Mistaken For A Girl Singer - Chapter 12

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Willy was waiting in the hotel lobby when Chris stepped from the elevator wearing his new outfit. From the skin out, he was wearing black, lacy panties, a matching, balconette bra, and a matching garter belt that hugged his hips and acted as a waist-cinched as well.

The garters were connected to very sheer, black, silk stockings which covered and caressed his legs and feet which were snug in pointed, three-inch heels.

The black, silk dress was low cut, but not too revealing. It was sleeveless and had a gentle flare from its high waist to its hem which sat just above Chris’s knee.

Earlier in the day, Chris had gone to the hotel’s salon to have his hair done. It was parted naturally in the center, hung beside his head, then pulled gently to the back of his head and held in place by two, pearl-covered hair clips before falling in beautiful, relaxed curls to the middle of his back.

Pearl earrings, a pearl chocker, and a little, black clutch purse with a pearl on its closure rounded off his ensemble.

“Oh, my, oh, my,” Willy said.

“Look who’s all grown up, tonight! What happened to my pretty little girlfriend?”

Chris smiled, both flattered and embarrassed, “Is it too much, Willy?”

“Are you kidding?”

Willy teased.

“You’d look great at a royal ball or a baseball game dressed like that! Lord, my heart is racing!”

Chris laughed and gave Willy a hug.

“Have the others already left?”

Chris asked.

“They just pulled out. My son is driving them, tonight. Your sister said that you wanted to come a little later, is that right?”

“Yes. Can we have an iced tea before going.

I need to talk to you for a few minutes.”

“Well, sure,” Willy said as he offered his arm and guided Chris to the tables outside of the lobby bar.

When he returned from the bar with two iced teas, Willy looked to Chris expectantly. Chris dove in, “Ok, so, you know I’m the youngest in the band, right?” Willy nodded.

“Well, Terry is only a few minutes older than me, but, since I was always sick and she’s brilliant, she was in college and I was still a junior in high school when we left home. Anyway, I love that they all treat me like their little sister, but it kind of carries over to how Mr Bennett and everyone at the record company treats me, too.”

“In the studio, though, I kind of feel like I’m in charge, you know like the others look to me to be the leader. The problem is that I’m afraid that I’m going to be left out of the career-planning aspects of the process because they view me as a silly, little girl.

That’s why I wanted to look more grown up, tonight. So, do I look stupid you know like a little girl playing dress up, or do I look like someone who knows what she’s talking about?”

“Well,” Willy stuttered in a reply, “you, you look like a beautiful, confident woman.

She is wise and talented and ready to discuss her future. If I can give you a little advice, I’d suggest that you walk a little slower, let everyone take you in as you enter, exit, or walk about the room, and when you sit, sit on the edge of your seat and keep your back straight. Cross your legs at the knees and slant them with your feet slightly to the side kind of like that lady over there.”

Chris looked over his right shoulder and saw the beautiful woman Willy had indicated. She was sitting alone near the wall but was obviously aware of her impact on the area. Chris tried to imitate the pose the woman had assumed, but was falling short, when he said to Willy, “Just wait here for me and I’ll be right back.”

Willy watched as Chris walked to the woman.

 He couldn’t hear what was being said, but as Willy watched, the woman offered a limp, glove-covered hand to Chris as a feminine handshake. Chris spoke for a few moments before the woman laughed and nodded, offering Chris a seat.

Willy watched as the woman walked Chris through a complete tutorial of presenting himself as a confident, feminine woman at a party. After fifteen minutes, Chris and the woman walked slowly and with a sultry sway back to Willy.

“I understand that you are my young friend’s chaperone for the evening?”

 She said with a smile and a southern twang that screamed of old, Tennessee money.

“I’m just Cinderella’s coach-driver, mam.”

She beamed, proud to have been asked to help the young woman.

“Well, I guess that makes me her fairy godmother, then. I think she’s ready for her party.”

She passed Chris’s hand to Willy and gave Chris an air kiss near his cheek.

“Call me tomorrow, sugar, and tell me how it went. Now, go be a smash at your party.”

She took one last look at Chris and said to Willy, “My goodness, can you believe she’s this beautiful at only seventeen!?

I bet she takes over the world by the time she’s twenty-one.”

“I believe she will, mam” Willy chuckled.

“I believe she will.”

 Willy pulled his car to a stop in front of the elaborate restaurant, handed the keys to the valet, who was opening Chris’s door, offered Chris an arm, and escorted him into the front door.

“You’re joining us, tonight?”

Chris asked.

 “Wouldn’t miss it for the world, little girl oops. I mean, strong, confident woman.” Chris smiled at the teasing and as they approached the door to the function room, Willy stopped, turned to face Chris, and said, “Ready?”

“Ready.”

“Here we go. Stand straight, walk slowly, let everyone admire you, and place one foot in front of the other. Acknowledge everyone, but don’t pander. Be strong. Be gracious. Be gorgeous, which you can’t help but be, and above all, be you.”

Then he gave Chris a strong, paternal hug and a soft kiss on the cheek.

“Here we go.” The door opened and in they went. There were a lot more people than Chris expected. He looked around for familiar faces when he let out a little gasp, Willy leaned in and asked what was wrong.

“That woman over by the bar, that’s Hillary Scott from Lady Antebellum. Why is she here?”

Willy nodded, “She’s here to celebrate your album, sweetheart. That’s why everyone is here. Look, there’s LeAnn Rimes and Kelly Pickler.

Over there is Trisha Yearwood, so I would expect that Garth Brooks is around someplace. They’re all here because Allan invited them and, if Allan invites you, you usually show up. This is all for you.”

“Oh my goodness,” Chris recognized Allan’s voice from the head table. He looked in that direction to see Allan rushing towards them with a huge smile on his face. “What happened to my sweet country girl? Who is the gorgeous, grown-up woman!?”

He pulled Chris into a hug, kissed him on the cheek, and turned to the crowd and asked for their attention it got quiet quickly.

“Ladies and gentlemen, you’ve already met the backbone of Dusty Rose, the beautiful Margo, Gina, Grace, and Terry, but now, I want you to meet the heart of this amazing new band.

 I had expected to introduce you to the amazing little girl that I have been working to death for the past month, but instead, I seem to be introducing a beautiful woman.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce a woman who will, very soon, be taking her place with you all as Nashville royalty, Christie Walters, the lead singer of Dusty Rose!”

Everyone applauded. Part of Chris loved this, but part felt like crawling under a table. Luckily, there was a third part that remembered everything that his recent tutor had taught him.

He smiled appreciatively and gave a small, but confident, wave to everyone and nodded his head in appreciation.

“Let’s get them all together for a photo,” Allan shouted as the others bounded to Chris.

They all spoke to him at once, “Do you believe this? I love your hair and dress! Did you see Kenny Chesney over there?

You’re gorgeous! I heard that Dolly Parton is coming later; Kenny Rogers, too! I wish I’d dressed a little better. You’ll never guess who’s here. Etc.”

They took a picture, but Allan wanted more.

“John! John Holden, jump in here!”

Chris was shocked to see John Holden, the young man who had performed before them at the student union a few months ago. It was obvious that the girls had already seen him, but Chris was a little confused as to why John was there.

John joined them and turned to Chris, “Surprised?”

 “Yes,” Chris said. “Did you get a contract?”

“Sure did. Same night as you girls. My album will be done in a week or so, but they’ve decided to market us kind of simultaneously. Seems that I am going to be your boyfriend in your videos and you’ll be my girlfriend in mine.”

‘Boyfriend!’ Well. That had never really occurred to Chris before.

“Oh, cool that’s, yeah cool.” More pictures.

“Ok, just a couple more before we settle down to some good food. Brenda! Brenda, are you handy?”

 As John gave Chris a parting kiss, this one much too close to his lips for his comfort, he heard Allan say, “Right there. between your daughters, please.”

Chris’s head swung to his left to see his mother being ushered to them by Allan.

“Mom!” Chris shouted and reached out to embrace her. “I didn’t know you’d be here!” She hugged her little, beautiful son and said, “Oh, baby, I would not have missed this for the world.” She pushed Chris away from her and looked him up and down.

“My God, look at you. What happened to my shy little boy?

That dress is incredible and pearls! I don’t even own pearls that lovely.

 How much did you spend on all of this?” Chris loved that his mom was so concerned about the money. His huge smile got wider.

“Way too much, Mommy, but I needed to do it for tonight. I missed you so much, Mom. Thank you for coming.”

They hugged again.

“Ok, ladies, just the Walters girls for a moment.”

Another picture.

“Great and now all the parents.”

More group pictures and family portraits. Then introduction after introduction before the restauranteur announced that the buffet was ready.

  The Dusty Rose girls were told to sit at the head table and they’d be served. As people went to the buffet, they all stopped by the head table to congratulate the band.

During a minute of privacy, Terry leaned to whisper to Chris, “Well, little sister, you sure surprised me! I can’t believe you pulled off that look all by yourself.”

“Not by myself, sissy. I paid a lot of very skilled women. Do I look ok?”

 “No, you do not look ok. You look amazing! I hope you can sing and play in that get-up, though. They brought our gear over. Evidently, we’re playing, later.”

“No! In front of all these people? Seriously!? Well, no pressure, huh!?”

Just as that sentence came out of his mouth, someone tapped a microphone on the bandstand and said, “Excuse me, everyone. We’d like to start this evening’s entertainment.”

Margo said what they were all thinking, “Holy shit, that’s Garth Brooks!”

A band moved in behind Garth and picked up their instruments.

“So,” Garth continued, “to kick things off, I’d like to call up my favorite singer my beautiful wife and mother of my children ladies and gentlemen, Trisha Yearwood!”

Everyone applauded politely as Ms Yearwood took the mic away from her husband with a smile and a kiss.

Gina let out a huge, arena concert “Whooo!” which was much louder than the rest of the room. Terry shh-ed Gina, but Trisha acknowledges her with a smile. “Congratulations on your first album, girls.

I hope this is just the first of many!” The band started playing “How Can I live Without You” and there was more applause. Suddenly, Garth Brooks was behind Chris with his hands on his chair.

“May I have this dance?”

Chris hesitated. He had no idea how to dance or how to respond. “Oh, my God, sissy,” Terry said. “Go dance! It’s Garth Brooks!” Garth Brooks escorted Chris to the dance floor to some applause.

Other Nashville notables came up to bring the rest of the band to the dance floor too.

 Chris was nervous that he was this close to Garth Brooks and dancing! He hadn’t practiced this. Where did a girl put her hands? How did girls do this?

Garth saw his inexperience and took Chris’s hands to place them correctly, his left hand on Garth’s shoulder and his right hand on Garth’s left.

 Then he placed his right hand on the small of Chris’s back and began to lead him around the dance floor with experienced confidence.

“I know how it is, Chrissie,” he said.

“Always on the bandstand and never on the dance floor, am I right?”

 “Yeah, I guess,” Chris was almost in sense overload. Garth Brooks was so much bigger than him. He felt small and so much more girlish than he expected to. He could get used to this.

Everyone performed a song or two: Trisha Yearwood was followed by Kenny Chesney, was followed by Luke Bryan, was followed by LeAnn Rimes, was followed by Kenny Rogers, etc., till Garth Brooks closed out all the guest artists.

Allan came over to the head table, “Ok, girls, this is it! Go on up and show them what you can do! Now, just play two songs, ‘His Eyes’ and ‘Get Outta My Way,’ take a bow and call it a night, ok?”

The girls nodded and headed to the stage, but Chris stopped to talk, “Mr Bennett, shouldn’t you have told us about this before tonight?”

“Nope, but Ellen should have, but I imagine that, after your sister threatened to have her rubbed out by Jersey mobsters, that probably slipped her mind.”

Chris didn’t understand what he meant, but Allan went on, “Chris, this is important. We WANT these people to WANT you to open for them.

Now, you and I both know that you can do this performance with your eyes closed, so just be a good girl and go up there and play, please.”

Chris nodded. “It’s just, well, I’m kind of overdressed.”

“Chris, you could not be more beautiful than you are right now. So, just go play those two songs and make them want you to work with them.”

“Don’t you guys have some say in who opens for who? I mean if you say we’re opening, doesn’t that pretty much mean we’re opening?”

“Yes, but I want more. I want them to include you girls in local interviews, and invite you back on stage during their sets, I want them to not just respect you, I want them to want you onstage with them to make them sound better.

Ok?” and he gave Chris a kiss on the cheek and a soft swat on the butt. Chris let out a surprised, “Hey,” smiled at Allan, and walked slowly and confidently to the bandstand.

When he reached the microphone he looked to Terry who said, “Ok, ‘His Eyes’, right?” Chris shrugged his willingness, but then shook his head and held up a finger, as he turned to the mic. “Ladies and gentlemen.” he thought before continuing.

“We, the girls and I, well, we just cannot thank you enough for being here tonight. I mean. talk about a dream come true! We are just so, so, honored to even be in the same room with you, let alone have the honor of playing for you.”

 Allan looked around at the faces in the audience. They were eating this up.

“So, before we begin, can I, first, introduce you to the girls. On drums, our very own Italian spitfire, Gina!”

There was applause.

“On bass and background vocals, the tallest and most beautiful member of the band,” Margo shot Chris a flattered smile, “Margo!” There was applause.

“On lead guitar, mandolin, pedal steel, classical guitar, and everything else, Grace!”

There was applause.

“And, finally, on rhythm guitar and background vocals, my big sister by 34 minutes and my mom’s favorite daughter, Terry!”

There was applause. Terry came to her mic and said, “And the heart and soul of Dusty Rose, my little sister, Chrissie!” More applause. Terry could see that Chris was stalling, but she couldn’t imagine why.

They knew the songs, they’d been playing and perfecting them for weeks. She looked to Margo, Grace, Gina, and back to Chris. She tried to make eye contact, but he wasn’t looking at her.

Finally, she nodded to Gina, who clicked her sticks, “One. Two. One, two.”

“Wait!” Chris called out. As the audience looked on expectantly, Chris held up one finger to request a moment of indulgence.

Then he reached down and took off first his right shoe and then his left. There was laughter from the audience.

He skipped a few feet to his left and placed his three-inch heels on the side of the stage. He skipped back to a round of applause from the audience, to which he responded by folding his right leg behind his left and lowering himself into a deep and feminine curtsy.

When he stood straight again, he skipped to his right and grabbed a jumbo-sized acoustic guitar off of a stand, then skipped back to his mic at the stage center.

When he pulled the guitar strap over his head, it seemed hopelessly too large on him, but he took a moment to adjust the strap. Margo looked at Gina and said, “He doesn’t play guitar on either of these.

 What do you think he’s doing?” Gina shrugged.

“Umm,” Chris finally returned to the microphone, “as I was saying, this whole evening is like a dream come true.

You people, well, I mean, you’re all our heroes. I’m just so surprised and so happy to be here.

You know, just before we came up, Allan Bennett came over to us and he said, ‘Go on up and show them what you can do! Now, just play two songs, take a bow, and call it a night.”

The audience, who all were very familiar with Allan laughed at Chris’s attempt to impersonate him.

Even Allan laughed, although he was very concerned about what was or rather, wasn’t happening on the stage.

“Come on, Chris, just play the damned songs,” he whispered to no one.

“So, I’d really like to do that, but I have to do something else before that.”

 The girls were completely confused and Allan was losing all patience.

 “Sing the goddamned songs, Chris, just sing the goddamned songs!”

He whispered again.

“If you’ll bear with me for a moment, I’d like to point out my mom in the audience. She’s right here to my left.”

A spotlight swung to Chris and Terry’s mom who waved to the applause from the surrounding tables.

“You see, we left our mom alone when we came down here and I can’t believe she’s here tonight. I didn’t even realize how much I missed her till I saw her. I love you, mommy.”

 More applause as his mom blew him a kiss.

“Our dad,” Chris continued, “well, he died about six years ago. I was in the hospital and our dad, well, he visited me and it was snowing and, well, there was this accident and we never saw him again.”

Terry looked to her mom who had tears coming down her face. ‘What the Hell is going on’ she thought.

‘This is hardly the time for family therapy.’ Chris continued, “Anyway, our dad taught us, Terry and me, to love music the way he did, and, man, did he ever love music. He would take out his guitar and play and Terry and I, well, we’d just be amazed.

And he’d always end with this one song that we called ‘Daddy’s Song’ and, even though I can see Mr. Bennett is losing his patience with me,” more laughter from the audience, “I’d really like to take a few minutes and play this song for my mom.”

There were gasps and ‘awws’ and tears from the audience followed by a big round of applause.

“Thank you,” said Chris, “the only problem is, we’ve never actually played this song in front of anyone before. Are we ok, girls?” he asked the band.

 They all nodded, so he turned to Gina, “Gina, can you count us in?”

She rolled her eyes, a bit exasperated, and tapped her sticks, “One. Two. One, two, three, four.”

They kicked into ‘One Less Set of Footsteps” with all the fire and edge they had used in the recording studio, and, after the first four bars, Chris turned to the audience and sang, “We been runnin' away from Somethin' we both know We've long run out of things to say And I think I better go So don't be getting' excited When you hear that slammin' door 'Cause there'll be one less set of footsteps On your floor in the mornin'” The song went on from there and the audience was eating it up.

When they reached the bridge of the song and Gina and Margo kicked into the syncopated rhythms that Chris had arranged for them, the crowds roared their approval. They had never expected this kind of raw power from these five young women.

The groove was perfect. The guitar playing was great. The background vocals were infectious, in tune, and came at surprising moments. Even though they’d all heard the song before, it was a new and stunning version that could only have been perfected by the girls of Dusty Rose.

When it was over, the audience leaped to their feet in applause and hollers! Even Allan was whistling as loudly as he could.

Then they gave a passionate performance of ‘His Eyes’ which was received with another ovation, followed by ‘Get Outta My Way’ which completely brought the house down. The applause was deafening and never seemed to wane. Eventually, they relented and played it again. Same result.

Finally, the applause died down and there were congratulations, hugs and kisses, and discussions of future performances and then it was time to leave.