Chapter 9: Ruby in France

“Leroy of all people!” Ruby exclaimed to the empty room. She grabbed her coat from the armchair in the bedroom and rushed down the stairs. She did not even have patience to take the elevator. When she spotted Leroy waiting patiently in the foyer, Ruby could not believe that it was actually him. She had hoped that it was her imagination.

“Wow! You’re looking better than ever Ruby girl!” Leroy exclaimed the moment he laid eyes on her. He was very elegantly dressed in a black patent leather suit.

Ruby grabbed him by the arm and marched him out the door. “What is your problem?” she said between clenched jaws. “Did you have the nerve to actually follow me here?”

Leroy threw his arms up in the air. “Wait, wait! I do admire you, but you know I’m not a groupie dear,” he explained slowly and clearly. "Everyone in the village back home was talking about your great opportunity of getting to sing in France for a few days. The local newspaper had all the details about your tour with the band called The Angels. Remember, your manager had a detailed talk with our village journalist. Everything up to your hotel was mentioned,” Leroy explained.

“So, I had to catch you before you move to another hotel, or whatever,” He added. “I am actually here on my own business, Ruby dearest. I am acting in a play.”

Ruby stood next to him on the pavement, trying to understand what he was saying. Was he actually telling the truth? “A play you say? That was fast,” Ruby responded.

“Look here,” Leroy continued and handed her a catalogue with the name of a stage production printed on the cover. On the inside were the names of the star performers on top of the page and the name of the other actors towards the bottom of the page. Leroy’s name was there as well.

“Okay, I see. But why did you surprise me? You could have said something back home, or at least called.” Ruby commented.

“Oh come now! Isn’t a surprise much better?” Leroy asked with a perfectly reasonable expression on his face.

Ruby had to admit to herself that he was right. It was just the last thing she had expected.

“Alright. I guess congratulations are in order,” Ruby said with a shy smile.

Leroy bowed low in acceptance.

“But I can’t promise that I will attend one of your shows. My manager has a strict itinerary of all our activities, so we cannot just go out on our own,” she explained.

“No pressure. I just wanted to surprise you and let you know that I was also here,” Leroy said, before he gave Ruby a pat on the shoulder and turned around to go the opposite way. “We also have a heavy schedule, but I guess I’ll see you around,” he said before he gave her a light kiss on the cheek and rushed on to join a group of friends who were apparently waiting for him.

Back in her hotel room, Ruby felt slightly embarrassed about overreacting to Leroy’s brief visit. She could have handled it with more dignity. Unless of course Leroy had set her up to embarrass herself. “Then he had been really good at it!” Ruby said out loud and laughed at herself.

*

Ruby was teamed up with the other female member of the band of classical musicians. Giselle was assigned to make Ruby ease into the process of singing professionally. Her room was next to Ruby’s.

“Don’t worry. I will show you around town and we can have a lot of fun,” Giselle had promised Ruby, upon meeting her. In a week’s time, the two young ladies would be sharing a flat. They would be living there for the remainder of Ruby’s contract.

“Are we going to cook when we share a flat, or is fast food a safe choice of food here?” Ruby asked Giselle on her third day in Paris.

“I think we don’t exactly have a choice. Our schedule is very busy,” Giselle responded. “Do you like cooking?” she asked Ruby with raised eyebrows and a bright smile.

“No, I just assumed that we would be cooking, but as you say; we need proper time to rest.”

*

On their fifth day in Paris, it was The Angels’ first night performing at an intimate theater in Paris, where they would be performing for a month, with Ruby as their newest member. Thereafter they would perform at other venues around France.

“Ruby, are you alright and ready for your first performance?” Grant, the male lead singer had asked, when he noticed her pacing up and down.

“Oh, it’s a new kind of crowd, so I’m charging myself up for them,” Ruby tried to explain.

“Sing a happy tune to yourself first, to calm your nerves,” Grant had suggested. “Then on stage sing for yourself, mainly. Nobody can intimidate you then.”

“Yes, try that,” Louis the band manager agreed. He was accompanying them for the entire tour.

“Thanks, I will try that now,” Ruby promised. She decided to do this in the bathroom, all by herself. Once there, she was just about to sing, when she decided that she could make up her own route towards relaxing. “I will imagine a happy scene instead,” she told herself out loud.

“Oh, was someone suggesting the opposite?” someone said from behind a closed door.

Ruby suddenly had a flashback of when Zureicka had surprised her and Lieschen in the bathroom at the Prom. “Who’s that?” she asked shakily.