When I heard we weren’t sleeping in the bust tonight, that was fine by me… Unfortunately, it looked like sleeping might not exactly be happening anywhere…

By the time we made it to the hotel, the party was in full swing. I couldn’t help but think how exhausting this must be night after night. Wake up, drive hundred of miles to the venue, wait around for hours, play the show, back on the bus, ride off to a hotel to party all night, and then get up in the morning and do it all over again. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it was a fucking blast…

Once…

Maybe twice…

But every night?

Screw that.

A girl needed her beauty rest, you know? Apparently, that wasn’t going to happen here. By the time I checked in and took my bags to my room, the sounds of the party streaming down the hallway were irresistible. So was the thought of spending a few minutes with Liam, but I was pretending that wasn’t why I was going.

I changed clothes, putting on a pair of jeans and a low cut red velvet blouse. I’d had a thought earlier that if I opened up to Liam a little, maybe played his game just a bit, then maybe I could get him to open up to me. I wanted to do a good job with this article, and I wasn’t opposed to going to such lengths to make that happen.

The first thing I thought when I walked into the band’s party suite, was ‘where did all these people come from?’ A least a hundred people were crammed in there, all of them drinking and partying.

I spotted Ian and Rhone in the corner and decided to join them after helping myself to a glass of wine from the bar.

“Hello, Catherine, did you enjoy the show?” Ian asked.

“I did, it was amazing,” I replied.

“It always is,” Rhone said. Ian shook his head in disagreement.

“It was shit, Liam went on for way too long,” he said.

“Did he?” I asked. “Does he do that often?”

“All the bloody time! I’m convinced he only does it to piss me off.”

“He seems to piss you off a lot,” I replied.

“Fuckin’ twat. He does it all on purpose. He loves gettin’ under my skin,” Ian said, as he took a swig off the tequila bottle he was holding. “Always has, since we were lil’ tots.”

“You shouldn’t let him upset you so much, sweetheart,” Rhone said, lying a comforting hand on his arm.

“Listen if I could fuckin’ bloody help it, I would. He’s the only chap in the world that can piss me off so much.”

“Are we talking about me?” Liam walked up with a jovial smile and a bottle of whiskey in his hand.

Ian rolled his eyes and grabbed Rhone’s hand and pulled her away without a word. Liam turned to me with his hands raised in mock confusion.

“What did I do?”

I laughed and shook my head.

“I have a feeling you know exactly what you’ve done,” I replied.

“Piss Ian off? Excellent, it’s good for him,” he replied. “But who wants to talk about him? How are you doing?”

“I’m good. I’d love to ask you a few more questions, if you’re up for it.”

“Sure, luv. Let’s find a quiet corner,” he replied, turning and searching the room. He grabbed my hand and I let him led me to an empty couch along the window. We’d just sat down when three women walked up, their faces awash with gushing adoration.

“Liam Mercury!” one of them squealed, sitting on the other side of him. She ran her hand up his arm, and leaned into him, her very exposed cleavage squishing against him. “You’re my favorite! I’ve been wanting to meet you forever!”

“Oh yeah?” he asked. “How’d you get in here, luv?”

“Big D brought us up. He said you might have time to have a drink with us?”

“I don’t know about that. I’m in the middle of some —,”

“Mr. Mercury, I’ve had your poster on my wall since I was a little girl!” her blonde friend interrupted. “Honestly, I just love you!” she squealed. “You’re so amazing and so talented. I loved it when you sang ‘Somewhere Else’ tonight.”

“Well, thanks, hon, but I’m —,”

“My father turned me on to you,” the third girl gushed, “and I’ve been a fan ever since. Can I get you a drink or something?” She sat down on the other side of him, squeezing in between the two of us, completely ignoring me. The three of them began bombarding him with questions and eyelash fluttering adoration. He drank it up, occasionally looking over at me apologetically. I shrugged and stood up and walked away.

This was obviously not the time nor place for an interview. A few quiet moments alone with this man was not that easy to achieve. If this kept up, I was going to need a lot more than a week to get my story.

And for the first time, that didn’t really sound so terrible.