Seventeen

Allegra stepped from the room at the back of the plane to find five sets of eyes looking at her expectantly.  Nice.  She hadn’t planned on having to explain this little meeting.

Tico’s hand came to rest in the small of her back, and he said in a voice loud enough for them all to hear, “Thanks for talking to me about the Foundation, querida. I think your ideas will be really useful.”  He bussed her cheek and stepped around to resume his original seat near the front of the plane.

She flushed slightly, and offered him a smile of appreciation.  “I hope so.”

Jon beckoned to her, but she scowled and shook her head.  Instead, she brushed past Richie taking the seat next to David.  Bumping his shoulder with hers, she asked, “So can we finally get this show on the road?  I’ve been dying to see what I’m missing.”

“But of course, darling.  And I’ve been dying to show you that I’m not just another pretty face...  Or just a brilliant pianist…  Or just a humble man.”

“Or just a pathological liar,” Richie interjected.

David pulled himself upright in a posture of mock offense and pointed his finger at Richie.  “THAT, sir, is an insult!”

“And THAT, sir, proves you’re smarter than I thought you were!” Richie’s finger came just short of reaching David’s nose, and he couldn’t keep the merriment from his eyes.    

“Can you two stop bantering long enough for David to get me through this?”  Geez, they were like two little kids with extensive vocabularies!

“What is it you’re doing?” Richie asked, slouching back into a comfortable position.

“Our darling Legs here asked me for some TAPES of our music.”  He gave Richie a knowing look, to which Richie raised his eyebrows in shock. 

“I KNOW!  Can you believe it?  Simply tragic!  So, of course I’ve made it my mission to bring her musical education into the twenty-first century.  Now, if you will excuse us.”  He made a shooing motion with his hands.

Richie snorted, making no move to leave.  “I think I’d better stay and make sure you don’t screw it up.”

“Riiiight! Like you’d know an mp3 from an mp4 or mpeg, you technological Tarzan.”

Allegra chuckled in amusement.  It was clear that they didn’t mean half of what they were saying, and didn’t take offense to the other half.  “Richie, nothing personal, but I think we’ll probably get further if the two of you aren’t within insult range of each other.  But you don’t have to leave.  David and I can go back to the other part of the plane.”

“Nah, it’s all good, Sunshine.  I’ll just go see what Jon is obsessing about today.”  He unfolded his long legs and stepped out of the seating area, patting her shoulder as he passed.

“Finally I have you all alone, my delicious Legs.”  David said, putting an arm around her shoulders and squeezing. “Admit it baby.  You want me.”

Allegra threw her head back and laughed, as Tico passed by and thwapped David in the back of the head.  “Show some respect Lemma.  She’s family!”

David quickly detached himself.  “Ow Teek!  What the hell was that for?  Legs knows I’m just kidding!”

“You heard me,” was all the clarification Tico provided before continuing through the cabin.

David dropped his voice and asked Allegra, “So what were you really talking about in the back?”

She leaned in close and whispered, “I was asking him for some advice on how to steal you away from Lexi.”

“Baby, all you had to do was ask!”  He waggled his eyebrows.

“There’s just no winning with you is there Joker?”

“Nope!  I can roll with the punches.  But, as entertaining this is, we have digressed.”  He reached under his seat and brought out a laptop case, removing the computer and flipping it open.

“I set up a profile on my laptop for you to sync the iPod with.”  He grinned at her.  “I found a picture of a lovely set of legs for your icon.  You have all of the band’s studio albums, but I didn’t do the live album or greatest hits.  You’ve also got our solo albums.  To clarify, that means solo albums from Jon, Richie and myself.  Teek paints, he doesn’t do solo work.”

Allegra was perplexed.  She didn’t know which statement to respond to first.  “Sink?” 

“Yeah.  Synchronize.”

“Synchronize what?”

Pulling a small rectangular device out of the laptop case, he held it up as a visual aid.  “Your iPod.” 

“My eye pod?”  she asked pointing to her eye.

He frowned as the reality of the situation dawned on him.  “Legs, do you know ANYTHING about computers or electronics?”

“Nope, not a thing,” she admitted without shame.

“Seriously??”  David ran his hand over his face.   “My God, has Jon had you locked in a closet all of your life? “

“I’ve just never had a need for one.  Dave, this seems like a lot of work to listen to a few songs.  I’ll admit that I’d like to learn the computer stuff, but if you don’t have the time to do this, I completely understand.  You had no idea what you were getting yourself into when you offered.”

“Let’s just take this one step at a time, shall we?  Give me that archaic bit of electronics you call a cell phone,”  he ordered.  “The first thing you’re going to have to do is get a real phone.  This little flippy monochromatic screen is only one step above a clay tablet and stylus…”

Over the next hour, David was extremely patient in teaching her how to use the iPod and giving a brief overview of the computer.  He was a remarkable teacher, and she quickly mastered the tasks under his capable guidance. 

At the end of the lesson, she studied his face with new respect and admiration. It was a totally unexpected side to the Joker, and she told him as much. 

“Sweetheart, just because I like to laugh and have fun doesn’t mean I’m an idiot.  I can be a mature, respectable adult – most days I just choose not to.  Why should I when Jon’s fuddy-duddy enough for all of us?”

“I guess you have a point there,” she agreed with a chuckle.  “David, thank you so very much for letting me take up your time.  I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this.”

He paused uncertainly before saying, “You know, Legs, you’re a quick learner, but we’ve barely scratched the surface here.  If you have any interest in it, we can hook up once in a while for more lessons.”  David appeared a little embarrassed.  “I mean, everybody could stand to be a little more computer savvy.”

A grin split her face.  She really did want to know more, but wouldn’t have imposed herself on him any further.  “If you mean it, then yes I would love to!  My mind is spinning right now, but I think this is something I could really learn to like.”

“Cool.  Consider the Jovi Jet your mobile classroom, then.”

Allegra didn’t acknowledge the statement, since her traveling status with them was still up in the air.  Instead, she focused on something Tico had told her.  “Now, you guys had an album called These Days?  I have that on here, right?”  She pointed to the iPod.

“Yep!”

Not wanting to come right out and ask her next question, she felt her way around a bit.  “Who writes the songs on the albums?  Does Jon do it all?”

“He has a hand in all of the songs, but not too many are solely his composition.  It’s usually him and Richie, sometimes with another collaborator.”

“Richie?  Really?”

David laughed at the surprise on her face.  “Pricelesss!  I’m guessing that if you don’t know Richie co-writes most of the songs, then you don’t know they were inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame back in June?”

Allegra was stunned.  Jon had always just been Jon.  She knew he’d been successful in his field, but evidently didn’t have a clue as to just how successful. 

“I remember that Jon got some kind of award last year, but we’re sort of used to that in the family by now.  I guess I was too busy to pay attention that it was a Hall of Fame award.  Wow.”  She felt about two inches tall for not knowing.  What other prestigious awards had he received without her realizing the significance of it?

She shook her head.  “So can I tell who wrote which songs on this thing?” 

After showing her how to find the information, David took a moment to study her.  He could tell not knowing about the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame had bothered her. 

“Legs, how about next time I teach you how to look up stuff on the internet?  There’s all kinds of information out there, if you’re inclined to look for it.  That way, if you ever have a question, you could just type in something like, oh let’s say, ‘Jon Bon Jovi awards’.  Or something like that.”  He shrugged.

Allegra was touched at his perceptiveness, and smiled gratefully. Kissing him on the cheek, she looked into his eyes and asked, “Does Lexi have any idea of how lucky she is?  You’re a sweetheart David Bryan.”

David didn’t have a chance to do more than roll his eyes.

“How the hell did you brainwash my cousin, Joker?”  Jon appeared with a scowl, sliding into the seat across from Allegra.  Richie was right behind him and claimed the seat next to him.

Under other circumstances, David would’ve made a theatrical production of Jon’s comments, but he had Allegra’s recent tutoring fresh on his mind.  “Just the man I wanted to see!  Are you ever going to give this woman a paycheck?  Have you SEEN the cell phone she uses?”  He held it up for Jon’s inspection.  “It looks like Zippo lighter, but doesn’t have as many useful functions.”

“My phone works just fine,” she said, snatching it from his hand.

Jon’s attention didn’t veer past the initial question.  “You haven’t gotten paid?  You should have gotten both an advance and a partial week’s pay on Friday.  Are we direct depositing your money for you?”

She didn’t get a chance to answer before David jumped in.  “See Legs, now you can afford a computer.  Keep the iPod, but you’re going to want your own laptop – and a real phone!”

“Dave, shut up.  The computer interests me more than I thought it would, but it doesn’t change my mind about getting one.  And I told you nothing is wrong with my phone.”

“Both of you be quiet for a minute!”  Jon was peeved that they were ignoring him.  “Allegra, you didn’t answer my question.  Did you get paid or not?”

“No, but I only worked a couple of days, so I wasn’t sure if I would.”

“Of course I’m going to pay you for the work you did!”  He pulled out his phone and started punching at the touch screen, looking less than thrilled.  Fortunately for them, whomever he was trying to contact wasn’t available, because he barked into the phone, “It’s Jon.  Call me as soon as you get this and be prepared to tell me why Allegra Castanelli didn’t get paid on Friday as I requested.” 

He shoved the phone back in his pocket and directed his attention back to Allegra.  “Now, what’s this about your phone and a computer?  Do you not have the money to get what you need?”

“That’s the point – I don’t NEED it.” 

He again asked the question she’d dodged.  “Do you have the money to get a computer?”

“What difference does it make?  I’m not going to get one.”  She didn’t want to outright lie to him, but until the paycheck situation was resolved, she didn’t have the money.  “Not right now anyway.”

“What about a new phone?”  He gestured toward the one in her hand.  “Because, baby, that one is a piece of junk.  I don’t want to have to worry about being able to keep in contact with you.”

Neither did she, but it could wait a little while longer.  “If something goes wrong with this one, I’ll get a new one. Until then it works fine.”

Jon cradled his forehead in his hand, rubbing his temples.  “Jesus, you’re stubborn!  Why can’t anything be easy?”

Looking at Jon with incredulity, David’s eyes darted to Richie’s with a ‘can you believe this?” look, before spouting off with, “Yes, hello? I don’t believe you’ve met, so let me introduce you.  Pot, this is Kettle.  Kettle… Pot.  Oh, and by the way? You’re both black!”

Richie grinned at the commentary, biting his lip to keep from laughing out loud, but the other two simply ignored it.

Jon sighed and dropped his head back against the seat, moving his fingers to lace together across his stomach.  It wouldn’t hurt him to give in this time, considering the day’s events.  Besides, she would have a new iPhone phone by the end of the day, courtesy of Bon Jovi Management.  He smirked to himself and said, “Fine.  I’ll check on your money.  Spend it, don’t spend it.  Do what you want.”

David and Richie both stared in amazement.  They couldn’t believe Jon had backed down.  Could Allegra possibly be more stubborn than their fearless leader?

She smiled sweetly.  “Thank you.”