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I RANG VIOLET’S DOORBELL, not sure what to expect. She didn’t exactly live in the classiest part of town and her apartment building was a worry. When was the last time a maintenance man had been around the place?
“We’re running late,” I said when she opened the door. “We have to rush.”
“Sorry, I had to make sure I was wearing something decent and do my makeup.”
She looked hot, I had to give her that, and I’d love to think she was doing it for me but I knew she wasn’t.
“It’s a radio interview, you know. No one is going to see you.”
She put her hands on her hips. “That may be so but it’ll come across in my voice. I don’t want to sound like I’m badly dressed, you know.”
I couldn’t argue with that logic.
“The car’s waiting.” I smiled. I’d love to take her hand but I wasn’t sure she’d let me. The way she treated me made me hesitate where I’d normally be confident.
“The car?”
“I figured hiring a car would be better than getting in a dirty, smelly taxi.”
“Hell, I’d have caught the dirty, smelly bus.”
“Then you’d be way too late. The bus takes forever.”
We got in the back of the car and Violet made me run through practice questions with her. She couldn’t keep still and kept biting her nails.
“What if they ask me a trick question?” she asked. “I have to be prepared for everything.”
I pulled her hand away from her mouth before she chewed those nails down to the quick.
“They won’t ask trick questions. It’s a promo interview because I booked advertising with them. Their job is to make us look good. It’ll be just a reworking of the press release. I’ll talk about myself and then they’ll throw to you for a few quick questions about Trouble. Nothing you don’t know like the back of your hand.”
She held out her hands in front of her.
“Do I know the back of my hand? I might get nervous and forget it.”
I reached out and grabbed her hand, squeezing it tight. “I’ll be there. If you struggle or have any problems, I’ll field it. But really, you’ll be great.”
She let me hold her hand but there was something missing. The way she responded was nice, like I didn’t thrill her anymore. It was just nice. I wasn’t the kind of guy who wanted nice, though. I had to shake her out of that but not while she was so nervous.
The receptionist at the radio station told us to wait outside the studio until we were called in.
“Have you ever been to a radio station before?” Violet asked.
“Yeah, a few times.” I didn’t say any more than that. It wasn’t something I wanted to get into.
“Ah, good. At least one of us will know what we are doing.”
I shot her a reassuring smile. We sat down and Violet pulled a CD out of her bag.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Razer’s stuff. Since he’s not doing the interview, I brought it along.”
“Violet, this is my interview. You understand that? They are interviewing me because I paid for the ads. Me. Not Razer. We aren’t here to promote him.”
She screwed up her face and put the CDs back in her bag. “I thought we were promoting the club. But I see what you mean... “
The host of the radio show called us in and indicated our seats. When we were settled, he asked us to wait until he went back on air. I reached out for Violet’s hand but she’d taken out a bottle of water and gulped it down.
Then we were on air.
Like I’d told Violet, he went through the stuff on our press releases, both mine and the one for the club. The questions were all directed at me until he went to the next song, one of mine.
“So, Violet,” he said when we went back on air, “what can we expect when we come down to Trouble? Is it going to be trouble?”
She gave a nervous laugh then nothing. I was about to jump in when she started talking.
“There’ll be trouble alright. Rock trouble. If you can’t handle two of the best nights of rock of your life, then stay away.”
The announcer laughed and then eased into the rest of the questions. She sounded a little nervous but nothing too bad.
“So, if you want to show your support for the best in local rock, get down there. What dates again?”
Before Violet could answer, I jumped in.
“Next Saturday, that’s the only date you need to know. This is a competition and I can’t support the other guy.”
The announcer laughed and wrapped up the session.
“Thanks for coming down,” he said. “I’ll definitely come along. But this competition thing, it’s just a gimmick, right? It’s not like there is anything serious on the line?”
I stood up. “There is more on the line than you could possibly imagine.”