Another Chance Book I of III

Another Chance-Book III, Chapter 8, The Afterglow

The Afterglow

Prince's POV

The Royal Prince had played the second set at the Stork Club with outstanding results. As was common in Detroit, because of the reputation of the club, a couple of the local news outlets had crews on site who had recorded some sound bites of Royal singing and had caught snippets of Bella and Elaine singing with Royal and the band and also of them dancing with him. These news crews would show up whenever a new Artist was being presented in the hopes of having a corner on discovering the next big thing in performers. When the sound bites and dance views were edited for viewing, two city desk editors working on the night desks at their station headquarters realized that this time...they might just have identified the real deal. Each of the editors knew that their competition had been there and so both were working hard to ensure that the other did not scoop them. After working through the night, WXYZ the ABC affiliate had a nice piece with both great sound and visuals to run on its early morning news magazine, AM-Detroit. WDIV with Live in Detroit would also feature Royal's performance on their morning news show. But all of the networks would report that about 7:30 PM that evening, the crime desks in the worst Police Precincts in the city stopped getting calls and having to dispatch to the normal horrific crime scenes . The CBS affiliate, WWJ-TV, went so far as to declare that Crime had taken a holiday the night before. In Detroit that was big news. At the time no-one knew just how big the news would get. No-one, excepting those in Paradise that is.

After the last set Prince, the band and his family along with the Borden's, the Rodrígueze's and Mr. and Mrs. G had a light meal in the main dining room of the Stork Club. Bella and Elaine were sitting together and Prince was sitting next to Bella while Carlos sat next to Elaine. Mr. G. congratulated Prince and the band on an incredible performance and said to Royal Sr. that not a word of what he had said about Prince and the band was hype. Every word he had spoken about them and their talent was true. He said if they still wanted it, the entire weekend was theirs to perform in of course, but he would also like to talk about the rest of the weekends for for the summer if they would like to in the morning. Royal Sr. looked at Prince and asked how he felt about that. Prince thanked Mr. G for the kind offer and said he and the band would need to talk but he would get back to him tomorrow if that was okay. He thought though that they were all okay with the rest of the weekend. He looked around the table. All the band members did a thumbs up to that statement. They talked of many things the food, what a great music town Detroit still was and other normal conversation. They laughed at some of the antics of the band in getting ready for the show too. Prince whenever he could without being obvious stole a look at Bella. Even at almost 14 she was beautiful. This was going to be a trip he thought. He loved her still, completely without question, but he was a man with the needs and desires of a man. How in the world would they make this work. Her parents would think he was some sort of pervert if he tried to spend any alone time with her...and his parents would think he had lost his mind. He needed Divine direction.

At that moment he heard in his mind" Prince, I told you long ago whenever you or Bella needed me I would be there in the form of the Holy Spirit. Trust me and trust Bella. Spend some time in prayer and meditation. You are doing very well, but there are some things YOU need to work on before I can entrust Bella into your care. Figure them out. I love you Prince". Prince was overwhelmed, not by hearing Jesus voice as he often did. But he was overwhelmed with the fact that there was something of such great concern to his Savior that it was an obstacle to him being with Bella. Jesus had said it was something to do with him, not Bella's age which was obvious...but him. He would need to meditate about this. He would not allow anything to prevent his love for Bella and his dreams for their life together to become reality. He was feeling upset and antsy. He needed to do his take 10 thing. He excused himself from the table saying he would be back in a few minutes. Bella had seen in his eyes that Prince was tired when he sat down to eat. She had also noticed his stress level growing as he listened to the banter of the last few minutes and did not think it had anything to do with the decision of whether to play at the Stork this summer or not. She said, "I need to go to the powder room. Elaine want to join me"? Elaine was enjoying being the center of attention to Carlos's at that moment and started to shake her head no until Bella kicked her ankle under the table. When she looked at her friend and saw that look in her eye...she knew she better go with her. "Sure" Elaine said. The two girls got up and as soon as they were out of earshot, Elaine said "why did you kick me...what's up"? Bella said, "something is up with Prince and I need to speak to him. Cover for me for a few minutes"? "Of course", Elaine said. "I will be in Dad's private suite. No-one but your Mom or mine would dare to come back there...don't be long though. You know what kind of radar they have". Bella took off at a fast walk toward the dressing rooms while Elaine headed to the Executive Suite. As she walked toward the Star dressing room, she saw him through one of the windows standing outside on the patio leaning over the railing that separated it from the sprawling lawn on that side of the club. She opened the door and stepped out. "Prince, are you okay" she asked? He looked up and she could see the stress on his face. "What is it baby" she said? Almost 14 or not in this incarnation...he was and would always be her baby. He looked at her and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She called him baby out of her teen-aged lips and he knew he was...but he could not act like it. He could not kiss her or hold her like he wanted as it would not be right. But he could hold her hand and so he took her hand and walked her over to one of the round tables on the patio and sat them down in two of the chairs. He looked at her in the moonlight. Her beautiful eyes were filled with such concern and kindness and love. He remembered the Christ's words. "Trust Bella" he had said and so he told her of his conversation and of his concern that he did not know what Jesus meant and he needed to figure it out as he had been directed. He was determined to prevent any unnecessary obstacles from being in their way. They had enough of those as it was. Bella smiled and said "Prince, you are still the smartest man I know and I know that you will figure out what he meant. I also know that you probably already have an idea of it and that you just are not ready to look at whatever it is straight in the face but in time you will be. I believe in you Prince and I trust you...so let's agree that we will support each other in prayer until you get your answer. Are you okay with that"? "Yes" he said...and he was but he would also give anything for Bella to gather him up in her arms and sing Lullaby and Goodnight to him. Maybe then, his stomach would stop shaking and he would not feel so antsy. "You know, it is too risky for me to hold you and sing you a lullaby here, but if you want you can call me when you get settled and I will sing to you" Bella said. For the first time since hearing from Jesus he felt a little better. Getting up, he said" just a minute". He stepped inside and going into the Star room he grabbed his Lyric Notebook and wrote down Bella's Cloud phone number and also wrote his down and gave it to her. He told her "call me anytime you need me. If I am not performing or in church, I will answer". "No matter what" she asked? " No matter what" he said. with that he kissed her on her cheek and said he would call her later. " I will go back in first" he said.. "Okay", Bella said. He went back into the Star Room to put his Lyric book back and then headed to the dining room. Bella knocked on locked door to the Private Suite and Elaine opened it. "Better", Elaine asked? "Better" Bella said. She hugged Elaine and said "thanks for being such a good friend". The two girls started walking back to the dining room.