed to be addicted to sex as long as it is with me. Also, you will need to learn the law of Switzerland regarding marriage and inheritance. They are mostly fair but they are a little different from the states.

She wasn’t too concerned about inheritance at this point in her life. “That’s all I have on the list…. but Oh! I forgot. Will I ever be allowed to travel with you?”

“Sure. Allowed is not the right word to use. You can go on any one that you choose. Where I can go, you can go. There is nothing to hide. What makes you think that you’re not welcome?”

“Carlos is married and I’ve never met his wife. I thought that perhaps your image would suffer if you made it known…”

“That you and I are attached. We have never hid it. David has a girlfriend and he doesn’t deny her. I never denied Chloe, although I saw no need to reveal my personal life to every news hound that asked, but I think that is a Swiss thing. Sebastien, well he has someone that he is deeply enamored of but he doesn’t know if it will work because of the travel so he’s not too anxious to make an announcement yet. Carlos’ new wife goes with us sometimes but she has her own career. When they married she had contractual agreements. She is a singer in her own right in an ongoing stage show. When that is finished, she will join him for as long as she desires. Our careers are based on our music not our sex appeal.”

“But, you must admit, the group is nice to look at.”

“Every performer has a persona, even if it is to look bad. We thought that dressing in Armani would fit the type music that we sing. It worked. Now, if some of the more vocal fans lose interest because we are all old married men, they were living in an illusion anyway. There never were enough of us to go around anyway…” he laughed “It is all just a romantic fantasy I think, this type of thinking can continue regardless to what goes on in the real world.

“Meaning?”

“Meaning, if a young lady or an older one for that matter or even a man had the idea that we would meet, fall in love at one of those concerts she could change her fantasy to meeting, falling in love, I would get divorced and she and I would then remarry. It is all unrealistic. And then she goes home, falls into bed with her real lover and forgets about IL Divo until the next concert.”

One night during one of their long talks he reminded her that in less than a week they would be together again. He said that he would never go away again without pictures of her because he had forgotten how she looked.

“If I had know that, I could have emailed you some. What kind of fiancé are you that you don’t even remember how I look?”

“I know, tacky of me to admit it. I see girls in the audience who have hair color similar to yours, another will have a figure similar to yours, but none of them have your beautiful face, body or hair all in the same package.”

“When you come home, I suppose we will need to let your folk know and then start planning the wedding.”

“I warn you, the chapel in Lucerne is small. Only holds around one hundred people, maybe two hundred. I don’t remember. So if you want it there, it will have to be small. You may not like it but I have already told the guys. I couldn’t keep the news to myself and I made them promise not to leak it to the news until we announced it. They are very happy for us by the way. They all want to be my best man. I might have to make a hard decision about whom I will choose. Most likely it will be my brother. But two of the Divo’s can escort my two unmarried sisters.”

“And if Carlos comes, I want to invite his wife too. Perhaps if he is in the wedding party, she can be also.”

“I’ll ask Carlos to find out when she is available and we can plan around her since we haven’t yet set the date.”

Very Interesting but I am afraid the brother will cause problems for the couple and that is ashame.. At least I hope he don't.. I think they would make a great couple even if they aren't head over heels in love YET!!!!

I really think they are falling hard for each other..


Please tell mom to stop the worrying and let Holly live her own life..


Laura


More Soon Yvette.

CHAPTER 11
THE HOMECOMING

The long awaited day finally arrived. Being separated was new to Holly especially so soon after ‘they had found each other’ as she liked to think of their relationship. After being apart from him for four months and a week and counting every second including the week he spent with Chloe, finally, finally, Urs would be home in the afternoon. Il Divo had worked right up until Saturday night when the tour ended.
Most likely he’d be tired as he would have flown during last night and the morning.

Since it was on a Sunday, Holly was off from work and if she had not been off she would have taken it off.

She spent the morning making a Yucatan dish, new to her, that she saw on a cooking program.

The recipe started with a topping of pumpkin seeds ground in the blender with a small amount of lime juice added, topped with a few sprigs of cilantro. This she put aside while she made the main portion which consisted of layers of chopped beef alternated with a special cheese cooked in medium sized individual bowls. Next she retrieved the pumpkin mixture, added to the pottage a blend of ground onions, yellow Mexican tomatoes, home grown red tomatoes and peppers.

There; she was done. Her dinner looked delicious and she thought that even though it would be spicy it would be scrumptious.

After baking the dishes for about an hour over the bowls she poured a sauce made from the beef drippings, vinegar and flour that had been thickened into a white sauce that actually was greenish when finished.

The cook on the program was an American who went from country to country trying the best recipes that he could find that were special for that particular country. He had promised that this dish would be tasty but it was not in the style that she used to. The bottom line was that she wondered if it was a bit much and if Urs would like it. She had wanted something different from the usual beef roasts or chicken or fish menus. She was pleased that she had accomplished this.

‘It would be what it would be she thought’ thinking that this philosophy had served her well in the past.

Contented with her efforts, she set the bowls aside to cool and prepared a salad and a big welcome home cake.

She then showered and changed into shorts, to show off her prefab tan, and a low cut sleeveless shirt that she thought looked nice on her. She took a quick look at the clock, figured that she had just enough time to run out for ice cream to go with the cake and left the house in a hurry.
+++

Holly had just driven off when Ram Blair, her brother arrived by cab straight from his flight over from the states. He was tired and had the sour disposition to prove it. It had been a bumpy ride and at best, he was not at home in the air. He planned to spend the night with Holly and then get his own place, perhaps a hotel for a few days and then an apartment for the month or two that he would be here in London. He had worked out working arrangements that suited him and were profitable but he had a few days breathing space before delving in to that. The first few days he would devote to visiting his sister, making sure she wasn’t getting in over her head so that he could report to their mother that all was well.

He knocked on the door but when there was no answer, he let himself into the flat with the key that his mother had given him. He was pleasantly surprised to find comfortable arrangements that looked homey and best of the best there was warm food on the stove, enough to feed an army, so he grabbed a bowl of the stuff, sat down at the table and commenced to chomp away.

He had been mildly skeptical of Holly Holly’s cooking at first, he had never seen anything that looked remotely liked the bits and pieces in the bowls but after the first bite or two he grinned. This ‘stuff’ was hitting the spot. ‘Now’, he thought, ‘I’ll have a piece of that good-looking cake.’ That he did recognize along with Holly’s less than perfect decorating that said ‘Welcome home!’ It was almost as if Holly had known he was coming. Had their mother told her? But no, she couldn’t have. She had grumbled because she didn’t even have the phone number.

Another five minutes passed as Ram chewed and hummed all the while tapping his foot to a song that wouldn’t leave his head. He finished his cake and prepareded to really look around, but before he could get far Urs drove up. Ram heard the car but thought it was Holly. He returned to the kitchen to watch her enter the door. He thought that he’d surprise her. He really needed to find out how she knew to expect him. He smiled. Knowing his sister, she’d probably try to convince him that she was psychic.

Meanwhile, Urs parked the car and unsuspectingly let himself in with his own key. He had seen that Holly’s car was not at home and so he thought himself alone as he threw his pack on the sofa and made to kick off his boots. Sometimes one can sense someone before they see them, and so it was with Urs. Surprised, he turned in the direction of the stranger.

He judged him to be around thirty-five, taller and heavier than he with dark red hair in a ruddy face. He had learned a long time ago to size up the level of threat and it took only a second to determine that this man would be, if anything, no more than a nuisance and not a true threat.

The intruder was not a thief. In spite of his size, Urs thought he could take him but, Urs quickly saw, if looks could kill, the way the guy was looking at him, Urs would have died on the spot.

“Who are you?” Urs asked him, smiling a little suspecting that there was a resemblance to his Holly in the man’s coloring. Therefore he was not really concerned. It was obvious that the man was making himself at home, the empty bowl and crumbs on the table attested to the fact that the visitor/ guest was comfortable enough to eat Holly’s food.

Urs noted that the stranger was still sullen in spite of Urs friendly overture to him and when the man spoke for the first time saying in a voice that Urs recognized as possessive; “My sister isn’t here. What are you doing coming in here with a key?”

Ah. Holly’s brother. And it had not escaped the brother’s notice that Urs had a key. But before Urs could formulate an explanation, Holly flew through the door. She took a running leap and jumped on Urs with her shorts clad legs wrapped tightly around his waist. The force of her body hitting his knocked him back to the sofa where she followed him down, planting kisses all over his face and unloosing his hair from its queue as was her habit.

Urs was trying to get up and at the same time get her legs back to the floor but she wasn’t having any of it. She planted herself on his lap and held on. He tried whispering “Your brother is here, “but she couldn’t hear him because she was whispering how much she had missed him and how glad she was to see him.
He hated to end her show of affection, really he did but he was not used to having a voyeur, especially an angry bear-looking man peering in on their lovemaking. He took her arms which were around his neck, her hands which were on his face and forced them back down to her side. That got her attention. Then he said exaggeratedly mouthing the words, “Listen to me…Your brother is here. He’s in the kitchen.”

Holly broke off kissing him on his strong smooth neck long enough to really look at him and listen to what he was saying. “What are you babbling aboutUrs? My brother can’t be here. He’s in Atlanta.”

Urs used his eyes to look significantly towards the kitchen table, perfectly visible no more than a few meters from them. The brother was now standing, looking like thunder. His ire seemingly turned towards his sister. Meanwhile, Holly removed herself from Urs lap and hurried into the kitchen to greet him grinning and crying “Edward … Ram… I’m so glad…”

But Edward was having none of it. He held out his hand to stop her approach so that he could lecture her. “What do you mean Holly, running in here dressed like a whore and acting like a little slut…”


He got no further; Urs came around the two of them and grabbed Edward in the shirtfront and pulled Edward to him in spite of his superior weight and height. “I don’t care who you are, you don’t come in here and talk to this woman like that. I will make your regret the day you were born.”

Holly had never seen Urs really angry before, he usually seemed like a pretty sweet guy. He didn’t look sweet now. She remembered that for hundreds of years the Swiss hired themselves out as mercenaries all over Europe. She could believe that some of that blood now flowed in Urs.

“Edward Blair, what is wrong with you?” She pushed past Urs, who let him go. She continued in a softer vein. “What kind of impression are you giving? Let me talk to him Urs, he won’t hurt me.” Then to Edward again “You call yourself offended just because I kissed the guy that I love? When you have been sleeping with women, having girlfriends making no attempts to hide what you are doing from our parents and that was when you still lived at home. There’s no telling what you’ve gotten yourself into in Atlanta. How dare you call me names! You are the one who acts like a whore and a slut too.” She worked herself into a fine lather as she rounded on her brother.

Urs looked back over his shoulder at the man and removed himself from the kitchen to the living room. In spite of his words, he understood the brother’s position completely. He too had a younger sister and he would have been just as protective of her.

Holly then lowered her voice after that so Urs couldn’t really tell what was being said. Fortunately for him, the brother calmed down too so Urs flipped on the TV to allow the two some privacy but he also kept an ear out for rising tempers.

In the ensuing minutes nothing more than a few serious words were spoken, no threats were issued; no voices were raised in argument.

“Our parents are the ones that sent me to see about you so don’t talk to me about what they know I do. It’s different a man that’s all. They’re worried about you Holly. They’re worried about just the sort of setup that I find you in. Here you are shacking up with some Euro bum.”

“Shhh. He’s not a bum. He sings,” Holly shushed him, hoping that Urs would not hear Edward call him a bum. She definitely did not want the two men to come to blows.

“Just like I thought it’s just like the other Euro gigolos running around living off women while pretending they’re trying to be discovered. Any day now, I suppose he is telling you, he’s going to become rich and famous! Holly, I thought you of all people were smarter than that. “

“It’s not like that Edward. He’s not deceiving me. He’s really good.”

She saw her brother’s lips move and mouth ’they all say that’ before she cut him off. “Here listen to one of his CD’s and she walked over to the shelf, pressed the button to her MP3 player and fit the earplugs into his ears. He listened and she watched him as his ears registered the song, surprise on his face and then disappointment. He jerked the earplugs out of his ears. “That’s IL Divo. He’s trying to pass himself off to you as one of those guys.” There was laughter as well as pity in his voice. “They’re opera singers that came together and now sing pop. If he was going to lie to you he should have picked group that was less well known. Or, maybe it’s you trying to fool me, so that I’ll get off your case. Is that it Holly?” You forget I’m in the music business too. I know how those guys look and that guy in there on your sofa in those torn Goodwill looking jeans and that fuzzy pony tail is not a Divo by a long shot.”

Holly felt like the people who long time ago had tried to convince others that there had been a landing on the moon and they just wouldn’t believe it “Urs“, she called into the living room. “Do you think that you can convince the others to come over for dinner on short notice before all of this food gets cold?”

“Is your brother ok?” Urs eyed him coolly not wanting to have guests over when there was discord in the family.

“Yes. He’s ok but I would like for him to meet them before they scatter to who knows where. Come over here Edward, if you won’t believe your ears, perhaps you will believe your eyes.” Into the DVD player she placed “Il Divo: Live at the Greek. Soon there they were the four of them singing Regresa a mi on the large screen. Urs also paused on his quest to make the requested phone calls to look with them. As they continued singing Edward turned to Urs speaking to him directly for the first time since the argument. “That guy there“ and he pointed to the Urs on the screen, that‘s you?”

Not one to hold grudges Urs laughed and said, “It’s amazing what a designer suit and shoes will do for a man.” He also had to pull his hair back off his face before Edward truly recognized that they were one and the same.

“Wow, remind me to get myself a suit too.” Was all that Edward said then but later in the kitchen with Urs out of earshot he still had more to say to his sister. “So he’s not Euro trash, but he’s still European and those guys have women like they’re going out of style.”

“And American men don’t? It’s like the Arab men said when the men from the US got on them about a human rights issue, that of having more than one wife. The Arabs shot back that you in the US have more than one wife too but instead of making them a wife you call them secretaries, assistants and the like and keep them hidden away.”

“No matter that; that guy is out of your league. So be very careful. He can get a hundred women just like you. Don’t be fooled.”

“What happened to your objections to my ‘shacking’ with him? Does the fact that he’s well off and well known make it ok for me to associate with him?”

“If you are going to be with somebody, and at your age you probably are, it might as well be someone who can do something for you. That guy has class and urbanity and at least he can develop you rather than bring you down.”

“He’s going to do more than ‘develop’ me; he’s going to marry me.”

“Don’t be unrealistic in your expectations Holly. Why would he marry you when he can have his pick?”

“Thank you. I think you’re great too brother.”

“I didn’t say that you aren’t great. I’m your brother and I know you and love you. But you’ll have to admit you’re green. You’ll have to grow up a lot before you’ll be ready for him.”

“Then I’ll have to grow faster than you think. We’ve already set the date and we’re picking out our rings tomorrow. We’re going back to Switzerland for the wedding next month. I’m hoping that now that you’re here you will stay and that Mom and Dad will come over.”

About that time Carlos, David and Sebastien arrived, were cordial to Edward and they congratulated Urs on getting Holly to consent to marry him. They then sang her praises to her brother, how helpful she was and that she was an integral and necessary part of the organization. “Urs is our ‘choirboy’, our morals police. He’s always trying to keep us on the straight and narrow.” David offered.

“It’s a full time job.” Urs added and both Carlos and Seb had laughed.

They ate the meal like there was no tomorrow but only after Urs ran down the block to get some cold beer. Carlos said that wonderful Spanish food from South America, similar to the Spanish of Europe but spicier just had to be eaten while drinking cold beer.

Later on that evening the five men decided to go to the local pub to have a last few rounds before calling it a night. Holly declined Urs cursory invitation to go with them. She thought she’s let them have a night with her brother and she needed time to figure out what she was going to do with him for the night. She had been away from her lover for months but her apartment was too small. With a brother on the couch, even though they weren’t ’going all the way’ it didn’t much matter. They were still sleeping together and he would hear whatever they did. She decided that she’d just have to go home with her fiancé tonight. This place was too small for any modicum of privacy.

But that was not to be. Urs dropped her brother off and kept going only to call her back a few minutes later to say “We have to respect your brother. He’s not going to take kindly to me picking up his sister and taking her off somewhere for any length of time, even though we are engaged and he will surely know. It’s better not to sneak around. If it were my sister, I would want her to keep herself at home. So that’s how it will be for now. I’ll pick you up in the morning. Can Edward make his own breakfast? Good. We’ll go out and have breakfast and then go straight to the jewelers.”

The next day Holly chose a Marquis cut five carat diamond which she thought was a nice size but not ostentatious while he chose a simple gold band. That done, she returned home looked at her watch and knew that in the states Brenda would be home from work, went into the bedroom to call Brenda, leaving Urs and Edward to go to a chop shop to look at motorcycles.

”Hello Bren; I’ve been neglecting you I know but I have been really busy.” This she said all the while examining her new engagement ring.

“Is everything going ok with you, the job? How was the trip to that Arab country? Brenda pronounced it A-rab even though she knew better. I know that you called to tell me that you made it back safely but we never got a chance to really talk about how it went.”

“That was a good trip, a good trip Bren. Actually it was better than good. I took your advice and told Urs how I felt; I call Toni Urs since that’s what everyone else calls him.”

“Well, I knew that you wanted him remember? You put your big girl panties on huh? How did it go?”

“Great. After I put on my big girl panties I had to show my behind.” She laughed. “Actually it went better than great. We’re getting married next month and I want you to get some time off and come over to be my maid of honor.”

“Get out. You’re kidding me. For real? How did you get him to propose?”

“Oh a little of this; a little of that. You know.”

“Humm. That sexy handsome vampire’s been biting your neck huh?”

“Not my neck exactly.”

“Whooo, this gets better and better. So you’ve gone from being Miss Snow White to wearing a scarlet letter?”

“Not that either, at least not exactly.”

“Just tell me then. Curiosity is getting the better of me. Finger sex?”

“Well…”

“Oral sex?” Brenda whispered

“No! I don’t do that. I don’t even know how?”

“What do you mean ’you don’t know how‘, you mean you don’t know how to do him?”

“Oh don’t even go there Brenda. My face is burning up just…” she took a breath. Just to talk about something like that is outrageous.”

“If you say so. You and I are the original misfit friends Hol. I don’t know why we get along so well together but if you insist… if you can’t bear to say it out loud, then I’ll just have to say it in code then girlfriend. I believe that where there is a will there is a way, besides, this is something that you need to know for your own good.” Brenda was silent for a moment while she composed her thoughts Holly supposed, then she started in again. “Let’s say that women are number 1, men are number 2 and together the together are the number 3. How’s that?”

“That’s better. My face is cooler already. Numbers I can handle. I want to see how you make sense of this subject using just three numbers. If you can, you are a genius. Be my guest.”

“Good. It’s less personal this way. First of all, ones don’t have to worry because there’s no ’know how’ involved. Two’s like it anyway they can get it and whatever you do is fine with them. And, if it’s not fine, two’s are not shy about letting you know what they want. And if ones don’t provide it, there won’t be any number three for long. It’s really quite simple Holly.”

“Are you kidding? You can’t really believe that?” Deep down inside Holly felt something akin to pity for her friend; that she was so … cynical but on the other hand she didn’t want to hurt her feelings so she sought to soothe her. “Its good information Bren but I cannot imagine initiating something like that and believe it or not, I already told him that I would not and it’s never been an issue.”

“Don’t go resting on your laurels girl. It’s not an issue because you are so new to each other. It will become an issue down the road. As your friend, and as a woman who has had more experience than I would ever admit to, if you get asked or even pointed in that direction, don’t go all prudish because it will eventually cost you your man, sooner or later. Now tell me more about this wedding of yours. Since you want me to come over to London, are you going to a reception hall, a church or what? I haven’t been inside a church in so long I doubt that I can find the door.”

Holly welcomed a change of subject and said, “I want you to come to Switzerland.” and they then talked at length about the wedding. After Holly and signed off with Brenda, Holly lifted the phone to call her mother but decided to write instead after they had set the absolute date. That way there would not be so many questions to answer. She was sure that Ram would give her mother the bare necessities anyway.

She had no sooner clicked off on the phone when it rang again. It was Urs.

“I’ve just been on the phone with Brenda. Where are you and Edward?” Holly asked.

“We’re at a shop. He’s out front looking at a Val Kyrie 6000. I miss you.”

“Well, I miss you too; you’re the one who made the rule that it would be disrespectful for us to spend time alone together at your place while he is in town.”

“I’ve changed my mind. Your brother will just have to adjust. Why don’t you drive on over to my place about six and wait for me there? That way, he won’t know for sure where you’ve gone. He and I shouldn’t be out too much longer.”

When he walked into his apartment she was waiting for him with a smile on her face. He walked over and just kissed her and kissed her for a long while. With the door closed, they shut out the world. This was the welcome they should have be able to give each other before. There was no one in their world but the two of them. He picked her up, encouraging her to wrap her legs around him as they had been when interrupted by the presence of her brother. He was strong and powerful and she squeezed his muscular arms and rubbed her face against his chest all attesting to his strength and symmetry. She reached to lose her fingers in his long hair.

“Let’s go shower together.” he whispered. She was still a bit shy so she told him to go ahead; she had just showered before she came over. When he came out wrapped in nothing but a towel slung low on his waist, he told her that he wanted to make love to her. “I think we have fooled around enough. The time is right. I need you. I’ll perish if I don’t.”

She was speechless. She spoke the first thing that came into her mind. “No. It is important that I…that we wait…”

For the first time he got cross with her. If not angry, at least he was not pleased. “I don’t understand you. What difference can it possibly make whether it’s tonight or next month? Don’t you love me? Do you doubt that I love you? This is not the dark ages Holly.” and he walked around to the other side of the bed. “I should have left you in your own bed tonight.”

When she followed him around and tried to placate him he put her arms down from around his neck. “No, I don’t want to kiss, I don’t want to cuddle.” and he smiled a little at that. The band had been asked this once in an interview in which he had nothing to say. Now, only the fact that he was innately a gentleman kept him from voicing his needs in a very blatant way. She would get used to him over time. For now, he’d leave her alone.

To her he said. “I am not going to force any woman to my will so we might as well try to get some sleep. Wake me up if I sleep too long. I’ll drive your car back and get a cab home. I want to get you home before its light outside.“ He left her standing there and climbed into bed with the towel still around him and turned his back to her.

‘Welcome to the real world’ she thought before she turned and went to his bureau, retrieved one of his finely woven shirts to sleep in. She undressed, put on the shirt, and climbed in next to him.

He turned and lay with his forearm across his eyes, but he swallowed often as if in frustration, and because he lay on his back, she could see that he had a whopper of an erection. She wondered how she could keep her ideal, the ideal that she had here to fore not known she’d had, to be a virgin bride, and still make her fiancé content.

She had been brave enough to approach him to get his regard initially, and that had worked out well for them both. Something told her that now was not the time to become a shrinking violet. Seeing to his well being was her duty and she just couldn’t put blinder on and ignore that responsibility if she was to be his wife. So she prepared herself to step out of her comfort zone. In theory she knew what to do and how it was done. She could give him relief in theory. Brenda had said that there was no wrong way and how difficult could it be?

She laid her hand on his bare chest, which was warm as usual. She suspected that he would ease her away from him but no, instead he sighed and pulled her down to him for a deep kiss and another and still more until she was on fire.

She felt him tense to flip her over for their usual pretend sex as she called it in her mind but she placed a staying hand on his chest. He looked at her questioningly and lay back to see what. Not wanting to give herself time to think she quickly kissed a line down his chest over his six pack abdomen and skimmed her hands around his waist and yanked the towel off. At the same time she gave him her most alluring smile. And there he was. He arose even higher completely involuntarily to greet her she thought.

He lay there looking down his Roman nose at her, glorious, powerful but there was also a sense of waiting, of being tremulous with perhaps hope or… no it was anticipation. When she engaged him and that was the only appropriate work to explain her actions, he gave a deep sigh and placed a caressing hand on the back of her head neither restraining her nor helping in any way.

She imitated him. She gave him the exact treatment that he gave her when he kissed her breasts. Some kisses were soft and caressing some rougher with suction. She did not use her teeth, although the temptation was there to do a few nips as he did her but not sure of what she was about she decided to forgo that. He felt like nothing that she had felt before perhaps a strange combination of that reminded her of a firm sponge if one could imagine such a thing.

She did realize early on that Brenda had been correct in her assessment of men. There was nothing, she thought, that she could do that he would find fault with at this moment. And, when she used her tongue, his sighs went to a quick and deep catch of his breath and then he was pushing her away merely to turn over onto his stomach. She did not allow this to stop her. From behind she held him and continued her handling of him until he was fully spent.

Silence pervaded the room as she laid, her body resting on his back and shoulders. She knew that he always drifted off but she also knew that he would soon wake, so she rested momentarily.

“Don’t tell me. That was compliments of your friend Brenda,” was all he said when he was back to his normal self which was good-natured.

“Yes, she said you’d like it.”

“You’ve been talking about me to her… I can’t approve of that. When I see her I’ll feel self conscious because I don’t know what has been said.” This was said lazily, a token protest only. She thought he couldn’t care less about what Brenda thought.

“Oh we don’t really talk about you. Everything we say is hypothetical. I have sense enough not to personalize our conversations. We talk about scenarios. What if’s and so on. Don’t guys talk about sex? I can’t help thinking that you do.”

He wasn’t through with the subject of Brenda. “Just how hypothetical can you be when she knows that you are marrying me? To whom else would all or you new found knowledge apply?”

“All right, I’ll tell you. She said that if I keep being repressed and inhibited, her words not mine, that I would lose whatever man I ended up with. I thought perhaps she might be right.”

“Here’s another way of looking at it. She’s alone and you aren’t. How much of an authority can she be? And for your information, men don’t talk about anything significant as you ladies seem to do. We do a lot of joking, probably to hide our insecurities. I remember playing cards with a group of friends, a mixed group by the way, women were present, one guy, he got a little drunk and one of the remarks he made was that women’s breasts don’t have anything to do with lovemaking. The women all literally almost fell out of their chairs and he didn’t know what they were laughing at. Do you think one of us guys pulled him aside and schooled him? No we didn’t. He has to learn that sort of thing from some woman and if he’s reached his thirties ignorant, he’s not likely to learn, or keep a woman with him for long either.

“No we aren’t helpful to each other. Also, we exaggerate our prowess shamefully, but it’s ok because we all know that most of what a guy says is overstated. It’s like a story about the size of the fish you caught. No one believes you anyway.”

‘What do you exaggerate about, how many women you’ve had and that sort of thing?”

“No. That’s juvenile. I’ll give you an example. There was an interview, in Switzerland and that girl who was interviewing us brought out this thing. It looked like a round plate made of wood and it had about a meter long pole attached to it and a belt and then she asked us to discover what it could be. Being men, you know what came to our minds right away but because we were in a public forum on the air, we had to act at least pseudo dignified, anyway, here is Sebastien trying it out in different positions, he tried putting it on his head but that didn’t work, the strap was too long to fit under his chin, then he strapped it around his waist and the pole stuck out sort of suggestive of a penis and Carlos said, in a low voice and using his heaviest Spanish accent ‘not there, it’s too small” or perhaps he said “not there, it’s not big enough’. And that thing was huge. We fell out, we didn’t think that the interviewee heard us but she might have. We snickered like schoolboys. That thing was over a eighteen inches long, perhaps two feet, and the funny thing about it if one listens to that interview, Carlos can be heard and understood…if one is listening for it.” He was laughing now. “Those are the kinds of things that we do. Make silly jokes like that.”
***
The date for the wedding was set for the end of the first week in June. That meant that Holly had about five weeks to prepare. Her first priority was meeting his mother then scouting out the church. The mother was first because she felt that she needed to form some kind of bond. She knew that mothers-in-law could be powerful enemies to have. It would be better if they could be, if not friends, at least two allies working to keep the man they both loved happy.

This is just the most unusual story, because there is so much planning and trying to work it out like a job instead of LOVE and a marriage.. Geez you two kiss and love each other not work on a list or try to be something you aren't..

Urs is one hot man and Holly needs to wake up and see she is the one who is marrying him..


More please..

Is This story Done Yvette??

Laura
ADMIN

There are probably two more chapters Laura. It is almost done.

CHAPTER 12
Meet the Family

A week later they went by rail to Switzerland. It wasn’t that they couldn’t have traveled faster or more conveniently; Holly wanted to sight see. They took the high speed train Euro star that travels under the English Channel to Paris. That took about two and one half hours. They then took another European Rail train to Switzerland then hired a car to go to Willisau.

They arrived at his parents’ home late just before dark but Holly felt satisfied that she had seen a good part of the European countryside. His parents’ home was lovely. In Europe more specifically in Switzerland because the climate is a bit colder than the states, the homes are more substantial. The houses seemed to be made mostly made of stone and if there was wood used in the making, it was heavy and dark. But inside his mother’s house, all was bright and cheery.

The kitchen was completely renovated. His mother had a chef’s stove that was stainless steel with seven burners, two ovens and a warming bin. There were other amenities all done out in stainless steel. There was a dishwasher, huge refrigerator, wine refrigerator, ample storage places for the utensils and plates. There was also a large eating space in the kitchen in addition to a large dining room nor far away with a built in buffet.

The bathrooms too were very modern. They even had the relatively new bowl vanity in all of the bathrooms. There were ample bedrooms too. Holly had made sure of that before they arrived. She informed him that there would be no hanky panky, not of any kind until after the wedding. He thought they were acting like teenagers but she said that it was important that they not be jaded with each other from too much familiarity.

“I don’t know why you think that will happen. Familiarity does not bring boredom.” he had groused; besides we haven’t yet made love. Not really.”

“How many times are you going to remind me of what I already know? There’s practically nothing left to be done. It will be a simple matter of you inserting your-know-what where. And that will be all there is to it. I am just a technical virgin you know but it is very important that that technicality is observed, since we have come so close. I‘d like to be able to tell my daughter that… well, let’s just say that this is important to me. ”

So, he had let it be known that they were not sleeping together until after the wedding.

His mother was a surprise to Holly. She must have been in her late fifties, but she didn’t look it. She was slender, wore fashionable clothing, in fact she had on a red pants suit and heels the evening when they met.

She was very cordial to Holly. Holly had been worried that she would be partial to his last love since they had been an item for such a long time. But it seemed that Urs was truly a man of the world. He hadn’t spent a lot of time with his parents; oh he kept in touch by phone often but he and Chloe hadn’t visited that often and when they did, they had gone about their business as a couple.

Over the next few days his mother was pleased to be involved in the plans for the wedding and was overjoyed when she heard that it would take place in Willisau. She was an excellent cook and when she found out that Holly was too, they spent hours in her exceptional kitchen cooking all kinds of delicious meals.

His sisters came by regularly; the two who were unmarried and the one who was married. They were ok. The older one who had been a friend to Chloe was a little more reserved as if she had made up her mind not to be too friendly, but that didn’t last long especially when they found that Hoolly had never met Chloe and had not really had anything to do with the breakup.

“I met your brother in a little town in the states about the size of Willisau. I ran out into the street, not looking and he hit me with his vehicle and then he had to go with me to the hospital and he ended up staying for a week until I was out of intensive care. After that, he kept in touch and ended up inviting me to New York city to a concert of his, but he didn’t recognize me because he saw me that evening for the first time without all of my bruises and swelling and my hair had finally grown out.

“So you didn’t meet him at that concert for the first time?” his mother had asked, “He made it sound like he had met this girl at a concert when he phoned and told me about you. ‘Holland’ he said your name was. I confess I was a little worried. You never know who you will meet at a concert.”

“You never know who you will run down with your car either.” and they all laughed.

“After that” Holly continued with the story, “I came to work for the IL Divo organization, we were friends, that was the extent of our relationship until I heard he was free. I still do and plan to keep working after we are married. The three other guys are all nice and easy to work with, of course Urs is the best” she had smiled. But they make good bosses.”

“Is Urs really your boss?” Caroline the younger sister who was about twenty had asked.

“No, not exactly; but because they are the singers without whom there would be no IL Divo, their opinion always outweighs everyone else’s but they also have contracts that are binding. They cannot for instance decide that they will not sing and just stop before a certain date else they’ll get in legal trouble. Whereas my contract is not as binding.

“I like Sebastien. I met him when we all went to Zurich last year to a concert. We had a lot of fun. They all came back here and we had dinner. He has the nicest eyes.” Caroline sighed.

“I am inviting them all to the wedding again but I am inviting their girlfriends and Carlos’ wife. Will that bother you Caroline?”

“No, not at all. Urs had a girlfriend too for a long time but now he is marrying you. So until Sebastien is actually married, then I can hope that he’ll fall for me.” Lorna, Urs mother, smoothed her daughter’s dark hair. “Just don’t do anything around him that you will be embarrassed about later. Don’t go looking at him with calf’s eyes. He’s a good deal older than you are you know.

“Urs is a lot older than Holly isn’t he Holly?”

“I’m somewhat younger than he is. Urs is thirty five, so he has seven years on me.”

All three women exclaimed that they thought Holly was younger. Caroline said, “I thought you were around my age. You’re a lot older aren’t you?” She had the usual tact of a very young person.

I’m afraid that I have seven whole years on you. I am the same age as you are Irma. At least that is what Urs tells me.”

Lorna the mom added, “My age will forever remain unrevealed.”

“Oh mom, you’re fifty eight this year. You can’t be too young when Lars is thirty eight and Urs is thirty five. They’re both old men.”

“Lorna spoke to Holly. I had the two boys first and then we decided that we wanted a girl eight years later and so we had Irma and Sasha and then after that Caroline. Do you want children Holly?”

“I do, but probably not five. We have talked about two or three. We have this scheme if we have two of the same sex, then we’ll have a third. I think that is what we agreed on.” She brushed a crumb off of the smooth granite counter into the sink. “But, who knows. I suppose I should… and she looked at the two sisters wondering if she should bring this subject up in their presence and decided it was OK. “I suppose that since we are going to be married in less than three weeks, I should see a doctor here, about birth control pills?” Lorna had looked at her strangely and asked her daughters if she could talk to Holly alone. After they left she asked her “What have you been using if you’re not on birth control?”

Holly was now sorry that she had brought up the subject. “I haven’t used anything because I haven’t needed anything. We decided to wait, well, I decided to wait until after the wedding to, have sex and…”

“You’re a virgin then?”

“Not on purpose. I have just never fallen in love before now. We made it so close to the wedding, I asked him to wait a little longer that’s all. If he had said no and made it a deal breaker, I would have gone ahead but he didn’t.”

Lorna looked at her for a long while. “I think he probably loves you then. I am pleased to say that it is a joy to have a true bride. Most girls who wear white are just counterfeit.” Holly didn’t exactly agree with that assessment but she knew that many of that generation felt that way.
His mom continued. “I have nothing against it either way but when a young woman has been living with a man for years without the benefit of marriage, and then the two decide to make it legal, that does not inspire feelings of wonder , or” and she searched for another word… “feelings of newness I guess I could say. It’s just more of the same old thing. But a real bride, that is something to look forward to. But I must tell you Holly. If you were going to get on the pill, you should have already been on it for at least a month. You had better remind my son of that unless you want to start your family right away.”

The church was perfect. Small, intimate, and the minister was kind. He was a nice older gentleman with a heavy Swiss accent when he spoke English. Holly viewed the venue, approved it and promptly hired a wedding planner. She could afford it and if she couldn’t her husband-to-be could. After that, she had more time on her hands.

Hiring a wedding planner meant that she was on the receiving end. Rather than having to go out and find all of the various and sundry accompanying things she could wait until the wedding planner brought her samples, usually in groups of threes for her approval. For instance regarding flower choice, she offered her magnolias, roses or anthodium. Holly chose magnolias. For bouquet style there were samples of Posey, Round, Trailing. Holly chose round. And so forth.

They would take care of the planning of the catering, including hiring a catering manager, the wedding supplies, the wedding reception venue and provide a presence through the event starting the morning of the event for set up and clean up after. Still she found out that there were papers that she had to submit in order to be married there. Holly looked over the list which read:


‘There is a great deal of paper work that must be completed before one can marry in Switzerland. Here is a list of the required basic documents all of which will need to be translated either into French, German or Italian:
A valid 10 year passport
A full birth certificate
An affidavits / statutory declaration confirming single status also known as a Certificate of Celibacy
Decree Absolute (the final divorce paper, if applicable)
Death Certificate (if you are a widow or widower)
Change of Name Deed (required if you have changed your name)
Written consent from your parents or guardians (if either of you are under 18 years of age)
The future bride and bridegroom must submit an application for the Promise of Marriage at the Registry Office in the place where they intend to marry. The application is available from the Swiss Embassy in London must be completed by you both before the Registrar in Switzerland’

Fortunately, since neither Holly nor Urs had been married before, the paperwork was minimal.


More time on her hand was a good thing because her parents arrived a week early. Her mother, while pleased to hear that she was getting married, wanted to assure herself that Holly was marrying into a reputable family and not one that was seedy as well as dysfunctional to boot. So… the first few days were spent getting acquainted.

Her mother had been reassured after seeing Lorna and Theodore’s very traditional but upscale home. She was further assured when she actually met Urs and saw that he was very much a gentleman in the best sense of the word. He catered to her mom. And that pleased her to no end. Holly’s father teased him that he had gotten his brides mixed up and was he trying to take his wife away from him. All in all it was a very sociable and pleasant week as they looked over the town and took day trips into both Bern and Lucerne.

The wedding planner suggested that Holly and Urs hire a dance instructor for their first dance. That was the latest trend that couples were adopting. Both of them had thought she was joking at first but she insisted that this was a very important dance. It was their first as a couple and done before all the well wishers who were in the reception audience. After thinking if over for a few days, they decided that this was the only opportunity they would have to do a wedding dance so ok, they’d do it. And they did.

Brenda’s arrival caused a bit of a stir. They couldn’t understand why two completely opposite personalities such as Holly and Brenda would be friends. Yet the sisters loved Brenda. She was so outgoing and was glad to give them her world view on just about any and everything. And she loved to flirt with Urs brother and he loved flirting back. Both agreed that it could never go any further than that, they were too close to the bride and groom to have an affair but… if they had not been, perhaps they would have hit the sack together a time or two.

Holly’s wedding day dawned clear and bright as it was almost guaranteed to do in June. The church pews were decorated in pale pink and white flowers, and Holly wore the traditional something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. In her case, the blue garter that Lorna loaned to her fit three of the requisites and the new wedding gown fit the fourth.

Her gown was done in their favorite halter top that revealed her pretty arms and shoulders. The gown had a small but manageable train. On her head she wore a coronet of flowers which in Switzerland symbolized maidenhood from which her lace veil fell. After the wedding, the flowers and greenery of the coronet would be burned. If they burned quickly, that was an indication of a happy marriage.

She looked gorgeous from the top of her head to her white slippers. Her vows were said in solemn muted tones, most wished Holly would speak louder. Urs voice was strong and clear. The wedding kiss was chaste. Holly had insisted, and Urs agreed the altar was not a place for a show of passion. As they exchanged the kiss of peace, a sigh could be heard from the collective audience.

After the vows the picture taking session it was time to move on to the venue of the reception. The property was beautiful. An outside setting on a large patio what overlooked a mountain waterfall. There was copious greenery from the trees, the plants and the grass, the rushing sound of water from the waterfall and the sun in the sky. It was a heavenly place. All of their friends and family were there. The other Divos and their mates, their parents, siblings; It was a fairytale-like perfect day.

A braiser was brought out from the lodge early on for the burning of the coronet. Holly suspected that there was lighter fluid added because the thing burned like there was no tomorrow. Throughout the whole evening there was the smiling presence of a very happy bride and groom. After dining on sumptuous French Cuisine, Holly and Urs sang a duet. Most had never heard Holly sing, and she had a lovely voice. They sang “Every time I Look at you” the very song that Holly had interpreted for the guys when she first started working. They had asked if this song was a chick tune.

"Every Time I Look At You"

I used to think that I was strong
I realize now I was wrong
'Cause every time I see your face
My mind becomes an empty space
And with you lying next to me
Feels Like I can hardly breathe

I close my eyes
The moment I surrender to you
Let love be blind
Innocent and tenderly true
So lead me through tonight
But please turn out the light
'Cause I'm lost every time I look at you

And in the morning when you go
Wake me gently so I'll know
That loving you was not a dream
And whisper softly what it means to be with me
Then every moment we're apart
Will be a lifetime to my heart

I close my eyes
The moment I surrender to you
Let love be blind
Innocent and tenderly true
So lead me through tonight
But please, please turn out the light
'Cause I'm lost every time I look at you
Lost. Every time I look at you


Urs sang the first chorus “Please turn out he light” and Holly sang it the second time. When she sang “Lead me through tonight but please turn out the light,” Urs shook his head. The audience thought that hilarious.

They next danced their first dance as a couple. This was the dance they had practiced for; even so, Holly was nervous. The tune that she had chosen was:

"Dentro Un Altro Si"

Sai l'amore cambia in noi
Cambia forma e poi
Piano se ne va
Cosi rimaniamo qai
Indifesi noi
Persi e fragli
Noi che eravamo cosi simili
Senza paure senza limiti
Ma io lo ritroverò l'amore che non ho
Per le vie del mondo
Io ti ritroverò
Prima o poi cosi
Dentro un altro si
Io avrò la forza per
Trovare l'energia
Nella vita mia
Rinascerò da questi brividi
In territori vasti e liberi
Ed io ritoverò l'amore che non ho
Per le vie del mondo
Io ti ritroverò
Prima o poi così
Dentro un altro si
Io lo ritroverò l'amore che non ho
Io ti ritroverò
Prima o poi così
Prima o poi dentro un altro si


The melody was stately, almost starting like a march. And that is exactly how they danced it. Moving slowly in step with the tune. The dance master had thought that tune a good choice. The first dance, she said, should parody the wedding night. Slow and gently, with more energy put into the dance until it reached a crescendo then slowly easing into a relaxation to completing. It could easily mimic the courtship, the proposal and acceptance, wedding, or even more intimately the foreplay, coitus and climax followed by afterglow. Whichever analogy on preferred she had said, the dance should slowly build until it reached its apex and then slowly descend back to relaxation. For this couple and this song she chose to do it through the movement of the dress and a clever movement of the groom’s leg.

So... As the song progressed becoming ever more intense, they increased their movements swaying in a semi waltz until near the end Urs placed his leg out, a movement that forced Holly to almost straddle it. She had felt awkward when they had practiced and they both were in jeans, in their wedding finery, especially her bell shaped skirt it looked beautiful, not crude or brazen perhaps a little naughty, but refined audiences preferred just a touch of earthiness the master had assured them and it proved to be true. After that dance, for whatever, the men were waiting in line to give her husband a pat on the back. Old fashioned mastery was what that was about, but still, it was harmless male posturing and the women loved it too.

I love all the wedding and the songs I adore the guys they make any song they sing amazing ..


But where is the LOVE IN THIS STORY?? I don't hear either of them declaring their LOVE FOR EACH OTHER???

Urs is a wonderful Man and any woman marrying him should be head over heels in LOve with him.. He is a man that would bring out so much to love...

I hope this ends well.

Please Post what you have Yvette I can't wait for the rest.

Will you start posting some of your stuff from the UG too?? PLease??

LG
Admin

CHAPTER 13
A CHRISTMAS PRESENT IN JUNE

The new couple partied at their reception but soon, it seemed to Holly they were saying goodbye to all of the friends and family. Everyone had had a few drinks and so there was ribald humor to spare. Holly glanced at her mom and she was laughing right along with the rest.

They hadn’t divulged to anyone where they were going. Urs parents, at least his mother had tried to talk him into spending the first night in their home.

“Why would I want to do that mother?” he asked, at first thinking that she joked.

“In case Holly needs her mother or needs me, we will be here for her.”

“Why would she need either of you…women get laid…umhum it’s no big deal. If she needs anyone, I’ll be there to take care of her mother. Don’t worry she’s a big girl.”

They drove no more than twenty miles into the next town and checked into a very nice suite. It was not the honeymoon suite and she was glad of that because she didn’t want the attention. When Urs told her what his mother had suggested, she hated to admit it but she felt like anything but a big girl. After all of the fooling around they had done, one would think that she was ready. Bu she wasn’t. She even ventured to suggest that they wait for a few nights and just keep doing what they had been doing. He had asked her if she was unwell and she had been tempted to say yes, but didn’t.

“No. I feel fine. I’m just scared.”

He had admitted that he was scared too but she had negated his feelings by saying “What do you have to be afraid of? You’ve done this before.”

“But not with you, not with a virgin, not with someone I care so much about. I want to get this right because this is the rest of our lives that we are starting.”

In their suite they relaxed with hors d’oeuvres and wine, she directed him to the floor to ceiling window to look at the moon as it made a pattern on the lake. She even suggested that they play cards but by then Urs said that he was tired and it was past time for Holly to prepare for bed. Smiling a bit he asked her if he should disappear for a little while, but she said that was silly as they had lived in the same house. She left the room to shower and then she put on her beautiful, new, lace white nightie and got into bed before she called him in.

After a couple of gulped glasses on wine glasses, Holly was relaxed enough to be silly but not enough to allow herself to be aroused with foreplay. He climbed onto the bed and put his arm around her. He tried kisses and caresses but she could not tolerate them. To her they seemed to be leading up to an execution. Like offering the condemned man anything he wanted as a last meal before they pulled the switch. So she asked him to stop trying to make it better and to just go ahead and get it over with.

“Are you trying to be a martyr here?” he had asked. “You’re going to make it much worse if you aren’t prepared.”

“Well, it will just have to be worse. I can’t pretend that I’m enjoying waiting for you to crucify me.”

“I am not going to crucify you. It’s really not that bad Holly.”

“Don’t go there with me Urs. How would you know? Has anyone ever put their penis in you? No. I didn’t think so. Beside, you said that you’ve never slept with a virgin before so you don’t even know what you’re doing.”

“You can be a pain in the ass at times. But he sighed and padded off to look in the bathroom for something that could be used as a lubricant. He came back, lowered the lights but not completely off since he needed to see what he was doing to his uncooperative wife. He pulled her unresisting legs apart, squirted her liberally with lotion and mounted her. She lay there with her forearm over her eyes, possibly her teeth were even clenched, he couldn’t tell. So much for a pleasant wedding night.

As he started penetrating her, his breath involuntarily quickened. “You’re enjoying this” she accused.

“I can’t help it; you’re a very attractive woman. And I love you to boot.” He didn’t stop; he persevered trying not to cause her any unnecessary pain. When he reached the barrier and pushed forward she tried to stop him by taking her hands and pushing his hips up and off of her but when she couldn’t she said, “You’re hurting me.” That stopped him in his tracks. He waited for a few seconds and then did to Holly what her parents had done when she was a child and needed to remove a band aid. They would take the tip and then yank it off. He surged forward, placed his lips on hers to block her cry and then held her until the tears that he could see spring into her eyes subsided.

He was having a hard time. It was doubly difficult to remain in her and not push so he took shallow breaths and waited. Finally he couldn’t wait any longer and he sank once more into her sweetness. She looked at him tentatively and smiled. “It’s ok, we did it.” That smile so bright even in the dimness gave him permission to take her as he wanted to and after a few minutes she cried out again. This time he didn’t stop, he couldn’t stop and she was being pleasured even thought her face was contorted. That look he recognized. When once more they rested she was her old self but with an added confidence in her sexuality.

“Are you ok? He had asked her. And she replied “I’m more than ok, I’m great!”

It was in the wee hours of the morning when they both fell asleep.

The next day she wasn’t OK. She was very tender and said.” Wow, I don’t know if I want to walk or not.”

“That’s why I didn’t want us hanging around the parents. It would be embarrassing to try to act normal around them and that is what we’d try to do. Let me run you a warm bath and that should make you feel better.”

For the rest of the week they took day trips to the mountain, to the sea, to the rivers and generally sight-seeing. At night they made love and grew into being a couple which was much more than the sum of its parts. He told her that the next time they toured he wanted her right there with him and she agreed that she should be. She had a good man but there was no need to push her luck by being overly confident.

And so they began their marriage as they intended to go. They didn’t know it then but the fast burning of the coronet on their wedding proved true. Theirs was a long and successful and happy and wondrous life together.


The End

EPILOGUE

Their union lasted for thirty-nine years. Urs continued to be a part of IL Divo for another twenty years although in the later years the guys settled down to releasing only one CD and DVD per year. Their personal appearances were few and far between and their popularity never waned. He also returned to opera his first love and taught voice technique with Holly for years.

Holly worked for the organization through the birth of two of their children and then she gave it up. Although she never gave up doing some traveling with her husband. If a sacrifice had to be made, she felt that the greatest gift that she could give to her children was to keep their father. To do that she had to be engaged in his life just as much as she was in her children’s. She did manage to find time to write a book ‘Comparative Styles and Lives of Three Tenors” one of which was Urs of course. The other two were Fritz Wunderlich a German tenor who died from a fall down a stone step and thus, though very good never realized his due as an international star, the third was Ernst Haefliger a Swiss tenor who lived to an old age of eighty-seven. That book went on to become a standard in the music world.

They had four children, all of whom did well but none of them went into music. But the grandchild. Her little Urs Frolech, one of her daughters boys, he carried on the name and the musical tradition. He also looked like his grandfather. As can be imagined by the sir name of her grandchild, her children grew up Swiss. There were periodic trips to the states and Holly traveled back for the birth of each child, citizenship in America was too precious not to insure that her children had it, but basically they spoke many languages and were world citizens.

When Urs was seventy five he died of a heart attack. Holly was devastated. One day he was there and the next he wasn’t. She was to mourn him for the rest of her life but she didn’t let that stop her from being relatively happy and involved. She involved herself with the remnants of his family; both sets of parents were now dead.

Brenda moved to Switzerland when she retired and the two women busied themselves with charity work, visiting antique shops and sightseeing. Although they were both well into their sixties, they weren’t old. Not really. The kept themselves in good shape and never really crossed over into that zone that some women allow by wearing ‘grandmother attire’ and such.

Holly spent many evenings alone after their great romance was put on hold by his death. Thinking back over the life that they had together, she had come to the conclusion that she would not have done it any differently. She had known what she wanted and she had asked for it. She loved him from the first time she saw him and he grew to love her. Though he was not one to speak the word, she believed in his love because he showed her in so many ways.

In retrospect she supposed she could have gone the long route and lived with him for years until he finally came to know her as his
‘love’ but what if he had not? What if she was not that woman? She would have been devastated to put five years into a relationship only to have him leave her. Better to know that from the beginning. No she’d not do a thing differently.

Holly was wearing her favorite pair of turquoise dangling earrings when she died five years after her husband. It came about this way. About a week before when alone at home she had cried out ‘how long?’ She was asking the Universe how long she must suffer before she could join her husband.

Several days later while driving to market she heard, out of the blue, a voice, very calm, very authoritative say ’not long’. With it came an interior knowledge that led Holly to remember exactly what she had asked and what this answer meant.

Even so later that day and in the following days she wondered if she had truly heard that voice. Late in the night her answer came with a blinding pain that momentarily stunned her. She picked up the phone to call her daughter but was gone before she could articulate what was wrong.

From that moment on, when the daughter rushed to her mother’s side until after the funeral there was sadness on earth. The children and grandchildren felt that they had suffered a great loss.

The sadness on earth was conquered by an even more powerful feeling of joy in heaven. Holly awoke to the sound of Urs singing to her. She was lying on a soft grassy hill with her head in his lap and her hand in his reminiscent of that day long ago when they had met at the scene of the accident.

“It’s been a long wait Holly girl, but you made it to me.”

Yesterday was over. Today had just begun. Holly was home.




:queen:

I am glad to see in the end that they did really love each other and stayed together till their dying days.. Wonderful story Yvette.. I was not sure how much I like this URS he seem to robot in what he wanted and how they went about their plans and love..

I see him as a very sexy and loving private man and maybe that is why different stories do the guys different.. Everyone sees them in their own mind..

More From You soon and Thanks for this new one..


Laura
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