Chapter 13) The Hot Seat

Talking too much is a far greater social fault than talking too little.
~Eleanor Roosevelt

Proudly I stood backstage peeking out from behind the curtains at Blaine lounging casually on the couch – dubbed ‘the hot seat’ – at a popular late night talk show named “Stars at Night” which he had been invited to.

That man knew no stage-fright, had strolled on stage when he was called as if he was visiting an old buddy, after shaking the host’s hand and patting him on the arm Blaine had just plopped down on the couch as if he were at home while the females in the live audience were screaming my husband’s name, which Blaine acknowledged with his crooked smirk and a casual wave, causing the women to sound like they had coronaries and orgasms at the same time now.

To be honest with you, I am still not sure how I feel about that, but hey, whatever paid the bills, right?

I watched Blaine answer the questions in his usual laid-back manner, even the ones I had worried about ever since he got the invitation, those pertaining to the plane crash, the explosion and his hostage time, but Blaine remained completely unfazed as he fed the host wishy-washy answers, still he had the audience captivated and roaring with laughter, interrupted by the occasional female voice proclaiming ‘I love you, Blaine!’, causing me to clench my fists until my knuckles were bright white and I screamed at them in my head ‘Oh, back off already, ladies! Just buy his music and drool over that, beyond it, hands off the merchandise!’

Yeah, also not the biggest fan of that, but it came with the territory, I suppose.

“So, Blaine, your latest album shot to the top of the charts just a day after release date. And you produced it yourself I learned, is that correct?” the talk show host now asked with a well rehearsed smile.

“Yup.” Blaine simply said.

When the talk show host realized there wasn’t any more coming out of Blaine, he continued.

“How come you are not signed with a new studio, makes life much easier, since they have the connections and can buffer the bills, allowing you to focus on your music.”

“Nah, last time I was signed with someone they had me travel all the time and even tried to kill me, my babygirl wasn’t amused, so we’re not gonna do that again. Happy wife, happy life, right?”

“Ah, speaking of, I heard rumors that you very recently got married, is that true?”

I heard some booing from the audience and in my mind I flipped them off. Those female fans were really getting on my last nerve now.

“Yup, little over a month and a half ago now I Cameron’ed mah babygirl.” Blaine grinned.

“Well, congratulations! How did you and uh … what is your wife’s name again, please?”

“Viktoria. And Cameron, obviously.”

“Right. So how did you and Viktoria meet?”

I started grinning to myself now. Oh, this was gonna be good and would shut them bitches up. They’d now learn that I had dibs on him long before they even knew he existed.

“Met when we were little, like 6. We grew up kinda like brother and sister. I was the brother, hahaha….. her mom took me in and raised me, made a good man out of me, my trash parents would have made me into trash like them. But it’s not like we are really related, well, I guess we’re now, since we’re married and shit, but not real brother and sister, that would be weird even by my standards. Anyway, known her forever. And now she is my wife, and soon she’ll make me a daddy.”

I frowned. Oh, no he didn’t. Tell me he didn’t just spew that! No, Blaine! Nobody else knew yet – well, they did now, along with the rest of the nation. Man, it was too early in my pregnancy to tell anyone, I was only around 5 or 6 weeks along as the doctor confirmed! Way too soon for public consumption.
I wanted to kill him and his motormouth!

Of course he was being congratulated, he was all smiles when he realized he may have said too much, looking over his shoulder his eyes caught my panicked ones.

“Uh oh, I think my big mouth did me in with the missus. Better go fix that now. Hang on, I’ll get her real quick.”

Blaine got up and started my direction, my eyes grew wide and I turned to run, in vain, he had already reached me, we struggled for a moment, then he just picked me up and started carrying me out there, among deafening applause and cheers.

Oh, I wanted to kill him so much right now, I even told him so, but all I got from him was an unimpressed ‘okay, but wait till after the show or we don’t get paid.’
Seriously?! That was his priority after he derailed our train? Unbelievable, that man!

He put me down and kissed me, then turned back towards the host.

“And here she is now! Proudly presenting my Mrs. Cameron – and definitely the better half. Aww, look, she’s shy.” Blaine grinned at me and I wanted so much to kick him in the rear!

I forced a smile. Not a pretty one either, well, actually, it was a total facial derailment, but at least I did something.
What else could I do?

I was NOT comfortable on this stage, especially not with that husband of mine who could say embarrassing things any second without any warning. Performing with him was okay, but if you allowed him to speak, whoa Nelly. The potential of things that could fall out of his mouth ranged from ultra-sweet to OMG!

The host ran down the polite list of nice things to say while we shook hands, polite standard things to ask a rock musician’s wife, then we all sat down and the regular questions resumed.

Than I sat there, stiffly on that bright red couch, just hoping it would soon end.
Upon realizing that all I had to really do was sit there and smile, nod to the things Blaine said, and look interested between him and the host, I slowly started to relax.

Not so bad, right?

I could totally sit through this, wouldn’t be much longer as I saw someone out of the line of sight of the audience make hand signs at the host, probably to signal him to wrap it up and start leading up to the next guest. Phew.

No, not so bad at all, until … yeah. Until Blaine happened.

“So, when did you decide to have a child?” the host smiled at both of us.

Gasp.

Gulp.

My head whipped around to Blaine and I stared at him while I was deciding how best to answer that, when I already heard Blaine say something I will never ever forget, burned forever into my memory.

“We didn’t. Got horny in the woods on our honeymoon and voila, bun was in the oven.”

Gasp again. WHAT?!

Oh no, he hadn’t!?!

Impossible!

Oh, but yeah, this was Blaine, so that was definitely possible, plausible and really just happened. Oh. My. GAWD!

Wide-eyed I cringed, hoping the floor would swallow me, while I heard roaring laughter from the audience and even the host couldn’t keep a straight face.

“Oh, I do not think your wife appreciates you being so blunt, Blaine.” chuckled the host as he was looking at my bright crimson cheeks.

“Oh, she’s used to it. Aren’t you, babygirl.” Blaine put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close, kissing my temple.

“You bet.” I pressed out when he let go, trying my best to keep from strangling my brand-new husband live on air.

Yeah, maybe I was used to it, or at least I should be, but it was still rough. When we were finally released I still wore that fake smile till my cheeks hurt.

Once alone again backstage, I laid into Blaine.

“Blaine, seriously?! What were you thinking?! Were you even thinking at all?! It is too early to tell people about the pregnancy. I told you we had to wait. It’s safer around when the second trimester starts. What if something happens and now everyone would know?! Oh man, Blaine, you really screwed the pooch this time!”

“Nothing will happen, babygirl. That baby – our baby – will be fine. We are both so strong, just think about how many times people have tried to kill me and yet, like a human cockroach, here I still am. That kid has my genes and nothing can hurt it, all will be fine. The end. Also, this is a baby, our baby, not a crime, I see no reason to hide it. So quit your bitchin’, babygirl. I just saved us lots of sappy and stupid discussions with everyone we know. Bam, they all have been notified. Done and DONE!”

Yeah, ‘quit your bitchin’ had been one of Blaine’s favorite taglines since we were kids, used on me every time I tried to be the voice of reason, while he plowed recklessly through my defenses.

“Yeah, Blaine, now everyone knows. Our friends … everyone, had to find out on a TV show. And they will be so pissed we didn’t tell them before announcing it on live public television. It’s rude, you were crude and it’s all a disaster!”

“Cable TV, not public.” Blaine grinned as he ‘corrected’ me.

“You are too much. I seriously cannot deal with you or this situation right now. I am going back to the hotel. You do whatever you want, Blaine, chances are you would anyway.”

“Can I come with or shall I sleep in the lobby? I can quietly curl up at the foot of the bed like a puppy. Woof.” Blaine made, then laughed.

Blaine was not fazed by my outburst. Not one bit. He knew me better and knew that once I got it all out, I’d remember I was happy to have him back. Yeah, knowing someone so well wasn’t always just good.

“Don’t you push it!” I pointed my finger near his face, still not done being angry with him.

“Want me to lick your face?” he offered, after already having licked the finger I was pointing at him with, making me more upset.

“Don’t you dare! I mean it, Blaine, I am very, VERY mad at you!” I told him as I was fighting stupid tears that now wanted out too. Argh!

“Ooooh, a dare. How could I resist. Well, I just can’t.” Blaine snickered.

He proved how much he had already recovered from his terrible hostage time, surviving an explosion, a plane crash, malnourishment, and the strenuous journey home.
With a swift movement he pulled me closer and just kissed me, all my attempts to stop it to underline how upset I was, faded away fast.

Naturally I melted as soon as his lips touched mine, the memory of how terrible I had felt without him flashed through my mind, I wrapped my arms tightly around his neck and kissed him like there was no tomorrow.

He did not have to spent the night in the lobby, nor at the foot of the bed, but holding me in his arms after we made love before we both fell asleep exhausted that night. Not like we had to worry about me getting pregnant anymore, right?

On the way to the hotel it had occurred to me that maybe he wasn’t so wrong after all. This child was definitely a love child, it was most likely conceived on our honeymoon, was definitely nothing to be ashamed of or hide and it was bound to be a strong one after all Blaine and I had already been through in our lives. And he saved us from having to make the rounds with the same ole story over and over again, many of our friends would have had jokes about it, to which Blaine would have still had embarrassing comebacks, plus, once that child would be older, how cool would it be to learn that your birth announcement was on a very popular late night show, right? Or maybe it would be sheer humiliation and we could use it to blackmail a rambunctious teen into submission. Who knew?

Once back in San Myshuno was the first time I turned my phone back on and it had been blown up in the just over 24 hours we had been away to attend the talk show.

Most people I worked with didn’t even know I was married to THAT Mr. Cameron nor that I was pregnant by him, and suddenly I had so many new ‘friends’. Disgusting.

I was so upset at all the backlash, that Blaine decided I should quit my office job, I didn’t even argue and did. We had come into a decent lump of cash from the sale of his latest album, him performing, his job at the SKyline, and it was finally enough that we were looking to buy a house. Nothing big or fancy, but a place with room for our little family.