Slow Love

SXSW Music Festival

It's show day. I wake up to soft kisses on my face. I love being woke up this way. I open my eyes and there he is. I say, "Good Morning Sweetheart." He says, "Good Morning,Love." Are you ready for today? I don't know. I just woke up. I said, "Yes, I'm excited to go tonight." He said, "Breakfast is here. I heard them come in and set it up. Are you ready to eat?"I said, "I need coffee and we will see what they have." He was so excited like a puppy dog about breakfast. Lord, how does he have this much energy this early? It is beyond me. I said, "I need a shower to get moving this morning. Do you want to join me?" He was all in.So you know what happened. We put our matching robes on and went out to see what they had set up for us. I opened the carafes and there were eggs Benedict and I was surprised to see what appeared to be Canadian Beacon on them. I looked at him and said, "This is nice but what kind of beacon is that?" He said, "Baby, try it and see if you like it. It is tofurkey beacon and I had this made just for you because I know it is your fav." I looked at him and he quickly said, "Baby, if you don't like it I'll have them make it for you the other way. I know how much you like your beacon. Please try it."Now I've had this tofurkey stuff and it's not bad. I have a friend out west on a vegan diet and when I visit her, I manage it. They make that tofurkey 50 ways and fairly good. So this might fly OK. He is softening tho when he is willing to get me what I want and it is all against he believes. If he only knew what I had for lunch yesterday with Bonnie. I'll not tell him about that unless he asks. But, it was really good. We plated up the food and sat down. He is looking at me with those eyes and I try the eggs. It was good. I said, "Thank you sweetheart, it is really good. You know how much I like this." He comes in and kisses me and was so glad I like it. He said, "I am so happy this turned out good for you. I know it's one of your favs."This penthouse has a terrace patio so after breakfast we go out therefor awhile. It was really beautiful to just relax and take in the view. He told me that sound check was at 2:00 and he wanted me to go with him. So we just relaxed and then go ready for sound check. We go to the venue and we are walking in and I hear "GIGI!!!!! coming from behind me in stereo. I turned and it is Dave Grohl and John Fogarty. I run over to them leaving my man in the dust. John grabbed me in a big bear hug and the two were gushing to see me. Yep, I interviewed them back in the day. Prince catches up with me and takes my hand. He was just quiet and dumbfounded. He was not mad or anything, just very reserved. They heard about the memoirs and I told them when they were ready, I'd do help them with theirs too. Dave leaned in and kissed me on the cheek and whispered in my ear, "Have fun, you will do him right." They said they'd catch up with me later as Prince was trying to drag me off to the sound check. I waved bye and we headed to his venue. He put his arm around me and we walked a short way and he turned to me and said, "G that was hard to take." I said, "Whatever do you mean? Are you jealous?" He said "No, you have that affect on everyone. I had no idea." I said, "Sweetheart, You know who I go home with, don't worry aboutit." He laughed and said, "You have never ran away like that from me before and I was just caught off guard. Don't do that again,please?" OK here it comes, his insecurity is coming forward again. I said, "I know a lot of artists and I'm sure they are going to wonder what's going on with us. I am going to witness the same thing with you. I'm going to see those young female artists that will just throw themselves at you. I came here with you and I'm leaving with you. Just remember that. And let's go and have a good time. OK?" He hugged me and said, "I feel better now. You have a way to do that. Are you ready to see this?" I said, "Yep!" He had me sit in the front row and watch. It was mesmerizing. We were there for about 2hours and he ran those guys thru about the whole show. It was really something to see. I can hardly wait to see the show tonite. As we are leaving the venue, I was hoping I did not see anyone else I knew.  It might just send him over the deep end. I know he's going to bring it up again. Here's a man that wants to show me off and when it happens I have old admires, he freaks out. We get back to the hotel and I grab a cup of coffee and we head out to the terrace. I am hoping he does not bring up anything about the sound check. But I know better. He takes my hands and I know it's coming, he looks at me and I'm about to melt. Here it comes, "Baby, please don't run away from me like that again. It scared me and I didn't know what was happening." I collected myself, taking my hand to his jawline and said, "Sweetheart, I love you and nothing has changed with that.  You have to remember I had a career that intersected yours  .Periodically I am going to run into those like John and Dave and they may or may not be as exhilarated as they were to see me. But, you have to accept that it may happen again. I promise I will not react like I did today.   I'm sorry that made you uncomfortable. If you remember, their article is one that attracted you to me in the first place. I would never hurt you. I love you and it is you that I'm with. Understand?" He looks at me and I just saw a calm come over him. All is good. He says to me, "Baby, I love you and I understand all this now. I had no idea who you really were. The more I learnabout you, the more I love you and that is unconditional. I said,"Are we good now?" He just grabbed me and hugged me and you know  what happens next. Yep, right there on the terrace and thank goodness  it was Saturday so there was no traffic helicopters. LOL! We relaxed and had some us time. I think he's good now. It was just a shock to his system to have a woman with a past that may affect him.   He really had no idea. Even though we talked a lot, he was more focused on what I was doing currently and some of this just never really came up.   I also left the industry in the early 90's so it never dawned on him that I had a lasting connection to some of these other artist. I never talked to them like I did him. I just interviewed them and that was it. I have not seen Dave and John for over 25years. It was good to see them. They were so much fun to interview and I never forgot it. The way I look at it is this. When you look at Prince, he is on his own plane. You look at other artists and they are on a different one. Some before Prince some after Prince and each of them have their own plane or place on the playing field. The young upcoming artist, well they are tying to establish what part of that plane they are on in the playing field. So for my man, it just never occurred to him that I really knew anyone else other than him. He's  learning, God love him. He will be OK. We get dressed and head to the venue. We are driven there in a limo and get into it easily. No press and we get to a makeshift dressing room. He gets dressed and that was hard me for to watch. Especially the fact that he never wears under ware. I knew if I did anything, it would only delay it. This is a late one. It is starting like midnite. I hope he does no tgo too long. But it is a high energy show so it will be a good one. A knock at the door and it is his manager, Kiran. She comes in and looks at me funny. He says, Kiran, I want to introduce you to my fiancee, GiGi. I get up, I go right at her and shake her hand. As soon as I do that, her whole demeanor changes and she is relaxed. She says, "Nice to meet you. I bet you are excited to be here." I said, "Yes, I am." He gives her orders to take me up on stage and show me to the sofa back there. I kissed him goodbye, and she trudged thru the back hallway and took me there. She was talking as we were walking and asked me if we had set a date? I said, still working on it. I'll send you a press release when it is firm." I know what she is trying to do and she is too young to get that out of me. Even the best won't be able to. I get to the stage and Damaris is there on the couch. She motions for me to come on over. I tell Kiran, I'm good.  Damaris is thrilled to see me. She runs through what happens and tells me that others may drop in and out as the show goes on. Some may try to talk to me and others are just going to watch him. She said she will be back and forth between numbers and some she sits out and she'll get with me when she comes over. I told her, I've got this. She hugs me and says, it's almost time. Sure enough, here he comes, kisses me and heads out to the front. It was a fantastic show.He kept coming over every chance he got to steal a kiss and get a drink of water. It was really hot in there. People kept coming and going on the sofa and then I looked over and guess who was next. Dave and John and they sided right up to me. Dave was next to me and he leaned in and said, "So this is research for the book?" I nodded yes. He then said, "I know that look and there's more to this." I did not move. I turned to him and said, "Dave, whatever do you mean?" He laughed and said, "You know what I mean. We know there is more to this than what meets the eye." I said, "Oh Dan, you are reading too much into it. I'm here to do a job." He laughed and said, "You did not give it away, he did earlier today." I'm like,"Dave enjoy the show." Demaris is on my other side and she is beside herself. She could tell I knew them and asked me, "Do you know them?" I shook my head yes. She went "WOW! Can you introduce them to me?" I said, "Let's watch the show." She was impressed.They decided to move on and got up and hugged and kissed me on the cheek. Damaris was starstruck. John whispered in my ear, "Have a good time. Enjoy it." I thanked them. Just after they left, here he comes all smiles. He's OK, but he saw it. He takes my hand and we head backstage. He is going to do an encore. I stand back there with him and he was just beaming with all smiles. Some of the crew were telling him it was a good show. He says to me, "Wait until they see the encore. Wait here and when I'm done, we'll head straight to the limo" I said, "OK, I'll be waiting here for you." He goes back out and I can see him. He really got into it and did 6 more songs. He usually only does 2 or 3 but this time he doubled it up. He came offstage and we zipped right to the limo. WOW! What a show. We load into the limo and he grabs me and hugs me. "What did you think, Baby?"I said, "That was a fantastic show. I had a good time." He was so pumped. He was just talking about how the band was so tight. I just could feel it in my bones. He was up to something. He said, "Who all came by to see the show?" I said, "A bunch of people, some I knew some I did not." He said, "So, what did John and Dave want?"I told you, he saw it.  I said, "Just to see the show and asked me if this was my research. Oh, and they know." He looked surprised, and I said, "Oh, you gave it away they told me. SO don't look at me like that." I snickered. He laughed and said, "How did they figure it out?" I said, "The look on your face when we saw them earlier. You have it written all over your face what's going on between us. That does not take a rocket scientist to figure out."He laughed and grabbed me. He said, "Is it that obvious?" I went"Yeah, it is." He just said, "I can't help it. I love you." I said, "Yeah I love you too. I know. I need to do a press release when we get back because it is going to be bad if we go on tour and everyone is going to figure it out. I think it would be best to just announce it and be done with it. I need to call Bream first tho."He said, Whatever you think, Baby. I'm good." Well, that was easier than I thought. I said, "OK, I'll call Bream tomorrow. I put it out on the wires on Wed. Is that OK?" He said, "Cool, Baby. You handle that." 

We arrive at the hotel. I am hungry. We get up to the penthouse and there is food! I was so excited to have something waiting on me. He said, "I ordered food for you. I thought you might be hungry." I said, "Oh yes, thank you sweetheart." I ate and he picked at a few things. He was kinda acting like something was bothering him.  Just withdrawn. I said, "What's a matter?" He said, "I was thinking. Why don't we just get married before the tour?" I took a deep breath and said, "Why?" He said, "I really don't want to wait. I want you to be my wife now." OH DAMN! I said, "You are a PR nightmare, you know?" He laughed and said,  "Why?" I said, "I try to do everything right and then you throw me this curve ball." He is just laughing. "Are you just screwing my head now?" He just roared with laughter and said, "Yes, you are so serious when you get in that zone." I said as I was moving over to the sofa, "No, I know what this is all about." He plops down next to me and says, "What do you think it is then?" I said,  "You are worried you might loose your cool on tour and I'll change my mind, right?" He looks sheepishly at me and says, "You know me better than I know myself." I said, "I love you and nothing has or is going to change. You have to put your insecurity in check. You have to or this not going to work. I cannot have this.  I have people from my past and it's going to pop up just like today,  from time to time. If you act like this every time it happens, I just can't be doing this over and over. I have never slept with any of them and never will. You are the only musician I've shared a bed with. You have to accept that this is what happens when you have someone in your life that has a past. I know what yours was and it was not stellar. How do you think I'm going to feel when we run into some of  the ones you have slept with?  I will accept it. You know that I came with you and I'm leaving with you. I'm going to change my clothes and you think about this."  As I storm to the bedroom, I am fighting back tears because this is just plain stupid and silly. I get to the bathroom and just loose it. The tears just flowed like a river. I hope he stays put.  I need to clear my head on this. I cannot be looking over my shoulder wondering what he's going to say or do when I see someone from my past.  I did nothing wrong.  I think I have it together enough to go back out there.  I finish changing my clothes. I head out to the living room. He's gone. Where the hell did he go at 3:30am. I look around and see a note on the coffee table. I take the note over with me to get a cup of coffee. I go back to the sofa and open it.  It is the song 4ever In My Life with words changed to fit this situation. Then it said, "I love you, Please 4give me, I'm sorry. I'm on the terrace.  I take a sip of my coffee and think what I should do. He communicates best thru music.  I love him and I'm trying my best to figure what I should do. I finish my coffee and head to the terrace. There he is sitting on the sofa out there. Just looking at me, you know like that. I sit down on the sofa with him and h eputs his arm around me and pulls me close. He says, "Baby, are you mad at me?" I said, "No, I am not mad at you. I am not happy with your actions. It was silly and childish. I don't understand why you acted that way." He says, "Baby, I love you and I promise it will never happen again, ever. Will you forgive me?" He was pulled me into his lap and I had my head on his shoulder. I said, "Yes, I forgive you and I love you. If it happens again, I'm going to beat you 1000 times with a wet noodle." He just busted out laughing.  He said, "Baby, That's sexy. I love you and your sense of humor. It always makes everything better." He kissed so passionately and I know he was angling for some makeup sex.  Wait till he sees what I have on under this robe.(wicked laugh)  I said, "Come on. Let's go to bed.  You wore me out tonite." I walked around the bed taking my robe off and he flew straight across the bed and landed in front of me. He also managed to get naked that process, so go figure. He says, "Oh Baby, you must not have been too mad at me to have put that on." I said, "I told you I was not mad at you, just disappointed." He picked me up and slowly laid me on the bed. He was intent on the teddy I had on. Remember the one I got in the lingerie shop he handed me? Yeah, that one. Nothing like a pretty teddy to put everything right.  Well, you know what happened. And it was amazing.