The drive back to the hotel seemed to take no time at all. Much shorter than the journey to the VMAs. This left Jo feeling disorientated when the door was opened for him at the back entrance of the hotel.
He climbed out of the large car, almost toppling over in the process. His palms were sweating in the face of being so close to Gaga. He had planned on using the car ride home to figure out what to say to her. There had been no time for this. He had only just come down from the roar of the crowd when the car had come to a stop and now he felt rather frightened over having to face her. She may be small in stature but what she lacked in height she made up in ferocity and he had nothing to say to disarm this fury.
The three Moon Men awards were very awkward to carry. They would have been a lot easier to handle if not for the full bottle of whiskey dominating his right hand. It was his peace offering. Or a way to make her very agreeable if she drank enough.
The hallways of the hotel held a silence which was somewhat eerie after the deafening electricity held in the Nokia Theatre. He tromped along after a pair of Gaga’s security guards. Reality came rocketing back like a crippling hang-over after a fun night.
He had obtained an almost painful clarity for everything he had said. Things he hadn’t written down for his speech had left his mouth before he had realized what he was saying. He had found it difficult to stop speaking once he had begun. He had said far too much on the topic of Britney Spears. At the time, with the applause ringing in his ears, it had all seemed to go perfectly.
But in the wake he heard his voice talking about Gaga coming and he questioned himself of why he had felt the need to share this with the world. Undoubtedly this wasn’t what she’d had in mind when sending him in her place. He could only imagine how upset she was and what this might lead her to say. He knew he had earned every coarse word she would aim at him.
Reflections of every argument they had shared swam into his mind, as if to prepare him for the impending doom. Their first fight when she had accidentally sent his lighter flying into the toilet bowl. More rows about forgotten dates and differences of opinion had followed. An unwinnable argument over who was more selfish had resulted in plates being hurled across the room at one another, and not for the last time.
All of these recalled instances reminded him she had never backed down from a fight. If she felt certain he had wronged her she was likely to yell at him for hours on end. Despite his knowledge that the performance had gone well (even after he had momentarily fallen off the stage, he had managed to pull the song together in the end) he sensed he was in for a long, torturous night.
He knocked on the door, rather than stepping straight in and imposing his company upon her. It seemed kinder to allow her the option of letting him in. As he waited he fixed an apologetic expression on his face and tried to figure out the best thing to say to avoid having the whiskey bottle smashed over his head.
The door opened and her unhappy face prompted him to start talking at once. “Hey baby, I know you’re probably mad at-…”
Unsurprisingly her hand darted out to cut off the end of his sentence. The sound of her palm connecting with his cheek rang out in the silence. He let his head roll to the side from the impact of this. He could hear her drawing in sharp breaths as she attempted to control her anger.
“I cannot believe you.” She rasped. “The things you said...fucking hell Jo, you might as well have taken in a tape of us having sex for MTV to play, that might have been less embarrassing than the things you said. I just can’t believe it.
“Where do you get the audacity to say shit like that on television? I can’t believe you thought it was okay to say shit like that. I have no words…” She seemed to be running out of steam. “I can’t believe…You asshole…I’ve never been so…” She had no more words to express herself with.
Instead she completed her train of thought by grabbing the front of his shirt and pulling him out of the hallway. Feverishly she pushed her lips to his. The Moon Men were pressed painfully into his chest but he hardly noticed this as her fingers moved up to caress his neck.
She swiped her tongue quickly over his top lip before leaning back. Her lashes fluttered as her eyes opened. Her green eyes sparkled as they always did when she was performing, or on the mornings when he woke her up with a copious amount of kisses. He was reminded of the first time she had told him she loved him, that shy smile mirrored now as she watched him.
“Sorry I slapped you.” She murmured.
“It’s okay.” He shrugged. “I deserved it.”
“No, you didn’t.” She responded. “You were brilliant, totally brilliant. I’m so happy you didn’t tell me you were planning this because I would have tried to stop you and that was amazing. I can’t have imagined anything better.” He breathed a sigh of relief. “I never could’ve said all of that, I loved it.”
He raised the bottle to eye-level, smiling. “I brought whiskey.”
“Jo Calderone you always know the right things to say.” She admired.
She took the bottle before grabbing his belt and tugging him further into the room. She kicked the door shut and hastily uncapped the bottle. He dumped the awards onto the bed to eliminate the last distraction. Her lips tasted like whiskey and after a few swigs his head buzzed pleasantly.
The world faded away from importance. There were certain to be consequences from his appearance but they didn’t matter right now. The only thing to matter was that they were together again.