I sit at the back of the club, listening to the band play, tapping my foot and discreetly mouthing the words to their new song, I’ll Spend My Life With You. I watch all four of them, but I keep my gaze fixed on the tall one with the twelve-string guitar most of the time. He wears a shirt and tie, as opposed to the more outlandish clothing of his band mates. Although he appears conservative, if you watch him for long enough, you’ll begin to notice small subtle movements and gestures which would tell you otherwise. He doesn’t bring attention to himself. The audience watches Micky sing, Peter jump about and Davy, well he doesn’t need to do anything to be seen.
Mike just stands there, strumming his guitar, and swaying slightly to the music. Then, he’ll roll his eyes, grin and briefly stick out his tongue. It’s just the little things, and trying not to laugh, I have a sip of my coke. I look back up at him and he’s standing there again, looking out into the audience. He spots me and I grin at him. He winks back and glances at Davy who’s serenading a girl in the front row. I almost choke on my drink laughing as Mike makes a quick gesture with his body.
When I can finally look at him without cracking up at sight of his grin, he’s playing the intro to Papa Gene’s Blues. He smiles at me just before he starts singing. I notice that his bandmates are looking at me, then at Mike and grinning. As Davy saunters back towards Micky, I turn my attention back to Michael, who is singing to me. I smile at him and he winks at me again.
The music ends and they introduce their last song for the night, For Pete’s Sake. I finish off my glass of coke, and sit back enjoying the show. Now that Mike knows I’m watching him, he’s trying a little bit harder to impress me. It’s not too hard, and I find myself laughing at all his antics onstage.
When the set concludes and the applause has died down, the Monkees make their way offstage and into the crowd. The lanky Texan climbs down from the platform, his intentions set on me. I feel a hand on my shoulder and I turn around and smile warmly.
“Darlin’, are you ready to come home?”
“Yeah, I’ve seen what I came here for.”
Ivory helps me up from my chair and I place a hand on my rounded belly. Hugging him, I give him a quick kiss on the lips and take his hand to leave the club. I turn my head back the other way, and grin at Mike, shrugging slightly. I’ll never forget the look of complete bewilderment plastered on his face as he watches me go.