As soon as we
arrived at the Grand Hyatt Hotel where we would be staying for the next three
days Lina’s manager, Yvonne Holden, emerged from the entrance accompanied by
two bellhops. They immediately went to
the trunk of the minivan, and she gave them instructions to place the luggage
in our hotel rooms. When they began
unloading our luggage and caring it into the hotel, she turned to face Lina.
“Angelina how
was your flight, sweetheart?” Yvonne
said while giving her a warmhearted embrace.
They had become very close in the course of the past 6 months while
trying to get Lina signed to a label.
Lina had much respect for her, and considered her a good friends.
“Isabelle, I’m so glad you decided to come along,” she said
turning her attention to me and giving me a friendly smile and the same warm
hug. “This experience will be as
exciting for you as it will be for our little star here.” She added giving Lina a wink. I had only met her twice prior to this and
she always seemed friendly and sweet.
She was the only one, besides Lina’s family and friends who have been
with her from the beginning, and she gave her great confidence when she had to
audition in front of the execs at Sony Records. Which according to Lina was the hardest thing she had done so
far. She was very nervous, but
obviously made a first-rate impression.
“Come on girls, let’s go inside, get you to your rooms, and then
meet for lunch.” She said leading the
way into the hotel.
As we followed her to our room she began to explain how today was
going to be the first long day of many to come in Angelina’s schedule. Since Lina’s debut performance would be
tomorrow night at the MCI Center, she needed to immediately after lunch, go and
rehearse at the venue. She informed us
that the rehearsal would take most of the day and that afterwards, we were to
attend an informal dinner to introduce Lina to the rest of the ensemble. Management, The Firm arranged the dinner,
but Yvonne was very proud to point out that it had been her idea, in order to
make Lina acquainted as quickly as possible.
She stopped talking when we reached the entrance to our room. She took out a small silver key from her
navy blue suit jacket.
“Here you go, Angelina.” She said handing the tiny key to Lina. “I
want you girls to freshen up a bit, and meet me in the lobby say around one
o’clock for lunch. If you two need
anything, I’ll be in my room, 302, just on the other side of this corridor.” She said pointing in the direction we should
head in if we needed her.
“Ok,” Lina said calling after her. “I’m sure we’ll be fine, but thanks.” Then she inserted the key into the slot, unlocked the door, and
turned the knob. We entered the large room occupied with double beds, a large
screen TV, love seat, refrigerator and of course a bathroom.
“Well, I’m going to take a shower,” Lina said heading towards the
bathroom as soon as we had settled into the room.
“Alright.” I said looking
throughout the pile of suitcases for the one that held my clothes. “Do you think I can come with you to
rehearsal?” I ask not sure if I should
change now, or just wait for the dinner.
“I think so, why wouldn’t you.”
She shouted from the bathroom as the sound of running water entered the
room. “I don’t think Yvonne would have
a problem with it.”
“Ok good, cause I don’t want to stay here all day.”
“Well, you could go sight seeing.” She suggested.
“By myself,” I
whined. “I don’t think so…I’d rather
just stay in the hotel. Maybe go to the
shops downstairs.”
“Ok whatever, I’ll ask Yvonne though.” A second later, she said,
“Oh, I’m so nervous, Isa.”
“About the rehearsal?”
“No” she yelled back.
“About tonight, meeting everyone.”
I found that strange since Lina was far from reserved. Then it occurred to me. She was talking about the Backstreet
Boys…and I remembered my encounter with Brian earlier this morning. I was waiting for us to be alone to tell
her.
“Lina, I was meaning to tell you I already met one of the members
of the group.” The running water came
to an abrupt stop, and Lina emerged from the bathroom wearing only the towel as
a shield around her. She came out of
the bathroom so hastily, that she didn’t even dry herself off. She stared at me in disbelief. “Yeah,” I continued. “I met him this morning while getting our
luggage.
“What!” She yelled. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me this
right away. Ugh! How? What happened? Tell me!”
She said impatiently.
“Hey,” I said with a laugh.
“What happened to our oath?” I
reminded her while doing an imaginary pinky swear. “I thought that while you were on tour, we would leave the teeny
bopper persona at home, back in our boy band wall papered rooms.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know but not now.
That’s when we are in their company…Do you see any heavenly bodies in
here?” She joked looking around the
room. “No, none that I can see.”
“Ok…ok” I laughed in amusement.
“I guess we can gloat about our fortunate situation in private.” And then becoming very serious, I added. “But remember to act completely professional
in public.” I said repeating the words
Yvonne had told Lina seconds after she told her she was going on tour with the
number one top boy band in the world.
“I know…how many times am I going to hear that.” She said rolling her eyes. “Now, tell me. Who did you meet Nick, Howie?”
Sucking in my breath, “Brian” I said, and gave her a minute to
shriek in excitement. Then she was full
of questions.
“What happened? Did he
talk to you? Where any of the other
boys around? What did you do?” She said all in one breath.
“Well,” I began, and told her about the fact that he had been on
the same exact flight as we, and how I confronted him when he grabbed her Polo
bag.
“The one with my underwear?”
She asked in shock.
“Yes” I told her. “He even
kidded about opening it up to make sure it wasn’t his.”
“Oh my God.” She said with
another shriek. “Tell me more.”
I continued to tell her how I had not recognized him till he took off
his cap, and how I must have looked like a fool when I finally did make out who
he was. I left out the part about his
engaging comments about my eyes, and how he would not stop staring at me during
the flight, and throughout the entire time we were together. I felt he was just being a “guy”, and it
didn’t mean anything to either one of us.
So why make a big deal about it.
“I also met Leighanne Wallace.”
I told her after she had calmed down, and started to get dressed.
“How was she?” She asked putting
on her blue jeans. “Is she as pretty as
everyone claims her to be?” She asked.
“Yeah, unfortunately.” I said pretending to sound
disappointed. “She’s really
pretty.” I said dropping the subject
there, and heading for the shower. I
didn’t want to get into how I thought she seemed to be kind of arrogant. I was probably going to spend most of the
following months with her. And didn’t
want to start anything so early in our journey.
At a quarter to one Angelina and I made our way to the lobby to meet
with Yvonne for lunch. She wasn’t there
when we reached the lobby, so we took a seat and waited for her. Soon after about five minutes, we saw her
coming out of the elevator, accompanied by three men. Two of them were very tall, and had dark complexion. The older of the two was thinner, and
wearing a uniform and a warm smile. The
younger one was quite handsome, and was wearing a guitar strap around his
shoulders. The third man was much
shorter but larger in weight. He was laughing at what one of the other men had
said. He reminded me of a jolly fat man
I use to wait up for on a cold winter night.
The only thin part about him was his hair. Which he brushed to the side to cover up his balding spot. Yvonne led them to where we were sitting,
and introduced us.
“Ladies.” Said the older
black man tipping off his uniform hat as we rose from the sofa.
Lina and I both smiled at him.
So did Yvonne. Then she began.
“Girls. This is Mr.
Williams, Mr. Horowitz, and Mr. Bruce.”
She said as she pointed to each man and with his corresponding name.
“You can just call me John,” Mr. Williams said giving us a warm
smile while holding his hat in one hand and taking ours into his other. Later we found out he was to be Lina’s tour
bus driver.
“Likewise,” Said the plump jolly man. “You can call me Jerry.
I’ll be Miss Mayfield’s pianist throughout the tour.” He added taking our hand.
“Levon,” said the young tall black man Yvonne had introduced as
Mr. Bruce. “I’ll be your bass
player.”
“I’m Angelina Mayfield,” Lina said before Yvonne could introduce
us herself, “and this is Isabelle, my cousin.”
Lina added looking straight at Yvonne.
Both Yvonne and I were astounded by how Lina had referred to
me. I couldn’t imagine why she would want
anyone to believe I was her cousin.
Yvonne looked shaken at first, and then regained her composure.
“Well, if you will excuse these kind men, they need to go to the
venue and get themselves set up.”
Yvonne said a bit too hastily.
“Yes, well we all have a busy day ahead.” The men said excusing themselves from our
presence.
As soon as they were gone, Yvonne turned her attention to
Lina. “May I ask what you just
did?” She asked in a tone I had never
heard her use before.
“Well, I figured Isa would be shown more regard if people believed
we were related. I didn’t think it
would be a problem.” Lina said clearing
up her actions.
Yvonne turned firm eyes on Lina, “You can’t just go around making
decisions for yourself anymore. You
should have discussed it with me first.”
Then softening. “I understand
what you were doing, and I agree. It
will be simpler to refer to Isabelle as your cousin than just a friend, easier
to get her to travel with you throughout the entirety of the tour.”
I didn’t appreciate being talked about as if I wasn’t even in the
same room, but I didn’t dare interrupt Yvonne.
“But from now one, everything you say, and everything you do, I
must know before the thought even crosses your mind. Do you understand why that is, Angelina?” She said taking on a motherly undertone.
“Yes, I know, you’ve told me before. Press, publicity, public.
The three P’s.” Lina said as if
she had been lectured about this before.
Which I’m sure she has. Yvonne
went into every detail about public relations with Lina before we had come down
to Washington. Lina continued. “I just didn’t think much of telling that to
them.” She said indicating to the men
we had just met.
“Word gets around.
Everything you say will end up on some morning paper or magazine once
you begin the tour and people start to notice you.” She cautioned.
But Angelina didn’t take her words as a warning. Instead she understood, that everyone was
going to be fascinated with her; with every single aspect of her new life, and
she was going to be a celebrity.
Nothing pleased and excited her more.
After lunch, in the hotel restaurant, Yvonne quickly arranged for
a car to drive Lina to the MCI Center that was only two blocks away. Lina asked if I could tag along. But Yvonne strictly forbade it for reasons
that we both considered to be reasonable. Lina was to perform tomorrow night
for the first time for a public of massive size. She needed to concentrate on what she was doing. Yvonne offered to keep me company till she
had to go and see about the dinner tonight.
When Lina got to the MCI Center, they immediately put her to
work. Lina was at the venue rehearsing
her songs over and over since they had to get it perfect and record each
session as it was always done so that it can be played in the background during
the concert. Of course she was going to
be singing live. But as it so often
happens, the artist might get lost in the enthusiasm of the crowd or become
quickly out of breath from their dance routine, (though Lina didn’t dance in
her piece. There wasn’t enough time to
get her to rehearse with a choreographer) and the background vocals are there
to get them back on track.
Lina only had three songs to sing. One of them was a ballad, which
was written specifically for her by Andrew Fromm, who also wrote, “I Need You
Tonight”, and “Spanish Eyes” for the Backstreet Boys. And the other two songs were more up-tempo. Lina was yet to record an album. She was signed to Sony, on a temporary
contract with no legal bindings. The
deal was, as soon as the tour was over, they would decide if she would be
permanently signed to Sony Records, and make an album. The decision was based on Angelina’s public
reaction. This is why she is on the
Millennium Tour specifically. What
other tour had such a strong and critical fan base? There weren’t any. It was
up to the BSB fans to decided Angelina Mayfield’s career. And it was up to Angelina herself to make
her mark upon them.
I stayed with Yvonne, and we went to the shops inside the
hotel. She said she was looking for
something to wear for tonight. For the
most part it was a casual dinner and she didn’t really have anything but
business suits to wear, since she spent most of her time in meetings with high
corporate executives. Yvonne is a very
impressionable woman. She was in a very
demanding business were it was easier for man to get his say than it was for a
woman. But she was intelligent, and
very persistent. She knew her work
well, and she didn’t let the largest barrier get in her way of what she
wanted. I could see why Angelina had so
much respect for her. When she settled on a short classic black dress from
Donna Karen, we headed for a shoe store, to find the perfect end to her
apparel. It took her about half an hour
to get her fix on a cute pair of black, open toe shoes. I also bought a pair that I thought would
look great with what I was planning on wearing tonight. After she had everything she needed, we
went outside where she had a smoke. I
noticed it had already gotten dark, though it was only about 5:30. Daylight
savings time, I thought to myself. She
told me about how she got started in the business, how she too used to be a
singer on stage in Broadway. But how
she liked being behind the curtain, better than in front of them. Afterwards, she dropped me off in my room,
and left to change, and attend to the dinner.
She told me she would meet us in the hotel dinning room in an hour.
When I walked into the room, I was surprised to find Angelina already
there. She was sitting on one of the
small chairs that faced the window. Walking to the counter and picking up a
hair clip and tying my hair up I headed to bathroom to wash my face, and
freshen up for dinner “So how was rehearsal?”
I inquired. But I didn’t let her
answer; instead I went on to tell her about how I spent my day with
Yvonne. How I thought she was really a
nice person and how lucky she was to have her as her manager. “Did you know she use to be on
Broadway?” I asked her. But Lina didn’t answer back. I walked over to her, and noticed she hadn’t
been listening to me at all. She had
her eyes fixed on something outside the window. I couldn’t tell what it was that she was staring at. “Lina,” I called out to her. But she didn’t answer. Then what I realized ran a cold chill
through my body. She wasn’t staring at
anything specific outside the glass.
Her eyes had a far off expression, and the window she was staring
through was one in her mind that looked into the past. “Lina,” I said placing my hand on her
shoulder.
She jumped out of her trance in a snap and quickly looked up at me
wondering why I was staring at her the way I was. “Are you ok?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she said. “I just
got lost in a daydream I was having.”
“What was it about?” I
asked, her poor excuses not convincing me.
“Oh, about how um…how wonderful it will be when I am allowed to
make my first album. The rehearsal got
me to think about it.” She said, and
then quickly changed the subject to the dinner.
“We better start getting ready.
Yvonne will probably be here any minute to pick us up.”
“Actually,
she said meet her in the dinning room in an hour.” I said, watching as Lina closed the bathroom door behind her
oblivious to what I had just said.