Chapter 51 - Jonica Tested??

 

 

 

 

Both of them were tired, and from time to time they would nod off. Jon falls asleep and when his head nods it startles him awake and he looks over at Monica. 

 

She is sound asleep with her feet on the coffee table and her hands folded over her belly. He isn’t going to let his pregnant girlfriend sleep like that on the couch. He gets up and takes care of their dinner mess and loads the dishes into the dishwasher. When he’s done cleaning up his mess, he goes back into the living room and turns off the light and the television. Before he picks Monica up and carries her to bed, he makes sure that the bed is turned down and he can lay her down without incident.

Back in the living room, he gets to Monica and can see that she is in a deep sleep, he hates to disturb her because she is sleeping so peacefully. But he’s not going to let her rest like that. He knows that her neck will hurt and she’ll be miserable when she wakes up. He bands over and scoops her up in his arms, she startles a little bit. Looking at Jon and realizing that it’s him she just smiles and rests her head on his shoulder. He carries her into the bedroom and gently lays her on the bed. He didn’t need to undress her, he had done that already in the living room when they played and made love. Tucking her in bed, he remembers to feed Sampson. Once she’s covered and he knows that she’s good to go - he goes back into the living room and feeds her dang fish. He’s secure the house and makes sure that everything is off and then goes to join her in bed. It’s only 8pm, he didn’t care. She was sound asleep and he was going to be wherever she was, doing what she was doing. He lays there for a while and finally dozes off himself.

The next morning is filled with many errands and stuff that needed to be taken care of. Jon had a meeting with a potential manager in the city at noon and was struggling with whether he wanted to bring the guys or not. Does he really want them with him when it gets down to the brass tax of the music business? He convinced himself that it would be better for just him to go. After all, it’s his name and his band. Monica had things that she needed to do, as well. She was supposed to meet with Thomas and then meet with the head of PR at Macy’s. Thomas is Monica’s modeling agent, he’s the one that got her the Hawaiian Topic shoot, she’s now hoping that he has worked something else out for her. She wants to work as long as she can before she needs to turn to photography to make her living. She wanted to model as much as she can, before her beautiful body loses it’s shape and she takes off for maternity leave.

They are ready to leave the house, separately, when Jon stops her and says, “Are you sure you don’t want me to go with you?”

She stands there, they are face to face, and she smiles at him, “Daddy, I’m sure. I’ll be okay. It’s only Atlantic City.”

“I know, but if you want me to go with you, I’ll go. I can reschedule my stuff.”

“No, you go do your thing and I’ll do mine. We can meet back here this afternoon.” she leans over and kisses his lips, “And tonight, I’ll make you dinner.”

He kisses her back, but she is now in his arms. They hug and kiss goodbye and get in their own cars. Jon drives north into the city and Monica heads south to Atlantic City.

Jon arrives at his destination in the city and meets with a gentleman by the name of Ken Sunshine. Jon rolls his eyes at the last name, but then he kind of laugh when he thinks to himself, ‘I wonder if he blows sunshine up the ass of rocker wannabe’s? The receptionist call him back and leads him into Ken’s office. Ken is there with a man by the name that is referred to as Doc. Jon shakes both men’s hands and takes a seat. The guy by the name of Doc wastes no time, “I’ve been watching you and your band burn up Europe and here in the states. Who represents you?”

Jon, not unschooled in the music business knows what’s going on here, “I represent my band. I am my bands manager.” he tells him, with pride and with conviction.

“Who does your PR, photo shoots and press releases?” Doc fires back. Again, Jon knows what he’s doing.

“When there is a need for PR and photo shoots my girlfriend does it. As for press releases, we haven’t needed to do any yet. There hasn’t been anything to release to the press. We have joined tours that were already in progress with the PR being done long before we jumped on.”

“Your girlfriend?” Doc asks with a tone that makes Jon take notice.

He crosses his legs and tells Doc, “Yes, I have a girlfriend and she does our photography. My cousin has used her several times. You might know my cousin, Joe Bongiovi at the Power Station.”

“I know Joe. I might even know your girlfriend, what’s her name?” Doc asks Jon.

“Monica.”

“Tall, slender, dark hair and the skin of a goddess?”

Jon nods his head, with a feeling in the pit of his stomach. How can this guy know Monica? Doc isn’t anything to write home about. Overweight and he holds himself with zero confidence. He has a aura about him that makes Jon think that women flock to him because of WHO he knows, not who he is. “How do you know Monica?”

“I met her a while back while she was shooting for Bruce. She does great work.”

“I know.” Jon says, very matter of fact like. “She is great at everything that she does.”

“Well, you need to dump her.”

“What?”

“You need to break up with her.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Jon questions, getting angrier by the second. “Who the hell are you to tell me what to do?”

“I want to represent you and I’ve been in this business long enough to know that a girlfriend will hinder your success, specially if you have a girlfriend. It doesn’t matter if your band does - but you can’t have one.”

Jon looks at Sunshine and then back at Doc, “Who the hell are you people? You call me here to meet and discuss the possibility of being represented by you and all you are concerned about is my girlfriend?”

Ken jumps in and says, “Doc has been in the business a long time, and so have I. We know what works and what doesn’t, Jon. A girlfriend in the band, a band like yours will not help your success, it will hurt it.”

“So you want me to break up with her to be successful? That is NOT going to happen.” He sits forward in his chair, “And if that’s what it takes to be successful than I guess I won’t be successful.” He stands up and starts to leave when Doc stops him.

“Wait a minute Jon, we’re not done.” his hand is on Jon’s arm. Jon looks down on him and he lets go. “Please have a seat.” Jon looks at both men for a few minutes and sits back down.

“There are things that we can do with and for you to overcome the girlfriend hurdle, but we need to know if you want our help?” Ken says to Jon, knowing that the young man that sits before him could do it all on his own, but he wanted to hitch his wagon to Bon Jovi.

“Like what? I think that the best PR we could ever get is exactly what we have been doing. We’ve been touring and filling the seats - that says more than any ad campaign or picture could.”

“Agreed,” says Doc, “But with the proper PR in places that you’re going to will help fill the seats.”

Ken adds, “If people have never heard you before now is the time, your album sales are low and we know that we can help that, and not only that - but we think you need to hurry and get your second album cut.”

Jon wiggles in his chair, these guys are irritating him more than they are helping him. “We have a few songs ready for the next album, but we don’t want to worry about the next album - we want to promote and tour to support the one that’s already out.”

“We think you would be better off doing a video or two for what you have out and then hit the studio and get ready for your next album. Regroup and hit the road after that.” Doc tells Jon, thinking that he has the best plan for Bon Jovi.

“You want me to do all of this, even with a girlfriend?” Jon can’t let that go, it’s sitting in the back of his head irritating him. What would they say if they knew Monica was pregnant?

Doc stands and starts to pace, knowing that he is sitting in the room with the next big thing and he can’t work his magic and get the kid to agree to anything. “Let us worry about your girlfriend, I guess. If you’re that adamant about keeping her, we can spin it and work with it. We just need you to agree to let us help you and then sit back and enjoy the ride.”

“Jon, we can help get where you want to be, we can make you a rock star.” Ken throws that in there, and he knows that Jon knows better.

“No, YOU can’t. My band and myself are what it takes to be rock stars.” he says with no expression and with no affect. Who did these guys think that they are? They have NO idea who they are talking to, no idea how business smart he was and how famous he was going to be. And little to no thanks to them.

“Do you want us to get a video shoot set up?” Ken asks Jon, videos are the newest craze and they seem to be helping bands get much needed exposure.

“For what song?” he mumbles. “And will MTV play our stuff, it’s a little edgier than what’s out there.”

“I think you guy should do one for Runaway. I have a director that I think will do a great job, with you guys and the song.”

“I don’t need a director, we already have one.” Jon states, not open to suggestions any more.

“Who?” blurts Doc, having no idea who Jon could possibly be talking about.

“Monica can do it.”

Ken looks at Doc, Doc looks at Ken and Ken asks, “What kind of experience does she have directing a video?”

“None.”

“And you want her to direct your first one?” Doc sarcastically asks.

Jon gets up and heads to the door. “As soon as the video is done, I’ll send you a reel of it. Then we’ll decide what to do next. But as of right now, I leave in a week and jump on the Monsters of Rock Tour in Rio. We’ll talk when I get back.” Jon leaves Sunshine Sach’s with a smile on his face and anxiety higher than he’s felt in a long time.

In Atlantic City, Monica meets with Thomas who is waiting for her with Hugh Hefner. When she sees Hugh Hefner at the table with Thomas, her heart skips several beats and her head turns to mush. All she can think of is, I have a heart tattoo and a baby in my belly.