NINE

by Delorita
This story is dedicated to my dearest friend RoZita, who is the most patient person I've ever met and who helped me in so many things, no one ever did before. This is a gift to our fourth anniversary ;)
THANK YOU FOR BEING YOU!!
The story is not send through the spell and grammar checker since RoZ loves my "accent" :)
To understand the story you should be familiar with the musical Nine, which was played on Broadway in 2003 with Antonio as the leading male character.
Rating: PG 13 (it's hetero ;)
~~~~~~~~
"Carlaaa...Carlissimaaa..." The man in the bed is snoring softly. The sheet's covering only the lower half of his body. A smile is playing on his beautiful shaped lips.
"Claudietta..." Slowly he's rolling onto his back, revealing a muscular chest, covered with dark curls. Due to the heat his golden skin is glistening with sweat but nevertheless his sleep seems peacefully.
After a while a frown's coming up on his forehead as though something is bothering him. He starts to move restless from one site to the other, murmuring anxious.

"Luisa...Luisa...don't leave me..." Guido throws his pillow over his face, gesturing wildly in his dream.
"Luisaaaaaa..." And he's wide awake all of a sudden, sitting up in the middle of the big bed.
But Luisa isn't there anymore. She's gone already and he couldn't prevent it. He even kinda sent her away with his behavior. With a heavy groan he slumps back onto the sheets, covering his face with the pillow again.
"No, no, no..." He murmurs devastated to himself when he's getting aware that not only his wife is gone but his mistress and his muse as well.
ALL GONE!!!
"Tschau, Guido." That were their last words, "Tschau...be on your own...I'll set you free..."
He sobs heavily into the cushion.
"What am I gonna do without you?''
And now a new thought is entering his troubled mind.
"What am I gonna do without any money either?" The angry face of his producer, ripping their contract into pieces, is also among all those confusing thoughts.
Lilian la Fleur wanted him to do a musical. But he didn't remember the lunch when they were talking about that. Probably his mind was elsewhere then...maybe in bed with the sweet sexy Carla....
Something is ringing.
Endless.
Guido isn't really sure where he actually is. It must have been too much of the "vino blanco" last night.
What's that terrible ringing?
Ahhh could be the phone...maybe the Vatican...
"Si, Contini." He murmurs into the speaker then turns it around and says his name again, slapping his forehead.
"Contini," The voice at the other end is female and sounds familiar.
"I'll give you a last chance." Lilian la Fleur sounds determined.
"What?" Guido's startled and his dark eyes become even bigger.
"I...I can't make this movie..." He stutters helplessly.
"I know, that's why I don't want you to make one, that's why I want you to act in one."
"Act? Me?" He's totally bewildered.
"Meet me at ten in the restaurant, I guess you need some breakfast." With that she's hanging up.
Breakfast. Ten. Restaurant...Guido's brain still doesn't work propperly.
But that was the "Tango" lady...and she sounded so insisting.
ACT? HIM? He didn't act in more then 20 years. The last time he remembered acting was with...
Arg TEN!!! It's 9:45 ALREADY!!!!
Damn it damn it damn it...pants...shirt...tie...shoes...argg...WHERE is the damn other shoe???
Under the pillow?
No.
In the bathroom?
No.
9:50!
Closet?
No.
Ah! There! On the table...how the hell did it get there? Well doesn't matter...
A quick glance into the mirror...ohhhh shouldn't have done this. Not shaved.
SHIT.
And those curls...jumping in each direction.
Ok, combing helped a little.
Jacket.
9:55!
Keys...keys...keys...got them. Good.
Money.
Money, don't have any, so forget about that.
Elevator.
Second floor.
10:00!
Restaurant.
Guido is taking several deep breaths. No sign of his producer.
Slowly, not to disturb the other guests, he starts his way around the tables.
Still short of breath Guido finally discovers Liliane la Fleur at a table in the corner, beside a window. There's sitting someone else opposite her. Guido's frowning. Who could that be? Looks familiar somehow, although the big hat covers the upper half of the face.
Liliane's waving him over with one finger. He politely waits until the other person looks up to him. And in this moment the producer only said with a wicked smile, "Guido, may I introduce my and your new director, Luisa del Forno."
With that Guido is rooted to the spot.

"I...I...it's a pleasure." And he bows as though they'd meet for the first time.
"Guido, I want you to act in a play on stage." Liliane states.
"On...on stage?" Guido's palms get moist almost with fear but he has no choice. He needs money. So after some discussion and some glasses of wine he agrees to the new project.

One day later.
Eugene O'Neill theatre, New York.
"Guido, I'd like you to meet your collegues." Luisa is very serious and behaves almost cold towards Guido. When he greeted her he smiled his broadest, friendliest smile but she just ignored it.
His knees are shaking when he enters the stage. It's full of pretty women already. But they all smile very warm at him. A brief glance around tells him that he never saw one of them before.
"Girls, meet Guido Contini."
Luisa goes over to a tall skinny woman with short blonde hair.
"Guido, this is Rebecca Romjin Stamos." Guido has to look up to meet her blue eyes.
Luisa's guiding him to the next woman. She's the exactly opposite from the first one, small, probably Mexican, long dark curly hair.
"Salma Hajek."
Guido instantly likes the fire in the dark eyes.
And there are more: Angelina Jolie -a skinny dark haired one with full lips, Catherine Zeta Jones -very female, beautiful, Rebecca de Mornay - a blonde too, also blue eyes, Emma Thompson - brown hair, very friendly smile, Melanie Griffith -another tall, skinny blonde, Carla Gugino - not so tall but red hair, Jennifer Conelly -dark long hair, braceletts around her wrists, Lucy Liu - looks like from Japan, Maruschka Detmers and Wynona Rhyder - two nice looking girls with brown hair.
Guido is stunned by so much beauty. But the line isn't finished yet.
Luisa shoves him to the next two women and introduces them as singers. One with the nickname Madonna and the other's name is Ana Belen.
With a reliefed sigh he's turning to the last actresses. They're from Spain. Victoria Abril and Carmen Maura.
"But, Luisa...those are ALL women," He nervously
swallows,"arn't there any other men around?" "No, you want to be Casanova, don't you?"
"Well, Luisa..."
"No, Guido, I don't want to discuss this. I am the director now." Luisa gives the actresses a sign and they seem all to take a certain position on the stage.
Emma and Salma come up behind Guido, one is carrying a guitar.
"We want you to play for us." They smile and hold it up to him.
He doesn't remember ever playing a guitar, but he takes it, wondering what instructions Luisa will give to him.
"Play." She's nodding towards him.
Guido is puzzled now, bewildered, because he's the feeling the guitar is almost speaking to him. He takes it carefuly, like a Mariachi does, his fingers get a life of their own, strumming the instrument. And it sounds right, no wrong tone. He's smiling, looking his gaze with Salma and starts to sing.
"So yo un hombre fortunato..." It's a hot, mexican song, makes all the women on the stage dance and swing their hips. Guido's amazed about his ability to use this particular instrument.
When he's finished, he had to catch his breath and the girls applaud him.
Luisa just gives him a short nod.
Guido looks around, uncertain what to do next, when Maruschka comes up behind him, stroking his arm gently. She's holding a trompet carefully, passing it along to him.
"A...a trompet?" His puzzlement is growing even wider.
"Go ahead." Luisa encourages him.
Guido's thoughts swirl around in his head. He'd never ever played a trompet in his life. Luisa certainly wants to make a fool of him in front of all those beautiful women.
With a big sigh he takes it to his lips and tries to blow, moving his fingers simultaneously. Maruschka is whispering something into his ear.
And he thinks he can't trust his ears anymore anyway. He is playing. A real song! Now he takes the instrument from his mouth and new spanish words escape his throat.
"Si deseo son reir..."
His female audience gets really quiet and is listening to the sad lovesong. Maruschka is embracing him from behind, lying her cheek onto his head, while he's sitting on a chair in front of her.
Guido is lost in the music now. Singing with his whole heart in his voice. There are sniffs from the background. Someone asks for a kleenex.
The applause is even bigger than after the first song. Guido slightly bows.
But when he looks up he's getting a really big lump in his throat. Some of the other women shove a piano onto the stage from behind the curtain, begging him to play too.
Luisa is looming over him and makes him turn his chair aroung and open the cover for the keys.
"Luisa, please, have mercy!" Guido makes a really wretched face.
"No, you didn't have mercy with me either." She almost orders.
"Holy Mary..." He sighs and is putting his fingers on the keys. Surprisingly this works too!
That can't be real, he thinks. And Liliane wanted me to act. This isn't acting at all. This seems to be a test of some sort.
The melodie is floading from his mind through his fingers on the keys and into the air. It's a wonderful fast spanish rhythm. The women start to dance again. A wide smile crosses Guido's face.
But the last shock comes when he finishs the piano piece.
The Spanish actresses want him to play a violin, insisting, because they saw him play once in a Spanish movie...
Now this is getting weird. "I..I...LUISA, NO! NOT A VIOLIN!!!"
~
"Guido, Guido!?"
"Wha..What?" Guido opens his eyes with a start.
"You yelled at me that you don't want a violin."
"I...Luisa?"
Guido feels a warm hand on his cheek, breath against his mouth. A slight kiss.
What just happened?
"It was just a dream, baby." His wife smiles warmly at him.
"Oh." He isn't able to say more. The relief is just too overwhelming.
He won't tell her what he dreamed but he certainly will be more gentle with her now. He was too close of losing her.
With a deep sigh he takes her beloved face into his hands and starts to kiss her tenderly.
~The End~~~

Click to enlarge picture
Story Index | Homepage | Del's NINE Page (in German)