Grumpalicious by Mia Faye

Chapter 22

CASH

“Why can’t I just wear my regular clothes? And my real hair? This is ridiculous, Cash, seriously, it’s all too much.” She had been complaining or rather begging for her freedom from false eyelashes, nails, and hair extensions for the last hour.

“I promise, we will just hang out this weekend. I have nothing planned, but while you’re working, especially doing publicity stuff, you are going to have to look your best, which means a little glamour. Trust me all the artists do it.”

“No, they don’t,” Genni grumbled as she was whisked away from me for a wardrobe fitting, more makeup, and another hair do before being the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, a gig I seriously couldn’t believe we scored.

The musical guests that had been slated to go on were stuck in Estonia where the lead singer was battling pneumonia. So, the producers of the show were able to convince Taylor to be the musical guest for that week and she insisted the Genni join her, and they were going to sing Angel and another of Genni’s songs with Taylor singing harmonies. She and Taylor had been working on the songs for a week while rehearsing at SNL. I barely saw Genni and when she came home, she flopped right into bed.

I had convinced her to stay with me while she was working so hard so that I could help her. I told her I had a staff of people to make breakfast, clean up, and do all the mundane stuff she didn’t have time to do. They all wore nametags and to appease her I called each of them by name. That did actually seem to make them want to work harder and they loved Genni so. Everything they did for her was with so much care and devotion. It was like dating Jesus.

We hadn’t had sex since the night after I’d taken her virginity and she was fairly distant. I had been gruff with her like I was with most of the women I’d dated in the past and a lot of the magic we had shared the night before was lost. Neither of us was in the best place, so I cleared our calendars for the weekend, and I was going to give her the most romantic two days at my home, being waited on and lavished.

She was doing a photo shoot with the SNL producers for their promo ads and after that, she had another shoot with Cosmopolitan which was planning on running a short article on Taylor and Genni, so both of them had to be there. The artistic director decided to go with glam. Genni would have to endure the glamming. When she walked out of the dressing room at the SNL studio, she was stunning, but if I was being honest, she didn’t look at all like the fresh-faced girl I had instantly fallen in love with. She resembled a Kardashian from the reality series about an uber-rich and glamorous group of sisters.

She barely had time to sip water before she was paraded off to the studio to rehearse and take pictures then pose for a few styled shots. After SNL it was a smoothie in the car and the next photo studio. At the last minute, the stylist decided she wanted to go a different direction with Genni’s look and whisked her off to a boutique down the street where Genni was recognized and attacked by ravenous fans. Most just wanted to know what was going on as they’d heard the song on YouTube but were grappling with her association with Taylor Rayne since most of the press about them had yet to be released. All of the attention and styling was wearing Genni down. She didn’t look happy and at one point she was literally sobbing. One of the stylists had accidentally stabbed her head with a needle while sewing in her hair extensions and that was the pin prick that broke the damn. As soon as the day was over and she had said goodbye to Taylor, she finally broke down and cried on the whole ride home.

I asked her several times what was wrong, but all she did was cry. When we got back to my home she dressed in a pair of sleep pants and a tank top that beautifully accentuated her breasts. She climbed into my bed and turned to her side like she had the last couple of nights. On the previous nights when both of us had to wake up at the crack of dawn, I let her sleep, but she didn’t have anywhere to be the next day. We would be allowed to sleep in, have brunch at home, and maybe lounge in the jacuzzi, watch a movie, or do something mundane. She was terribly stressed, and I wanted to do what I could to relieve some of that pressure. I remember my first years in the music business; they were very rough. Perhaps she’d avoid the drugs and darkness that followed me, but she was going to get a rude awakening whether she deserved one or not. I wanted to soften the blow any way I could. I realized too I had been a large part of her problem and I had promised at the beginning that I’d be better.

I slid over to her side of the bed and caressed her shoulder. “Did it all just get to be too much today?” I asked her softly.

She sniffled a little but didn’t say anything. It wasn’t like she was trying to be rude, I thought perhaps she just didn’t have the ability to form the words she needed to say. Maybe she was holding a Tsunami back, I had no idea, so I just gently rubbed her shoulder as she found her safe place. Since she didn’t mind the shoulder rub, I let my hands trail down into her shirt as I fondled her breast. She didn’t stop me but wasn’t really sparking to my affections either. After a considerable amount of time, she turned to me.

“I don’t know if I am cut out for this,” she said in a soft tone. “I barely made it through today.”

“You are running at a fever pitch right now. It’s just because you have something the world wants and they are clamoring for you. We’ve upped the ante by making you and me a curiosity. People are wondering what came first, Cash or the career? We aren’t rushing to tell them, so they are going to want to investigate you as much as they can. People are strange. When they see something they want so ravenously they’ll compromise their own moral codes to get it. You, at the moment, are the shiny new toy they’d run each other over in the streets to get their hands on. The frenzy may die down one day, but perhaps it will always be just a little insane, so you’ll need to find sanctuary, and a friend and I, my dear, can be both.” And I meant it, I wanted to be more than just a lover.

I wasn’t sure what more I was able to be, but seeing her so distraught, I knew that making her feel better and bringing her peace was high on my list that night. I usually didn’t care about the women I dated and that’s when it hit me, I really did love Genni. I may not have been true love or everlasting love, but it was love.

“Cash I don’t see how you can be, because you are part of the problem.” She looked down at my hands as she said this, and I stopped touching her breast.

“I know.” Guilt flooded my body.

“You’ve been so cold and distant,” she started. “We rush from one place to the next, I tell you I hate the fake lashes and hair and all the bullshit I have to do to look like someone you’ve fucked a million times. I saw the dailies of the SNL show and I look just like Allie, but with red hair. I’m like some robot-mannequin who is so fake I’d float if someone threw me in the ocean. Next, you’ll be wanting me to get a boob job, have a rib removed, and get my ass and lips injected. I can’t do this, it's not me. I’ve been telling you that every single day and still you just push me off to this stylist or that makeup artist. When that hairdresser slammed the pin in my head, that was the last straw. This isn’t what I want, Cayden and if this is who you want me to be if this plastic piece of trash is what you think sells records, then I’m out. I can go back to Houston and sing Honky Tonk. I don’t care. I was starting to like you, despite all that I have read about you. You had shown me a kinder, more vulnerable side of yourself, but I just...I can’t be what you are trying to make me. I’m sorry.” And there were the tears again.

I think the breakdown wasn’t just about the fake stuff she had to wear. Her hopes and dreams may have been completely shattered when she discovered she didn’t really want them now that she knew what it all entailed. Perhaps, I was the because of her distress. I wouldn’t know unless we talked it out.

“Okay. I admit we’ve gotten carried away. Sometimes this is all about timing and striking when the iron is hot, but there is a human being attached to the freight train you are now speeding on, so I get it. We’re going nowhere this weekend. We’ll just stay in, eat, make love, shower, have more sex, maybe eat again.” I was trying to be inspiring.

“Or I’ll get packed up and go home for a while so I can sort myself out again.” She wasn’t truly suggesting that.

“No, you said you’d give me six months.” Suddenly, I thought I might really be losing her.

“Cash, I don’t want to do this anymore.” She was being serious.

“What is the worst part?”

“Everything is fake, including you. Nothing in my life feels real right now.”

“Okay, let’s start there then. If things felt more real would you consider staying for a while longer?”

“As long as I’m not forced to wear any more wigs or eyelashes, I’d consider staying for a while longer...and you. I want to know you, not some asshole on a reality television show.”

“Got it. Less asshole, more me. Sadly, I’m an asshole. I can’t change everything about me, but I am working on being better for you. I hope you’ve noticed.”

She took a deep sigh. “I’m just a little lost right now.”

“Well, will you let me find you?” I kissed the shoulder I had caressed earlier.

“You mean have sex?” She didn’t seem enthused.

“Pretty much. You don’t like having sex with me?” I wasn’t insecure, but I needed to dig into the heart of the matter.

“I do. You feel really good, but sex feels good right? I could be anybody.

Could she just be anyone? Was sex something I just enjoyed regardless of who it was? No. Genni brought a whole new level of intimacy to my life.

“I like having sex with you, Genevieve, you’re special and mean more to me than I’d care to admit. I’m a little scared of you actually because you’ll be my undoing….” I kissed her cheek and warmed thinking that I was truly opening up to her.

“I hope I am because the you inside of you is worth fighting for. And yes, sex will make me feel better...I think.”

She turned herself completely to me and laid there, beautiful, and vulnerable. Her skin was flawless and perfect, without a single mark on it. Her lips had that pouty roundness that had you wanting to kiss them all day long and her long, lean legs gripped my hips like a vice when I thrust, holding us together. I loved fucking her, she was my favorite flavor of woman. I leaned in and kissed her warm neck which tingled my cock with flashes of desire as I worked my way down to her collar bone. Her hand gently touched the side of my body and a ripple of electricity flashed through me.

“Let’s get you out of this,” I said in the deep throes of lust.

She willingly obliged as she wiggled out of her tank top. Unceremoniously I tossed it to the floor and dove for her sleep pants, whisking them away as well, leaving her perfectly naked. She was comfortable with her body and so she laid there waiting for me to make the next move. She wasn’t at the initiation comfort level of our relationship and somehow at that moment, I wanted it. My cock was hard already, of course, but I felt like a little curiosity on her part might have been fun. So, I kissed each of her tits and laid back with my dick spiking the air.

She popped up onto her elbows and looked at me. “Um, are we doing this or…?” She was the slightest bit hesitant.

“Oh, we are doing this, I just thought maybe you might give my very perky dick here a little tongue bath before we get started and I’ll return the favor.” I kept it all light and fun. “See I really love fellatio. I almost like it as much as I do fuck so would you be so kind as to start with a little bit of cock sucking?”

“Is this like a menu thing? Are you placing an order?” She was sort of getting into it.

“Kind of. Anything you like in particular?” Again, I kept my voice bouncy and fun.

“Not really, just you know, love...I guess.”

“Right, I like love too, but if we’re going to be doing this then maybe we should talk about what feels good.” Suddenly I was a sex therapist. “Oh, and contraception. We really need to get you on the pill.”

“What are we going to do about tonight?” The poor woman looked so panicked.

“Let me take care of tonight, but tomorrow we should swing by the doctor and get you some birth control.”

“God forbid we have a baby,” she grumbled under her breath.

“Right now, when your career is just taking off, this is as much for you as it is me. Let’s get you launched before we start worrying about little Genni’s running around.”

“You’re right, it wouldn’t be wise to have an unwanted baby now.” She looked down and the mood darkened a little.