Rock my world - By Cindi Myers Page 0,45
mind, but he didn’t say it.
Ray returned with a glass of iced tea, steering clear of Bonnie, who was on the phone with the traffic helicopter.
Erica returned to the stage. “Are we ready to start?”
At 4:00 p.m. sharp they went live. “Good afternoon, everyone. We’re coming to you live all afternoon from Outback Charlie’s Bar and Grill at Kipling and Hampden. We’ve got two-for-one margaritas, great appetizers and dinner specials from Outback Charlie’s fabulous grill, and we’ll have plenty of music and cool prizes coming your way all afternoon. With me are the lovely Erica and Bombshell Bonnie with weather and traffic.”
“Do you know how many men out there are jealous of you right now?” Erica asked. “Spending the afternoon with two hot women?”
“Get real,” Bonnie said. “He could never handle both of us. After all, he couldn’t handle me.”
“I’ll admit, I was no match for you, Bonnie. It takes a special man to put up with you.”
She gave him a look that made clear she’d like nothing better than to take a sharp knife to certain sensitive body parts. He took an involuntary step back and killed her mic, just in case.
“We’re all in awe of you, Bonnie.” Erica rushed to defuse the moment. “What’s the traffic like out there this afternoon?”
Adam gave her a grateful look and promised himself he’d avoid riling Bonnie any further.
When Bonnie finished her traffic and weather report, he addressed the crowd that had gathered. “Who wants to win some prizes?” he asked.
The two dozen or so people present cheered and whistled, egged on by Bonnie and Erica.
“All right. We’re going to play a little rock ’n’ roll trivia then. First right answer gets the new Ben Harper CD.” He consulted the list of rock trivia questions he’d put together the night before. “What was Pat Benatar’s job before she made it big?”
Erica took the remote mic into the audience. She approached a buff young construction worker who’d raised his hand. “Hey, handsome,” she said, eliciting an immediate blush from the guy. “Do you know the answer?”
“Uh, is it…?”
She looked to Adam, who shook his head. “Sorry. Anybody else?”
After three tries, during which Adam played music, and the bathing-suit-clad Erica left three men tongue-tied, a man wearing an Avalanche shirt and jeans gave the correct answer of waitress and won the CD.
“All right, everybody!” Erica hopped back on stage and clapped her hands. “Time for our limbo contest. Line up for a chance to see how low you can go!” While Adam played “Don’t worry ’bout a thing,” she enlisted two audience members to hold a bamboo pole while she demonstrated the proper limbo technique. Back bent, hair almost touching the floor, she shimmied backward under the suspended pole while onlookers whooped and hollered. “If she had any boobs, she wouldn’t be able to get down so low,” Bonnie groused.
And if you had real boobs, you probably could, too. But again he resisted the temptation and kept his mouth shut.
After more music and giveaways, Bonnie instigated a hula contest. Remembering her earlier comment about his shirt, he silently wondered what was so Australian about the hula. In any case, she had an appreciative audience as she wiggled and swayed on the stage, and Outback Charlie himself came up to applaud her performance.
Music, weather, traffic, news. Before he knew it, they were halfway through the show. Ray approached him and Erica, order pad in hand. “Great show, guys. You ready for some dinner?”
“Sounds good. Ray, this is my co-host, Erica Gibson. This is an old friend of mine, Ray Kingston.”
Erica offered her hand. “Nice to meet you, Ray.”
“Same here.” He gestured to the order pad. “So what can I get you? The burgers are good. So’s the fish tacos.”
“I’ll try a burger,” she said.
“Same here.”
Ray noted their orders, then looked around. “What about the other lady?”
“Bonnie?” Adam looked around and spotted her at a table of businessmen. She was leaning over, signing autographs. The men weren’t exactly drooling, but they were close. “She’s over there at that table. Go ask her what she wants.” At Ray’s hesitant look he added, “Go on. She won’t bite.”
“Are you sure?” Erica asked when Ray had left.
“Not really.” He picked up a list of e-mail addresses they’d collected from the audience and pretended to flip through it, trying not to notice how close she was standing, or how good she smelled, or how great her legs looked in her high-cut swimsuit. But he could feel her eyes on him.
“I