"Don’t say it, don’t say it!" Chris was busting Joey during the card game.
"Read ‘em and weep!" Joey said.
"Man, I haven’t won a hand yet."
Lance and Mercedes were relaxing on the sofa, heads together reading, but the antics of Chris, Joey and their card game were also keeping them amused.
Every once in a while they’d stop what they were doing and one would just stare at the other. Lance might plant a kiss on her forehead as she wrote something down in her journal. He was checking out his e-mail messages and Mercedes whispered something in his ear. Lance would have to bend his neck and smile from the sweet sensation of it.
Lance rubbed Mercedes head where the lump was still evident from last night and he kissed her cheek. That was enough for Joey.
Joey nudged Chris. Chris said, "Don’t look at my cards, man." Joey gave him a look and nodded his head over in Lance’s direction.
"Hey Dude, you look kind of happy over there. Stop it."
"Sorry Chris, I know how you hate that." Lance laughed.
"How you feeling today, Mercedes?"
"Just fine. And how are YOU feeling, Chris?"
"Obviously not as good as Joey and Lance are. Joey’s whipping my butt over here and Lance, well, Lance is just too damn happy. And I blame you Mer! How dare you do this to our Poofoo?"
"Ohh No! Don’t start that!" Lance shook his head.
Now, Chris was on a roll. "Oh Poofoo, I love you!"
"Oh my gosh. You know just when to bring up these things, don’t you Chris?"
Mercedes was rolling in laughter. "That is precious! Poofoo, I had forgotten about that."
Johnny and Justin came up through the bus cabin, they had been sitting up front.
"How are you feeling, Mercedes?" Justin asked.
"Good, how’s your fan doing?"
"She’s actually doing good. She was happy to see me and her parents didn’t throw me out of their house when I went by there this morning."
"That was good of you to do that, J." Mercedes told him.
"Johnny, why haven’t I seen Tim or Mike this afternoon?" asked Lance.
"Yeah, you didn’t actually fire them did ya?" smirked Chris.
"We thought it was best for them to go ahead and meet us there. I figured you wouldn’t WANT to see them Lance." said Johnny. Lance looked over at Mercedes and then back to Johnny.
"I was really upset yesterday. I said some things I shouldn’t have. It wasn’t their fault. It was something we couldn’t control and that scared me. I want to have a chance to apologize to them."
Johnny smiled, "Glad to hear that, Lance."
"Poofoo, did..." everybody smiled, "did you ask Johnny about the prescription?"
"What did you call me?" Lance narrowed his eyes jokingly and then laughed.
"Hey, Johnny do you ever remember me being sick over in France?"
"In Cannes?"
"No, it would’ve had to have been before last October."
"Anybody? No, Lance, I can’t even think of when you were over there last expect for Cannes."
Lance shrugged his shoulders and looked at Mercedes.
"Wait a minute, what about those headaches? Don’t you remember Scoop? You had some migraine headaches and we almost cancelled a show." Justin said.
Lance looked perplexed. "When was this?"
"September, sometime. Doesn’t anyone else remember this?"
"Why Justin, I think you’re right! Yes, Liam told me later that he had a prescription filled for you. Pretty good stuff as I recall, you slept for a day and a half...but the headache went away and it was ‘on with the show’!!" said Johnny.
"Of course." said Justin under his breath.
"Mystery solved!" said Mercedes.
As he opened the door to their hotel room, he took another glance over at Mercedes. When she smiled at him, it was reassuring.
The concierge had gotten all his instructions correctly. The tropical flowers and the candles lit. It was beautiful. But, Lance suddenly felt a little inhibited. Maybe this was a little TOO obvious. Their bags were already delivered to the room. Lance pushed the door closed behind Mercedes and shifted on his feet nervously.
"I guess I’ll go take a shower." he said. Lance leaned down to get his bag and rummage through to find some clothes to change into.
"This is beautiful, Lance. Did you do this?"
Lance stopped, stood up and looked at her face, she really liked it.
"No, I just asked the concierge to arrange things for us."
Mercedes touched his arm and glanced up at him, "Thank-you." She walked over to one of the vases and smelled the jasmine. Then she picked a Bird of Paradise out of the vase and brought it over to him. "Aren’t these beautiful?"
Lance nodded.
Mercedes walked through the living area, into the sitting area, next to the bedroom area. Lance followed behind her.
"This will do nicely." she said admiring the sunk-in bath tub.
Lance had a puzzled expression on his face. Mercedes gave him a slightly embarrassed smile. Mercedes started to fill the tub with hot water. Then she sprinted to her suitcase and brought out a bottle of vanilla bubble bath. Lance just watched her. He still had on his wardrobe from "Digital Get Down".
"This bath should be ready for you soon." she told him.
He stood there. She was swishing the water around. "Would you like to bring some of those lovely candles and flowers in here?" she asked him.
He realized that he could move, put one foot in front of the other and walked out into the living room area. Mercedes followed him in as well and together they brought in some candles and vases. Then, Lance turned off the bright bathroom light.
The tub was rapidly filling up with hot sudsy water. "Vanilla is a stress reducer. After all your hard work this evening, I figured hot water for your tired muscles and the scent of vanilla to relax. Here, let me help." Mercedes moved closer to him, "How does this come off?" she asks. Lance snaps out of his daze and pulls the top over his head.
"It stretches." he says.
Mercedes has seen him shirtless before at the inlet or on the beach. But, this was different. Mercedes reaches for his waist and unfastens the button to his costume. Lance leans over and kisses her temple. His mouth was open and he seemed in awe of this event. He places his hands on her hips and draws her even closer to him. He reaches around and grabs her tush. Lance can hear the water still flowing into the tub. He touches her hair and buries his free hand and his face in it. He begins to kiss her lips.
"Wait. Wait." Mercedes steps back, Lances leans over in an attempt to stay connected to her lips. His mouth open he makes a face, "No, don’t stop."
"I’ll let you finish undressing. I’ll be back." Lance’s eyes follow her out, "Where are you going?" He drops his clothes and enters the tub. He is instantly at ease. He stretches out. He closes his eyes. Lance can hear the bathroom door reopening and he feels Mercedes’ presence as she leans over the tub to whisper in his ear.
"Don’t fall asleep." Lance starts to turn towards her voice. She finds a towel rolls it and places it under the base of his head. When she comes around into his field of view, he notices that she’s changed into silky boxer shorts & a camisole. It’s comfortable for her, but it’s doing things to him.
Lance raises his arms to reach out to her, "When are you coming in, Darlin‘?"
"Soon."
Her voice sounded a little shaky. Lance starts to inquire as to what Mercedes was doing.
"Watching you soak."
"That can’t be much fun." His face scrunches up. "Why don’t you join me?"
Lance says and smiles. Mercedes is silent.
"Mercedes?" Lance opens his eyes, for a minute he thought she had left the room.
"Forgive me." He says quietly, as he notices the look on her face. "Is all this...alright with you?"
Mercedes still says nothing. Lance splashes some water up on his face and moves over to the edge of the bath tub where Mercedes is sitting.
Lance’s head rests on his arms, his eyes fixed on her. "Let me dry off and we can sit in the other room and talk, okay?"
Mercedes nods her head, rises and leaves the room. When Lance finishes getting dried off and puts some sweat pants and t-shirt on, he finds Mercedes sitting on the couch clutching a pillow and wrapped up in a quilt from the bedroom.
She was deep in thought and didn’t immediately notice when Lance came into the room. Mercedes had a lost look on her face and for a moment Lance thought she was about to cry.
"Are you alright, Darlin’?"
"I am." She nodded. Then, Mercedes looked at him, "Lance...I am...so sorry." She hugged the pillow. "I have no idea what came over me."
Lance sat beside her, "You have nothing to apologize for. I should be the one saying I’m sorry. I made some pretty heavy assumptions."
He took a hold of her hand and kissed her cheek. "I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to rush you."
"No, it’s totally my fault. I did say I wanted to do something special for you and after the other night, naturally you must’ve thought I meant we should be intimate. And I DID mean that..."
"Mercedes," Lance touched her hand and kissed her head, "It’s okay for you to have second thoughts. I’m not just in this relationship for tonight, I’m in it for the long haul. We’ll take our time."
"I do want...more for us. Only, I’m...scared...of having something special and...losing it again." Lance nodded his head to what she was telling him.
"You know me well enough to know I don’t take this lightly, Mercedes. I haven’t had a lot of experience." He sighed. "Darlin’, I’m not experienced at all, exactly. I’ve been in sexual situations, but those were just about being a guy, a guy overwhelmed by fame and meeting girls who were eager to please. It wasn’t sexual intercourse, although it came close more than once. And I never felt anything remotely close to what I feel for you, what I’ve felt for a long time. This isn’t some hormonal urge. I’m telling you, Mercedes that I am going to keep the faith for both of us. It’s taken me so long to come to this moment with you. I am NEVER going to let anything bad happen to us. I don’t want to lose it, so I’m not going to rush you. All I ask..." Lance drew closer to her, "All I ask is that you let me hold you."
As Mercedes smiles, one lone tear falls upon her cheek. She reaches out to him and Lance puts his arms around her.
"Lance, two nights ago when we were talking about Liam..." Lance closed his eyes and sighed. "Do you know I’m wondering how...people can stay together...how people can be true to their commitment to one another."
Lance gazed at her, "What are you trying to say, Mercedes?"
She took a deep breath, "What I am trying to say, is that...I don’t know...I’ve often wondered if there were times when Liam was tempted to cheat on me." Lance couldn’t believe his ears. Maybe they could get the secrets out from between them. Mercedes continued. "And whether or not I could handle being in a relationship with someone who would be away from me a lot, who would be surrounded by temptation, women eager to please him. How could I...deal with that?"
Mercedes was thinking HE might not be able to be true to her? After all that he had just said to her? After all this torturous waiting to be with her? It wasn’t enough that the most beautiful night of his LIFE was ruined by Liam’s presence in Mercedes’ mind and soul, but THIS? This DOUBT?
Lance was stunned. "You’re not suggesting that I might cheat on you while I’m on tour with the guys, are you? You’re not, are you?"
Mercedes held his gaze. "How can you say it would never happen? I’ve known far too many musicians from working in the studio, that I know it’s a common practice. I always said I’d NEVER date a musician because of what I’ve seen in the studio. Married guys, single guys, they all have far too much access. It’s far too much temptation."
"Mercedes, I’ve just bared my SOUL to you. I told you I’ve never had sexual intercourse before you. Now you question whether or not I can remain faithful? That’s INSANE."
Mercedes was quiet. Lance was steamed. "I think I’m going back into the tub and try and relax. I’m out of my head over you Mercedes, totally crazy for you. I must be doing something wrong if you can’t see that. I cannot tell you how much your doubting hurts me. I’m upset, so I think it’s better that I just go cool off. " Lance’s eyes reveal his pain, "All I’ve ever tried to do is prove my devotion to you. Why haven’t you been able to see that?"
