Page 46 of One More Time
NICKY
Nicky ran a towel over his hair after his second shower of the day. The first one hadn’t really been about getting clean, though, so he didn’t feel guilty about it. Even if he was in the middle of the damn desert during a drought.
He found his phone on the coffee table of his suite’s overlarge living area and hit the button for Damon.
As always, his assistant answered the call on the second ring.
‘’Sup, Bossman?’ Damon chirped.
‘How’s everything in LA?’
‘Right as rain. Without the rain.’
‘Good. Look, I’m going to need to change the travel plans this weekend,’ Nicky said.
‘Let me get a pen.’ After a moment of rustling and clanging Damon came back with: ‘Okay, hit me.’
‘I was supposed to go out on Sunday morning, right?’
‘Yeah, with Vinny and the tour managers.’
‘Can I hop on Gill’s flight Monday instead?’
‘Yeah. Not a problem. I’ll get the manifests squared today,’ Damon replied. ‘I’ll synch the updates to the schedule in the app. Should pop up in a bit.’
‘Awesome. Perfect, thanks.’
‘Easiest thing I’ve done all day.’
Nicky laughed. ‘Man, please. You’ve done nothing but smoke up all day. I know you.’
Damon just laughed his deep, goofy stoner’s laugh.
‘Just remember to water the plants in the kitchen. And not with bong water this time.’
‘Theylovedit.’
‘Theydied.’ Something else occurred to Nicky and he knew damn well that Damon would not be this coherent later. ‘Oh, Damon?’
‘Yeah?’
‘If I needed to add another person to the flight, how much notice would you need?’
‘Like two hours, maybe. Sooner the better, though. The FAA loves their fucking paperwork.’
‘Got it. Thanks.’
Nicky said his goodbyes, then collapsed into the sofa.
He had hope. Maybe it was hope of the idiotic Pollyanna variety, but it was still there. And it made Nicky feel lighter than he had in forever. Over the years optimism had become his drug of choice. He loved it as much as Damon loved his OG Kush. Nicky had been missing it for a while, the enthusiasm and hopefulness. They had slowly dimmed behind the shadows of hollow, broken relationships withwomen who’d ticked the ‘hookup with a rich, famous guy’ box on their career day survey, and under the weight of professional obligations and the hamster wheel of recording, promoting, and touring.
The band had been enough for a while; there had been mountains to scale, songs to write, records to make and break. But now? Now all Nicky really wanted was a little slice of normal. Some calm and contentment. So, he leaned into his Pollyanna hope.
Maybe Lucy was the spark, or maybe she was just the breath of fresh air that reignited his own. Either way, he could feel the glow and warmth ofpossibilitycatching alight within him. It was both familiar and new, comforting and thrilling.
Nicky sat with that feeling, focused on it and willed it to expand.
Then, in the peace and quiet of his hotel room, with the desert sun warming his face, Nicky heard something. Inside him. Ringing out bright and bold in the empty, silent caverns of his mind.
