Cowboy Casanova

Chapter 8 (Six years later)

FAITH POV: The group meeting today is the last thing I needed... 

"Faith, we have found the best position for you!" 

"There are several tours in need of an opener...."

"We can get you a spot on Leno...." Everyone in the room promises. 

"What about headlining opportunities?" I ask. The room falls silent. My boss decides to finally speak up among the chaos. 

"You're not there yet Faith." He says. 

"Bullshit!" I say. "I've sold more albums in the past two years than anyone else on the label who has headlined."

"You're name, and brand, isn't big enough yet." He says. "I've arranged for you to open on a tour with a fellow buddy of mine. His client is great. It will introduce you to the right crowd too." 

"What's the name of this tour?" I ask. 

"Spontaneous Combustion Tour." 

"That's the worst name-"

"I wasn't the one who choose it." He says laughing. I roll my eyes and walk out to get some space.

2 weeks later, and it's opening night on this big tour my boss set up for me to open on. God, I hate him. 

"You got this." Says my manager, Gary. I'm not even worried about performing, I just want to finish doing this opening crap. I want to be a headline act already. 

We get out of the car behind a massive arena, just in time for sound check. 

"Who am I opening for, George Strait?" I laugh, but I opened for him a few weeks ago. 

"Nope. This kid's younger." Gary smiles. 

"Oh really?" I say, trying to make the best of a not-so-good situation. 

"Yeah. I think you'll like him." Gary says. I roll my eyes and go straight to sound check, before heading back for make up. "What are you going to wear?" asks Gary. 

"This." I say, pointing to the ripped jeans and t-shirt I have on now. 

"At least put on a different shirt." Gary suggests. I, again, roll my eyes and look in my wardrobe for a different shirt. I put on a black tee. "Perfect." Gary says, pulling out heels. Guess I can't go out in flip-flops either.

We start to walk out to the stage, which from backstage, looks ginormous. There are stairs that lead up to the drumbs. I have to admit, it's definitely a great stage design. 

"You ready?" Gary says, grabbing me a bottle of water and a mic. I open it. 

"Yeah, I think so." I say, starting to feel a bit of nervousness. I got this... 

"Break a leg!" He says, pushing me up on stage. I laugh and start to speak into the mic. 

"Hey y'all!" I scream into the mic. They all cheer. "I'm Faith Hill, and I'm going to be warming up the stage tonight." I say, realizing I don't know who I'm warming up for.... "So to kick this thing off, lets sing a song off my new record." I look back to my band, signaling them to play. 

"Heads I win, tails you lose. I always play by my own rules. I don't believe in wasting time, so long before we end this night.... I will have held you. I will have kissed you. I will have claimed you. You will be mine. I will have loved you, wrong or right. I will have your heart. You will be mine." I belt. The crowd screams through the entire song, making me smile as bright as I can. 

"Thank you!" I say, a little winded. 

I belt through Keep Walkin' On, then decide to play a slower song that I wrote a few years ago. 

"Man, you guys are lively tonight!" I laugh, sitting on the side stage and grabbing a girls hand. "Alright, now it's time to play a slower song that I wrote a little while ago. Some of you might know the lyrics to this one. This is It Matters To Me." I say. They all freak out. 

"Baby tell me where'd you ever learn to fight without sayin' a word. Then waltz back into my life like it's all gonna be alright. Don't you know how much it hurts? When we don't talk, when we don't touch, when it doesn't feel like we're even in love. It matters to me....When I don't know what to say, don't know what to do, don't know if it really even matters to you. How can I make you see, it matters to me?" They cheer, once again, through the rest of the song.  

"Thank y'all for being such a wonderful crowd tonight!" I say, giving them a wave and running of stage. 

"That was awesome." Gary says, putting a towel around my shoulders. 

"Thanks!" I say, so energetic that I could explode. 

"Okay, so I talked to the opener's manager and we actually set up a duet later in the show." He says. 

"What song?" I ask. 

"Nobody Knows It But Me." He says. 

"That's a love song..." 

"And you're an artist, who can probably fake the emotion."

"I don't want some crazy conspiracy starting." I say, starting to quickly walk to my dressing room, Gary follows. 

"It's not going to start anything, alright Faith?" He says. 

"Who am I even opening up for anyways?" I ask the golden question. 

"Nobody told you yet?" Gary sounds surprised. 

"No," I start. "Nobody has told me, and I'd really like to know who-" Just then, as if the heavens heard my question, the tours headliner manages to plows into me, not only knocking me down, but spilling hot coffee all over me. 

"Oh shit!" He says, trying really hard not to laugh, but he does smile a bit. My jaw is hanging wide open as I sit on the floor with my skin boiling. Gary hands me the towel to dry myself off, of which I do. He then proceeds to introduce me to the tour's headliner. 

"Faith, this is Tim McGraw, the headliner of the tour." Gary says. Tim looks back at me, completely pale. I can feel the awkwardness between us getting thicker the longer we stand here. 

"Hey." I say, trying to avoid direct eye contact.

"I'll give you two a moment alone." Gary says, sensing the shock. The funny thing is, Gary has no idea that Tim and I even had a thing. 

"So, you're the opener that they hired..." Tim says, nervously rubbing his arm. 

"Yep..." I say, not knowing what else to say. 

"Faith, I'll explain-" He starts. I walk around him towards my dressing room, but can hear him following me. "Faith, just stop for a second..." He grabs my arm but I pull away. "Faith!" He stops following me.  I decide to turn around, and go into confrontation mode. It needs to be discussed. 

"What are you going to explain, Tim?" I say. He looks behind me, then back down at me. "Are you going to say sorry, or explain why you couldn't stay? I mean, you couldn't even leave a note Tim..." 

"I did leave a note."

"Well, to this day I haven't seen it." I say. "Why didn't you answer the phone or bother to call? huh? You know how much it took for me to open up to someone?" I say. He nods and bites his lip. 

"Faith, it's-" He stops. "it's complicated."

"I'm sure it is." I say, turning around and walking away. I guess that really didn't fix anything... He doesn't follow me this time.