Chapter 52

The next morning, we got to the venue of our two performances in Copenhagen. Michael saw us coming up to him and he said, “Uh-oh” and put his finger up, licking it first. Like he was checking to see which way the wind was blowing.

“What have you done, young man? I see it in your eyes - have you decided you don’t need me anymore, and have music to replace all of us?” Michael said with the orchestra all chuckling as well, with Alan the pianist laughing the loudest.

“Michael,” Alan said, “If I were a betting man my guess is that we just got more music to learn and these young people are ready to take no prisoners.”

I replied chuckling, “Actually, you are both right We have all new set lists with 60 minutes of music in each half. Here’s the list,”

“Nice and Easy – No Dancing”
“When Your Mind’s Made Up – Charles & Kalista”
“Feeling Good – Charles & Claire”
“Papa, Can You Hear Me? – Claire & Kallie”
“It Had Better Be Tonight – Charles & Claire”

“See Michael, I told you,” Alan said, “In the first five numbers three are us playing and you singing - Thanks Charles.”

“Buena Sera – Charles and Kalista”
“Teenage Dream – Charles & Claire”

“Katy Perry, you are going to dance to a Katy Perry song, Charles?” Michael asked unable to hold back a loud guffaw.

“Yep, we have had ‘Firework’ with a routine we just haven’t gotten around to slipping it into a set, yet, it’s coming in the second set. Each of my girls is doing one,” I replied.

“Cool,” Michael said, causing many of us to chuckle.

“You Raise Me Up – Charles & Claire”
“You’re Nobody Til – No Dancing”
“Bop to the Top – Charles & Claire”

“Just a second, what is ‘Bop to the Top,’ Charles?” Michael asked.

“It’s from a movie called ‘HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL’ back in 2006. There were a couple of real hot songs from it that made it on the pop charts. This isn’t one of them but I heard it and realized it was a great Fast Paso Doble, so it’s been added,” I answered.

“The Boy is Mine – Kallie and Claire”
“Claire – Charles & Claire”

“Just a minute, Charles – you and Claire are dancing to a song named ‘Claire?’ Did you commission a song about your fiancée?” Michael asked, chuckling.

“No Michael, it’s an older song recorded by a couple of different singers. We have got the version recorded by a gentleman named Space Kelly.”

“Sway – Charles and Kalista”
“Rainbow Connection – Charles & Claire”
“Bad Romance – Charles, Claire and Kalista”
“Heartache tonight – Charles and Kalista”
“Marry You – Charles & Claire”

“End of Set One, Michael,” I said.

“You have a lot in there to make a new routine to, don’t you?” Michael commented.

Ready for this I replied, “Well, Michael, the girls and I took most of yesterday and we have already created all the new routines to the newly added numbers. So, is that list good for you?”

“Except for ‘Buena Sera,’ we have done everything rather recently. Giving us homework again, are you?” Michael asked with a smirk.

“Not intentionally, Michael we always liked that number we just never did anything with it. So, you want to hear the second set list?” I asked.

“Yes, please Charles – I won’t interrupt you any more, sorry?” Michael said feigning indignance.

“OK,”
“Paper Doll – No Dancing”
“Daddy’s Little Girl – Claire”
“Olympic Gold Tango – Charles & Kalista”
“One Step at a Time – Charles & Claire”
“Count Your Blessings – Charles & Kalista”

“Tuxedo Junction – Charles & Claire”
“Firework - Kalista”
“Until Its Time For You to Go
Alan, Charles & Claire”
“Just Like Heaven – Charles & Kallie”
“You’ll Never Find – Charles & Kallie”

“Oh, Sarah – You and Michael did this song together before, want to do it again?” I blindsided her, but I had to.

“If Michael wants me ... to sing with him, I’ll do it,” she said strangely acquiescent.

“Great,” Michael said.

“Falling Slowly – Charles & Claire”
“At This Moment – Charles & Kalista”
“Surrender – Charles & Claire”
“Come Fly With Me – Charles & Kallie”
“Bill Bailey – Charles & Claire”
“Lift Me Up – Charles & Kalista”

“And that is it everybody – We have got a longer set now, but I know we can do it, how about it, Michael?” I said.

“Charles, something or someone has lit a fire under you and I think I know who. I am not about to throw water on it. Gentlemen, find your music for ‘Buena Sera’ and ‘Surrender,’ we’ll work on those first. Charles, if you have your dances down, Go. Otherwise stick around if you’d like. Sarah, if you can stick around, so we can work on ‘You’ll Never Find?’”

“Sure, Michael – I’ll stay,” Sarah insisted. “Annie you can go if you’d like?”

“I’ll stay,” she said.

“K, are you staying or coming with Claire and I?” I asked.

She was looking around trying to decide as I saw Claire call her over and whisper something into her ear. They grabbed each other by the arms, and we all got a cab back to the Hotel.

We got out of the Taxi and a girl glommed onto each of my arms. They both smiled at me and said, “Let’s Spa, Loverboy.”

We went to our respective rooms and changed into suits with a cover. My girls looked bloody marvelous – Wow, am I the lucky one!

We all walked to the Spa with the girls taking off their tops. No, that’s not what I meant, their cover - and we all eased ourselves into the spa.

With her most recent growth spurt, Kalista, at the ripe old age of 10 years old was very grown up looking and as such she was now drawing the attention of other young men. Two fellows looking to be about 17 or so came out to the spa and got in.

I saw them talking to each other and looking over at Kalista. It appeared that they might be getting ready to make a move on her. I was ready – to do ‘what’ I wasn’t really sure, but I was ready.

Sure enough the blond fellow went over towards Kalista trying to be subtle but smooth.

“Hey Doll - what’s your name?” he said to Kalista.

“My name is Susan, what’s yours?” she replied.

So - Claire must have talked to her so I stayed where I was. Both Claire and I were listening closely.

“Donnie, my name is Donnie. Are you American?” he said moving in a little closer.

“Yeah! My sister, her boyfriend and me are staying here for a few days then we’re moving on to Amsterdam the day after tomorrow.”

“My friend Robbie and I are having a party tonight. Do you want to come?” Donnie said.

“No thanks, Donnie, I got a question if you don’t mind?” K asked.

“Sure Doll - what is it?” Donnie replied moving in a little closer still looking up and down at her like a wolf and Red Riding Hood.

“Do you dance?” Kalista asked.

“Nah, who dances these days, why?” he responded.

I walked into the conversation and said, “We do - for a living - and Susan is ten-years-old fellas!”

They muttered something under their breath and left very quickly.

“Charles, that was fun,” Kalista said with a laugh and a giggle as Claire and I joined in on the moment.

We walked Kalista up to her room, I gave her a nice kiss and Claire and I went into our room.

“Charles, I noticed that you seemed rather nervous down in the Spa ... is everything OK?” Claire asked me.

“The whole time Donnie was talking to K, I felt like going over and knocking his block off - I was a little worried.”

“You think you would have had to do more than just talk to him?” she asked.

“I felt very protective of K, Sweetie.”

“Like a protective Lover?” Claire asked biting her lip.

“No – more like a protective father, Claire. I felt like she was my little girl and I had to protect her,” I replied breaking into tears.

“Charles, honey, you are going to be such a wonderful Daddy to Kalista and any other children we have - I love you.”

“I love you, Claire.”

#RING#

I picked up my phone saying, “Hello, Mom?”

“Hi, honey – you guys hungry?”

“Yeah. Meet you downstairs in thirty - dressed to eat?”

“Sure thing, Charles.”

I almost didn’t want to wake up Claire. She looked so peaceful and so beautiful, just sleeping there. It had been a while since I used the Snow White wake-up technique. I clearly remember Kalista slapping me by accident - that seemed a lifetime ago.

I pressed my lips to hers. I felt her lip twitch as I opened my mouth. I felt her mouth open as I heard a hum.

“Oohh, Charles – feeling frisky?”

“Not exactly, Mom called and we’re meeting them downstairs in – thirty minutes, for dinner. Get up, get dressed for dinner, OK?”

“I liked being woken up that way, Lover. Maybe after we’re married, I could think up some interesting techniques to wake you up by?” she said putting her hand on my chest and slowly moving it lower and lower and lower...

“Behave Claire,” I said grabbing her hand and kissing it.

“That might be the first time ever you said that to me, Charles!” she said grinning at me.

“Touché, my love.”

We all went off to eat back at the Laundromat Café - this time without any laundry to deal with. Again, the food was quite nice, the ambiance was different due to it being evening instead of morning.

“Sarah, we need to sit down and work out the Honeymoon Tour Schedule. Are you available after dinner?” I asked just before taking a bite of my sandwich.

“Charles, you know me. I am available to you ... anytime you want me?” she replied.

“MOTHER,” Claire said causing us all to laugh.

Annie slapped her significant other on the shoulder.

“Sorry Ladies - a girl can dream can’t she? Charles has gotten so buff since he started working out. The idea of anything with Charles is rather ... exciting,” she said with a wink.

“Do you want me to slap her, Claire?” Annie said.

“No, I know the feeling she’s talking about. Charles and I have gotten so ... close, that the next step between us – is the final step between two people in love,” Claire said with serenity in her voice.

“So, can I use your man after dinner?” Sarah asked with a chuckle.

“Sure, bring him back with a smile on his face, Mother,” Claire said.

“Hey, I’m right here – it sounds like you are negotiating a deal for me,?” I said.

“I bid one thousand dollars for Charles,” Sarah said.

“Do I hear any other bids?” I asked, being precocious.

“Two thousand,” Kalista said with a gleam in her eyes.

“Twenty-five hundred,” Claire said.

“Three grand,” Sarah said, “and I’ll throw in a backrub.”

“Mother, you’re not bidding?” I asked with mock anguish.

“You want me to, Loverboy?” she said with a look of longing on her face.

“Four thousand,” Kalista said.

“Forty-four hundred,” Claire said.

“Ten thousand dollars’ cash and I’ll throw in a ‘clothes optional spa’, Honey,” mom said quieting everyone with that remark.

They all burst into laughter as I was actually starting to get turned on by all them bidding on me. I joined the laughter as I felt Sarah’s hand on my leg. She turned and looked at me for a second, then started laughing again.

We were done, so we headed back to the Hotel. I was eager to start planning the Honeymoon Tour. We all changed into comfy clothes and they all sat around talking while Sarah and I worked on the Tour.

“Sarah, where do you suggest we start this Tour?” I asked.

“Probably Arizona, or Florida, maybe Southern California?” she said.

“Good Idea! It’ll be January, so starting somewhere warm is a good idea. Do we want to do this a state at a time, like all ten cities in Arizona and then move to a different State and do the same thing over again?”

“That’s one approach - on something like this it’s best to not overthink, the KISS system is best, Keep it Sweet and Simple,” Sarah said.

“To me the KISS system is whenever I am near a beautiful lady, I want to kiss her. Isn’t that right, Mom?” I said.

“What dear?” she turned towards me.

I leaned into her pressing my lips to hers and giving her a nice wet kiss.

“Behave,” I heard from everyone after that.

We all busted up laughing although I heard a couple of snorts as well.

“Sarah, thinking about it I am beginning to think my first idea is right. Design the Tour, State-By-State, starting and ending in Columbus,” I declared.

“So, tell us all! Where are we starting, Loverboy?” Annie turned and asked, while freshening up her lipstick.

“After starting it in Columbus, then we fly to Hawaii, then off to Alaska. At that point it will be a road trip all across the USA, with the remaining 619 performances in 439 cities, performing five days a week, taking a week off for every 20 weeks worked. By the time we start, both Claire and I will have gotten our drivers licenses, so Annie and Sarah won’t have to do all the driving.”

“We’ll fly direct from Springfield, the new home of all of us, to Hawaii, on to Alaska and back home to start our Tour in Florida, specifically Miami - and we’ll go from there.”

“Next, we start in Ohio, 9 cities, 17 performances. Then we drive straight to Florida, 27 cities, 42 performances - we’ll head West to Alabama; 6 cities and 7 performances - then Louisiana; 5 cities and 9 performances. West to Texas; 38 cities, 62 performances.”

“We’ll schedule our first week off after we’re through Texas, probably somewhere in New Mexico, maybe Santa Fe.”

“After New Mexico, which is 4 cities, and 6 performances – it’ll be Arizona; with 9 cities, 14 performances. We have reached the Golden State of California. Anybody want to guess how many different cities we have in California?” I asked.

Kalista’s hand shot up, causing us all to chuckle.

“55?” she guessed.

“Nope.”

Annie raised her hand but very slowly, and wriggled her fingers rather sexily.

“Yes, Miss Rollins?”

“69, Charles?”

This caused Sarah and I to cough loudly. She also slapped at Annie with an astounded look on her face.

My two dancing girls didn’t understand – this wasn’t the place, or the time.

“How about you, Claire? What’s your guess?” I asked.

“Is it higher of lower than the previous guesses, Lover?” she said exuding an extraordinary amount of sexuality.

Clearing my throat, I said, “Higher - Sweet Rack.”

“The game is afoot,” exclaimed Sarah. “Charles, you haven’t asked me yet, so my guess is 141?”

“As usual, my dear – you are too high?” I responded.

“I haven’t had a drink in three weeks - Ohhh, you meant my guess is too high, sorry Lover,” Sarah said with a kittenish growl.

“Except to dance with and to look at ... you guys are useless,” I said laughing. They all joined in.

“Well, it’s 93 cities, 130 performances – we take a week’s break again, after we’re done in California,” I said.

“Charles,” Sarah said, “Why don’t you break up California, it’s too big. Maybe schedule the southern half, take the break, and go to Nevada maybe, then come back to the northern half of California?”

“Once again, Sarah is right. Splitting up the bigger states into parts makes sense. It’s getting late people; we can take this up again in a couple of days. Thanks everybody,” I said.

In less than five minutes we had our room to ourselves. Claire got up and started to take her clothes off while I just sat on the bed watching her with sleep wafting over me. She saw me and turned around and shook her beautiful butt at me, while dropping her skirt to the floor.

She turned back to me as I yawned but found and started ‘At This Moment.’ She caught the rhythm and was now dancing in front of me and started to slowly unbutton her blouse. Very slowly she climbed up on the bed while straddling me was very seductively taking off her blouse leaving just her bra and panties on as the music was ending. Never before had I been so tired and so turned on by this gorgeous fiancée of mine, as she reached behind her back to take off her bra...

*********

The next morning came too quickly, with my phone alarm going off at eight o’clock in the morning. I felt her arm on my chest as I remembered last night much too clearly. She said, “Turn that alarm off, Charles. Well, what do you say Lover, did you like it or not?”

“Eh, well – I don’t really know Claire?” I said not really sure how explicit she wanted to talk about what we did last night.

“Charles, you fell asleep right when I took off my bra, but how did you like my dancing? Did it turn you on?” She obviously wanted my approval.

“Claire, you have no idea how tight my boxers got last night, but we didn’t do anything, did we?” I said only remembering falling asleep.

“Well, after you fell asleep, I got naked, cut your boxers off and climbed aboard the Charles love muscle.”

“No, you didn’t – Did you!” I said much too disjointedly.

“Charles, check your boxers, they’re the same ones you had on last night ... Sheesh, I’d make sure you were wide-awake before I started anything with my future hubby. We need to get up and start our day. We have both a rehearsal and a performance today,” Claire reminded us both.

We were meeting up at nine am, so we took turns in the shower, changing for rehearsal, taking a backup set of clothes, as we’d started to do lately.

Our gang of five got to the Copenhagen Convention Hall and we went number by number through both set lists. Everything went well, including Michael and Sarah’s singing.

The performance that night was very well received. They enjoyed the 40s music as well as both Katy Perry Numbers, and the two songs from the movie musical, ONCE.

We went out for a late meal afterwards, eating at the hotel restaurant. The next night, things again went quite well. After the performance, we went directly to the airport, to board the Michael’s plane to The Netherlands - first Amsterdam, then Rotterdam. From there we went on to Belgium to full houses in both Antwerp and Ghent.

We had wonderful crowds while in Luxembourg. We turned south and went to Portugal’s capital city of Lisbon, also quite satisfying. Every crowd liked the new musical numbers, each enjoying something specific. Lisbon loved the Glen Hansard – Marketa Irglova songs from the movie ONCE, they were both lots of fun to learn the routines to.

We had three performances in Spain, in three different cities, Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona – all well received, full houses as well. Our next stop was on the southern coast of France, the beautiful city of Marseille.

We landed at the airport and found our way to the Villa Massalia Hotel, with Kalista again having a connecting room to ours. The Ladies had their own space, somewhere on a lower floor. We were performing at the Parc Chanot in the Marseille Convention Centre in front of almost 1,200 people.

My watch said it was eleven am, but it felt like midnight to me for some reason. Before we dropped for a nap, I felt it necessary to work some more on the Honeymoon Tour, so we all gathered in Annie and Sarah’s room, with Laptops a ‘blazing.

“We have sent off to everyone the dates when we’ll be in each city. We have a few other things to work out. First, will our Suburban last through these upcoming two years of driving?” I asked.

Claire said, “Charles, it has the wrong information on the sides of it, and old pictures as well. Why don’t we get a new vehicle with ‘The Honeymoon Tour’ on the sides?”

“That’s a great idea,” I said. “We’ll have time after this tour is over to purchase and label a new vehicle.”

“Purchase - Charles?” Sarah said. “I am positive we can get another vehicle based on your popularity alone, like we did before?”

“Sarah is right, Charles,” Annie added, “As much as it pains me to say.”

Sarah and Annie clinched and kissed each other, while giggling at the same time.

“This sure is a weird family we got here, isn’t it, Charles?” Kalista said.

“Yeah, it is, but we all care for one another so that’s really all that matters isn’t it?” I replied. “And besides, you are all so very beautiful.”

“I love you, X,” Claire said leaning in and starting an open-mouthed kiss.

After a couple of pillows hit me, we separated.

“Music on the Honeymoon Tour - Anybody got any ideas?” I asked.

“Charles, how about we all rest for a while you look out on your feet?” Annie said.

“OK, Claire lets go to bed – Only 21 cities, 39 performances to go, Ladies,” I said as we left the room.

I am always ready to dance after I wake up from a restful sleep and this time was no different. Claire and I got cleaned up and ready to go out. I called Kalista and she wanted to go with us. While we waited for her, I called Sarah and Annie’s room and they wanted to go as well.

Twenty minutes later, we were all dressed up and ready to go somewhere. I asked the concierge for a place to eat and dance.

“Monsieur Charles, We have two fine restaurants and the Chang ‘An Lounge bar in this very Hotel. I would recommend the Terrace Restaurant. Later this evening there will be a, what you call, a DJ at the Chang ‘An,” he answered in a truly remarkable French accent.