The Singer and Her Arranger

"Just teasing, George. He is a great guy to have at your back. And any attorney's in the audience? Don't take it to heart. I'm sure you are all honest. Really. Right?"

More laughter.

"And next to George," Maddi said, "is a VERY special friend of mine, someone without whom this show simply couldn't exist, Charlie Turner. Charlie arranges the music for the orchestra, both for when they are playing along with my band as well as when we are between songs. Charlie, please stand up.

"Stay standing, and Sidney, you stand up too.

"Sidney Barron is a real up-and-coming singer, who if you haven't already heard of her, you will shortly. I should be jealous — Sid is stealing my Charlie away to work over her songs for a new album.

"And look at her! Isn't she beautiful? Sidney, you aren't supposed to outshine me at my own performance!" Maddi's laugh and gestures showed that she was only giving Sidney a hard time.

"Sidney, thank you for coming to my opening performance, and I hope that one day soon, I will be able to make one of your shows! Audience, give Ms. Sidney Barron another round of applause."

With those gracious remarks, Maddi disappeared behind the curtains, while the orchestra began playing some of Charlies arrangement of Maddi's songs that weren't part of the show itself. After a couple of minutes, the curtains rose again to reveal Maddi, dressed in a new costume. Then her band started the next song, joined by the orchestra.

The show was two hours well spent by Sid. Not only did she get a feel for what Charlie brought to the table as far as music was concerned, but she basked in the praise from Maddi and from the closeness to Charlie!

Then, to add to the total joy of the night, Maddi sent for them, asking them to her dressing room backstage, where she asked them to come by her suite for an after-performance party they were having.

Charlie seemed hesitant, "Maddi, I love you, but we can only stay a little while because we have to drive back to L.A. tomorrow, and I want to get an early start."

"That's okay. But stop by to bid the guys a fond farewell and let me introduce you to a couple of people who flew in to see the show, and who might be some future business for you!" Maddi insisted.

Charlie and Sid went back to his suite, using his level specific key, but this time there was an attendant checking names on a list that Maddi's P.A. had sent over, before sending them to the floor where her suite was. Obviously, having his own suite on the same floor, Charlie could come and go with his own key.

Sid just dropped off her little purse, and they meandered to the party together, Sid still clinging to Charlie's arm, at Maddi's suite. The door was open, and a fair number of invitees had already arrived.

It was no surprise that Sid and Charlie were a little dressed up compared to most of the people at the party — and the looks that Sid got from the men in the room left her feeling very special. She could 'get' the Cinderella thing now, although her Prince Charming was already with her.

Mainly Charlie's job was introducing her to some of Maddi's band members who had been with her for decades, the conductor of the orchestra, agents, publicity people, and producers. Charlie already knew most of the people there, but for Sid, it was giving her an expanded set of contacts for her business. She had Herb, her agent, but she and her band weren't quite at the point that they needed the large entourage that Maddi had.

She was surprised when a roving photographer asked her and Charlie to stand closer together and took a few photos of them.

He unabashedly told them, "Best looking couple in the room!" he said with a smile on his face. Sid was sure he ALWAYS said things like that, but she liked to think that it was true.

When Maddi arrived at her suite, she had already changed, and was greeted like a conquering hero.

She played the room like a politician, touching base with everyone, making them think that they were the most important person in her life. At least at that moment!

Sid and Charlie were almost the last people she stopped to see, and then she asked Charlie if she could steal Sid away and talk to her in private. What could he say?

Anyway, he trusted Maddi. Even though she didn't seem to stay married for long, before trading her husbands in for new models.

It was perhaps twenty-five minutes later when Sidney and Maddi returned to the party, their arms around each other's waists, laughing, seeming like best friends.

They came up to Charlie and stopped.

"Okay, Charlie! You can leave now if you want. Sid and I have had a deep, heart-to-heart talk, and I warned her about the dangers she'll encounter in her career. Well, at least for the next couple of years!

"And don't forget — you'll need to come up and help me revamp my show in about a year. That's how long, they tell me, that a show can go on before it needs some refreshing.

"Promise?"

"I promise. Maddi, you know I'll always be there for you. You're a favorite of mine and I love you. Love your music, too. And I love the big bucks that I get by working with you!" he said with a laugh.

"And don't you forget it!" Maddi finished the thought.

She and Sid then gave each other a quick hug, and Maddi turned back to her guests.

"Don't forget what I told you, Sid!" she called over her shoulder.

"I won't!" Sid replied, as she and Charlie walked through the door and back to his suite.

Once inside. Charlie turned to Sid, "Hey kid, we are going to leave early to get back to L.A., so we should probably call it a night."

Sid, still looking gorgeous in her evening gown, looked up at him.

"Are you telling me that it's midnight and I'm about to turn back into a pumpkin?"

That made him grin. They sat down together at the small breakfast table next to the kitchen.

"Never! You were the belle of the ball tonight. I can hardly wait to get my copies of the photos that the photographer took. Lord only knows, he'll probably sell them to one of the fan sites — that is if Maddi lets him. Believe me, she'll get her cut, and use the party photos to promote her show! She is one smart cookie, and she knows about show business. Speaking of which, what did she talk to you about?"

"Well, first she warned me about good looking guys who work with me on my music — they can be regular Casanovas." She laughed at that.

"Okay, then you're safe from me. I've never been a 'love-em and leave-em' type!"

They both laughed at their gentle teasing of each other.

"What she REALLY told me was that generally you could trust the musicians who played with you — but don't get romantically involved. She said that explained her first two disastrous marriages. But you have to be careful about agents, personal assistants, financial managers and advisors. She told me that explained her third and fourth disastrous marriages. But even more important, she told me that those were the people who were most likely to be robbing you blind if you didn't pay attention to what they were up to."

"Lucky for you that Herb is your agent. He makes so much money honestly that he has never had to steal from his clients. That's why he has so many long-term clients and so many people want him to represent them."

Sid nodded in agreement.

What Sid DIDN'T tell Charlie was, that Maddi saw the mutual attraction between Sid and Charlie, and that Sid should set her eyes on Charlie and pursue him.

"Sid," she said, "he is a loyal, generous, man, intelligent and kind. He would support you in your career. And he's not hard on the eyes! If I was only twenty-years younger, I'd be trying to make him husband number six, although he would be too smart to marry a woman who had already gone through five other men. But you? You are young, and talented. And I can see that he is attracted. The main hurdle to overcome is his scruples about not dating a client. But don't let a small thing like that stand in your way!"

Sid just smiled as she remembered Maddi's admonition.

Charlie stood up, "Well, I'm off to bed."

Sid also stood and took a step closer to Charlie.

"Charlie, this has been one of those days that I will always remember. Meeting one of my idols, being transformed into every little girl's image of a princess, seeing the opening night of a Las Vegas show, and then partying with the star! It has been a magical day."

She got close enough, that before he could have stopped her, she gave him a brief, gentle kiss on the side of his face.

"Night, night now," she said, as she walked over to her bedroom.

At the door, Sid turned her head back to Charlie, who she caught still watching, smiled and winked.

"Night, night," Charlie replied, smiling back at Sid as she disappeared into the second bedroom, "We'll see you early tomorrow morning."

Inside her room, Sid stood in front of the mirror looking at herself as 'Cinderella' for a last time. Then she got her phone and took a couple of selfies that she sent to the members of her band.

"Hey guys! This is ME! Tonight was a dream. Hard to imagine, but I'll be back tomorrow and then I'll give you all the dirty details..."

Within minutes there was a series of texts being sent to her — to which she answered, "Tomorrow, LOL."

After taking off her outfit and hanging it up, she put on a t-shirt on and went to bed.

Despite being very excited, she fell asleep quickly into a deep, contented sleep.

Sleeping wasn't so easy for Charlie.

"What an idiot I am," he thought, "I just met this woman today and I'm mooning over her like a teenager with raging hormones."

It hadn't helped that when she was 'cleaned up,' she was so beautiful, yet still with that innocence, unjaded or spoiled the way divas could become.

He lay there trying to sleep, but it wasn't coming, so he got up and went out into the great room, over to his temporary, hotel 'music studio.'

Charlie resumed working on the song that he had started in the afternoon, Sid's "The First Flower in my Garden." Like her ode to her father, 'Flower', as Charlie thought of it, was a ballade, a hopeful song or rebirth and renewal as the singer sees the first flower blossoming in Spring after a long, cold, winter.

Cynically, Charlie thought that the first blossom would sprout from a weed; at least that was how thing always seemed in his mother's garden when he was growing up.

But he was happy at how the song was going, so after about an hour, he kicked back and returned to bed, where he finally found his rest.

It was 7:30 the next morning when a still exhausted Charlie dragged himself out of bed to answer the obnoxious and persistent doorbell to the suite. His hair, a mess, in the pajama bottoms that he wore to bed, he opened the door just far enough to peek out.

There stood a very cheerful young lady who had clearly slept more than he the night before, smiling at him and announcing in a perky voice,

"Good morning, Mr. Turner! I'm from 'Styles of the Night' and I have a traveling bag for Ms. Barron to hang her evening gown in. It has pockets and places for her to put her shoes and any other accessories that go with the dress."

Charlie opened the door far enough to take the bag and asked the young lady to wait there. He ran over to where he had left his wallet to get a tip for her.

She took the tip, thanked him and turned to leave, while he closed the door behind her.

By then, Sid was awake and had put a robe on that covered her t-shirt (sans bra) that she had worn to bed. She too had a bedhead, but on her it looked cute, a little wild, next-door girl wild.

"Who was that?" she asked.

"A young lady bringing you a bag to hang your gown in for the drive back to L.A."

"Oh. They told me they would bring one up."

"So, let's get cleaned up and we can go down to breakfast, and then head back to LA LA Land."

Charlie made a couple of calls before getting showered and dressed, and within a couple of minutes, Sid joined him.

"Leave your luggage here. They will bring our stuff down to the limo while we are at breakfast."

After they got breakfast, the walked out of the front doors of the casino where there was a limo waiting for them.

"I could get used to traveling like this," Sid said with a grin as the chauffeur driven limo sped up and entered traffic, soon to get onto the '15' south, towards L.A.

Charlie smiled back at her.

"It's not really as indulgent as it seems. Usually, I work while I'm traveling. There's more space to spread out and definitely more comfortable than flying SouthWest to Burbank or LAX. And if I go on one of the airlines, I first spend an hour getting to the airport, then an hour getting checked in and through TSA checkpoints, an hour flying to Las Vegas, and then another hour waiting for my luggage and getting a rental car. Or, with the limo, I go four hours from my house to the hotel. It's almost an even trade-off, except I'm happier and less exhausted when I arrive.

"Speaking of work, here is a flash drive with a copy of the rough 'See you in Heaven' that you heard yesterday. Like I said, that belongs to you without any charge. If your band likes it, then I'll charge for the time to set it up for the orchestra and conducting it, but nothing for the initial 'draft' version, if you will.

"I also put my first take at 'The First Flower in my Garden' on the flash drive."

Immediately Sid began looking for a way to listen to the recording.

Charlie, who had been up too late working on it the night before decided to tweak Sid a little. He started singing.

"Last night, I couldn't get to sleep at all, no, no.."

Sid grinned, "The 5th Dimension. They were one of my mom's favorite groups, so I know all of their music."

"Well, I'm pleased and surprised, you are an 'oldies-but-goodies' fan! But, in this case, I meant it. If you don't mind, I'm going to try and take a nap while we are on the road."

And with that Charlie stretched out, with his arm over the top of the seat, closed his eyes, and within minutes, he was fast asleep.

Sid wanted to listen to the music that Charlie had given her, but she had another idea instead. She slowly moved over and snuggled under his arm, laid her head on his chest, and relaxed. It was comfortable and warm, and she was able to drift off herself.

~~** The Very Thought of You... **~~

Charlie woke as they were back in L.A. on the 101, driving West, going past the 405 and towards the San Fernando Valley. He realized that Sid had fallen asleep leaning on his shoulder, beneath his outstretched arm. She seemed so peaceful that he kept still, not wanting to wake here before he needed to. He looked at her face as she slept.

Of course, even though he tried not to wake her, just the small movements he made, and the change in his breathing, did wake her.

She lifted her head and looked up at him.

"Sorry — I must have fallen asleep. I hope I didn't bother you," she said, and then smiled.

"Not at all," Charlie said, thinking to himself how nice it had been to be cuddled up with an attractive woman, and how long it had been.

"We'll drop you by your place first," he told her.

"Oh, good. You can come in and meet the others in the band!"

Charlie almost frowned at the idea. Then he got a smile back on his face.

"Sure. Okay. But just for a little while. I have been away from home for quite a while, and I really have to get back there."

Sid nodded in agreement and didn't push the issue.

The driver pulled up to a modest place in a neighborhood off of Topanga Canyon Boulevard, on the west side, on the way towards the beach. Before the driver could open the door, Charlie and Sid were out, so the driver went to the back to open the trunk.

Charlie grabbed Sid's bag from the back, while she took the gown, hanging from the hanger inside the car, and they walked together up to the house.

Sid opened the door and called out, "Is everybody decent in there?"

There was a group response, "Yeah, come on in." Sid looked back at Charlie, smiled and walked in while he followed.

Sitting in the living room of the bungalow with the TV on, were the four members of Sid's band.

"Girls! This is Charlie Turner, who is helping us get our songs ready for the long-promised album!

"Charlie, this is Linda James, our bass player," Linda smiled and waved at Charlie.

"Sitting next to her, is Heather Meirlie, our keyboard player."

"Hiya, Charlie. Look forward to working with you," Heather said.

"And that rather strange woman, with the orange hair and tattoos all over, is Cat Stevens, our drummer. Her real name is Katherine, but since her last name was 'Stevens', somehow, mysteriously, she ended up with the nickname 'Cat'. But despite all of her quirks, she is a great drummer!"

'Cat', who had a pair of sticks in her hands, suddenly began a drum roll on the table in front of her, ending with her saying, a la the "Tonight Show", "And here's Charlie! Good to meet you."

"Sitting in the big chair, kind of slouching all over it, is Leslie Hornby, our lead guitar."

"Great to meet all of you, at last," came Charlie's pleasant reply.

"Ladies," Sid said, "Charlie has already done a couple of things for us. Charlie, why don't you explain."

"Sure, but I'll be quick about it.

"Even before we had a contract signed, I got a copy of some of the audio files that you made of "See you in Heaven." I used that as an example of what I do — not overwhelming the music, but enhancing the existing music, with some changes, and doing a few tricks to make the music 'pop'. Sid has a copy of that. But I also did a rough, first cut, at "The First Flower in my Garden."

"There are two slightly different versions of the song on the flash drive. The first is a rough outline of how I would orchestrate it for your album, if you like it. It still needs a lot of work, but the bones are there. There is also a version that would be very similar, but would only need three to five additional regular players, and a small string section that you could even hire locally, to get most of the sound when you are on the road.

"Now, if you forgive me, I'm going home to my place. I haven't been there for weeks. And this way you can listen to the music I prepared and discuss it among yourselves without me there."

As Charlie headed back towards the car, Sid went along with him.

"Thanks for stopping in Charlie. When will we get together to start working on the rest of the album?"

"Hmmm... Not for a day or two. I really do need to catch up on things around the house. But I'll give you a call tomorrow and we can set a time."

Sid once again snuck up on Charlie while he was thinking about schedules and stood up on her toes, and stole a kiss, this time on the edge of his mouth.

"Thank you, Charlie!" she said, over her shoulder as she walked back to the house.

She didn't quite catch him gently touching the place she had kissed, all the while thinking, "She is client. I don't do relationships with clients. Remember why you don't get too close to clients."

Sid re-entered the house and walked into the den of lionesses!

"Well? What happened? Tell us! Did you sleep with him?

"You mean did she have sex with him, don't you."

They all laughed, including Sid.

"No, I did not sleep with him, or have sex with him. I'm not a slut like you Linda!"

"Okay, then. Give us all the details."

"Well," she said before breaking into song, "I could have danced all night.."

They all cracked up.

"Yuck! Another one of your oldie songs 'that your mom likes'."

Linda looked indignant, "Hey, wait a minute, I like 'My Fair Lady' too."

After that, Sid told them about her day and the special, magical night that she had with Charlie.

It was about an hour after the women stopped their detailed questioning of Sid, who was still aglow and they were worried about her 'teenage crush' on a man she had only met the day before (although they admitted it was not every man they met who could get them into a premier performance by a music legend, and then to the party after the show!)