What Now? Read Online Free PDF Page B

silently blamed Lily and her interruption.
How was she supposed to get her job done like this?
    "I'll be back in time for the
rehearsal at five," he threw over his shoulder.
    Shari looked at Lily in disbelief,
opening her mouth to protest. Lily made a "calm down" gesture with
her hand and mouthed 'Go with him', gesturing for Shari to follow him.
    "Wait! Do you mind if I come with
you?"
    "Suit yourself," he replied
indifferently. She quickly gathered up her stuff and followed him to the door,
leaving Lily in the suite.
    The elevator opened as soon as Nick hit
the down button as if even it responded immediately to the demands of
the great Nick Badley. He stepped back gallantly and, almost mockingly,
gestured for her to precede him. Two girls who were chatting away moved back to
give them space. They did a double take and fell silent as Nick stepped in,
obviously wondering if their eyes were deceiving them or if it was really him.  
    As the lift descended, Shari cast a
quick look at Nick and saw that he had his head bent as if trying to shield his
face from the two curious girls who kept stealing glances at him. She was
relieved when the elevator hit the ground floor and the doors swooshed open
without them saying anything. With the mood that Nick was in, she wasn’t sure
how he would respond. He waited until they all stepped out of the elevator
before getting out, leaving the girls no choice but to move along.
    Striding to one of the entrance doors,
he waited with barely restrained impatience until Shari reached the door that
he held open for her. As he stepped into the courtyard, he was pleased to see
that it was a perfect day for a walk.
    "I'm going to the fountains at
Bellagio," he announced, heading towards the famous attraction. Shari had
no choice but to follow him; not that she minded. This was her first time in
Vegas and she was looking forward to seeing as much as she could. Reaching the
fountains in minutes, they squeezed into a space along the wall bordering the
pool and blended into the crowd. The fountains were just waking up.
    “Does this happen often?” Shari asked.
    “What?”
    “Elevators coming as soon as you touch
the button, shows starting as soon as you turn up?”
    Nick smiled. “I never noticed,” he said,
relaxing a bit. “The universe must know that I can’t stand to wait.”
    “And since the universe revolves around
you, it responds by making sure you get what you want when you want it.”
    “It’s the least it can do in exchange
for my soul.”
    “You’ve exchanged your soul? For fame
and fortune?”
    “I’ve got fame and fortune and sometimes
I feel as if I have no soul. So maybe somewhere along the line I exchanged it.”
He sounded jaded.
    She didn’t know how to respond to that
so she said nothing, turning, instead, to watch the fountains. She silently
filed that comment away, adding it to the folder which she had mentally labeled
“Nick Badley Unplugged”. They were the comments that came from him uncensored,
when he seemed to be at his most honest.
    The soothing sound of the fountains as
they leaped into the air and fell gracefully back into the pool to the music of
Mozart quieted the restlessness in Nick. He was getting tired of flying into a
city, performing and flying out in a day or two. The thought of doing ten
cities in the next three weeks was as appealing as flying over the Bermuda
Triangle. Worse yet, the only emotion he could summon at the moment as he
thought about the final sold-out concert at Madison Square Garden was relief
that the world tour would be over after that show.
    He was sorry when the sounds of Andrea
Bocelli’s and Sarah Brightman’s “Time to Say Goodbye” faded, ending the show. While
the crowd began to move away from the wall he remained, staring at the fading
ripples as if clinging to something he was not ready to let go of yet. Shari
was unwilling to intrude as he seemed relaxed for the first time since she’d
met him.
    “Is that Nick