Prologue: The Concert

The energy in the arena was palpable. People were in high spirits, and kept checking their watches. The girls knew that Bon Jovi was going to go on somewhere around 8:45, and it was 7:15 now. Gretchen was surely taking the stage soon, right? No sooner did they wonder that than the house lights went down.

With a "What's up, you ready to party, ya’ll?" the night was truly under way. Gretchen sang a good ten songs, starting with "Here for the Party" and ending with "Redneck Woman". When Gretchen asked for a big "Hell, yeah", the Harem complied happily. They still couldn't believe they had all met up like they had planned, and were now at the show.

The house lights came up, and the three started chattering immediately. They watched as the "roadies" cleared the stage of Gretchen's things and brought out the boys'. All of them watched the two techs who were carrying Richie's guitar rack across the stage and down the side stairs. Hath and Steph looked at Lucy, who had a look of longing on her face that they could feel. They knew she longed to have Richie play her like those guitars, and also had a sneaking suspicion she'd get her wish.

Finally, a little past 9, the lights went down. The crowd screamed deafeningly loud. One by one, starting with the 'satellite' players, the band took the stage. Kurt, Renz, and Bobby took their places. The stage was set up like a bar. The crowd cheered when Tico and David came out, waving to everyone and smiling. The audience screamed with delight when Richie took the stage, and Lucy was holding onto Hath's hand so tight, that the Goddess thought her bones might be bruised. Then, a light behind a white door shone brightly. Jon's silhouette showed through, and the crowd went wild; absolutely, unequivocally wild. He came through the door, and the noise level surged to eardrum-shattering proportions. They launched into Lost Highway, and the show was on.

* * * *

Now that they were in the swing of things, Richie was on autopilot. He scanned the crowd for Lucy’s face.

He remembered her words to him earlier, “close enough to see you” -- Hell that could mean anything. He slowly looked at the ladies in the first couple of rows in the Richie Pit, making them all happy. Then he saw her. Jesus, she still took his breath away. She was there with two other women who had to be Queenie and GSA.

He winked in their direction and went over to Jon to sing into his mic with him, like he often did. When the song was done, he said, off-mic, “Bro, they’re here,” and pointed to where the three women stood. The pair strutted to the edge of the stage, making all the ladies go crazy; all of them except the three women in black, who just smiled smugly.

Jon grinned widely, and hunkered down in front of them. He said, “Well, well, well. What do we have here?” The Harem looked at each other. Although it was unrehearsed, the three women ripped their jackets open to show the fronts of their t-shirts at exactly the same time. Jon and Richie burst out laughing, and the women around the trio frowned. They weren't too happy that these three women were getting all the attention. One of the on-stage camera men got the Harem in his sights, and they found themselves up on the big screen. David and Tico joined the laughter, once they saw the t-shirts.

David called out, “Hello Harem!” which had the three girls laughing. Hathor noted that he was wearing another of those God-awful stage shirts.

Richie looked back at him. “Hey, that’s my line, NOEL!" He turned back to the girls, and saw them doubled over with laughter. That was another board reference. David had logged onto the board as "Noel", a woman who was hell bent on trying to get Kidd's attention, to no avail. All the girls were trying to warn "her" off, and Hathor had sparred with "her" a bit trading insults, barbs and innuendos back and forth. Richie had commented to Dave afterwards that Hathor was ALMOST a match for Dave's own brand of smart-ass. Dave was looking forward to talking to her, to see if she did as well face to face as she did cloaked in the 'anonymity' of online.

Richie turned his full attention back to his Harem, and leaned forward to see them better. He liked what he saw. They were all beautiful. "So, which of you is which?” He winked at Lucy, who blushed.

The girls turned around, sweeping their hair away from their backs so their names were visible. Nobody but them had any clue what was going on, and it was a heady feeling to have an in-joke with the band. All three ladies blew kisses to Richie and waved to the others.

Jon asked them, “Are you ready for more?” to which, of course, the whole crowd screamed. They launched into “I Love This Town”, and Jon changed a line just for them.

...I got some good friends here, I mighta broke a heart or two.
It’s getting loud over there, the Harem must have had a few…

The three women just looped their arms around each other and smiled.

It was Lucy that noticed Jon turn to the fan pit on Richie's side of the stage. He seemed to be sharing a meaningful, lingering look with someone, then he winked and flashed that million mega watt smile. Lucy immediately scanned the faces of the women in the pit, trying to figure out who he was looking at, but she got distracted when the opening notes of Bed of Roses floated through the air.

Next to her, Hathor started yelling at the scream of Richie's guitar, and with their arms linked the three women began to sway from side to side to the beat of the song. They were all singing along at the top of their lungs and were getting strange looks from the people around them, but they didn't care. This was their night to get a little rowdy. As Gretchen sang earlier..."They were here for the party!"

With their eyes on Richie, they didn't even notice when Jon moved to the fan pit. At least not until Richie launched into his solo and Jon pulled a hesitant woman from the group to dance with. She was shaking her head 'no' at Jon, even as he pulled her toward center stage, not willing to let go of her hand.

"Do you believe she's telling him no?" the blonde with the bad bottle job and too tight mini-skirt behind the trio yelled. "Come take my hand, Jonny boy, I won't tell you no," she screamed right in Stephanie's ear.

Stephanie was glancing over her shoulder at the way too loud (in more ways than one) woman, when Hathor's elbow caught her in the side. She looked up to see Hathor jerking her head toward the stage. "I think that's Sam," she yelled. Lucy just nodded in agreement. Stephanie's eyes flew to the stage. She noticed the familiar way Jon held the woman in his arms, like they had danced before – if not vertically, most definitely horizontally. The woman on stage was certainly no 'skinny Minnie', and Stephanie recalled the conversation she'd had in PM's with Sam on the football forum. She smiled at her two new friends and nodded in agreement. That had to be her! The old saying goes...'The proof is in the pudding.' But for the trio looking on, the proof was in the kiss at the end of the dance. Jon's lips lingered just a little too long on the woman's, and his hands lovingly cupped her ass as he pulled her against him briefly before turning her loose. Yep, that better be Sam, or all three of them were telling!

All too soon, the band did their two-song finale, and the show was over. As the band took their bows, Jon caught Sam's eye, and gave her a look that set the Harem to sighing out loud.

"He's mine, Harem," Sam said playfully. "You can look, but you can't touch."

Since he had spotted them, Richie had been playing to his Harem all night. Throwing his guitar picks, winking and smiling. By the end of the show, the girls all had their own souvenirs. Goddess caught the last guitar pick Richie threw, Queenie had one of Tico’s drum sticks and Sam had the full on Jovi experience. Lucy had the seducing looks given to her from the hottest guitarist on the face of God’s green earth.

Richie was pointing at Lucy, who had such a grin on her face, it was a wonder her cheeks weren't killing her. Another couple of minutes, and the boys were gone. The show was over.

They sat and waited for the crowd to thin out before they headed backstage to go to the after party. Most of the crowd was gone and Queenie and Hathor were anxious to finally meet the Harem leader. Although Lucy had already met him, she was definitely hoping this night would end with just the two of them in his hotel room.

“Can you frickin’ believe it?” Hathor started, “he changed a line in the song for us!” Lucy and I agreed it was unbelievable.

“How about you and Jon” Lucy pointed at Sam, “you two were just too cute up there together during Bed of Roses.”

Sam laughed, “just don’t let Jon hear you call us cute. He hates that word!”

“And Dave” Stephanie said, “I forgot he was Noel. He’s as big a smart ass as you are Hathor.”

We shared a bout of laughter and then decided, now that the crowd was gone, that it was time for the Harem to meet their Master.

Let the after-party begin.