Chapter 97 Georgina #2
Laughter rises up from the other side of the long dinner table.
Apparently, Davey from Watch Party has just told a joke to all the other River Records artists seated near him, as Davey often does—although this restaurant is too noisy, and our table too long, for the group at this end of the table to hear whatever joke Davey’s told.
But that’s okay. I’m thoroughly enjoying my conversation with Alessandra and Fish.
Who, by the way, have been joined at the hip since the moment Fish spotted Alessandra backstage at the concert earlier tonight.
This place is a chic eatery in Midtown. We’re here to enjoy a post-concert dinner party, hosted by Reed. As I’ve been chatting with Alessandra and Fish to my left, Reed has been engrossed in an intense conversation with Maddy and Keane Morgan, to my right, about tomorrow’s video shoot.
Without warning, however, Reed abruptly turns away from his conversation to address Alessandra.
“Hey, Ally. Change of plans for your video tomorrow. I didn’t know Maddy was bringing Keane to the shoot to help her.
But now that I know he’ll be there, I think we’d be missing a golden opportunity not to give him a starring role in the video.
Keane says he’s up for anything, so Maddy and I just now put our heads together and came up with an entire storyline for him. ”
Alessandra expresses excitement and enthusiastically thanks Keane.
“Happy to do it,” Keane replies. “It sounds like a blast.”
Alessandra looks at me, as if to say, Can you believe this is my life? And I don’t blame her. Keane Morgan’s show on Netflix is doing extremely well, from what I’ve gathered. With each passing day, he’s becoming a bigger star. Having him star in her debut music video is huge.
“Now, don’t feel any stress about tomorrow,” Reed says soothingly to Alessandra, his little lamb.
Over the past few weeks, as they’ve worked on Alessandra’s song together, and fine-tuned it, exactly according to Reed’s specifications, Alessandra has grown to trust him completely, and Reed has often told me he thinks Alessandra is “absolutely adorable.” He continues, “From your end of things, Ally, you’ll still mostly be doing what we talked about, okay?
You’ll still mostly be performing onstage at the coffee house. ”
“Mostly?” Alessandra says meekly.
“Yes. Maddy and I have come up with two storylines. A love triangle involving Keane. Also, a cute little love story involving you and Fish.” Reed looks at Fish, who looks astonished to hear his name called. “If you’re game, that is, Fish Taco.”
Fish chuckles. “Sure. Count me in.”
Thankfully, there’s been no lasting tension between Fish and Reed, deriving from when Fish ripped into Reed at his party.
Backstage at the charity concert earlier tonight, Fish pulled Reed aside and apologized for calling him a prick that night.
To which Reed replied, in true Reed fashion, “I don’t even know what you’re talking about, Fish. ”
“What will Fish and I have to do for this ‘cute little love story’?” Alessandra asks, looking on the verge of panic.
“Don’t worry, honey,” Maddy says reassuringly. “You’ll be the performer onstage at the coffee house, as we discussed, and Fish will play the shaggy barista across the room. All you two will have to do is make googly eyes at each other, from afar, like you’re totally smitten with each other.”
Fish smiles shyly at Alessandra. “Well, speaking for myself, that shouldn’t be hard to do.”
Alessandra blushes the color of a vine-ripened tomato, and my heart skips a beat for her. “I think I could manage that,” she says, through her lashes.
Reed looks at me. “Georgie, you’re going to star in this thing, too.”
“Me?”
“Yes. You and Laila are going to be in a campy love triangle with Keane. Laila already said yes. But we need two smoking hot women to pull this off, and it’s too late to hire someone else on such short notice.”
“But I’m not an actress.”
“Oh, yes, you are,” Reed says. “You’re a better actress than half the professionals in Hollywood.”
“Georgina, I saw you on Good Morning America,” Maddy says. “The camera loves you.”
I make a face that plainly telegraphs I’m freaking out.
“Sweetheart. Pull it together. This is happening. You’re always saying you want to give me a present.
Well, this is your present to me. From the first moment I saw you in that lecture hall, I fantasized about putting you into a music video.
Well, this is my chance. Don’t you dare deny me this pleasure. ”
I laugh. “Okay, okay. Count me in.”
Reed smiles at Alessandra. “Wait till you hear this next thing.” He motions to the array of artists seated at the far end of our long table, none of whom are paying a lick of attention to our conversation.
“See all those rock stars down there? They’ve all agreed to stop by the coffee house tomorrow to shoot quick cameos for the video. ”
“Whaaaat?” Alessandra blurts, making Reed and Maddy laugh with glee.
“You’ve hit the jackpot, Alessandra Tennison,” Reed says gleefully.
“Having all these superstars in your debut video—plus, having Laila, Keane, and Fish in starring roles alongside you—is going to give you so much street cred, it’s ridiculous.
Without a doubt, all this star power is going to make this video go viral.
Which, in turn, my dear, is going to rocket your song to the top of the charts. ”
Alessandra and I flip out, and then begin peppering Reed and Maddy with a thousand questions, asking them to describe their two storylines in detail. In response, Reed calls Laila over, so she can hear what he’s about to tell the group. Plus, he calls Owen to come over, too.
“Hey, O,” Reed says. “Do me a favor and arrange to buy a really cheap used car for use in Alessandra’s music video tomorrow. We’ll need it by midmorning or so. Laila and Georgina are going to beat it to smithereens with baseball bats.”
Owen says he’s on it, boss, no questions asked, and heads off to look online for some possible candidates. And then, finally, Reed leans back in his chair and, with an exuberant assist from Maddy, tells our group about the concept for Alessandra’s music video:
The setting is a packed coffeehouse in Brooklyn.
Alessandra is the performer on a small stage, her audience filled with famous faces.
Fish is the shaggy barista behind the counter—Alessandra’s “secret admirer” who covertly writes her love letters on distinctive pink stationery.
Although, sadly, Fish never musters the courage to give Alessandra any of his pink love letters, but, instead, throws them, one after another, into a nearby trashcan.
Meanwhile, Keane is a hot douche-canoe customer who’s been shamelessly two-timing both waitresses at the coffee house, Laila and me.
.. by giving us both the distinctive pink love letters he finds in the trash.
Throughout the video, we see Laila and me, pink letters in hand, separately following Keane into his beat-up love mobile, presumably for some hanky-panky.
Midway through the video, the love triangle explodes, and Laila and I confront Keane together, both of us standing shoulder-to-shoulder as we angrily hold up those distinctive pink love letters and let him have it.
After soundly chewing him out—and looking hot as we do it—because, you know, angry women are hot—Laila and I drop our notes to the floor, and march outside the coffeehouse with purpose, as Keane trails behind us, pleading his case.
As the love triangle exits, Alessandra’s gaze drifts to the pink love notes on the floor... and then to Fish across the room... who, at that very moment, is tossing yet another “secret admirer” love note into the bin. On that same pink, distinctive paper.
Alessandra connects the dots, and realizes Fish is the true author of those love notes on the floor. She also realizes, thanks to the many smitten looks Fish has sent her throughout the video, those notes on the floor must have been written to her.
Fish sees Alessandra’s gaze migrating from the notes to him.
He sees her putting two and two together.
With a deep breath, he grabs his latest pink love letter from the trash, smooths it out, and marches toward Alessandra on the stage.
.. who, as he’s been doing that, has turned to grab something out of her guitar case.
And that’s when the audience sees a splayed stack of blue papers in Alessandra’s case.
A whole bunch of love songs she’s secretly written about Fish.
We see a shot of the handwritten lyrics, with titles like, “I’m Secretly in Love with a Barista” and “He Makes Coffee and Owns My Heart”—and we know Alessandra has always been every bit as in love with Fish, as he’s been with her.
With their love notes in hand, Alessandra and Fish meet in the middle of the coffee house.
They exchange their colorful declarations of love, smile like smitten kittens at each other, and then march, hand in hand, out of the coffee house.
.. where they walk past Georgina and Laila furiously beating the crap out of Keane’s love mobile with baseball bats, much to his chagrin.
“The End,” Maddy says. And her enraptured audience instantly explodes with excitement.
“Can I ask a question?” Alessandra says. “I’m not trying to look a gift horse in the mouth here. I can’t believe how lucky I am. But why are all these famous artists willing to make cameos in some nobody’s video?”
“Every last one of them owes me a favor,” Reed says. “But also, and this is the truth, Alessandra, none of them would do this if they didn’t genuinely like you and believe in your song.”
Alessandra couldn’t be more effusive and adorable in this moment. She thanks Reed profusely and says she’s going to hop up and thank each artist around the table, individually.
“No, no,” Reed says, laughing. “Thank them tomorrow if they actually show up. Also, there’s no need to thank me. I wouldn’t be doing any of this if I didn’t think I’d make my money back, and then some.”
I smile at Reed. Liar. I love him for it, don’t get me wrong.
But I’ve come to realize Reed isn’t trying to make Alessandra a star for money.
He’s doing it for himself. As a game. Just to see if he can.
And, of course, he’s doing it for me. The same way I wrote a sappy love letter about him for Rock n’ Roll, rather than a hard-hitting, revealing piece for Dig a Little Deeper.
A waiter comes to refill water glasses and Reed gestures to him.
“Open a case of your finest champagne. We’re celebrating an amazing charity concert and the imminent birth of a superstar.
” He indicates sweet little Alessandra with his whiskey glass.
“Mark my words, this girl here is about to make every person at this table look like a fucking amateur.”
The waiter chuckles. “Yes, sir.” He looks at Alessandra. “Congratulations.”
As the waiter leaves, I lean into Reed’s ear. “When we get back to our hotel room, I’m going to give you a blowjob that will make you pass out.”
Reed grins. “Gosh, I wonder what prompted that reaction, Miss Ricci.” He winks. His face aglow. “And you thought you didn’t have a price.”