The Bet

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The Bet Page 2

by Ty Langston


  Chris’ eyes narrowed with confusion at her and Sam. He took a deep breath and shrugged his shoulders.

  “What are you talking about Gabby?” he asked

  Heading toward the door, she turned and smiled sarcastically at her beau.

  “That’s a nice shirt honey. Guys, have a great show!”

  Chris looked down at his shirt and flashed a wide grin.

  “Oh this thing?” Chris continued. “You like my shirt, Gab? We’re going to have so much fun at all those home games this fall. Just you and me.”

  She couldn’t help but let out a chuckle before she replied, “I’m dying to see you with a hammer and nails around the house. Let me ask you, do you even know what a power tool is? “

  He walked over to her and whispered in her ear. “If you like, I’ll be more than happy to show you what my drill and hammer can do… after the show.”

  Chris kissed his girlfriend on the forehead. Gabrielle mumbled an inaudible and walked out the door. Chris laughed loudly as he watched her walk away and head toward the side of the stage.

  Chapter Three

  The sell-out crowd loved Knight’s Armor as much as the band loved performing for them. They were an enthusiastic and spirited crowd to say the least.

  In the band’s eye line, they noticed that this evening, the women were looking especially beautiful. The audience hung on Chris’ every word as he walked along a custom-built circular ramp with its steel path weaved around the circumference of the theatre.

  Gabrielle admired her boyfriend’s performance as Chris made memories for his fans by holding hands and dancing with the girls..

  During one fan interaction of the Knight’s Armor classic ballad ‘Night Moves’, Chris made his way over to the left side of the stage ramp where lead guitarist Tate Masterson played. He noticed out of the corner of his eye, a young woman in her early twenties taking photos of him as he went past his band mate and around the ramp. Slapping the hands of fans along with way, he decided to shock the young woman by stopping right in front of her.

  Paralyzed, the young lady stopped taking photos and stared at the lead singer.

  “Wait a minute! Wait a minute!” He told the crowd as the band went into an instrumental version of the song. The crowd erupted at hearing him speak.

  Chris smiled with kindness at the petite young woman in front of him. Still motionless, he pulled her up on stage and the audience roared. Nervous, the young photographer toyed with her long, brown hair. Her olive skin complimented the gold Knight’s Armor tank top and blue jeans she wore. To subdue her uneasiness, he placed one arm around her and pointed at the camera she had in her hand.

  “Hi, how are you. What do we have here?” he asked

  The woman was speechless. Her only actions were to nod in acknowledgement, wave, smile, and give him the camera.

  The crowd thundered with laughter. “Mmmm. Okay? I take it there are some pics of me in here?” Chris asked her.

  Feeling her face grow hot from embarrassment, she told him. “Yes. And of Tate.”

  The crowd screamed loudly for Tate, who saluted the young woman and rest of the crowd with a wave.

  Chris looked up at his good friend and lead guitarist, then pointed at him. “Look at Masterson with the fans! I suppose there’s some pictures in here of Rychert, Osborn and Cage too?” he asked

  The fan snickered and replied, “No.”

  “No? There’s no pics of them in here, baby?” The woman’s breath became shallow as she listened to the lead singer’s husky voice. Her large brown eyes were as wide as saucers when she glanced into Chris’ eyes. It took everything in her to open her mouth to answer his question. “No, you and Tate are my favorites.” She looked over at the other guys and flashed a weak smile at the three. “Sorry guys.”

  The screams continued followed by a lone, but audible marriage proposal for Redmond Cage.

  Chris laughed at the marriage proposal while he tried to figure out how to work the camera. “While Cage mulls over his wedding proposal, are you taking at least good pictures of me?”

  Still speechless, the woman nodded yes.

  Despite the screams, Chris kept trying to figure out how to advance the camera frames.

  “Let me see now... How do you advance this thing?” he asked

  With playful interest, Chris watched her instruct him on using the advance button on the camera’s playback menu.

  Chris was definitely having fun with his young fan. The fact that she was easy on the eyes didn’t hurt either. Out of the corner of his eye, he couldn’t help but to admire the woman’s slender body and voluptuous breasts that seemed as if they were going to spill out and over her tank top.

  Although he was very much in love with Gabrielle, the singer had to remind myself for a second that he was no longer able to act as if he were a kid in a candy store.

  Enjoying the pictures of both he and Tate, he leaned over and gave her peck on the cheek. “Thanks. babe. I wish there were a way to show these to everyone. These are good. Hey, do you mind if I take a couple of pics?”

  “No, go ahead,” she replied.

  When he pointed the camera at the audience, the crowd went wild. “Say cheese!” he said as he pressed the shoot button. As the flash went off, he looked back at the photo, which didn’t turn out so well. “Whoa, should I have used that flash?” he asked her.

  “No Chris. With the lights on from this vantage point, it’ll make the pictures darker,” she said.

  “Well, now. Let’s try this again.” Pressing the non-flash button as the crowd erupted, Chris pointed the camera at the audience and band members, snapping frame after frame for several seconds.

  While the band continued to play instrumentally, Chris continued his flirtations with the girl.

  “Okay. Let’s see if it worked this time,” he told her.

  On the jumbo screen, the crowd followed as Chris advanced the camera into the next frame. He smiled in approval. “All right. I did okay with this thing. How do you think I did?”

  “Your pics are great Chris,” she said in disbelief over what was occurring.

  Chris gave the camera back to her. “Your pics are good. Very good. Thanks for showing them to me.”

  He slowly began to walk back up toward the stage but then unexpectedly, he turned and walked over to her again. “Wait a minute, you know what? Can you do me a favor?” he asked.

  “Sure,” she said.

  “Can you take a picture of me and my girlfriend? She’s never been up here before and she loves this shirt I’m wearing. So, I thought that since she was backstage tonight, it’d be nice to get a picture of us together doing what I do best.” He propped another kiss on the woman’s forehead and winked at her.

  The girl nodded in approval.

  “Okay.”

  The crowd erupted with thunderous applause. From the corner of the stage, Gabrielle looked at Chris in horror. Chris snickered. He motioned for Gabrielle to come out. “C’mon, babe.” Standing on the side of the stage, Gabrielle folded her arms and yelled, “No!”

  “Oh c’mon, they’re not gonna bite. Everyone, this is my girl Gabrielle. C’mon,” he said with a wink of his eye.

  She mouthed the words, “Ass!”

  Chris laughed. “Here she comes.”

  Petrified, she walked onstage. The thought of so many eyes on her, scared her senseless. Meeting her halfway up the stage, Chris met her with security in tow as fans were beginning to tug at his every body part while he walked the ramp.

  “Unreal!” Gabrielle told him in his ear as the two of them both made their way back down the steps and toward the woman

  “Baby, say hi to everyone,” He told her.

  All Gabrielle could do was wave to the audience. She also waved to the band that continued to play despite their lead singer’s shenanigans.

  “Okay, now that we got that all out the way. This young woman is nice enough to take our picture.”

  Gabrielle nodded and smiled at the you
ng woman.

  “Great! Okay, ready?” Chris asked the girl.

  The girl enthusiastically nodded yes.

  Chris put his arm around Gabrielle and propped a quick kiss on top of her head. The couple flashed a smile as the girl took one photo after another of the two of them. When the girl finished, Chris walked over to her. “Okay. How do they look?” he asked.

  He noticed that Gabrielle had quickly followed him and was looking over his shoulder. The audience and the band began to laugh hysterically. Chris turned to Gabrielle and smiled. “You know for someone who didn’t want to come out here, you suddenly are all interested in what’s going on out here,” he snickered.

  Gabrielle nodded. “Yep. May I see those, hon?”she asked the woman.

  Giving Gabrielle the camera, the woman let her and Chris see the photos. “Nice” He told the photographer as he looked through the camera images with pride. Showing Gabrielle the photos he took, she appeared impressed. “See babe. I took these,” he told her.

  “These are nice, Chris. You know, photography is a good hobby to look into when you go on break.” Gabrielle said with a wink. Chris rolled his eyes at her statement. “Think of all the sights you can take photos of while we’re on vacation.” She teased as she continued to look through the photos.

  “Your photos are great too, hon,” Gabrielle told the young woman.

  Chris smiled at the photographer. “We’ll take all of them.”

  The young woman squealed with joy.

  “Sure Chris, I’ll give them to you!”

  “Thanks!” Chris said.

  “Thank you. They’re great,” Gabrielle told her giving the woman a kiss smack dead on the lips.

  Chris raised his eyebrows with surprise.

  Gabrielle walked up the stage and waved goodbye to the audience. The crowd applauded enthusiastically and security brought the young woman back to her seat. Chris shook his head in amusement. He turned to Tate. “Man, did my woman just upstage me?”

  His lead guitarist laughed. “She sure as hell did!”

  “Tate, if this had been on TV, I’d be out of a freakin’ job,” he told him and the crowd.

  “You? All of us would,” Tate said.

  Chris laughed. “Then again, that’s my girl.”

  Chapter Four

  After a couple of nights of realizing that his efforts thus far had been fruitless, Chris was impressed with Gabby’s ability to say no.

  He was so passionate when it came to her. He loved every part of her. Her smell, her taste, and the way she moved beneath him. To make love, all it would usually take would be a wink, nod or the slightest touch. In the middle of one of their Vegas shows, Chris went to change his shirt backstage when a short-of-breath Sam ran over to him.

  “Hey Sam, what’s up? Changing quickly while Tate’s doing a solo,” Chris said drying himself off with a towel and gulping through half a bottle of water.

  Winded, Sam asked, “Hey you remember that girl from the other night, the one that you were taking pictures with? “

  Putting on a new tank top, Chris nodded. “Yeah.”

  “Well she’s here. She has those photos that you wanted of you and Gabby.”

  Chris grinned as he sprinted toward the stage.

  “Oh cool. Why don’t you just get them from her and let her watch the show backstage? I’ll be back to talk to her after the show.”

  “Want me to call Gabby?”

  As Chris went by the woman, he not only remembered how Gabrielle kissed her on the lips, but he could not help but to still notice how beautiful, the young woman was. Wearing an outfit similar to what she had on a couple of nights prior, his thoughts turned to the woman, then to Gabby...and suddenly back to himself. Gabrielle’s kiss with the young photographer began to play out in his quick daydream with a result that he was grateful for wearing a long tank covering his swelling member. Would Gabby be into a threesome? Would she do it for me?

  Chris acknowledged the woman by nodding his head and smiling. She grinned back from ear to ear.

  “No. Don’t call her. I’ll take care of this myself. Make sure this girl stays backstage ok?” Chris told Sam as he sprinted to the stage. He couldn’t help but wonder for the rest of the night how Gabby would react to a threesome.

  ***

  As the band continued their show at the MGM Grand, Gabrielle decided skip the evening’s show to talk with her older brother, Tyler, via phone.

  Tyler, who was also one of Chris’ best friends, asked his sister on the other end of the phone, “You only saw Chris play once since you’ve been there?”

  Looking at the calendar, she realized that her time was running out quickly.

  “I guess so Tyler. I’ve been here for a week now and had no clue. I’ve been hanging out with my old friends at Rockline and or doing other stuff. We’re here for another show so I’ll probably go to that. I’ll make sure to have Chris and Tate call you. You’re missing some great gambling. this time out.”

  “Are you breaking even? I have to go anyway. I have a date. It is Valentine’s Day, you know.”

  “Shit! It is? “Gabrielle’s eyes opened wide. “Oh God. I totally forgot it was Valentine’s Day. And this bet thing? I don’t know. Well, I’m actually ahead money wise at the tables. I won a few hands of Blackjack,” she said as she placed her hand over her mouth.

  “Bet? What bet?” Tyler asked.

  “I thought I’d told you. Trust me, it’s probably better that you don’t know. You’d laugh,” she told him as she began to play with her hair.

  She could hear laughter on the other end of the phone. “Oh, this must be good… spill, sis,” her brother pleaded.

  “Chris bet me that he could get me into bed with one of his trademark maneuvers.”

  Tyler laughed hysterically on the other end. “Oh my God. He must be hornier than a goat. He sucks at hitting on women. No disrespect, sis.”

  Gabby looked at the phone receiver and rolled her eyes at her brother. “He’s sweet when he’s himself, not when he’s the rock persona everyone else knows. Maybe it’s funny because you and I both know him. I can’t believe I forgot it was Valentine’s Day. I have no idea what we’re going to do. I’m going to lose this bet. I know it, if he has something planned for tonight.”

  “What happens when you lose?” Tyler asked.

  “I have to go to every Giants home game when football is back on this fall.”

  Several seconds of silence went by before Tyler simply said, “Wow.”

  “Wow? That’s all you have to say, Tyler?”

  “You hate football. This is going to be rough for you,” Tyler said with a giggle.

  “You’re not even going to support me? I’m your little sister. What am I going to do? I can’t say no to him on Valentine’s Day!”

  “Ok, what happens if he loses?” her brother asked on the other end.

  “He stays home for a while. No touring, no music, nothing. He becomes Mr. Stay-at-home boyfriend. He even said he hoped to be…a future husband.” She revealed.

  “What? He’s a workaholic. How did you manage to get him to do that?” Tyler asked

  “I didn’t. He offered to,” she said.

  “Gabby, he loves you. Maybe this is his way of saying that he is ready for that next step. He really said future husband?”

  Gabby paused before she answered. “Yes. He did.”

  “I don’t know, hon. He threw down a heavy commitment there.”

  “He did that because he was confident he’d win Tyler, that’s why. He’d never stop working for that long.”

  “Then why did he come up with that? Out of all of the crazy things he could have picked, he chose the one thing that part of him most likely wanted to do. Something to think about, sis. I gotta get going. I have to pick up my date. Talk to you tomorrow?” Tyler asked her.

  Gabby took a deep breath, inhaling all that her brother that told her. Maybe Chris did want to stop for a bit and take a break. Maybe Tyler was right. “O
k. Love you, bro. Have fun,” she said.

  “Love you too. Happy Valentine’s Day,” he said and ended the call.

  Putting down the receiver, she decided to unwind a bit before Chris came in after the show.

  Pouring some wine in a glass that was on her nightstand, Gabrielle leafed through some old photographs of her and Chris that the two of them took long before he became famous. Sprawled on top of the bed in disorganized chaos, Gabrielle picked up an old performance photo of Chris from his time playing at the Bowery Club in their hometown of Bedford, New York.

  Gabrielle’s heart filled with joy at the sight of the picture. That time seemed so long ago now. She turned the photograph over and recognized her own scribbled handwriting. It read, ‘Chris-2001, Bowery Club VIP showcase, Meteor Records.’

  It was from the first night she saw him perform. Great in a lot of ways, but in fact for Chris it was a horrible night. Chris’ old girlfriend and backup singer showed up to sing stoned out of her mind and messed up their showcase performance. Gabrielle, just an intern, was late; Chris was horrible to not only her but to everyone that night.

  She remembered that, although he was upset and angry about how the night went, he wound up apologizing the next day and eventually being one of the most charismatic and loving people she had ever met.

  His looks were smoldering, those gray eyes, the long brown hair, the athletic build. His moves were so catlike and intoxicatingly sensual that few men could replicate them.

  Their relationship had always been such a physical one from the time they told one another they loved each other. She was impressed she had fought it for as long as she had.

  She chuckled at the thought of the young woman in the audience a few nights ago. She’d forgotten what it was like to see him up close. He was breathtaking.

  Like he promised, each night, Chris tried to seduce her without result. At least that’s what she wanted him to think.

  Walking into the bathroom to take a shower, she took off her sweater to reveal her round curves and porcelain skin.

  As she walked to the mirror, Gabrielle began to free her long mass of blonde curls from the ponytail. Chris loved how her hair cascaded down the small of her back in different shades of blonde. The curls, as she brushed them, they transformed into a sea of waves.

 

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