Just Say Yes

"Wait a minute! I have two questions. You used to beat off thinking about me? Wow, that, well, I'm okay with that. Did you say on tour playing to thousands of people? I know you're a successful song writer and a talented musician, but..."

"George Mason is my name. It's the name I use when I'm playing to fifty or a hundred people. I write under that name, well, actually I write under both names. It's not the name I use when I'm performing country music to five thousand people. Well, I didn't change my first name, that would have gotten too damn confusing, just my last name. It wouldn't have mattered if you had known my stage name, you don't listen to country. Look, hold on. Don't go anywhere."

George came back a few minutes later with a stack of CD's. "Here you go!" He said as he began tossing the jewel boxes on the bed. "Platinum and a Grammy, platinum and an ACM, platinum, double platinum, triple platinum, album of the year at the CMAs and platinum but it's my latest so it's got more growth potential."

"Are you shitting me? No, you're not! That's you on the front of the CD. You look silly in that hat. I may not listen to country but even I've heard of you. Hell I read about you in Time magazine! You're the biggest new country artist in the last decade!"

"There you go!"

"Well, fuck me!"

"I'd love to, but I just have the sense that we still have some talking to do."

"Okay."

"I'll start. You stole my heart when you were thirteen. I got over it. Then I saw you again and you had me again. Then we, 'knew each other' in the biblical sense and well, I've already told you; the earth moved. I want to spend time with you. I want us to spend time together. Maybe we're wrong for each other, long term, 'til death us do part kind of wrong. Let's find out."

"Okay? No, let me try again. Okay! I'm very okay with that idea Now I have another idea. Get your naked ass back in bed. You almost but not quite made love to me earlier this morning. I have no quibbles with the fucking part...it was out of this world. Now you need to show me you can make love to me."

It was noon by the time Bonnie and George completed the last phase of their experimental love making. It worked out quite well for both of them.

"You're very scary, George." Bonnie said, climbing back into his strong arms. "I'm twenty-four years old---almost twenty-five. You need to know up front that I like to fuck...I enjoy cock. But you are the first man that's ever done that to me. Pretty funny, huh? Funny that you'd be the first one to kiss me and the first one to ever, ever really make love to me." Bonnie whispered as her joyfully tears flowed across her lover's chest. "I'm staying."

"Good answer."

Bonnie spent most of her nights and days over the next few weeks with George, to the mild consternation of her parents. She had not told then who the real George was. The two lovers quickly discovered that there was nothing serious that would preclude them from spending a very long time together. Bonnie had money; George had a hell of a lot more.

She convinced her folks to drive up to Lakeland for the country concert. It would be a chance to do something together as a family. She had told them that George knew someone involved in the show; it would mean a lot to him if they came and he had acquired special tickets for them. They had invited the other couple they had recently become friends with who 'fessed up that they were ardent country music fans. Bonnie was sitting in the third row of seats in the gas guzzling SUV her parents drove. As her father contemplated where to park, Bonnie handed him the special parking pass and that problem was solved.

They arrived fairly close to show time; Bonnie wanted to stretch it out to the last possible second. The opening act nailed their set and then the roadies reset the stage for the main event. Their seats were so close that they were almost on the stage. The older folks were very impressed with George's obvious clout. The lights dimmed and the announcer introduced the headliner.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Three time Grammy, five time ACM and seven time CMA award winner, direct from Nashville Tennessee, with more album sales in the last five years than any artist in country music history, please welcome..." The thundering ovation drowned out the last part of the introduction.

It didn't matter. Almost everyone in the amphitheatre knew who he was. He came on stage and removed his hat in honor of his fans. She heard the female half of the other couple who had journeyed with them exclaim, "I told you it was him!" She heard her mother gasp and her father almost choke. And there he was up there in that not so silly hat barely ten feet away. He tipped his hat to her, and whispered, "hi babe!" Heads turned to look at her and she was the proudest little girl in the whole damn place. She mouthed the words, "I love you" and blew him a kiss and he returned the gesture.

As he had owned her body that first night and now clearly owned her heart, he quickly did what he had done hundreds of other nights; before the first song was finished he owned every one of those five thousand delirious fans. Even her mom and dad were smiling and moving to the music. She chucked to herself at the thought of her mother and father as country music fans. It was the most special and wonderful night of Bonnie's life. She was so proud of George and even more proud that she was his girl.

George had figured out in the past how to keep the fans in their seats for the two encores. His fans knew that the last song of the final encore would be special; it would be a new and unreleased song, one destined to be his next major hit.

The lights came up and George began his anticipated chat with the audience. "You got to listen to us sing for the last two and a half hours, now I get to tell a story." The crowd cheered.

"When I was a kid, my parents were the caretakers of this big old house on the south Florida coast. We didn't really get to live in the house; we lived over the four car garage. The owners were never home; I used to play hide and seek in that house with the kids in the neighborhood...the rich kids. Well, one day, as boys will do, I stole a kiss from the little girl next door. It was my first kiss...hers too. Her parents didn't really approve so they wouldn't let her play anymore. I remembered that kiss for a very long time...still do as a matter of fact. I used to dream about growing up someday and marrying that sweet little girl. But she was from a different side of town even though we were sort of neighbors." The crowded cheered and whistled, totally engrossed in the yarn.

"A little while back I went down and got a chance to look through that old house; no one had lived in it in years and it needed a lot of work. My manager suggested that it might be a good investment. So I bought it and I'm fixing it up. I was out in the yard working one day and a young woman walked by on her way to the beach. It was her; I knew it in a second, though she didn't recognize me. Right this minute, she's sitting ten feet in front of me with her folks. Her name is Bonnie. This last song is our story; it's about Bonnie and me. With your permission I'd like dedicate it---and sing it---to her right now. It's called, 'Just Say Yes'."

Bonnie was in shock and could not hold back her tears. It was so much more than just their story; it was a love story about a young boy's yearnings, hopes and dreams. It was unmistakably a man telling a special woman that he loved her, always had and always would. The hook was in the last verse for it was in fact a proposal and a pledge to be faithful, "til death do us part". And the final almost pleading line delivered so plaintively, so beautifully in George's unique style, was a plea to the woman he loved to, "Just Say Yes." Everyone came to their feet. Bonnie was still standing as the rest of the audience found their seat. The room grew almost deathly silent.

"Yes." Bonnie said; she had thought just to him but in fact everyone in the quiet hall heard her and they went nuts.

George bounded off the stage, throwing his hat to some fan in the process. He took the first girl he had ever kissed in his arms and kissed her. He had a ring in his hand; he look questioningly toward her parents. They nodded. He slipped the special ring on Bonnie's finger and the crowd erupted again. Picking her up, he placed her on the stage and jumped up to join her. Taking her by the hand he led her to the microphone.

"Folks, this is Bonnie. She just said yes! Thank you for coming out tonight, everybody. I wouldn't be here without you. God bless you all."

George held Bonnie tightly in his arms and kissed every inch of her face. "I love you."

"Yeah, I kinda feel the same way about you. Nothing like letting five thousand people in on a marriage proposal! You certainly have a flare for the dramatic---but I love you to death!"

"Five thousand? This is a live pay per view on HBO and it's being beamed to our armed forces around the world---and it's going to DVD. Thirty million is more like it. How's it feel to be a star?"

"I think I'll stick to letting you be the star. I just want to be the star's woman. Are you okay with that, cowboy?"

"Dreams do come true, sometimes, don't they baby?" George whispered to his love.

"Mine just did, big fella, mine just did."