032

"Wow, you do like to keep me busy these days...", said John ironically but calmly as he threw the magazine on top of Jon's coffee table after closing the door. Feeling that the subject needed to be trested with kid's gloves, he'd ask for a one-on-one meeting as soon as Jon was back from his trip. "Is there something I need to know?", he asked rethorically, evidencing in his tone that he already knew the answer. Jon took the magazine in his hand and looked at the blurry picture of himself hugging a woman on the beach. That was it, the moment had come to tell John the truth, but Jon secretly cursed the circumstances under which his friend had found out. An electricity current shocked him, but immediately receded; if that calmness was going to be John's reaction to finding out Jon was seeing his sister, there were no reasons to worry. 

"This is not how-...", Jon started with a soft chuckle, but was abruptly interrupted by John's ironical laughter. John, however, kept his trademark cool calm as he began talking. 

"It's not a question of how, it's a question of when, and in my opinion timing couldn't be worse, it's gonna take focus off your record and you know that. The divorce is already public knowledge now and...oh yeah...there's that interview you did in London. I saw it on Tuesday...what did you say?", he paused dramatically for a second and Jon lifted his head up for a moment with a sheepish curl in his eyebrows. "Oh, yeah, that you'd 'fallen' during your marriage"' he quoted in the air. "What the fuck?", he spurted out as Jon lowered his eyes to the pictures. 

Funnily enough, John had not once brought his sister's name to the conversation or asked for the identity of the woman, and it suddenly dawned on the handsome rockstar: the photographs had been taken from afar, probably from one of the few boats they saw past the shore, Jon's face was clearly recognizable over the girl's shoulder, but June was always either giving her back to the camera or hiding behind Jon's broad shoulders. Jon kept his mouth shut as he surfed the vertiginous feeling: John had obviously no clue that the woman in the pictures was his own sister. 

"Look, we don't have time now to further discuss this", John said after glancing at his watch, then he took a deep breath and continued. "I'm gonna try to keep them off the subject during the press con, but I can't guarantee it's not gonna come out, people are going berzerk about this", he explained, gesturing with his hands, and Jon let out a sigh of relief that passed unnoticed to his friend, then he nodded acknowledgingly. "You're right, you're right", he said almost in a rush to end the subject. "I'll handle it if it comes out. You've done your part".

"I'll call the rest of the team, now, they still want to go through everything with you once more", John's tone went back to normal as he approached the door.

"Send them in", Jon sighed defeatedly, closing the magazine and throwing in in the trashbin. It was time to turn proffessional mode on. 

However, when John wrapped his fingers around the door knob, he stopped and looked back at his boss, now unable to prevent a slight smirk of amusement. "Who is her...by the way?"

Jon's blood froze for a second, but immediately e smiled sweetly and secretly, letting John get a glimpse of the extent of his affection.

"Do I know-", John started, but there was a knock on the door and he opened it right away. He didn't have time to see Jon's wide eyed expression before his assistant stormed into the room pulling a wheeled rack of clothes behind her. He was immediately caught up in the bustling environment of the backstage and the question dissolved somewhere in the back of his mind.

Little did both know that at the same time, Diane was inquiring June about her romantic escapade, but to no avail, since June seemed decided to keep more than just the details to herself. In the end Diane gave up, but not without closing her case with a sentence that sent a shiver down June's spine.

"You're in love with that man, June. You just don't know it yet"

...

"You once said, and I quote, 'The only thing I love more than my wife is my money, and I'm not about to lose it to her and her lawyers'", asked the young, short journalist reading from his notebook with a rather defiant tone. "News broke that you're getting a divorce, what made you change your mind?". Jon chuckled sarcastically and noticed June's flaming torch of a red dress with the corner of his eye. His failed marriage had long ago ceased to be a painful memory to become rather an uncomfortable reminder of his capability to fail. This wasn't supposed to be in itself a discovery for her, but he felt somewhat uneasy that he hadn't brought it up personally, even though he felt no difficult in talking to her about such things. He was being sloppy and careless, and he didn't like it. And if there was something that the Cohen's clearly didn't like was learning about something late and through the wrong means. 

"Failure", he spoke after a moment of silent that was only filled by the clicks of the cameras. His voice was grave. "We all fail at some point or the other. You swallow your pride and move on...some sorts of failures are better than other kinds, that's all". He pursed his lips and turned his head to the moderator of the press conference, indicating that he was moving on to the next question. His sincerity seemed to satisfy the journalist, who quickly scribbled on his notebook. 

By the time the press conference was over, Jon was glad that no more questions concerning his personal life had come up, and he felt more relaxed as he sat on an armchair in a lounge that had been set up backstage for him and his entourage to spend the time before and after the show. June was out of sight.

"I'm gonna ask the question of the day", a fairly drunk, long-haired roadie asked loudly, directing his question to the singer. "Tell us, Jon, who's the girl you're fucking?", he asked, braking the ice like a hammer. Tim had been part of the Bon Jovi road team for a few now, and he'd even been awarded the diamond pendant that had at this point already become a tradition. What he asked was actually a normal, innocent question the members of the road team used to make to each other during the tours and that had, during the recent years, turned into something more like an internal joke rather that an actual inquiry, but it caught Jon with his guard down, and he didn't like his tone, not one bit. For a moment, he was violently angry. Noticing his reaction, that pervaded the lively atmosphere of the backstage with a rarified air, everyone remained quiet for a second. Jon's personal space had been invaded, and that wasn't something he particularly appreciated. Jon, however, ever the proffessional, left an unconcrete answer to avoid any more questions on the subject, and withdrew to his dressing room.

When he reappeared twenty minutes later he was already on rock star mode, walking towards the stage of the theatre. June had an all access pass, but chose to stand and watch the show from some random place in the audience. When Jon stepped on the stage, the entire group of people broke into a deafening, somehow curiously savage, scream. She admired, together with the rest, his incredibly gorgeous, perfect completion, the sensuous mouth made for long, deep kisses, his smooth and well muscled body wrapped in supertight hip hugging pants with button fly that showed off his pert round ass and tapered thighs, and his light brown shirt unbuttoned down to his navel. He started whrithing to the throb of music with wild hair and flashing eyes as thousands of girls and a good number of boys screamed at him. Something that wasn't easily perceived, though, was the slight awkwardness that's usually brought to beautiful people by the consciousness of their own beauty, which Jon skilfully disguised as arrogance. 

He was in his native element and happy as a lark. He was everywhere at once, giving out from every cell of his body what seemed an inexhaustible supply of energy, leading the crowd to slowly engage in an act of self-hypnosis, or what seemed a deliberate drowning of consciousness by means of rhythmic noise. June couldn't help share the general delirium and, of course, she chanted with the rest. It was impossible to do otherwise.

As June observed him, she couldn't help thinking that the body that was now straining against the leather had been entirely hers for the past three days. She closed her eyes for a moment and involuntarily remembered the exact shape of his cock. She could see it in his mind: big, hard and powerful, and she started to feel the moisture between her legs. 

Then the lights dimmed indicating that a quieter moment of the show was approaching, but it took Jon a long minute to finally get the crowd to calm down. "Attention, your attention please", Jon said raspingly after sitting on a stool, wrapping his arms lazily around the shiny black Takamine. "I want to dedicate the next song to my friend and sorta...collaborator", he smirked sideways. "The sister of my dear friend John here-", he was interrupted by a mild applause. " June...?", he narrowed his eyes and scanned the crowd for her red dress, but he couldn't find her, "...It really sucks that you're leavin', baby", he whispered against the mic, one second before strumming the first chords of that song he'd written the morning after kissing her for the first time at that porch in London.

It's morning when I go to sleep,

In the distant dawn a church bell rings...

During the instrumental fill, he was able to locate her, full of mysterious calm, her hypnotic green eyes gazing into his own. It was as though some huge force was driving him to her, something that penetrated his chest, beating, persuading him to listen to the evidence of his senses. The flood of music drew every speculation out of his mind, like some sort of liquid stuff that poured all over him and mixed up with his blood. Suddenly, he just couldn't wait for the show to be over so he could wrap his arms around her waist and pull her so close to him she would never want -or be able to- to leave his side. But he would have to wait, and the show had to go on. After the post-show reception, she'd leave first and he'd have to wait an hour before following her. 

Jon was covering Sinatra's Fly me to the moon when he glanced at June's face again and at seeing her, his cool look of detachment changed. It was exactly at that moment that the significant thing happened: their hearts opened and the loving feeling flowed from one into the other through their eyes. It happened at last, all her life, it seemed to June, she had been waiting for this to happen. A feeling so lively and so new that she stood there, rooted to the spot. 

Maybe it was just an instant, but for as long as it took to happen, she knew, yes, she knew she was in love with him, and that he was feeling the same thing as she did. 

A side of her screamed that she wanted to live forever with this man. The other, however, wasn't equally convinced. She felt trapped with him in a web she'd woven herself, maybe she had simply made a stupid mistake by letting that story go that far.  What evidence had she that he would want to move on, even if she stayed? None. Nothing but a flash in his eyes, only fleeting glimpses that might mean anything or nothing. Besides that, everything was founded on the impossible.

June's courage seemed to suddenly stiffen of its own accord: what if it was better to shorten the interval before the end actually arrived? The choice seemed clear: she could put the end off until the last minute...or leave now. In her mind, it made very little difference. 

The end of the show was approaching and Jon seized a short pause between songs to try and relocate the red dress , which was now moving hastily through the crowd towards one of the exits. Almost feeling his stare, June turned around and they locked eyes once again, but then Jon noticed, with a sort of inward shudder, that the expression on her face had changed and was now indecipherable, or even slightly frightful. The certainty that he'd felt before crumbled inside him and he felt a twinge of panic at the realization that she seemed to be running away from him. Women have an infalible instinct to realize when a man has fallen deeply in love with them and given her reaction at that moment, Jon wished that June didn't have it.

By the time he took his final vows, June had disappeared from his sight, and there was no red dress at the after party.