The Green-Eyed Maid Inn

---

“I’m not mad,” Erika said. “I just want to hear the whole story from your perspective, and why at 5 o’clock last night Victoria McQueen was calling me begging for the address of ‘that sweet Riley girl you have on staff’,” she said. She wasn’t betraying whatever feelings she had about the situation, for better or for worse.

I gulped. I know she said she wasn’t mad, but there were oh so many other emotions she could be feeling behind that poker face.

I caught a glimpse of both Emily and Claire standing near the back offices, and Nick was on duty at the front desk again, too. If these walls had ears, they’d probably wish they had hands instead, so they could shield themselves from the coming bloodbath.

---

Getting to see Harvest of Hearts backstage between sets again was a blast. We hadn’t gotten to hang out with the band since March due to their brief touring break while the members worked on projects outside their music, but you really couldn’t tell this was their first concert to kick off their “Spooktacular” tour, and it wasn’t the only venue where they’d be headlining with the Dolls, according to Nikki and Alyssa - alyssa being one of the Dolls, I should add.

Basically Harvest of Hearts, which consisted of Robin Morgan on keys, her wife Nikki on bass, Katelyn-Elizabeth Derrick on lead vocals, Allison Jones on guitar, and Jennifer Baker on drums, were a group of women in their 20s who somewhat largely followed in Heedless Despair’s footsteps, not a tribute or cover band by any means, but very much a second generation of what the legendary Ladies of goth rock had begun back in the 2000s.

From what I’d learned just hanging out with them in the past, they actually formed as a direct result of Heedless Despair being impish tricksters, too. The story goes that one Halloween Robin was backstage at their concert with her friends, having become tight with their bassist Moira through Nikki or something, Robin had written a song that they really liked, so they cajoled her into playing it live, at Heedless Despair’s own concert. Right then and there, Hearts of Harvest was born, complete with the whole vampire motif they rocked to this day.

Midnight Dolls on the other hand - Shannon McQueen, guitarist Sinead Keegan, Alyssa Walker on bass and occasionally keys, and drummer Tara James, while they shared some of their punk rock roots, were more about the music than the theatrical side. Although, knowing the origins of Hearts of Harvest, and how apparently close the Midnight Dolls had become with them, began to give me an idea what exactly I was getting into with Shannon, too.

I learned to expect the unexpected, especially after tonight. See, the Midnight Dolls loved to close out their shows by doing a cover song, but putting the Midnight Dolls twist on it, amping up the tempo, adding all kinds of overdrive. I once saw a YouTube video of them turn Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” into a punk anthem.

This one hit different though. Alyssa and Sinead left the stage and a moment later Alyssa returned, pushing a solid white digital piano on a stand that had the keyboard’s branding, “Roland” in bold black letters. That was Robin’s keyboard! Even more surprising though, the lady of the ivories herself emerged onto the stage alongside Allison.

She had some kind of keytar like none of us had ever seen before strapped to her back, all red, shaped almost like a weapon of war instead of a musical instrument, and all black keys, not that we could see the keys at first, as she and Allison were carrying a black padded stool.

Allison ran off stage as fast as her platform silver heels would let her, returning with an all black acoustic guitar, some kind of custom job because even the fretboard and fret wires were solid black, black tuning heads, etc. and her long, braided blonde hair now hanging down her back rather than over her shoulder as it had been all night.

Were... Were they joining the Dolls for the final song? They had done something like this before, but they never closed out a show together. Usually it was goofing off during intermissions, or one or two sets mid-show.

Finally Sinead emerged, carrying a cello case, and you could hear a pin drop as she opened up the case and set it up, taking her place on the padded seat. She looked over at Robin and Allison.

Robin, in her iconic wine red “vampire” dress alongside Allison in her silver costume, grinned as she swung the monstrous keytar around and into place, looking back at Tara for her cue.

“Two, three, four,” we heard Tara count softly, and Robin began to play an orchestra swell from her weapon of mass instrumental destruction, layering in different instrument patches over the top of it via the main piano keys, as Tara tapped in a soft, brushed snare in triplets, while Sinead bowed the cello masterfully.

They were playing Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” except it was as close to the production version as they probably could manage. They had to have been planning and practicing this for months. There was just no way this was spur-of-the-moment.

When Shannon began to sing, with Alyssa’s piano and Sinead’s cello perfectly undercutting her voice, I felt tears welling up. It was just so stunningly beautiful, completely overwhelming. I was so, so glad aunt Rose had told me this concert was being professionally filmed because I absolutely wanted copies: MP3, CD, heck I’d buy the vinyl and frame it if they pressed one at that point.

The crowd began to cheer excitedly, us among them. We had never heard Shannon singing anything like this before. Rather than the harsh vocals she was known for, her voice was very sweet, sultry, and soft, perfectly fitting the romantic subtexts of the song, at least for the first verse. As she hit the first chorus, she really started belting it, and, when she sang ‘Cause I’d miss you, baby,” she pointed her ungloved hand right down at me, a few feet from the stage in front of her, grinning.

And then it turned on a dime. The orchestra swells went dead silent, Allison’s jangling guitar muted, and Tara shouted “TWO, THREE, FOUR!”

Sinead threw the cello down into the case and leapt off the stool grabbing her electric guitar, as Allison picked up Alyssa’s bass. Alyssa shoved the piano off the stage with so much force that we actually heard it slam into something off in the wings, causing some laughter from those of us in the front row, as Alyssa took her bass from Allison’s waiting hands. Both she and Robin grinned, blew a kiss to the crowd while flashing the ‘Metal’ hand sign, and both ducked off stage as the more high octane punk cover we’d anticipated persisted.

The crowd went completely insane for it, but we did, too honestly.

As they neared the end of the third chorus heading for the outro I saw Nicole off to one side, smiling in our direction. She waved briefly, which we took as our cue that the song was almost over, and began wading through the crowd back toward her, where she quickly ushered us past security.

“I think someone grabbed my ass out there,” I laughed, too drunk on the euphoria of the moment to be upset.

“Probably,” Nicole said. “That unfortunately happens a lot. If security saw it, they’ll take care of it, but I can’t promise anything.”

“It’s okay,” I said. “I’m just not used to being seen as,” I trailed off and shrugged, “You know, eye candy.”

Nicole laughed. “Serena did a hell of a job on you,” she said. Serena was Shannon’s personal makeup artist. When I lamented that I hadn’t really taken the time to really get ready since I had no idea I was even going to be here tonight, she pulled me aside and gave me a glam glow up for the ages. Shannon even invited me to be part of a photo op for Sweet Sixteen Magazine after the concert, too, but we were already being devious little trolls, so I actually didn’t mind.

“I can’t believe you do this every single night,” I said as Shannon and the others met back up with us just off-stage. I gave her a hug, and she practically collapsed into me, only lifting her head long enough to drink from her water bottle as I let my hand, wearing her glove, rest on her hip.

“I know right? My throat is so thrashed,” Shannon said. “It’s exhausting. The highs are so high, but then the lows are just as low sometimes.” She paused for another drink as Robin and Nikki came up to join us.

“Good news,” Robin said, trying her best not to laugh based on the huge grin, “The piano’s okay. I think you gave Rose a heart attack though,” she teased, laughing now.

“I am SO sorry about that,” Alyssa giggled despite herself. “I wasn’t actually trying to trash your keyboard I promise.”

Robin laughed.”Nah it’s cool,” she said warmly. “I really want to thank you guys for helping me even set all this up.”

“I was glad to do it,” Shannon said, grinning. “I feel a little guilty having Riley here for it though since that part was completely unplanned.”

“Hey,” Nikki said, “Don’t feel too bad. Remember what I told you about when I met Robin. Like, from the moment I laid eyes on her, all I could think was how much I wanted to make out with her.”

“I’m just glad you restrained yourself initially,” Robin teased her back. “I would’ve run like a rabbit.”

“You did, as I recall,” Allison said playfully as she joined us.

“Okay,” Avery said, “But I have to ask, what the Hell was that keytar you were playing? It looked like you had something custom-built for you or something?”

Robin grinned. “Nope. It’s a prototype Roland’s working on. Sometimes being a Roland artist has its perks,” she giggled, but paused when Shannon swore, looking over at us concerned.

‘Shit!” Shannon had said, looking over my shoulder. It wasn’t the softened ‘shite’ or even a harsh ‘damn’. It was genuine, raw shock and anger.

I turned around to see an older guy with a camera. He didn’t strike me as particularly sleezy or anything, but had the camera up and was snapping away, getting at least a dozen photos of me and Shannon embracing.

“Nicole!” she shouted, probably so that he would hear her, too.

“On it,” Nicole said, stepping between us so that her frame would block any further intrusion from the shutterbug as we made our escape into a side corridor.

“This way,” I gestured as we came to another four way. “It loops back around, but we can get to your dressing room and bail if we need to,” I explained, suddenly very glad I’d spent a lot of time back here with the Hearts members, courtesy of my aunt Rose in the past.

“Perfect,” Shannon said and squeezed my hand tighter as she followed, letting me lead us through the area. It wasn’t very crowded, mostly just stage crew, security, and employees.

“Was that guy a stalker or something?” I asked.

“I wish it was that easy, then I could just get a restraining order, but he’s got a press pass, and corridors are technically public. His name’s Raymond Max. He’s a freelance tabloid journo. He has a talent for publishing unflattering celebrity photos is all. I swear to God if he makes you look bad I’m going to shove that camera where the bloody sun doesn’t bloody shine.”

“Oh,” I said. ‘He’s one of THOSE types. On behalf of photographers everywhere with even a shred of integrity, I’m sorry.”

“Wait, you’re a photographer?” Shannon asked as we entered her dressing room. The band had already gathered there, safely away from prying photography lenses.

“You know what we do to photographers right?” Tara said as she stood up, looking at me with her drumsticks clenched.

“Whoa, hey now!” I said, putting my hands up defensively. Tara burst out laughing. “I’m not that kind of photographer!”

“Relax Rye. I’m just razzing you girl,” she giggled, but walked over and hugged me anyway, while Shannon flopped onto one of the provided sofas.

“Sorry,” I laughed as I returned her hug. “I’m just on edge. You guys might be used to all this excitement but this is a whole new world for me. Even hanging out with Nikki and the others has never been half this interesting.”

“Sorry about that,” Shannon said as she looked over at me, and then leaned forward to take off her boots. It was only then that I realized Alyssa, Sinead, and Tara were in various states of undress as well, milling about, changing, Sinead was in the middle of plucking bobby pins out of her hair, which were holding it in two massive bulbous buns on either side of her head.

“It’s okay,” I said. “If you want I can wait outside-” and the door opened behind me, as Avery and Megyn slipped inside, followed by Nicole a moment later.

“You’re golden,” Alyssa said, flashing me a smile even as she unintentionally flashed her breasts at us. “Fuuuuck these fucking corsets why do I do this to myself,” she said, throwing the clothing hard against the wall as if it had insulted her mother, and pulling a sports bra over her head.

“Because you look ravishing in them,” Shannon said playfully as she began to undress. I politely glanced away as Shannon pulled off her top, leaving just her fishnet undershirt and a strapless bra visible.

“Ah, crap!” Shannon bellowed and quickly began getting dressed again. “I got so flustered with that stupid togger I forgot I have an actual photo op I hae to do for Sweet 16 before we can go.” She sighed.

Nicole spoke up. “I told Felicia you might not be feeling up to it. She asked if you wanted to do it tomorrow instead so I told her I’d ask.”

Shannon stood next to me with her tank top in hand. “I don’t suppose you’d feel up for doing this again tomorrow night would you?” she asked as she squeezed my hand. “Or I can do it solo mio. Max is going to do all he can to get us on every rag that will take his snaps as it is so it’s okay if you’re not interested.”

“If I’m going to be a famous rock star’s girlfriend,” I said, “I at least want a legit magazine to have one good photo of us together. Let’s do it. Whenever you’re ready though,” I added. She threw her arms around my neck and kissed me.

“You are the best,” she said. I blushed again, more deeply this time, and I felt my pulse raise, even as she went back to changing from Shannon McQueen to just plain Shannon.

Nicole nodded and stepped out again, only to have another woman, someone I hadn’t met yet, take her place. She was taller than me, but not as tall as Erika, let alone Nicole, and she had sandy blonde hair, a lot like Shannon’s.

“I gave Mr. Max an earful,” she said, in an accent not dissimilar from Shannon’s. “I doubt it’s going to do any good though. You’re a grown woman now, and I’m afraid I can’t play the teen idol card anymore,” she sighed, giving me the side eye.

“Oh!” Shannon said, “Just a sec Mum!”

Sinead, who was already changed and just cleaning off her makeup, walked over to us. “Since Shannon’s a little preoccupied, Victoria McQueen, Riley Sullivan. Riley, this is our tour manager, den mum, and, you know, Shannon’s actual mum.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Riley,” she said, turning on the charm as she offered me her hand.

“Likewise ma’am,” I said as I shook it nervously.

“When Nicole told me a local girl had stolen Shannon’s heart I thought she was joking.”

“Mother!” Shannon yelped. “PLEASE don’t embarrass me?” She pouted cutely as she pulled on a Harvest of Hearts tee from the same run as mine, just with the band in slightly different positions.

We both laughed. “It’s nice to know some things are universal. I only have one good story about my mom, and it’s not even an embarrassing one. Meanwhile she’s got, like, my entire life’s worth.”

“Oh, and I have so, so many too!” Victoria said, flashing an evil smile for just a moment. “I shall have to meet your mother for tea sometime so we can swap them.”

Shannon and I both groaned at that.

Before we left, Serena was kind enough to un-glam me and give me a natural makeover along with a few handy tips, since I’d asked her for them. I didn’t want to be a makeup artist like Serena or even my sister Avery, but I didn’t want to be a makeup Picasso, either.

As we were leaving the theater, I started to pull off the glove Shannon had given me. “Before I forget to give this back to you,” I said, but she wrapped both hands around mine, tugging it back into place.

“No, you keep it,” she said. “I mean you don’t have to wear it. But I really want you to have it.” She smiled at me. I leaned over and gave her a soft peck.

“Thank you,” I said, causing her to blush for a change.

~oOo~

We - that is Avery, Megyn and I, decided to take Shannon out for burgers for our first date, but not the usual fast trash. Sinead had already told me, and Shannon all but confirmed it, that they were recovering from food poisoning, so instead we took her to a little diner off the beatemn path, and then back to our house for a movie while we continued to get to know each other.

Shannon had all kinds of stories from being on tour, and some of them were truly and legitimately horrifying, but most of them were interesting or funny. Poor Nicole fell asleep in my dad’s arm chair, as the four of us sat up until at least 2 a.m. talking and watching movies - and yes, ‘Armageddon’ was absolutely one of them.

We had dozed off at some point after that, and I jolted awake to my phone buzzing with new messages. Shannon was sleeping soundly, snuggled close to me on the sofa, and at some point in the night someone had draped a blanket over us.

I carefully picked up my phone to check the time. It was half past 9. I didn’t need to be at work until 10, but this was going to cut it close if I didn’t start getting ready to go soon.

“Mmm,” Shannon said. She slowly opened her eyes to look at me. “Oh, God, what time is it?” she asked.

9:31,” Nicole answered, making us both jump. For a big lady, she could sneak like a cat. She was holding a steaming mug of coffee, watching us from the doorway with an amused grin. “I already checked in with Victoria and let her know I’m with you. I want to thank you for not running off while I was momentarily lapsed in my duties, though,” she said, uncharacteristically professionally, at least from what little I’d known of her so far.

“I would never,” Shannon said, and then laughed, “Okay, I would never on purpose.” She turned back to me. “I am so sorry. I swear I’m not normally this clingy,” she sighed as she sat up.

“It’s okay. You’re okay,” I said. “Last night was the most magical night of my life.”

“That was pretty hard to top,” Shannon said and nodded. “I have a rehearsal at 11 so I guess I should get back to the hotel and change, but I have to ask you something. I need you to be brutally honest with me, okay?” she asked. I nodded.

“Of course,” I said.

“Was that, was last night a one time thing?” she asked. I blinked back at her.

“What?”

“Tell me,” Shannon said. “Was last night a one time thing for you, or did you really mean it when you said you wanted to be my girlfriend?”

“Of course I meant it,” I said. “Shannon, I have never met anyone like you before. You’re intelligent, funny, just being around you makes me smile and my heart race. I would really like to see you again - if not this week then the next time you’re in town.”

She squealed, and threw her arms around my neck. We shared another soft, brief kiss, and then one more for good measure, before she lay her head on my shoulder. “You really are just too adorable, Riley Sullivan,” she cooed. “I want to see you again, too. I just had to know for sure that I didn’t scare you off, or that you weren’t just caught up in the moment, you know?” She lifted her head. “And before you say some smart assed thing like ‘I’m still here aren’t I?’ I’ll remind you that I’m a guest in your house.” She grinned.

I laughed at that.

“That line did cross my mind, but I kept it to myself for exactly that reason,” I said, and she giggled again as she stood, pulling me to my feet.

“Come on,” she said. “If I remember correctly, you have work today. I’ll walk you there.”

~oOo~

When we walked into the lobby, still holding hands from the trip, Erika was waiting for me. Shannon looked up at her. “Please don’t be mad at her,” she said, and then planted a quick peck on my cheek before she headed for the elevator with Nicole.

“I’m not mad,” Erika said. “I just want to hear the whole story from your perspective, and why at 5 o’clock last night Victoria McQueen was calling me begging for the address of ‘that sweet Riley girl you have on staff’,” she said. She wasn’t betraying whatever feelings she had about the situation, for better or for worse.

I gulped. I know she said she wasn’t mad, but there were oh so many other emotions she could be feeling behind that poker face.

I caught a glimpse of both Emily and Claire standing near the back offices, and Nick was on duty at the front desk again, too. If these walls had ears, they’d probably wish they had hands instead, so they could shield themselves from the coming bloodbath.

I told her the honest truth, all of it, how Shannon and I really had met innocently, how I only offered to give her a tour of the area because she seemed starved for a real human connection, but also how I felt the same way, that we just shared a genuine connection that I didn’t want to ignore in case I lost the chance forever to know if there was any ‘there’ there.

I did apologize though, for breaking her rules about getting too personal with guests, and I promised it wouldn’t happen again if I still had a job. That was probably not the best word choice on my part because both Emily and Claire stormed up to us at that.

“You can’t fire her,” Nick spoke up from behind the counter before either of them could say anything. “If you do, I’ll resign too.”

“Same,” Emily said.

“Me too,” Claire chimed in, despite being Erika’s niece - or maybe because of it. “She made a mistake, but she did it for a damn good reason.”

Erika looked at her gathered staff. “Before you all decide to revolt and quit in mass protest, I’m not going to fire Riley.” She turned back to me, and a big grin began to cross her lips. “I’m going to promote her.”

“What,” was all I could manage, staring up at her.

“Riley, sweetheart,” Erika said, “Yes, you made a mistake, but you didn’t just own up to it, you apologized, and you explained precisely why you did it. You take responsibility, and you take your duties seriously.”

I let out the breath I’d been holding as Emily and Claire both excitedly hugged me. “Congrats!” they practically said in unison.

“What’s more,” Erika continued, “I have a report from Kendra and Emily that you tried to cover for Emily yesterday, going above and beyond to help out, which is how you ended up with the afternoon free in the first place. I told you yesterday I was thinking about making you the face of the Green-Eyed Maid Inn, and you’ve just proven exactly why I should. It’s going to mean additional duties, but I believe you’re up for it.”

I stared blankly at her for several seconds before I threw caution to the wind and did the one thing no employee should ever do. I hugged my boss. She let out a stunned laugh as she hugged me back.

“Even if I was mad,” she said, “I wouldn’t let you go. I told you before, we have to look out for each other in the LGBTQIA+ community. The worst I would do to you is put you under direct supervision under Kendra or Lacey for a couple of months,” she teased.

“Thank you, Erika,” I said. “I was so not expecting a promotion, but thank you for not being mad either.”

Erika shook her head. “Victoria and I had an interesting little talk over exactly why she wanted your home address so badly. I heard the story from her, and presumably Shannon’s perspective. I just wanted to hear your side of the story before I decided if I needed to put you under supervision, or give you more freedom. Now, please hurry and get changed? Some college students completely trashed 102, and it’s an all hands cleanup. I don’t want your street clothes getting ruined, but at least your costumes are a business write-off. And, I’ll be helping, too.”

“Oh, jeez,” I said. “Is it that bad?”

Emily spoke up. “It’s so bad Kendra and Lacey both went out to get us some PPE to wear. And the idiots responsible are banned for life.”

I groaned, but nodded, and practically ran to change. I was still wearing yesterday’s street clothes, which now included one pink fingerless glove with the sequined initials “S. M.’ on the back. I placed it carefully with my things where I knew it would be safe and changed into my uniform, washing away my makeup which, thankfully, did not include color stay bubblegum pink lip gloss thanks to Serena the night before, so it all came off rather easily.

I was happy to see Sinead, Alyssa, and Tara waiting in the lobby with Shannon when I came back out, and waved them over. “We have an all hands on deck mess in 102 to deal with,” I said, “But until Kendra and Lacey get back with the PPE that we’ll need to tackle it, I believe I owe you a selfie, Miss Sinead,” I said in my best Green-Eyed Maiden tone of voice.

“Oh, why thank you, Miss Riley,” Sinead giggled softly. “Would it trouble your lovely fellow maids if I could make it a group photo with them too, since you’re all waiting for someone anyway.”

I grinned over at Claire and Emily who were standing by the counter talking to Nick. Christie was just coming into the lobby, but looked from me to Erika to Emily and Claire, and then raced over to join the latter. “I think I can arrange that.”

“For what it’s worth,” Alyssa said solemnly, “102 wasn’t us. We’re all on the 3rd floor.”

“Oh we know who it was,” I said, giving her a reassuring smile as we walked over to the counter. “They’ve been banned for life, but you lot might just be the new guests of honor. I just got a promotion to Hostess,” I said and winked, smiling wide as we posed for the photo op.

“Congratulations!” Shannon said excitedly as she took the photo using Sinead’s phone. “I am so proud of you.”

“Thank you,” I said, and gave her hand a discreet squeeze as she came closer to get in the next pic. “Things are definitely going to be a lot more interesting around here from now on.”