Chapter 5: RUNNING ORDER

"Knock it off, Rick," he warned in a menacing voice and I snorted at how easy it was get him going.

"Alright you two, that's enough. Put your 'my-dick's-bigger-than-your-dick attitude away. We all know my pecker is by far the biggest, so no competition there unless it's for runner up. Sit the fuck down, Rick, and let's get this over with." Gibson chuckled, amused by his own contribution to the comments. I had another small smile to myself because I knew Gibson had found me winding Alfie up about his gorgeous wife as funny as I had.

Cody chuckled, and Gibson bit back the small smile on his lips as he leaned forward and picked up the A4 pieces of paper I'd discarded in on the coffee table again.

"We didn't wait for your contribution because you're always late, so we've been busy in your absence. This was the line-up we'd come up with so far. Chris Daughtry is still checking his schedule to see if he can move one live TV interview or record it instead, but the others are all confirmed. Like Lily said, you may want to look over the names in this list before we face the press."

Taking the computer print-out from him I scanned the names on the list. "Damn, there are some pretty big egos in that lot, what's the bet they all start bitching and vying for position?"

"As you can see, we all thought Cobham Street should be the headliner. Everyone else can be in alphabetical order like we spoke about previously. Last names not first. That should take care of the gender issue you were concerned about, Lily," Gibson said addressing both Lily and me.

"Sounds good but I don't think it could only be band names, some need to be spaced a bit better because if you go with that list Flynn Docherty's band, REDA would be after another bit hitter.

"We'd be second to last with XrAid and Crakt Soundzz are much bigger than us, wouldn't the rest of your band will want that position, Alfie?" Cody offered.

"I don't mind Crakt Soundzz being warm up for us," I replied and snickered.

"Oh, grow up, children," Lily snapped, rolling her eyes at Gibson like she was embarrassed to know us. "This is a charity gig, no one should care that much about their egos."

"Oh, really? It's all right for you, Lily. Your band will be one from the headliners anyway. You'll get a better atmosphere working the crowd in the dark. Some of these guys will feel pissed when they see how they've been placed," Alfie whined like he was those other bands' agent.

"Right. Stop. This is my ride," I reminded them. "My name was the main driver for the event. Here are the changes I want. Everyone goes in alphabetical order apart from our bands. We take the last four spots with mine last. Crakt Soundzz, M3rCy, XrAid, and Cobham Street; each band will do four numbers each and a finale of one song where we're all on stage singing together, with Cobham Street playing instruments."

"XrAid is second to last," Cody asked.

Lily's band will be the rose between thorns. XrAid is big enough now to carry of that place. After the running order is done, all of the bands will come back on stage to sing "Wind of Change", The Scorpions number."

"I know it's the name of the event but isn't that song about an uprising? Challenging regimes and stuff?" Cody asked.

"Yeah mostly... but this is the music community rising up to change peoples' circumstances - so I guess it fits - oh and you'd better send a memo to the bands to make sure they all learn the words. Last thing we want is anyone humiliating themselves on camera miming the wrong words on close up."

"Fuck. There's a hint of genius hiding in that overused body of yours," Alfie mused then softly chuckled to himself.

"Ah, but that's the secret to a long life in this business, buddy. Let everyone think you're stupid. Use your intelligence to dig yourself out of the shit and only show them how far that intellect goes when someone tries to fuck you over."

Our heads turned when Paul came back into the room. He had left us on our arrival and gone into the conference room to ask for questions from the press relating to the event. He informed them that any questions we didn't get to in the time we had would be answered by us afterward and made available to press.

"Ready, guys? The natives are getting restless out there," he told us without a hint of humor in his tone.

Gibson stood tall and stretched his arms above his head. The guy was so good looking it was painful for the rest of us to be alongside him. Put it this way, none of us were ugly, but the guy had as many men lusting after him as he did women. Even the straight ones.

"Lead the way," Gibson replied, gesturing toward the door for Paul to go out first.

Alfie stood and adjusted his junk in his jeans, drew his hand through his hair then reached out and took Lily's hand. Lily glanced adoringly at him like he'd just invented a cure for some devastating illness and smiled like she wanted to ride his ass on the spot. They were sickly sweet as a couple, both gorgeous to look at, but sometimes I looked at them and wondered how they ever made it as a couple. They'd had one hell of a rocky start to their relationship.

Walking behind Alfie, another smile stretched my lips because I loved to give Alfie shit about Lily. The woman was really all that as a person, but then again so was he. I was a fan of him and his music - he had serious talent - but I'd never make that common knowledge.

However, no matter how much I wound him up, I couldn't fault the way he took care of Lily after they'd sorted through their differences. Attentive, protective, and affectionate, it didn't take much to see that for Alfie the world revolved around his wife, not the sun.