by Thia Finn
“I was arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct at The Side Bar. I got into a fight with some stupid bitch. They called the cops. She didn’t get arrested, but I did because I was drunk and pissed and thought the cops were arresting the wrong person and I told them so.” Ryan pictured the scene. He’d only seen her extremely intoxicated on a few occasions, and knew she wasn’t always a fun drunk.
“I guess you should be happy that’s all you got arrested for then. They probably could have got you for resisting arrest, assaulting a police officer, and a few more things.” He laughed briefly, trying to lighten the mood between them for a moment.
“The bitch had it coming, Ryan! I didn’t attack her without a reason.”
“Tell me, Krissy. Exactly what reason was enough for you getting thrown in jail and probably losing your job over?” Ryan sat back in his seat and closed his eyes waiting.
“I left work with the excuse that I was sick. I am pissed at you. I decided if you could be drunk in the middle of the day then so could I.”
He already knew where this was headed. He had heard many times how she felt about them being apart for long periods of time. If they continued the tour with the mega band, Frission, more wild women would fill their intoxicated nights, and who knew what else. Her imagination would run wild, especially after she read the tabloid reports about the first half of the tour. He needed to hear the rest.
“Yeah, go on. You leaving early from work didn’t get you arrested.”
“So, I went to the bar and was minding my own business when this ho-bag is sitting a couple of stools over started running her mouth like we were just gonna be new BFFs and shit. I didn’t want to talk to anyone, but she kept on and on.”
“Now, wait a minute, Krissy. Did you go to a bar alone? That’s not like you to do that.”
“I called some friends but since it was the middle of the day they were all still at work. Janae was coming to join me when she got off, but everything happened before she could get there.”
“You should have waited until after work then. You know that wasn’t a safe idea.”
“It was the middle of the day asshat. How unsafe can downtown be in the middle of the day? Besides that, we go there all the time, and the people who run the place know us.
“Then, she moved over next to me and looked right at me, and said, ‘I know you. You’re one of the groupies that always follows Assured Distraction. Those guys are hot. I’ve seen them a lot of times around Austin.’
“That didn’t hit me the right way since I was already pissed and had a few beers in me. So, I looked at her and said, ‘I am not a groupie. My boyfriend is in the band.’ And do you know what that skanky bitch said to me? She said, ‘Yeah, honey, that’s what all the groupies say so they can feel better about letting those dudes get in their pants.’”
“Now, that shot my temper from zero to ten in about two seconds flat.”
“Don’t tell me, Krissy. You launched into her in the bar?”
“Hell no, I didn’t! But I wanted to. I just leaned back and looked at her, told her she had it wrong, that I’ve been Ryan Powell’s girlfriend for eight months now. The bitch had the nerve to laugh in my face.” Ryan knew where this was leading, and it didn’t look good no matter what spin she put on it.
Krissy continued, “‘well, he’s on the road now. I bet he’s got lots of girlfriends,’ she told me with this uber-bitchy look on her face. I got up and moved to one of the tables with my drink and tried to ignore her. I knew you were coming home to me, and I just tried to focus on that. Then a couple of her girlfriends came in and she just kept running her mouth, getting louder and louder the more she drank. She turned around from the bar and tried to call me out as a delusional A.D. groupie. She even had the nerve to tell them that she had hooked up with you after a concert at Red Eye Fly. She said it loud enough for everyone in the bar to hear it, too. After that, I don’t know what exactly happened because I saw red.”
Ryan stared at her in shock at her story, both the confrontation and the outcome. He shook his head and let out a long, weary sigh. Things had been going downhill since he’d stepped on the bus after the last show. He knew the blame was all going to come down to him, as it often did when things didn’t go Krissy’s way, and he wanted to do whatever he could to smooth this over quickly. He didn’t need anything else to fight with her over.
He softened when he realized that it was all behind them so why continue dredging it up. His girl was within arm’s reach, and he didn’t want to waste another minute not touching her. He leaned over the console intending to wrap his arms around her, but she jerked away from him and shoved at his chest. Staring at her in momentary confusion and hurt, he chalked it up to her foul mood and started the truck and drove home in silence.
When they arrived at his apartment, all Ryan wanted to do was pull her into the shower with him, wash away the miles of road and weeks of frustration, and then take her to bed with him, but he could tell by her demeanor that was never going to happen now. He walked through the door with her pulling his suitcase. Krissy spotted it and spun around staring at it and then him like a lightbulb had turned on in her head.
“So when were you planning to tell me?” She waited for a response.
“Tell you what?”
“Ugh! You make me so damn mad, Ryan Powell. I already know about the fucking, stupid second-half of Frisson’s tour. How long were you going to wait to tell me, huh? Maybe wait until you got some makeup sex? Think again, you sorry asshole! NOT. GONNA. HAPPEN! Right now, having any kind of sex with you is completely off the radar.
“I heard the news this morning after we talked last. The DJ on the radio was bragging about how Assured Distraction, the local Austin band, was tearing up the airwaves with their new individual iTunes releases and now had been invited to make the second-half of the tour with Frisson. Did you think you could keep that news from me for very long?”
“Now wait a minute, Krissy. I planned to tell you first thing, but you didn’t give me a fucking chance. You were in freaking lockup, remember? JAIL, KRISSY! What kind of woman gets herself thrown in jail over a damn bar fight? I’m so mad at you right now. If I wasn’t a gentleman, I shake some sense into you.”
“No, you wait a damn minute. You’re sure as shit not going to turn this around and make it about me. This is all on you. You took off on tour to play rockstar with your little rock band wannabes. Y’all were too good to continue playing here in the Austin area where there are plenty of great places to keep you busy for a lifetime. NO, that just wouldn’t satisfy you or the rest of the band, would it?”
“No, Krissy, you’re right. It damn sure wouldn’t do anymore. We are moving up to the next fucking level, and we damn well deserve it. We’ve played every smoky dive bar and every hazy club around here for years, Krissy. We fucking need to move now while the time is right. And that time is right fucking now.”
Krissy wouldn’t let it go. She turned and got back into his face again.
“I can’t do this again, Ryan. Two months, two full months, that’s how long you left me. You barely get home and you already packing to leave me, AGAIN! ” Krissy stomped around the apartment so mad with Ryan that she had to lash out with more angry words. “When do I come first? When does what I want matter? Will I EVER come before the band?”
Ryan took a second to calm down because the argument was getting out of hand. He hated yelling and screaming, and this wasn’t his style at all. He was a lover, not a fighter. He knew this kind of yelling was wrong for their relationship, and he was determined to find a way to make peace, but he simply didn’t know how to at this point. He could talk rationally with her without the yelling, but apparently she couldn’t.
Finally, taking a deep breath, he calmly stated, “Krissy, we have to go. It’s not like I’m leaving to get away from you. You know I can’t stand us being apart. But this is what we’ve been working toward for years. The tour is huge for us,” Ryan tried everything to placate h
er; he was done fighting.
“It may be huge for the band, but it sure as hell is not huge for us, as in you and me!”
“Don’t say that, Kitten. You know this isn’t about you and me.” This subject was getting old with him already. He loved his Kitten, but he did not love the feral claws that came with her, ready to scratch every time he had to choose his obligations as a band member.
“Don’t call me that. You know I hate it. This damn sure is about us, and you know it.” Krissy seemed determined not to let this go, and a sense of dread started to creep into Ryan’s chest. “Constant touring is exactly the reason Janae wanted Jacoby out of the band. When they started getting better, she invited me to go over there and keep her company. She knew y’all would be gone all the time, and I would be alone. We talked about how this was going to be our lives now, and it sucks, Ryan.” She was practically whining at this point.
“No fucking way you are going to compare us to them. She’s the devil incarnate, and you know it. Look how badly she messed with Jacoby’s head trying to make him feel guilty over cheating given the chance on the road. That he might fucking cheat on her in the future! What kind of trust did she have in him? None, Krissy. Damn, she got him to quit the band over it and take some shitty day job, for Christ’s sake, and I know he’s miserable. He fucking loves music. It was his life before she got into his head. And now, it sounds like she got to you, too. She’s obviously convinced you I’m not trustworthy either. I spent two months on the road doing nothing wrong. I ignored other women’s advances. I was enjoying the music too much to worry about finding someone else.”
He took another deep, calming breath. He didn’t want to lose what they had. He needed to talk some sense into her in a way she would know this was the right thing for them at this point. “Krissy, this is so important to our future. We’ve just signed with 13 Recordings, and we have this huge opportunity on this tour with Frission. The bottom line is the label wants us to go, and we have to listen to them. The tour lasts three months, and then we will be back at home and in the studio for a few months finishing up recording the music for the new album. Everything we’ve worked for has been to get to this point, and the things that are going to happen over the next six months.”
Once they finished laying down the tracks for their first album under the label, the Austin, Texas-based recording studio would have all of their music mixed and ready to go as soon as the end of the year. With that out of the way, AD would be ready to headline their tour promoting their new music with opening acts.
“But you’ve toured with Frission already, and I saw what went on with those guys. You know it’s not our lifestyle.”
He knew Krissy couldn’t get past the sex, drugs and rock-and-roll stereotype, and he hated with a passion whoever coined the phrase, no matter how clichéd or accurate it was to the musician lifestyle. At this point, the biggest obstacle he wondered about was the fact she didn’t trust him. If she couldn’t understand he was doing the right thing when he was away, what kind of relationship did they have?
Ryan realized Krissy was seemingly hell-bent on punishing him for something he wasn’t even guilty of, and they were at an impasse. He’d been as faithful as a guy could be to her their entire relationship. He was crazy about her, had done everything he could think of to make sure she knew that, and he needed her to realize the partying and sex with random groupies on the road held no interest for him in comparison to being in Krissy’s bed.
“Look, Krissy, you knew when we started seeing each other that our goal was to be huge. We never intended to stick locally. We dreamed of making it big. I can’t understand now that it’s happening; you’re not on board with our dream. Maybe you never had enough faith in us from the beginning. I don’t know, but what I do know is, we have to do this, and it hurts me that you don’t support what we are doing.”
She stared at him with a look he didn’t quite understand. Was she angry still? Was she finally thinking over what he was saying? He was praying that’s what was going on in her head.
“I promise it will be different when we are the headliners, but right now we have to continue to go along with what the label wants and what Cash wants us to do. How can I tell the band no? We’ve worked too hard for this, and they’re counting on me. And Cash, he has worked hard right alongside us to get the band where we want to be.”
“Look, Kitten. I know this is hard for you right now but just think of how great our lives will soon be. You’ll never have to work another day because I’ll be making tons of money for us. We can have the best of anything you want. Nothing will be too good for my girl.”
“Ryan, you know I want us to be together. I don’t want to give up on our dreams either, but this is too hard.” Krissy seemed to be relenting somewhat. At least she stopped yelling at him. He knew if he stooped low enough to tie it to working and money, he might have her eating out of the palm of his hand, but the idea those things finally swayed her so easily didn’t sit well with him.
“But that’s just it, Kitten. The hard parts will be behind us. When we make it big, you’ll be able to travel with us when you want and stay home when you want. The money we’ll make will afford us the time we need to be together.” Oh man, I’m digging this money hole deeper and deeper, he thought.
”I’ll be alone for twelve full weeks; that’s a quarter of the year, Ryan. I hate it.” The big tears welling in her rich chocolate eyes, pulled at his heart. “Well, I don’t like it, you know. I’m still not happy, Ryan. I want you home, with me. How can we ever be a couple if you’re always taking off?”
“I’m sorry baby, but that’s just how it’s going to be for a while.”
When they met months ago, he’d been immediately smitten, and that’s how he’d come up with her “Kitten” nickname. Their relationship had burned hot and intense, like a grassfire in the Hill Country, and while he hated being away from her for even a day, he thought they were both on the same page. He had truly believed the girl he was devoted to was a big supporter of him chasing his dreams. Had he been so completely wrong about her loyalty and commitment to his vision of their life together? The realization made his blood run cold.
He had to win her back and convince her to hang in there for a year or two. He ran his hands down her arms slowly, loving the feel of her silky skin. “Listen, let’s get dressed and we’ll have a date night, just the two of us. Wear something smokin’ hot for me. I’ll even put on a suit for you. I’ll call Peri to see if she can get us into the Driskoll Grill and we’ll spend the night at the hotel, too. I know how you love the classy old place.”
“I see what you’re doing, Ryan. You’re trying to change my mind with your sexy eyes and a nice dinner and mind-blowing sex.” He wrapped his muscular arms around her middle and showered her neck and collarbone with tender kisses. Leaning her head to one side giving in to his soothing caresses for a moment, she said, “I’ll say ‘yes’ to dinner and the hotel because you and I both know I deserve it for all I have to put up with..” He knew there were some things she couldn’t resist.
What he couldn’t resist was her fragrance. She always wore a scent that drove him wild. She always applied it below her ears and smelling it now drove him crazy with need for her. When he kissed up the side of her neck, it made him want to skip the hotel and take her right then. He had missed everything about her and was ready to make up for lost time.
Pulling back from her, he gave her the panty dropping smile he knew was his best weapon against her rage. It thawed her on the spot every time. “Listen, Kitten, why don’t you go shopping for something to wear tonight, my treat? Here’s my card, pick out something sexy so I can spend the evening imagining all the things I’ll get to do to you once we get to our room.” He pulled out his phone to call Peri, still holding his credit card in his hand that Krissy had yet to snatch from him, and he watched her prepare to leave.
Now that he had smoothed that over hopefully for another twenty-four hours, at least, he was g
oing to have to figure out something about the tour. He had been thinking about doing this night at the Driskoll after they argued during his first weeks on the road. He never dreamed it would be on the night he got home and after picking her up from jail. He didn’t know how he was going to keep Krissy happy with this whole second leg. Spending day-after-day on the bus wouldn’t allow for privacy so they could talk alone too often. He couldn’t exactly placate her with date nights from long distance. She didn’t have vacation time from work to visit him at each location they would play, and he played the concerts weekends. Leaning back against the wall, he flexed the tension filled muscles in his neck. The future was not looking good for him right now.
Krissy finally plucked the card from his hand and skipped from the apartment, ready to shop to her heart’s content. He wanted her to feel beautiful and sexy, and knew she would take him up on this offer. Sometimes he wondered if she used her looks and seductive skills to take advantage of him but what he really wanted was for her to be happy for his success. He couldn’t understand why she didn’t see that the more success the band had, the better things would be between them. He hoped she let this scheme drop and not spend the entire afternoon devising a plan to keep him home. He didn’t want to deal with this anymore.
While Krissy was off getting the princess treatment Ryan was gladly paying for, he headed to the studio at 13 Recordings to check in on tour updates and band news. Walking into the lobby, Ryan hung back to enjoy Peri charming the pants off of some kid standing at the front desk with his back to the door. Ryan didn’t recognize the kid, but young musicians were always showing up here looking for a break or a job. He planned a quick stop, hoping he might get to catch a nap before his night out with Krissy.
“So, you’re telling me you a relative to one of the band members we’ve recently signed?” Peri’s bright red lips were turned up in a beautiful smile that Ryan was sure had almost completely derailed the kid. The kid would be lucky to remember his name when Peri finished with her interrogation. She always dressed like a knock-out in her classic pin-up girl style and today was no exception.
