Page 62 of Revived

“Sure, give me a minute to go track someone down.”

By the time Mel got back, I had myself dressed in track pants, a t-shirt, and my trusty cane. Chevy had gone all out and got me a cane befitting my ‘rock star style’. Those were his words. The damn thing had been wrapped in black leather and had blunted studs placed in a circle, just under the base of the handle. Mel arrived with Wen and Chevy to help assist me down the stairs.

Wen took up position on the side with my wounded thigh, while my son took up the other side and Mel walked down behind us, nit-picking every step without meaning too. If I dropped my foot down too hard, she would hiss a breath through her teeth. If Wen didn’t have a good enough hold on me, she popped him in the back of his head and told him to pay attention. Chevy chuckled, and while I held in my own laughter, I also enjoyed every moment of her showing just how much she cared.

“I could have come up,” my lawyer, Ian, expressed as he watched our slow descent.

“It’s fine,” I told him as we got to the last step. “I haven’t been down here in weeks. The change of scenery will do me some good, I think.” We started the slow stroll to the sitting area just off the breakfast nook. I preferred it to the living room when talking legal shit, because for some reason, it didn’t seem fair to feel comfortable and at home when lawyers were involved, even if Ian was also my friend.

“What exactly is going on and what does it have to do with me?” Mel asked as she took the seat beside me.

“This is about something that took place in Gainesville, Florida,” Ian told us both and immediately, Melanie stiffened beside me. Ian didn’t notice as he leaned over and pulled some papers from his briefcase. “A Darcie Gardner filed suit against you, Gabe, for physical assault, abuse, pain and suffering, and so on and so forth,” Ian recited in a droll tone.

“Who?” I asked, confused.

“What in the world?” Mel asked, also confused.

Ian’s brows rose at that since neither of them seemed to know what the hell he was talking about. “She claims in her affidavit that one Gabriel Northman, whom she described by the stage name Gabe North, did willfully throw her to the ground after fooling around with her and having her body pinned up against a wall.”

“Are you kidding me?” Mel shrieked as she stood up, leaned over, and snatched the papers out of Ian’s hands. “This bitch has some serious nerve right now,” she went on as she continued to read. “Someone get Lonny on the phone, now!” It was a demand that Wen listened to as he contacted Deacon to get Lonny’s information.

“Do you mind if I ask why we need to contact this Lonny person, Melanie?” Ian asked her, amusement written all over her face.

“Well, unless you were making out with another groupie that night,” she said while turning to look at me. I quickly shook my head and then let it hang there on my shoulders as shame filled me again. I couldn’t believe things had started to go so well, and now this was being dredged up again. “Right,” Mel went on. “Then, this is the same woman who viciously bit Lonny’s penis after finding out, while giving him fellatio, that he was not in fact a member of any of the bands. I had to sew his penis up, both top and bottom, where her teeth punctured it.”

“Did she now?” Ian asked, his amusement even more pronounced.

“Yes, and when Gabe accidentally dropped her, because she was too stupid to put her feet down on the floor, she admitted that she bit Lonny’s dick earlier in the evening too, so I was definitely witness to her admitting to being the one who bit him.”

“Wait a minute,” Chevy interjected. “This woman had Lonny’s dick in her mouth, tried to bite it off, and then she went in for some tongue wrestling with you?” I just groaned in response, already knowing where my son was going with this. He chuckled then, not realizing how uncomfortable he was making things with Mel standing right there. “So, you basically tasted Lonny’s dick first hand that night?” He asked, laughing still. “Sounds to me like he already got the karma he deserved for that shit, Mel.”

To my surprise, Mel laughed. “I hadn’t thought of it that way,” she told my son, then turned to me, eyes bright with amusement too.

“Okay, well, I’m going to take each of your statements, on camera, and then we’ll talk to Lonny and file both criminal charges and a civil suit against this woman for him, if he chooses to. That should be enough to make her drop her lawsuit at any rate. Then, I’d like to work with the district attorney to make sure she’s brought to justice. That wasn’t just a physical assault, it was a sexual one on her part.

We each did our part, offering up what was basically a video deposition about what happened that night, focusing solely on the facts about Lonny and the groupie, as well as what happened between her and I, while leaving out the messy ‘why it all happened,’ parts. There also turned out to be another witness. The bassist of the opening act had been with the same woman earlier in the night too, just after the incident with Lonny. It didn’t leave me with the best of impressions for the bassist, since that had to be a pretty quick encounter. Then again, according to his statement, that’s exactly what it was, just a quick session to blow off some of the leftover adrenaline from being on stage.

21 - Spotlight

Thanks to the initial press debacle concerning the woman who had accused Gabe of assaulting her, my name ended up back in the press too. It was said that Gabe and I had a lover’s quarrel that ended with him in another woman’s arms. Honestly, they were almost too close to the truth on that one, but still, people were going to believe what they wanted. It was also speculated that I was involved, and it was a threesome gone wrong, since I was too jealous to handle it. I simply rolled my eyes at all the things that were said and let it roll right off.

I’d come to understand that the only people who really paid attention to those things were the people who already existed in the flawed world Gabe told me about. While ignoring the things people had to say about me seemed like the healthy thing to do, it didn’t end there.

I was still trying to find gainful employment outside of relying on Gabe in any way. With the new whirlwind of gossip, it was harder than ever to get people to take me seriously when I interviewed.

I threw the pen down that had been in my hands, in case I needed to write down any pertinent information about in-person interviews, but it hadn’t been necessary. So, far, the only people who had bothered to call me back were more curious about what was going on with me and Gabe, the lawsuits, and if Lonny really had his entire dick bit off.

“Not going so well?” Gabe asked as he came into the living room and sunk down on the too-comfy sofa.

“Not at all. At this rate, I think I’m going to have to change professions.”

“What if I told you that there was an alternative, where you could stay in your profession, but work with people who couldn’t give a shit what the press said about you? Actually, the fact that you don’t comment at all, would be seen as a bonus to getting the job, not a detractor.”

“I’d say what kind of dream job are you talking about?”

Gabe handed me a sheet of paper. “It’s in Atlanta, so you’ll need to leave early tomorrow in order to get there on time, but I think it will be a perfect fit. The paper had a time, an address, and the name of a doctor written on it. I clicked on my tablet and immediately looked it up. The name of the company was simple enough, and yet expressed the gist of what they did.

“Performance Medical Professionals, Incorporated,” I read aloud. “Is this what I think it is?” I asked Gabe.

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