***

Sienna was sitting at the piano playing and singing when I walked in to the bar we agreed to meet at. A crowd sat around her at the piano, some of them probably thought that she worked there. I had no idea what she had done with the pianist, but it was typical Sienna. “Do I need to look for the pianist tied and gagged somewhere?” I raised one eyebrow in question.

Her painted red lips and glossy white teeth smiled up at me in sharp contrast to her pale skin. “Get your skinny ass over here and join me babe.” Sienna scooted her butt over to make room for me at the piano bench. It didn’t take long before we had the entire bar singing “I Will Survive” along with us. My mom had always said that Sienna and I were contagious. We were always able to get lost in the moment and have fun when we were together, and somehow, others always joined in.

Sienna stood up after we ended the song and took a dramatic bow, her unruly curls flopping all over as she flipped her head up and down. “Cover for me for a while Lenny.” She turned and spoke to the regular piano player as if she was the employee and he was helping her out. I was also pretty sure his name wasn’t even Lenny.

We laughed our way up to the bar and ordered our usual tequila shots. I told her about Mr. Heston coming to see me sing and his offer for me to sing at their shareholder meeting instead of the previously booked boy band. She was excited and told me about a potential gig that she was working on for us to sing together at the wedding of one of the NY Yankees.

A tall dark haired man approached as we spoke and stood next to me. He was polite enough to wait until a break in our conversation before he interrupted. “You ladies were great, can I buy you both a drink?” His question was directed at both of us, but he spoke to me directly.

“Thank you, but not tonight. We are having a girls night.” He pretended to clutch his heart in pain. “That’s too bad. But you ladies have a good one anyway.” He politely excused himself and walked away. Most men didn’t take rejection well, especially in a bar after a few drinks when their friends were nearby, so I never knew what to expect.

“So Syd, are you still lusting after Jack, you didn’t even notice that one was cute?” Trust Sienna, to always be direct.

I sighed. “I’m trying to move on, but it’s not that easy. When I left Michael, I felt a loss for the routine, the normalcy, but not really for him as a man. I didn’t crave his touch or wake up in a cold sweat after dreaming I was still with him.” Sienna looked at me wide eyed.

“Shit Syd, you got it bad. I thought it was just emotional because he was your first after Michael. Are you in love with him?” I thought about our night under the stars, lying on our backs holding hands and talking. I thought about our sweaty bodies slapping against each other as we furiously tried to get closer as we came together.

A dazed smile crept across my mouth as I stared at the mental images burned into my brain, but I didn’t give her an answer.

Sienna took a cigarette from the pack in front of the man sitting next to her and smiled. He turned and flicked a lighter, flaming the cigarette that she bummed without asking.

I leaned over Sienna to the man next to her. “Can I have on of those please?” I extended my two fingers to him to place the cigarette between.

“You don’t smoke.” Sienna stated matter of factly with one eyebrow arched quizzically.

The man lit my cigarette and I took a deep inhale, letting out a long puff of smoke on a deep exhale. “Neither do you.” We both smiled at each other.

Chapter 13

The Heston annual shareholder meeting was held at the Heston Grand in Times Square. The event was being held in the main ballroom of the five star hotel. I had expected gaudy and extravagant, but was pleasantly surprised to find eloquent and understated. Lyle had told me that President’s usually stayed at the hotel when they were in town, which often hosted fundraisers for wealthy donors. The contract came earlier in the week, as Mr. Heston had promised, and I was pleasantly surprised at the generous fee that I was being paid for my services. It was more than three months of pay for my regular job singing at the Heston hotel, but I wasn’t going to complain even though I did think it was excessive for the three songs that I was hired me to sing.

The event coordinator had contacted me the week before and informed me that the gala was black tie and that I was expected to wear an evening gown. I was relieved to find out that the cost of the gown was borne by Heston Hotels, because although I had some really nice dresses, nothing could be classified as an evening gown.

I still had a light tan from our trip to Hawaii, so I picked a light blue sequin dress that was form fitting. The front was simple and had a V-neck that showed some cle**age, but couldn’t be described as plunging. The back, however, was the showstopper. It plunged deep into my back, barely covering the top of the crack of my ass. It was beautiful and sexy, yet elegant and classy. The sales clerk had assured me that the sequins would reflect the stage lights and dazzle the audience. The color reminded me of the strapless dress that I wore in Hawaii, and I smiled thinking back to Jack’s reaction when he saw me in it.

I watched from the side of the stage as the ballroom filled up with men in tuxedos and women in beautiful ball gowns.

It struck me as odd that an annual shareholder meeting would be so formal, but the fancy clothing gave the ballroom a magical feeling and the celebration was, after all, for a high-end hotel group.

When the MC announced my name, I suddenly thought it may have been a mistake to pair the dress with five-inch stilettos, but I made it to the microphone un-scathed. I knew the ballroom was packed, but the size of the crowd never bothered me.

The lighting usually blinded the audience from me anyway. Something about being unable to see people’s faces made it easy for me to get lost in a song and allow myself to feel the music through my body.

I performed two songs at the beginning of the meeting and then the final song was a repeat of the Aretha song that Mr. Heston had requested and it closed the meeting. The crowd was gracious enough to give me a standing ovation, but I figured they were also anxious to get up from such a long conference.

Backstage, the conference producer looked way more relieved than she had a few hours earlier. She was laughing and smiling and finally had that awful headset unglued from her head. All of the stage crew and the MC gathered backstage and opened a few bottles of champagne to celebrate the success of the conference. I was mingling with some of the lighting crew, enjoying my post show high with a glass of good champagne when I felt a hand on my bare back.