Chapter 60 - Time to party! And go home....


FY Entertainment put on a party in the evening: part of the reason was to simply thank everyone who had performed at Everland, part was to celebrate the two bands who had debuted today, and part was to say 'farewell' to the girls from CJDL. Several members of other FY's bands also came along to join in the fun of the evening.

The evening was fun, there was lots of talking and telling stories. Lots of drinking. And a whole load of impromptu singing by pretty much everyone.

Everyone woke up late on the Sunday: it had been decided that nothing would be arranged for the day, allowing everyone to relax, pack up ready for their flight the following morning, and do whatever they fancied doing. In the end, they decided to go as a group for lunch, then they split up and did various things: Jenny, Ben, Dianne, Mike and Jenny's parents went off for a walk (and sit down!) in one of the parks. Linda, Carol, Taeyang and Yun Hee all went off to another of the local markets: Linda and Carol wanted to buy a few 'silly bits' to take back home. Callum, Paige, Ahnjong and Min Jee went off to have a proper look at one of the many palaces. Callum and Paige were having a 'day off' from their filming duties: instead, everyone was encouraged to do a bit of filming on their phones.

The evening was a strangely quiet one: both the CJDL girls and the Jelly Fish girls were a bit sad that they would be leaving. Over the last three weeks, the eight girls, along with the rest of 'the team', had built some close friendships. Yes, they would be able to keep in touch online, but things would probably never be the same for any of them.

With their flight due to leave minutes before 11am on the following morning, they needed to be at the airport well before 8am, as they needed to get their guitars and so on 'booked in' for the flight home... all of which meant they would need to be up stupidly early. And that meant that noone really wanted to be up too late.

Carol took a selfie with everyone in it. 'Our last evening here in Korea... lots of sad faces :-)' she added as she posted it online. 'On a brighter note, we WILL be back home tomorrow!' she added in a second post.

----

With their final packing done, and everyone checking BOTH apartments to make sure they hadn't left something behind, they finally got onto the bus to go to the airport. Brian and Lisa had arrived over half an hour before, as they wanted to be sure the girls (and guys) were all ready to go.

Ahnjong, Min Jee, Taeyang and Yun Hee came along with them all, along with Hon Su. At the airport, Taeyang had messaged online, telling any fans that, if they were already at the airport and they wanted to meet them, then come to the meeting point between check-ins A and B at Terminal 2... but don't bother coming if they weren't nearby, as they wouldn't be staying all that long. By the time they got there, there were already 4 people waiting, and another 6 came along within a few minutes. While the others went and organised checking all their suitcases and guitars in, Paige and Callum stayed with the eight pop-stars, to film them with the fans. With such a small number of fans, they all felt very relaxed.

"Hey, why don't we all just go and sit and have a tea or coffee?" suggested Carol. "Our treat, of course!". Callum let Brian and Lisa know what they were doing, and they all went to one of the several cafe's on the 'land side' of the terminal: as they still had over 3 hours until their flight, they didn't need to rush. Having got themselves drinks, they sat together and chatted, answering questions, and posing for selfies.

Hon Su, Brian, Lisa and Ben joined them about 15 minutes later.

"Everything checked in ok, dad?" asked Callum.

"Yup, no problems at all, just had to take the guitars to the 'oversize' drop-off point."

Having spent about 30 minutes with their fans, Hon Su came over to them. "I'm afraid we need to leave you now, our bus needs to take us back, as he needs to do something else." There were many tearful hugs as the 10 visitors went through to security, and the four members of Jelly Fish departed to catch their bus.

"Thank you ALL for coming to see us off!" said Carol.


(12751)

Chapter 62 - Finally back in England!


They still had a LOT of time before their flight, so sat and talked with several of the other passengers: they were mainly very normal people, and it was nice for the girls to have a bit of that 'normality' again.

So, their flight was at just before 11am, and they would arrive back in London at about 5:30 pm. Unlike their last flight, they would be experiencing a VERY long day. Jenny had spoken with Sarah, their friendly photographer, before they had left the apartment, to confirm their flight, and Sarah had told her to expect a LOT of people to be waiting for them at Heathrow. Jenny had explained that their record company had been in touch with the airport, and 'suitable arrangements' were being made.

The end result of this was that today would be a rather long and tiring day for them, so sleeping on the plane would be essential. Jenny had already said a simple prayer: "Please let me sleep on the flight, I can't pull another all-nighter like I did on the way out!"

Finally, after several cups of tea or coffee, and a lot of window-shopping in the duty-free shops, their flight was called. They all went onto the plane, where, once again, they had very nice seats... and even nicer food. The flight itself was fairly uneventful, and they all DID manage to get some sleep. They arrived in London almost 30 minutes early, at about 5pm. Being in Prestige Class meant that they were first off the plane, along with the First Class Passengers.

"Are you the CJDL party" asked a gentleman dressed in the airline uniform.

"Yes, we are" replied Brian.

"In that case, please follow me: I'm Samuel, and I'm here to make your journey through passport control, baggage collection and customs as easy as possible..."

"Oh, that will be helpful!" said Brian. "Hopefully you'll be able to organise us a large trolley, not only do we have a load of suitcases, there's also some guitars..."

Mike and Ben carried Paige's shoulder bag, leaving her to be able to film the girls on their way through arrivals. Yes, she appreciated that there would be a few places where she wouldn't be able to film, but the rest might be interesting.

For passport control rather than having to join the very long queues that we 'normal' people would have to use, they were taken to the side, where they were seen within minutes. It didn't take long for the staff to confirm who they all were, and they were then lead to collect their bags: once again, being in Prestige class meant that their bags came to a more private area, and were actually waiting for them when they got there: the guitars arrived a few minutes later. After a walk through the 'green channel', they were almost about to go out to the public area.

"Ok," said Brian. "Just had a call from one of the guys that the record company has sent along: you have three main TV crews out there, a load of photographers, and a whole shed-load of fans! Our bus is nearby, it can be with us in five to ten minutes, but I'm guessing you will need to spend time with the TV and with your fans....."

"Hey, thanks for organising everything, dad!" said Jenny.

"Oh, that's why you pay me so much, to be your manager!" he replied with a lovely smile.

Jenny called Sarah, to tell here that they were on the way out, and she confirmed everything that Brian had just said.

----

After several interviews, lots of posing for pictures and a pleasant time chatting with their fans, they were finally on the bus, going back to 'the house'. From there, they would all be having dinner together, but then going back to their own homes.

----

"So, when you get back to your places, you should find everything nice and tidy, and your fridges stocked with essentials.." said Lisa over dinner.

"Don't tell me, all part of the service you provide as our manager" said Jenny smiling, remembering her dad's earlier comment.

"Look, whilst you girls have had a fun three weeks, I know that you've all been working VERY hard. FY have been VERY complimentary about how things went while you were there, which means they made more than enough out of the visit. And we haven't done too badly either! So sorting out someone to go and get your flats ready for you is the least I can do..."

----

Finally, Carol walked through the door of her flat. It was pleasantly tidy, especially the kitchen. And yes, the fridge was full of supplies, including a couple of packs of her favourite beer! She took one, and sat down. The place was quiet: in one way, that was nice, but in another... well, she had enjoyed spending so much time with her band mates.

Tomorrow, she would sleep late, then there was one person that she needed to go and see: she had an important question to ask him.

Ben is waiting for her I'd say ;-) why not him surprising her when she comes home? Maybe one of the other girls had her fingers in a bit

Whoops no I meant Tom

Chapter 64 - Dianne comes over


"Good morning" said Dianne, cheerily. "How you feeling this morning?" she added, giving Carol a big hug.

Carol had called Dianne late the previous evening, they had a quite long chat, and Carol had asked her to come over this morning. The truth was that Carol had quite enjoyed playing the drums yesterday: in their earlier days, they all tried to play all of the instruments, and Carol and Jenny often jumped onto the drums for a song or two. But more recently, really since their music style had changed, and Linda had joined them (albeit initially as a session musician), they tended to stick with their own instruments, and that meant that Dianne now played the drums almost exclusively. So Carol had asked if she fancied coming over today, and give her some drumming tuition.

Dianne had arrived a few minutes ago, and had joined Carol, who was in the kitchen having some breakfast.

"A night's sleep has helped a lot. That plus a nice chat with Callum, and another nice chat with you last night." Dianne went over and made herself a coffee, then joined Carol at the breakfast bar: she had stayed over at the house enough time to know what to do! "By the way, thanks for coming over today. Hey, is your brain back on UK time yet?"

"Getting there. Having a VERY lazy day yesterday helped! So, what do you fancy doing this morning - you said you wanted a refresher on the drums?"

"Yeah, it's been a while since I really played them. Yesterday it was mainly 'anger playing' - Callum reckoned it was close to death metal!"

"Ah, yes, I've played the drums like that too - and I bet you felt better afterwards, didn't you? But yeah, no problems. In return, maybe you can give me a few pointers on the guitar - yeah, I play acoustic a fair bit, but it's been a while since I did anything serious on an electric. Hey, don't suppose you brought your pedals with you, did you, I could do with some tips in using those."

For the next couple of hours, Carol played the acoustic drum kit, with Dianne giving her a few tips, and Dianne played on Carol's guitar. Mid morning, they stopped for a break, and went and sat with Callum.

"You two sounded to be playing well together!" commented Callum.

"Yeah, it's actually nice to be playing the guitar again. I mean, don't get me wrong, I really like playing drums, but.. well you know what I mean. I'm kinda hoping after we finished this cuppa that Carol can walk me though her pedals, I never really used pedals..."

"I just think of the pedals of being some sort of fancy 'tone controls', but controls that *I* can play with, and not the guy running the desk!" said Carol.

"You know, I think that's the reason I prefer my electronic drum kit, I have so much more control of what I sound like."

"And whilst we sound-techs love e-drums coz we don't have to struggle with lots of mics, we just HATE the fact that we can no longer control the relative levels of each of your drums! Although, Dianne, you're pretty good, you don't mess with the levels once we've 'tuned it up'."

"Oh, c'mon Callum, that's no worse than those guitarists who insist on adjusting their volume, so they can be loudest!". All of this was being said in jest... All the girls appreciated that, on stage, they had no REAL idea what the 'front-of-house' sound was like, that's why they placed so much trust in the guy doing the mixing. In their earlier days, Callum had run the desk on many occasions, and he had a very good idea of how the band needed to sound, and he had explained why they shouldn't mess around with their kit if they wanted their sound to continue to sound good.

As they sat there, Carol took a sly look at Dianne's teeth.... specifically her lower ones. She was remembering back to when they all got their teeth checked out in Seoul, about a week or two ago. Yes, her lower front teeth were a little out of alignment, which was a bit of a shame, because not only did her actual teeth look nice, her upper teeth were almost perfect. She spent a moment deciding whether to say anything about it, but decided that maybe now wasn't the time.

"Tell you what, it's been good to see Linda start to write some stuff, hasn't it?" commented Dianne. "You know, she fits in really well with us, has done since the first day she joined us. She seems to be on our wavelength. I know you've been encouraging her, haven't you?"

"Yeah, I have. And I think our trip to Korea has done her the world of good too, she seems to be getting a lot more confident in writing stuff."

"I loved the way she quickly picked up on, and developed, 'Braces Buddies', it's a good silly song!"

They chatted a bit more. "Hey, Dianne, would I be out of line if I called a band meeting this afternoon?" asked Carol.

"Well, it HAS been a while since we had one, and now is probably a good time. I guess it depends what Linda and Jenny are up to. I'm not doing anything this afternoon. Callum, what about you?"

"No, I'm kinda 'chilling out', getting my brain back to UK time... so I'm available."

Carol had a word with Brian and Lisa: Lisa suggested everyone just come over for lunch, and have the meeting afterwards... so she then called both Jenny and Linda, and they were both ok with coming over too.

"Right, lets talk guitar pedals then" suggested Carol.



(13130)

Chapter 65 - band meeting


They had decided to sit around the table in the dining room for the 'meeting': Dianne was already there of course, and Carol had called both Linda and Jenny, pretty much demanding they also needed to be there after lunch. Also at the meeting were Brian and Lisa - the band's managers, also Callum and Paige... so the complete 'CJDL working team'.

"Hi guys, thanks for coming along... it's just that... well, we've not really had a sort of 'review meeting' for ages, and, for a heap of reasons, I thought it was time we sat down and chatted about a few things." In front of Carol was a piece of paper with a list of things she wanted to talk about.

"No problems here..." said Jenny, "it's actually been a while, hasn't it? In fact, Linda, you've never officially joined us at one of our meetings, have you?"

"No, I wasn't actually a band member back then..."

"So, Brian, you want to lead the meeting?" suggested Carol.

"I was thinking that, as you seem to be the most prepared, maybe you could lead things. I'll definitely be taking notes though!"

"Ok, that's fine by me. So, yes, I have a bit of a list, most of them it doesn't matter what order we do them in, except for the first one."

"What's that one then?" asked Callum.

"Linda!" replied Carol.

"Linda? What about Linda?" asked Lisa, worried that Carol had some pent-up issues with Linda.

"So yeah, maybe not put the best way, was it? Linda's contract."

"Linda's contract? You have a problem with it? It's the same one as the rest of you have...." said Brian.

"Ah, no, not her current contract. The previous one. The one that she never actually had...". There were several very confused looking faces around the table. "Look, when we set things up, several years ago, apart from you guys and Callum, who get a percentage off the 'top line', we agreed that we should split the 'bottom line' evenly between the three of us. We all felt that, whilst one person may have come up with the original music or the original words, the final result, the final performance, was actually because we'd ALL worked on things at some point, so a three-way split only seemed fair."

"Ok, so what's the problem? When Linda joined us, we made it into a four-way split, for the same reason." commented Dianne.

"Yeah, except that's NOT what happened..."

"I'm confused!" said Linda, "I'm definitely getting 25%!"

"You are NOW, but not when you joined us. When you joined us, about a year ago now, we paid you a flat salary."

"Yeah, that's right, you paid me what I asked you for."

"It may well have been what you asked us for, but it's NOT what you deserved. Pretty much from the first day you joined us, you were working with us, helping us to develop our new songs, getting them into shape, making them sound a lot better. That's a lot more than a session musician would normally be doing. It's what band members do."

"So, what are you suggesting then?" asked Linda.

"I'd like to cut you in for 25%, backdated to the day you actually joined us. Think of the salary we paid you as an advance on that. But there's no question in my mind that, without all of your input, we wouldn't be where we are today. Ok, so it's gonna cost me 8% for the last year, but I think you deserve it! Every penny of it!"

Linda sat there silently: to be honest, she was a bit stunned. She had never thought her inputs to the band had been THAT important, but clearly Carol thought they were.

"You know, I'd never thought about things like that," said Dianne after a bit of a pause, "but you're absolutely spot on! Very happy to give Linda my 8% too, she's more than earned it! Jenny?"

Jenny was gently nodding her head: like Dianne, it was something she'd never really considered, but Carol was quite right: ever since that first day, Linda had been acting like a proper band member, and not just a session musician. And, to be honest, Linda could probably use that extra money... "Absolutely fine with me!" she said, "although, thank goodness, it's not actually going to cost us 8%, we already paid her some of that... But still worth every penny!"

"I'm not really sure what to say. Thank you! Thank you all very much!" said a very happy Linda. A Linda who suddenly felt so much more an integral part of CJDL.

"Dad, you going to be able to get that sorted out?" asked Jenny.

"I'm sure I can. Legally, we probably can't restropectively rewrite Linda's contract, but we can work out something that gives Linda the same amount. You all gonna be ok with that?"

"Sure. Linda: don't worry, you've earned every penny that you're going to get, and probably a bit more, but 25% is enough!" said Carol with a big smile.

Carol felt really glad that everyone felt the same as her about Linda, it just felt it was the 'right' thing to do.

"So, next on your list?" asked Brian.

"Ok... number 2 on the list is 'fans'. Look, we're all very aware how important our fans are, and we really do try and make an effort to meet them. I mean, over in Korea, we showed Jelly Fish how important they are. But I just think our fans deserve more..."

"What do you mean?" asked Jenny.

"Well, I feel like we just pay them 'lip service', but not a lot more. Especially the fans who've been with us since the start. I mean, do any of us actually KNOW how many fans are signed up to our fan club, and how many of them are active?"

The was a silence.

"Yes, I thought as much. We should KNOW that sort of stuff! I'd love to find out how many long-term fans we have. And then DO something for them."

"Do what, specifically?" asked Linda. As Linda spoke, Callum slipped off quietly.

"I have no idea. Maybe something like when you're a VIP member at a hotel, and you get special 'perks'? Personally signed birthday cards maybe? I bet they'd LOVE that!"

"Like it!!" said Dianne. "I see where you're going with this now....". The girls bounced a few ideas around, until Callum returned a couple of minutes later, holding an old shoe box.

"Oh, wow, I never realised we still actually HAD that!" said Jenny.

"Yeah, I hid it away a bit ago, came across it by chance earlier in the week..." replied Callum.

"Erm, what *IS* it?" asked Linda.

Callum passed the box over to her. "Go on, take a look!". Linda carefully removed the lid: the box contained a load of old papers and stuff in envelopes. Linda took the top one, opened it, and read it. Then looked more carefully at the date.

"This is what, 4 years old?". She passed it over to Jenny, who looked at it, then smiled.

"OMG! It's from Vivian, remember her? I wonder what happened to her?" asked Jenny. Linda took another couple of letters and looked at them, one of them was even older. "You still have your old fan letters?".

"So it seems.... I thought these got lost when we moved here," said Jenny: she was referring to the fact that her mum and dad used to live in a much smaller house, and a couple of years ago, they had decided to use some of the band's money to buy a bigger house, where they could all stay, and work together when needed. The house where they were now. Brian and Lisa owned 40% of the house, each of the three girls owned 20%. And Jenny had thought their fan letters had been lost when they moved.

"I found them just before we went to Korea, I was going through some of the boxes that we put up in the loft, and it was in it...." explained Callum

"These are exactly the people I mean. I'm sure a load of these guys are still our fans, and still supporting us, we should be doing something special for these guys!"

"I have a suggestion," said Paige, "would you like me to speak to Eleanor, our fan club secretary, and get an up to date copy of the database, then I could go through and see if any of these guys are still active. And if not, maybe still get in contact with them, and if they are interested, give them a 'VIP Membership'?"

"Yes, Paige, like your thinking!" said Carol, "I say go for it! Tell you what, it would be interested to work out some simple demographics, like how old they are, and where in the country they live."

"Hey, I have an idea..." said Dianne, "How about we put on some sort of 'VIP, invitation-only' event for a room-full of our longest-serving fans? Spend a load of money of them, treating them. Spend an afternoon or evening with them. And I have no doubt that Jenny could come up with some crazy ideas to make it as much fun for us as it would be for them?"

"It would probably take some time to organise it all - a lot depends on what you'd want to do - but I guess there's no real rush, is there?" asked Callum. They all chatted and brainstormed about what they could do, and Brian took a load of notes.

"Ok," said Brian, "I have a shed load of notes here, and I'm loving your ideas! And I would certainly have no problems with you guy spending some money on it - these sort of crazy things tend to pay us back handsomely. I think there's loads we can talk about offline, can I suggest you park it for now, and move on...."

"Ok by me!" said Linda. "So, what's next on your list, Carol?"

"Spending more money....." replied Carol, with a smile. "Charity.... yes, I know that some of us are involved with some charities - Jenny, you still an ambassador for that wigs charity?"

"Yes, I am, I really ought to offer to do some more for them... what you thinking of specifically?"

"Not sure, I'm just wondering if we, as a group, should put our names to a good charity. It would do THEM a load of good, and I'm sure it wouldn't hurt us in any way."

"Who you thinking of?" asked Lisa.

"No idea, not really had time to think about it." replied Carol, "Probably a charity that works with younger people. Maybe related to music or the arts... A charity that we can make a real difference to. I'm not thinking about us simply giving them money, I'm thinking there must be LOADS of things we could do to help hem raise money.... or awareness... To be honest, I don't think it's something we can do much about today, I think we all need to go away, think about it, come up with ideas. I guess my big question for everyone is: is this something we should be doing?"

"Yes, but we'll need to be VERY careful who we get involved with, don't want to be involved with some dodgy charity!" said Dianne.

"Maybe we can combine this with what we were just talking about, our fan-base?" suggested Linda.

They talked for a bit, but all agreed that it was something they should seriously look at.

"Ok, Carol, I'm actually liking your list," said Jenny. "What's next?"

"Well, there's three things, more related to us, but they all interact.... I've written down: 'us time', 'house time', and 'playing each others instruments'. Let me try and explain... first of all, over the last weeks we've spent a lot of time together, relaxing, not at all stressed, playing and singing, coming up with some basic ideas... it's what we used to do a couple of years ago: just chilling out, throwing ideas around. We wrote some good stuff back then. I'm not saying our current stuff is bad in any way, it's just that we've been writing it in a different way, and I'm just thinking that we four need some 'us time' together. Then the 'house time': we bought this place to spend more time together, but we're not really using it. This morning I spent some time with Dianne, kinda messing around, no real agenda, and that nicely brings in the last thing too: before we 'changed our music' we used to be proud of the fact that we would regularly move around playing different instruments, but we just don't really do that now. For example, Dianne is almost always playing the drums...."

"I'm sure Dianne is happy playing the drums" said Jenny.

"I'd say it's actually a bit more than that!" said Linda.

"What do you mean? I thought she did it... well, because of the four of us, she was best..." replied Carol.

"I think at the beginning of the last tour you would have been right, but I noticed a change in her as the tour progressed. And didn't you see her playing at the Park concert the other week?" asked Linda. She turned to Dianne. "Come on, Dianne, we're talking about you!"

"Well, yes, Linda's actually right." replied Dianne. "Something sort-of clicked on our tour, I think partly its because of our change in music style, and I'm really enjoying playing drums now, so much so that I've been looking at maybe getting a better kit. But if Carol, or anyone else, wants to play them for a song or two, I'm ok with that!"

"Ok, fair enough, but my point is that we seem to be getting a bit 'stuck in our ways'. Look, yesterday, I had good reason to bash the sh*t out of the drumkit - it made me feel a lot better, but it also brought back memories, and I realised that I actually quite enjoyed sometimes playing the drums... in fact, that's why I asked Dianne to come over this morning. Parly to help me, partly to play with me... she was on the guitar, I was on the drums..."

"I will admit that it WAS good this morning." said Dianne. "But is change really that big a thing? Yes, after a big set, I'm usually quite drained... but I don't REALLY mind, and as Carol has discovered, it does relieve any stress you might have had! Ok, let me turn it around: Jenny, you play keyboards and guitar, do you feel 'settled' about that, or do you want to play bass or drums occasionally?"

"It's a difficult question... yes, I do feel settled, but at the same time I can understand where Carol is coming from."

"Look," continued Carol, "we just spent 2 weeks doing some basic dance stuff, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Well, OK, maybe not EVERY minute, but you get my gist. Jenny, what about your Sax, you should do some more with that, have some more lessons! We need to spend more time on US! Not Ben, or Mike, or any other guys. US! The four of us!"

Jenny smiled: a bit over a year ago, Jenny had started to learn to play Sax, an instrument she'd always wanted to be able to play. She'd played a simple Sax piece as a challenge at the College Concert, where they had helped loads of the students. And she had completly enjoyed learning to play it. "Carol, you're right. This last year we've almost become a 'music machine'... turn the handle, out comes music. But yeah, it's not the same, is it? Linda, I know we took you on mainly to play bass and guitar, but I know you can play keyboard: fancy doing that a bit more? Maybe have some lessons?"

"I actually really enjoyed the last few weeks, we were so relaxed, and I felt I could say pretty much anything to you guys. And yeah, I WOULD like to learn to play keyboards a bit better. And Dianne, I think it could do me a lot of good, in so many ways, to learn a bit more about the drums: fancy teaching me?"

"Sounds to me like you girls all need a 'bit more free space' around you, so you can reinvigorate your creativity. Want me to buy you some time from the record company?" suggested Brian.

"Sounds like it could be useful, dad, although I can think of at least one song that we could knock off quickly..."

"You thinking about 'Braces Buddies'?" asked Paige.

Jenny smiled. "No. But yeah, I think we need to see what that sounds like with the full band, but I wonder what the label would think about that? Also, I've been thinking about Nut Rocker: I have a fun idea, which I now suspect Carol might like! Although I'm thinking it would work better on-stage, rather than as a recording. And we shouldn't forget that the record company pretty much got 'Roller Skates' as a freebie bonus. But yeah, if you can get them to back of a bit, I think it would help."

"What's our actual contract?" asked Linda.

"If I remember right, we have one single and one album left, both needed by Christmas, and I don't think that's going be a problem for you. But if you guys feel you need a bit more 'you time' right now, then I can work with them on that."

"Yeah, I think you're right Carol, we've been pushing fairly hard recently, we really do need to have some quality time together, and yeah, without the guys!"


(13258)

Chapter 67 - Dinner


Carol got into the taxi, explaining to the Uber driver where they would be going, but that they needed to collect someone else first, but it was on the way.

To most, going out on an 'official first date" would be 100% pleasure, but for Carol tonight it would be a mix of business and pleasure. Carol sent Sarah a text: "on the way to collect Tom...". Tom was waiting exactly where he said he would be: the taxi stopped, and he got in, giving Carol a kiss. Given that not only was this a first date, but an important 'photo opportunity' too, they were both dressed up quite smartly. Carol had managed to get a table at a very acceptable restaurant, very suitable for a lady like Carol to take her new boyfriend to.

The plan was to let the taxi drop them off a couple of minutes walk from where they needed to be, and that Sarah would be nearby, waiting to take some pictures.

The taxi arrived, and Carol paid the driver, but didn't get out immediately. She looked around, and quickly spotted Sarah. Good, she was alone. "Ok, this is it. Don't worry about Sarah, she's going to get some good pictures, but won't get in our way. Just try and be normal...."

"That's easy for you to say, I'm as nervous as...". Carol leaned over and kissed Tom.

Tom opened the door, and got out: he heard a very quiet 'click'. Then Carol got out, walking around to Tom: several more 'clicks'. They started walking, straight towards Sarah, who managed to get some great pictures. "Give her a nice smile" whispered Carol. Tom smiled, revealing the metal on his teeth. 'click' 'click'.

"Hi Sarah! Get what you need so far? This is Tom, by the way."

"I guessed that bit. Hi Tom, nice to meet you! I'm Sarah." 'click', 'click. "Now, you two go have a great evening together! I'll see you both afterwards!"

Carol and Tom walked the short distance to the restaurant, with Sarah grabbing a couple more pics as they went inside, and a couple more through the window. While Tom and Sarah had their dinner, Sarah went into a cafe not too far away, and sent off some of the pictures and associated copy to several agencies and newspapers: with luck, one or two of them would use her pictures in the morning, and Sarah would be able to pay a few more of the bills. After that, she made a couple of phone calls, to 'tip off' a couple of other photographers she knew.

Carol and Tom had a very pleasant, and undisturbed, dinner together. "Hey, just turn around slowly, and look at the front window...." said Carol to Tom. She had just discretely texted Sarah to let her know they'd be leaving soon, and had spotted a couple of faces, no doubt with cameras, at the window. Earlier on, she'd had a discrete word with the maitre d' of the restaurant, so he wouldn't panic when he saw them.

Tom, like many guys, was used to looking after himself, as well as being protective of any lady he might be with. Tonight, the tables were turned, and he needed to let someone else protect him, and guide him. It felt strange, but he was starting to know Carol enough to realise that she could help protect him, at least from the press.

"Thank you for a lovely evening," said Tom with a smile, "The food was lovely, the company even better!". As Carol saw that lovely smile, which by now had a bit of food stuck in it, she felt very happy. The last couple of days had been very BAD days. Today was a very GOOD day! "I need to go to the gents, sort out my smile...." said Tom.

"Yes, you wouldn't want food in your braces when you see yourself on the front page of the 'Mail', now would you?" joked Carol. "I guess I need to rinse my mouth out too, and put my retainer back in too."

"Most people wouldn't bother..." commented Tom.

"Well, you should know by now I'm not 'most people'. Besides, if both you and Jenny can flaunt your metal smiles in public, why can't I?". While Tom went to the gents to brush his teeth, Carol went to the ladies. She remembered back to her teens, when she had metal brackets like Tom had now: any time she ate something, she needed to at least rinse her mouth, to get rid of anything stuck in her braces. And after every meal, she needed to properly brush and floss her teeth to get rid of all the bits. She also remembered the day she got her braces off: it was SOOO easy to brush her teeth!

Carol looked in the mirror at her teeth, running her tongue over the naughty canine that had slightly moved: it felt like it was back where it should be, meaning the retainer had done its job nicely, but she knew that, if she didn't keep wearing it, the tooth could easily move back again. But she didn't mind: it no longer affected her speech, and she had proven the other week that she could actually sing ok with it in too. Besides, there was still a slight excitement knowing that others would see that she 'had to wear braces'. Then she thought back to Tom's braces, which also gave her a bit of a thrill, especially when she ran her tongue over those lovely metal brackets of his.

Having rinsed her mouth out, she got the retainer box out of her small bag, took her retainers out, and looked at them: made of clear pink plastic, the plastic on the top one stopped a bit before her teeth, and there was a plastic covered spring, pressing on the back of her teeth, matched by the spring at the front. It had more clasps than normal retainers, to make sure it stayed in place whilst slightly moving her wayward canine back into its proper place. She put her top plate into her mouth, and pushed it into place with a quiet 'click', then did the same with the lower one. It still amazed her how quickly she had got used to wearing retainers again.

Several minutes later, Carol took Tom's hand. "You ready? Don't worry, I'll do most of the talking!". They went to the door, which one of the staff opened for them, to be greeted by four photographers, one of them Sarah of course. Carol took Tom out from the restaurant, and to the left, where they stopped.

"Hello everyone! I'm guessing you know who I am, but let me introduce you to my new boyfriend. This is Tom, Tom Sharpe, he's a presenter at Croydon Radio." Carol quickly looked around. "Why don't we go over there, and you can take some proper pictures of us...". They were in a pedestrian area, and went over to where there was a tree and a few bushes, and the two of them stood together in front, giving a nice background. "Hey, is that Chris behind the camera there? Hi Chris!"

"Hello Carol. And Tom, you said?"

"That's right. Go on, Tom, say hello.."

"Hi everyone!" said Tom, a little nervously.

"Ok, cameras ready?" asked Carol, as she leaned over and gave Tom a gentle kiss on his lips, and held the pose for a couple of seconds. "So, if you need any more details, have a word with Sarah. We're going to go get a taxi, but do feel free to follow us at a suitable distance, I'm sure you'd like some pics of us getting onto the taxi! By the way, same rules apply for Tom as for Ben and Mike: he has a private life, and he doesn't want to be disturbed if I'm not with him. Understood?".

Carol also knew that Sarah would have had a discrete word with them too, so hopefully word would quickly get around.

----

"I really don't know how you did that," said Tom as they were being driven home. "You had them eating out of the palms of your hands!"

"Yeah, we have a pretty good symbiosis with them. We always try to take a few extra moments to be nice to them and give them what they need, and they respect us in return. They know that Sarah will have got some pictures earlier on, but they understand that without her, they wouldn't have even been there tonight. So, we all win." Carol paused for a moment. "Were you ok with all that?"

"Yes, it was surprisingly pleasant. Thank you, I now understand what you said earlier about 'protecting' me."

"Ok, so that was part one...."

"Part one?"

"Yeah, the press. Part two is next: I need to do some social media now. Need to melt the internet. It's usually Jenny that does that!" Carol took her phone in her hand. "Now, give me a nice sexy smile....". <click>.

"I have a new boyfriend, his name is Tom, he's a presenter on Croydon Radio. Please be nice to him!" said her first post.