In A Million Chances

1

Amelia looks out into the crowd as Morgan sings. She's proud that he has come this far, they are in Denver tonight and the crowd is wild. The song ends and she starts the next one on her guitar. Amelia Leymar has been playing lead guitar for Morgan Wallen since he had first come to Nashville. Amelia had been at Jason Aldean's playing for some chick who thought she could sing but honestly, she was going no where. After the set, Morgan had approached her. He had been in town for less than a day and he needed a lead guitarist. He stood there asking her what she played and then asked her if she would be in his band. She hadn't even heard him sing yet, but it had felt right and she needed the money so without any hesitation she said yes. Now here she was five years later, watching his sell out crowd sing Whiskey Glasses back to him. They end the show and head back stage to get ready to move on to the next city.

Amelia had just finished helping a group of guys load up a box of mic stands into the trailer when Morgan, Michael Hardy and Ernest Smith come around the corner.

"Hey Meli babe!" Morgan yells. He had started calling her that some years ago when some asshole at a bar on Broadway in Nashville had forgotten her name while trying to pick her up. The term babe had been overused. Morgan and his buddies thought it was hilarious and he had morphed it into a nickname.

"What do you want Wallen?" She asks quizzically, stopping what she was doing.

"You're coming to the bar with us tonight." Morgan demands, a smirk on his face.

"Da hell if I am!" Amelia laughs back.

"I told yuh, she's going to sit in the hotel room in her pajama's and watch shitty tv. Just sit in there all night like a sad sap." Hardy says, shaking his head.

"I resent that and I'm not going to no bar with a bunch of boys." Amelia lifts a box of cords onto a shelf in the trailer.

"No way, you're not getting away with that, Caleigh's goin'." Morgan points over at Hardy's girlfriend who is standing by the entrance to the staging area.

"I don't want to go either! If we hate it we can leave, don't let me go alone! Please go!" Caleigh yells from her place by the wall.

"Fuck! Fine!" Amelia throws up her arms in defeat. " I could use a good laugh see' in your dumbass get shot down Wallen."

"Whatever get's you there Leymar." He laughs.

•••

Just like she had thought it would be, the bar is overly crowded with drunk assholes and party girls. Not Amelia's favorite scene by any means. She sits in the corner sipping on her whiskey, watching Caleigh and Hardy laugh on the dance floor. She really shouldn't have come, the last thing she wanted to see were lovesick couples. She doesn't blame Caleigh for ditching her to dance with her boyfriend, she would too if she had one. She couldn't remember the last time a guy had looked her way, let alone kissed her. A new glass appears next to her close to empty one. She looks up to see Morgan standing there as some girls ogled him from the bar top across from her table.

"Looked like you needed a refill." He slides in across from her.

"Thanks. How's the women hunting going?" She asks. "Looks like you have a couple ready for a go around if you want." She points at the girls by the bar.

"Eh. I'm getting tired of that. How's your perfect man search?" He too was now watching Hardy spin Caleigh around on the dance floor. Amelia laughs at his perfect man comment.

"Perfect man my ass. At this point I think these guy's must have their radar's tuned wrong and think I'm a cold fish, and you not chase tail? Please."

"How long's it been Meli babe?" He knocks back the rest of his drink, looking anywhere but her eyes.