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smaller boat for a sumptuous 40-footer that he christened “Celebration.” He docked it at the marina near the Pentagon, not far from the Georgetown nightclub district. He bought an Aston Martin sports car to dazzle the ladies as he drove them back and forth between the boat and the nightlife. Then, one fateful night in the summer of 2000, at the Café Milano in Georgetown, Tareq Salahi found himself being introduced to a tall, willowy platinum blonde named Michaele Holt. She turned to him with a megawatt smile and he felt himself stopped cold in his fancy tracks. Today’s public may be familiar with Michaele’s charisma, but Tareq had no defenses prepared. She struck him as the most beautiful woman in the world. What chance did he have? For crying out loud, the Gipsy Kings were actually playing in the background. Tareq Salahi had just walked smack into a close encounter with the First Kind.
    His life would never be the same.

     
    Tareq Salahi had no idea that he had competition for the lovely Michaele’s attention. A bona fide rock star, no less!
    In the fall of 1998 Michaele read about an upcoming Journey concert at Washington, DC’s Constitution Hall. She just knew she and Susan Dove had to be there so she scooped up two tickets.
    “We went to reconnect with something we had in our youth,” Michaele said. “To reestablish the bond we had. It was great!”
    November 1, 1998 would turn out to be a fateful night. Michaele would get to meet Journey’s lead guitarist Neal Schon, a huge thrill for a long time fan. Michaele says shyness kept her from agreeing to give him her telephone number but he gave her his. Months later, after Michaele says she was convinced that she and Eddie Gallis had no future, she dialed the number Schon had given her.
    “I told him I was just calling to say hello. He said, ‘Oh, my God! You finally called! What took you so long!? When can we get together?’”
    It was a surreal experience for Michaele to be talking to Schon. She remembers as a young girl hearing her brother Howard’s band play their rendition of her favorite Journey song, “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’” from Journey’s Evolution album. She loved that tune and here she was, years later, talking on the phone to Journey’s guitarist and— he wanted to get together!
    The bottom line to their long distance flirting is, according to Michaele, that she and Neal Schon entered into a long and very passionate relationship that lasted for years. Her job allowed her to make quick two and three day trips to venues where Journey was performing. She says Neal often made his way to the Virginia-Washington, DC area so they could spend private time together. Susan Dove confirms that Schon asked Michaele to move to California at one point but leaving her family, especially her mother, was out of the question. Photographs taken of Michaele and Neal together over the years—some backstage with other Journey band mates, some depicting just the two of them cuddling—reveal a carefree, happy couple of people.
    What’s not clear is the exact nature of their relationship.
    When contacted via Facebook in mid-July 2010 and asked about it Schon wrote, “Sorry not interested right now … there’s too much controversy with them and don’t think it’s a positive thing for me at this point. Neal.” When pressed further he wrote on July 20, 2010, “We have been friends for years. Neal.” He later suggested that any more questions be directed to his attorney but Schon did not provide a lawyer’s name to contact.
    “I never told Neal about my health condition,” Michaele says today. I loved Neal very much but I couldn’t see myself in his lifestyle. I thought, ‘What happens if I’m symptomatic and my stamina, my balance is going or my vision?’ I needed someone who I could rely on no matter what.”
    Michaele Ann Holt says she has loved only three men in her life—Eddie Gallis, Neal Schon and Tareq Salahi.
    Tareq won.

 
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