The rest of the week flew by pretty quickly and before she knew it, it was Nova's night to preform at The Haunted Star.
And it was going to be a crazy night! There was some big shot senator sitting in the big house section that Mr. Lucas really wanted to impress so he was pulling out all the stops. Apparently this guy and his party were paying big money to rent that section out and they weren't exactly a dry bunch so money was flowing into the business.
Mr. Lucas was being pretty snappy to the wait staff and even to some of the entertainment, which was rare considering he usually had such a sweet disposition, but because of that it increased the pressure that everyone was feeling.
Even Nova, who he asked to sing a few extra songs throughout the night instead of her normal two, he was being short with. She when she arrived for work that day, she came in and went to greet him with her usual kiss and hug, when she saw he was hovering over the kitchens. He was barking out orders and being very particular on how everything was being prepped. He didn't exactly snap at her, but she knew him long enough now to know when the time came to stay clear of him.
Nova agreed to sing two extra songs which was double than what she normally sang, but Mr. Lucas rarely asked her for favors. Her knee was still in pretty rough shape and it wasn't impossible for her to stand, but after rushing around and only having twenty minutes between her first two sets, it became difficult for her to move around.
She had been taking piano lessons from her friend ever since she was released from the hospital. She was starting to get pretty decent to where her songs didn't sound as choppy as they did in the beginning so she decided that she was going to finish her last song of the night on piano. She knew that it would mean a lot to Mr. Lucas and she had practiced her song over and over again so she felt confident. Even though she knew it was a bit of a gamble, considering she was still new to it, she felt that it was an easy enough tune that she could pull it off.
Plus she always had the band ready for back up if she bombed it.
Jimmy was on stage playing his variation of "I Can't Take My Eyes Off You" while Nova sat behind the curtain waiting her turn. She was wearing a short silver dress that lit up like a disco ball when the light hit it, with a pair of matching flats. Heels nowadays were impossible, giving her new restrictions and she gave up on them long ago.
She still had one more song to go through before she had her big moment behind the piano and she nervously shifted in her seat, adjusting the knee brace she had to wear. It was more packed than usual tonight and she could hear some of the senator's guest starting to get a little rowdy so she was feeling a little uneasy.
She didn't even notice Mr. Lucas standing off to the side of her, until she smelt the familiar rustic scent of his cigar. She looked up and smiled at him and caught on that he was giving a peculiar look back and forth between her and Jimmy.
Before she could say anything, Mr. Lucas said in his raspy Brooklynn accent "You know, between you and Jim, you guys sure know how to win a crowd."
"Well, Jimmy is pretty talented" Nova said, trying to be polite.
Mr. Lucas had no clue that she thought Jimmy was a total dog and hopefully he never would. Nova would feel weird telling him that they used to have a thing, if you would even call it that. He was like her grandfather and that was a conversation that was just better left not had. Plus she didn't want him to think bad of her for having relations with what was pretty much a coworker.
And he was the boss after all. Bless his heart.
"You know, you two have been preforming here for so long now, I know Jim is going on at least seven years, your what...3? 4? Maybe it's time we get you two together on stage, see what you can do....I bet you's would really blow the roof off this place".
Nova snapped her head in Mr. Lucas's direction so quick, she could have given herself whiplash. "Uhh...Well Jimmy and I sing two totally different styles of music...I don't think it would work" She tried to stammer up an excuse.
There was no way in hell that she would willingly get on a stage with him. If them two were to do an act together, that would mean that there would be rehearsal time involved and Nova didn't want to be anywhere near him. Ever since that night at her apartment, he skeeved her out so much, there was no way she would ever be able to look at him the same way again.
"More of the reason why I think it would be great! Think of the collaboration! With your set of pipes and his stage performance, I definitely see some headliners in your future...And I'm never wrong about these things..." Mr. Lucas went on, looking away as if he were envisioning their future.
"We'll see" Nova said rolling her eyes and shaking her head, hoping he would just drop it. Luckily she heard someone page Mr. Lucas to the dining hall, forcing their conversation to end. Jimmy was just finishing up his set and Nova stood up to swish some water in her mouth before she went on.
She was starting to wish that it was with something stronger, judging by the roar of the audience that jimmy got. She never did good with bigger crowds and this time it wasn't full of her usual sweet old ladies and proper older men.
With the way the stage was set up, when Jimmy exited they were forced to pass each other and Nova was holding onto the edge of the table. Her knee was now throbbing and it was hard to stand up straight without losing her balance.
He paused before he walked past her and usually they just ignored each other, but this time Jimmy just couldn't help himself. He paused and smirked at her, only to receive a glare from Nova.
That had a brief stare down and as uncomfortable as that made Nova feel, she stood her ground (to the best of her ability) and hardened her stare, not letting him intimidate her.
She was about to ask him what his deal was when in a malicious manor he said "Break a leg".
Nova blinked at his words and before she could respond he slid past her, almost knocking into her shoulder. She turned around and shot him a dirty look as he walked back behind the curtain.
"What an asshole" Nova thought to herself. She took a deep breath and tried to shake off what just happened, throwing on a fake smile and hobbling out on the stage.
Ignoring the cat calls she was now getting, she took her seat on the stool that they had brought out for her and began to sing her song.
Tonight there was a slight stiffness in her voice, due to her nerves and thanks to the Jimmy run in she just had with him. She just wanted to ring his little neck more than anything but she knew that for now she would have to just let it go. She hoped that Mr. Lucas would forget about what he said about them two performing together and never bring it up again.
She knew that it was unlikely that he would, considering that whenever he got a hair up his ass about anything on the entertainment side, he always did see it through. Perhaps if Jimmy weren't such a jerk maybe they could have been good together on stage, but as of right now she was hoping that they would never find out. She felt awkward just thinking about it.
Once she finished her song, the audience gave her a loud cheer with more volume than she was used to. There was so much booze flowing throughout the dining room, Nova could actually smell it when she was walking off of the stage. She was hoping that this night wouldn't drive away any of the existing clientele that usually came. Even though most performers would have loved this much hype after their act, it made Nova uneasy simply because she wasn't used to it.
Nova had a solid thirty minutes before her last act, so she was able to fully change and redo her make up to match her outfit. For this one, she chose to wear a short red dress with a beautiful beaded neckline and she let her hair down. She did her make up, using glitter to accent her eyes and then she still had some time to kill so she sat at her mirror and tapped on the counter as if she were practicing her keys for the piano.
Going through each note by note, she was focused on remembering where each key was, so focused that she didn't notice a dark figure standing off behind her left shoulder.
Nova tapped a few more notes on the edge of the counter and then practically jumped out of her skin when a thick envelope cut across her vision and smacked down on the table in front of her. She jerked her head up with wide eyes, and saw standing in front of her, the last person she had ever thought she would see in this setting.
"Sal? What are you doing here?!" She questioned, surprised as ever to see him. He stood there for a moment and looked at her. Nova was having a hard time reading his expression and her heart was still racing from how he decided to get her attention.
"How did you even get back here?" Nova asked, looking around him to see if anyone was there.
Sal's eyes darted in every direction. He looked nervous but he tightened up his expression and narrowed his eyes. "There's five grand in there, you can count it. Five grand and the number of a buddy of mine that is big in the world of fashion. He works with Runway Magazine, call him and he will give you a job behind the camera" he said short and to the point.
Nova's eyes went wide. She looked down at the envelope and then back to Sal as if he were insane. "I don't understand" she said, still trying to get over the shock of the spontaneity of what was going on.
Sal looked as if he didn't have time for this. "Look, I want you to stay away from the show and leave Brian alone, don't take the job! I know I must sound like the biggest prick right now but I'm just trying to look out for my friend here, you really broke his heart and it is going to break him again if he has to see you on set every day. There's five grand in there to make up for your time and a really good job opportunity so you are still gaining something. Just take it and stay the hell away! Trust me, ya did enough." Sal said, throwing some sass in at the end.
Nova drew her head back in disgust that he felt that he could talk to her like this. Especially after not knowing the full story. The nerve!
And for him to think that he could pay her off to make her disappear like she was some hussy?! She didn't care how good of a job or how much money was in that envelope. She had gotten this job all on her own! Fair and square! There was no way in hell that she would ever give Sal or anyone for that matter, the ability to say that she owed her success to anyone but herself, especially with the way he was acting.
She slowly stood up to face him and scoffed. "Okay, okay. I get that you and Brian have been friends for a very long time and you are just trying to look out for him, but with all due respect, maybe you AND BRIAN should get your facts straight before you come at me like I'm some home wrecker! I'm not the enemy here! I have no intention of screwing with Brian's life and despite everything we went through, I do still wish him the best, not that any part of what happened between us is your business." Nova stood up for herself.
"Actually it is very much my business. I was the one to pick up the pieces of the horrible mess you left behind. I always do! Just please, you don't understand, I don't know what your trying to accomplish here but Brian can't go through this...Not again. Just leave him alone, take the job that I stuck my neck out to get for you and go about your merry way" Sal said, almost as if he were trying to be sincere.
"Does Brian know you are here? Because I can't imagine that he would be happy if he knew what you were doing right now" Nova said as she quirked an eyebrow.
"Sweethawt, you don't know what your getting yourself into" Sal began with a fake smile and then quickly got serious. "I will bury you the first chance I get. I will make your life a living hell on set. You have no clue who you are dealing with here"
Nova gave him a look up and down and crossed her arms as if he wasn't shit. "Well obviously I can't be dealing with anything too terrible if you can't even remove me off of YOUR OWN SHOW yourself! I guess you don't have as much power as you think you do"
Sal gritted his teeth through pursed lips and clenched his out stretched hand that he was using to make gestures as he talked. Nova stared back at him, feeling the warmth of her fury spread from her face down to her neck. She knew that she was potentially playing with fire, but she would never show that hand, especially not to Sal Vulcano who was now glaring daggers at her.
Nova took his silence as an opportunity to snatch the envelope that he threw at her earlier and tossed it back at him. "You can keep your money and you can take that job opportunity and shove it up your ass! The answer is NO! Now get away from me before I call security" Nova threatened.
"Alright, alright. I tried to give you a way out. Can't say I didn't warn you. If you change your mind, you know how to get ahold of me" Sal said smugly.
Nova was about ready to fire back at him but paused when she heard her name being announced to perform next. She turned and looked back at Sal who was already walking away. "Fucking jerk" Nova muttered before she limped her way to the stage.
She paused for a moment when she got to the curtain and took a deep breath. If only she had even just five more minutes to prepare herself. Her hands were shaking and she still felt riled up from her confrontation with Sal. She wished that he could have waited till after her set to rip into her the way he did.
Nova quickly tried to get him out of her mind the best she could and she pushed herself to walk out, slapping on a fake smile.
After giving the crowd a little wave, the way they roared back at her made her feel like she was going out there for the first time again. As she limped over to the piano, she realized that the noise was mostly coming from one section, and that was Mr. Lucas's special guests.
When Nova sat down on the bench, she bumped her chin on the mike, causing a dull thudding noise to echo throughout the dining area. Quickly placing her hand on the base to steady it, she finally sat down and pulled the mike down to her face.
Taking another deep breath, her hands found the keys, but that's about all they did. Nova stared down at the piano and suddenly could not remember the first few notes of her song. There was an awkward silence that filled the room as Nova fought with herself to try and get her brain to work and remember the damn keys!
She realized that not only had she forgotten her notes, she had forgotten the lyrics as well...
Her and Sal's little argument they had before she went on gave her no time to mentally prep herself, all she could think about was the hateful look in his eyes and the nasty words he said about how this was all going to effect her new job opportunity.
Her brain was not understanding that now was not the time to dwell on all of this.
Nova's breath caught in her throat as her audience grew impatient and for the first time since she had started performing, she was getting booed.
The boo's were surrounding her, suffocating her, causing Nova's brain to fully shut down. She desperately looked up at one of the band members for help and he aggressively mouthed to her "Play something!"
Nova who was now shaking like a leaf, began to play total nonsense on the piano, hoping that a tune would click and she could get her song at least started but her mind was still blank.
Now the crowd was turning vicious. People were standing up out of their seats, screaming at her to get off stage as if she said something offensive and Nova started to hyperventilate. She turned to look at the audience, blinded by the stage lights she could only make out silhouettes of people moving around. Pretty soon the silhouettes turned to monsters and Nova knew she had to get out of there.
She made a move to get up off the bench but her knee gave out and she landed on the floor with her arms stretched out in front of her. She had never dealt with an audience that was so unruly, it must have been from all the booze. Instead of showing the slightest bit of concern, they continued to attack her. Nova heard some people yelling at her, some people yelling at the people who were yelling at her, and then it all just turned to noise that she couldn't make out.
It was when she began to cry that she felt a pair of strong arms grip around her biceps and lift her up to her feet. She had no clue who it was that helped her, but she was grateful they did. This was by far the worst experience she had ever had on stage, and it was all because of Sal.
Her rescuer guided her over to a chair and made her sit down. Nova let them lead her and when she looked up she was faced with the last person she had ever thought would help her in a crisis.
It was Jimmy.
"Nova, you got to breathe" Jimmy told her, pulling up a chair next to her and putting his hand on her shoulder. She didn't realize she was in full panic attack mode until he said that.
She let out a strangled cry and gripped Jimmy's dress shirt. "Come on, you're okay, breathe with me, in and out, in and out" He continued to try and help her, flattening her hand on his chest.
After a few more cries, Nova had finally gotten a grip on herself. "Here, drink this" Jimmy said as he handed her a bottle of water. Nova grabbed it from him and chugged it, streams dribbling down her neck.
"I...I...I don't know what happened...I..I couldn't remember my notes...My words...I just..." Nova trailed on, looking past Jimmy as she went through the past series of events.
"You choked...You bombed...You screwed up" Jimmy said bluntly. "We have all done it, it happens. Crowds can be assholes sometimes, especially this one. They don't realize what it takes to go out there" Jimmy explained, being oddly nice to her. It was weird after not talking to him for so long.
Nova took another drink and dried her tears. "Ugh! What is wrong with those people! They are still going at it" Nova said angrily as she could still hear the crowd through the curtains. "Thank you for...Doing what you did" Nova said sincerely, simply because she felt that she had to. If he hadn't helped her, she could have still been out there looking like stage roadkill as the crowd turned ugly.
Jimmy looked at her in pity just before he saw in the distance, Mr. Lucas making his way over. He looked back at Nova and stood up, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You'll be okay kid" He said before he left her side to meet Mr. Lucas.
"Jimmy, help Rodney close the curtains, I'm shutting us down for the night. This has gotten way outta hand" Mr. Lucas ordered. Jimmy ran off to go do as he was told and Mr. Lucas rushed up to Nova.
"Are you okay?" He asked, looking as if he were truly worried about Nova. Nova gave him a nod and he reached down to give her a hug. "I'm so sorry sweetie, Don't listen to them. They are all a bunch of low life's and I am banning them from ever coming back, are you sure you're okay?" Mr. Lucas asked her again, looking concerned.
"I'm okay, I mean despite everything, I will be okay...I think my knee has had enough tonight though" Nova said blandly.
"Let me wrap this up and kick these guys outta here and I'll be back to call you a cab...Please let me. It's the least I could do."
For once Nova didn't argue and she just nodded her head. Her spirit was too worn down tonight to be too proud for a kind gesture. Plus a cab sounded way better than waiting around for Heather to come pick her up.
Nova took a deep breath and now that she was alone, she thought about what Sal said. Maybe it was a little brazen of her to take this job, knowing that she would be back around Q. She would be lying if she said she didn't miss him and even though she knew in her heart that it wasn't her fault that they broke up, she still felt sorry for him after hearing Sal say how rough he took it.
She liked to think that everything happened for a reason and maybe this would bring her the chance to properly explain her side to Q. She knew that what had happened between them looked bad on her part and even if there was no chance of them getting back together, she would hope that they could eventually work out a friendship.
If he would hear her...
Only time would tell but one thing she knew for sure, no matter how hard Sal's threats were, she still deserved this and she was not taking this job to be closer to Brian Quinn.
She was going to take this job for herself.