Another Chance Book I of III

Book III-Chapter 105, Learning to Live Joyously Despite Nonsense

Gretchen Johansen

Prince's POV

Prince and Bella had turned in at about midnight on Friday night. They were tired from the flight and needed to rest so that they could plow through the huge list of things to do on Christmas Eve day. At 8:15 AM, Prince's phone rang and he woke with a start and saw that it was Gretchen calling. He answered in his morning voice, still deep with sleep. "This is Royal". "Good morning Royal, this is Gretchen. You did get back to Detroit." "Yes we did". "I wanted to discuss the itinerary for the rest of the holiday mini tour. I have your hotels secured now and"...Prince cut her off. "Thank you Gretchen, but Bella and I are not up yet. Send it to me and I will call you if I have any questions". "Oh, okay". Prince thought he sensed disappointment in her voice. She was a real get it done kind of person and a little full of herself, so maybe she was disappointed that she did not get to brag about how she had gotten great pricing or something he thought. He disconnected the call and turned over and looked at his Bella. She was looking at him and he smiled. "Good morning pretty girl", he said. "Good morning Prince. "That was the new Admin calling. She has the rest of the itinerary for the mini tour". "Good", Bella said. "Let's get a move on. We have a lot to accomplish today Mama". He kissed her on her forehead and they headed into the bathroom to shower and dress. Once they were dressed they headed downstairs into the kitchen. Ross had the coffee on already and was in the middle of getting breakfast going. He was doing Maple and Brown Sugar Oatmeal, Vanilla Yogurt and Fruit, Banana Muffins and Coffee. The Oatmeal was on and the Banana Muffins were in the oven and smelled heavenly. Bella poured and dressed a cup of coffee for Prince and then for herself. "Mama, I am going to go to the Study and pull up the itinerary". Grabbing his coffee, he entered the study, booted up his laptop and entered his code. He then pulled up the itinerary that Gretchen had sent. He once again was impressed with the quality of the hotels and the rates. She was really good at her job. He sat there and thought about the 3 engagements that Gretchen had just completed.

Thursday would find them on the plane at 10:00 AM for an hour flight to Philly from New York and a 3:00 PM Sound Check at the beautiful Tower Theater where they would perform. They would stay at The Rittenhouse, another amazing 5 star hotel before heading back to Detroit for a Friday night performance. Because of the tight schedule, they would all stay at the hotel Friday night as they would be flying again Saturday morning for the New Year's Eve Chicago show. Kendra and David would stay at the hotel and enjoy time with them before they flew out the next day. They would stay at the 4 Star, Siren Hotel and perform at The Stork. They would be only minutes from the Venue and it was quite nice. New Year's Eve they would perform at the Chicago Theater. The 3600 seat capacity Venue was both elegant and had great acoustics. They would again have a 3:00 PM sound check and the concert would start at 7:00 PM. It was very gratifying that tickets for this venue had sold out within three hours of becoming available. They would play an after party at The Blues Club, a new venue that was owned by some college friends of Prince and Carlos. It was intimate, contemporary and had excellent state of the art sound. That after show would start at 2:00 AM and would run until 4:00 AM. Prince was doing this just for Chicago, the place of his birth. After parties would not become the norm for him in this lifetime as Bella thought a steady diet of those kind of hours was bad for his health. He would always listen to her...because he knew she had his best interests at heart...and she was normally right! They would stay in the Four Seasons in a Suite facing the Lake and would not check out until January 5th when they would fly back to California. They would need that down time to recuperate from the 4 furious days of travel and performing. They would spend some of that down time with Prince's folks. Where they could, they would cram in a couple of interviews at Christian's insistence. While the pace was insane, it was preparing them for the European Tour which Prince and Christian would finalize the dates for when they returned to California on January 5th. But for now it was focus and deliver...audiences were waiting! Gretchen had covered all the basics. He needed to get an idea of what interviews Christian thought were most critical. Pulling out his cell phone he called Christian. "Hey Royal", Christian said. "Hi Christian", Prince said. "How was Key West"? "It was amazing". "I just reviewed the itinerary for the mini tour", Prince said. "I was thinking about the interviews you referenced and wondered which ones you thought were most critical"? "Needless to say, we need to do the New York Times and LA Times" Christian responded. "We also need to do the Detroit News", Prince said, "especially since one of our Premiers was held there. I want to do the Chicago Tribune also".