U-N-I Ch. 25 - The New Guy

He looked at me straight in the eyes and smiled,

"Yeah. Too bad it's Abby sandwiched between us. I can think of a far better sandwich-filling," he said.

He paused but didn't look away and I stared back at him. I finally had the answer I had been waiting for. He was interested -- and the implication was that hehad tried troilism in some way and quite possibly with guys.

"Company," he said quickly turning round to look at my back-line amps.

"Oh, hi fellas," it was Jamie, "glad someone's still around, I've mislaid my mobile, I can't see it back here can one of you ring it see if we can hear it please?"

Nick took out his own phone, hit a couple of buttons and we were soon rewarded with the sound of "The Ride of the Valkyries" which sent Jamie to his knees as he shoved his arm between the monitor desks; Nick and I chuckled when Jamie cursed -- his phone was just beyond his reach.

"Hang on," Nick called, "I've an idea."

He trotted over to Rob's spare mic stand, took the upright from its base then strode over to where he could slide it between the desks form our side and so propel the now silent device towards its owner.

"Cheers Nick, I've searched high and low for the damned thing, I want to call home before I get some scram and a power nap back at the hotel. You coming?" he looked at Nick.

"Not yet," I whispered only loud enough for Nick to hear.

"I wish," Nick replied, "too much to re-do here, I'll get some later."

I crouched down looking as if I was doing a final check of my effects pedals, hoping desperately that by leaning forward I could hide my shoulders which were shaking with silent laughter, intentionally or not Nick's words held a double meaning for me.

"Oh right, 'course, you mentioned something earlier. Anyway thanks, for the help, see you later guys."

"See ya," I replied holding up a hand but not moving from my place.

"Laters," Nick said.

I may have been laughing but I was also hacked off, I'd got so close to finally finding out if Nick could be interested in joining us and now the moment was gone. How the hell was I going to get it back? Well I wouldn't know until I at least stood up and faced him.

"What's your favourite song from the acoustic set?"

"Um, er," I muttered, his question taking me by surprise.

I didn't need to think for more than a couple seconds though and I answered,

"Actually I really like playing 'Sparks', it's quite a meaningful song for me and Rob."

Nick smiled and picked up Rob's Seagull, tucked the strap over his head and played the opening chords of "Sparks" as he wandered across the stage towards me and before I knew it I'd begun to both play and sing along to the melody.

"It really is a pity you don't sing on stage you know, your voice is just as good as Rob's," Nick told me when we finished the song.

"I could say the same about your playing, I mean how come you're not on stage with a band?" I asked as he set Rob's guitar back on its rack.

"I can play but I'm no songwriter and I'm certainly no performer."

"That's why I don't sing, in the studio or on stage, I don't have the confidence or charisma Rob has."

"I wouldn't say that," he smiled as he strode back to where I stood.

"So from Abby I go back to Suzi," I put in, starting to lift the acoustic from my shoulder.

"Wait that's where I think we can make the swap go better, if you come back to here," he pointed to a spot about half a side-step further away from the front of the racks, for the first time I noticed an X on the floor he'd laid down with silver gaffer tape, "at the end of the acoustic set then pass Abby to me with your left hand and I'll be holding Suzi up ready for you like this," my guitars having girl's nicknames amused Nick as much as it did Rob, he now had a hand pulling the strap taught and the other supporting the neck.

"Let's try it. You come back from the C-stage, Rob usually spends some time using hischarisma on the crowd to give the rest of you time to get back to your marks so if you hold Abby to your left you can already be getting your arm and head into Suzi's strap then I'll take Abby from you."

"You're right. it's a much smoother transition."

"Yeah. I'm glad you agree."

We both stopped talking for a moment.

"Alright, well," he announced. "I guess you're free to go. I'll let you go back to the Green Room and get ready for tonight. Thanks for spending some time with me, I really needed to fix this issue."

I wasn't sure what to say at this point so I agreed.

"Sure, it's gonna make things easier for the both of us. Thanks for suggesting it."

"You're welcome."

"Well, I'll see you later then," I said and I began walking back to the dressing room.

--

"Fuck, he's so interested!" I said to Rob as soon as I walked in.

"Is he?"

"Totally!" I exclaimed and told him about everything that had happened on stage.

"Fuck, are you serious? He actually said that?" Rob said half-laughingly after I'd told him about Nick saying that he could think of a far better sandwich filling than Abby the guitar.

"I think he's starting to notice that the guitars are just an excuse for me to flirt with him," I smiled.

"Damn, I'm getting hard just thinking about him between us," Rob laughed.

"We gotta stop talking about it! I mean come on, he 's married... We're married...!" I exclaimed, moving my hand back and forth between us.

"Well, yeah! That's obviously why he's been giving us such subtle flirting signs since we've met him. I mean we just got married," Rob said. "he must have thought we wouldn't be interested."

"Well, trust me, now he knows we are," I giggled.

"You have to keep flirting with him, this is fun. Who knows, we might be enjoying some three-way fun again sometime soon!"

"Yeah, maybe. You sure about this?"

"Well, yeah. We know what our rules are and there's no reason to change them. We just need to know what his boundaries are."

"You're gonna help me, aren't you?"

"No way, you flirt with him! It's more fun that way!"

"Then, this is never going to happen," I complained laughingly, knowing very well that it wasprobably best to not let anything happen with Nick as long as he was working for us.