Chance Of A Lifetime

Maybe It's Time

August 2020:

      Ashley slipped in through the front door, then quietly closed it, so that he didn't wake Aerin. But after removing his boots and padding carefully through the living room, he realized that his efforts were completely unnecessary when he heard his roommate's voice drifting down the hall from her room, apparently carrying on a conversation with someone. 

      For a moment, he assumed that she was either Skyping or on the phone with Aidan, but as he glanced at the clock on the mantel, he realized that this was rather unlikely. It was three thirty-seven on a Thursday morning, and he recalled from an earlier chat that she would be waking up to get ready for work in about ninety minutes, so he moved toward the hallway instead of continuing on to his room.

      She almost instantly went silent, but after a couple of seconds, she called out, "Whoever's creeping around in the hall had fuckin' well better be my roommate! If you're not, then I seriously suggest that you haul ass before I start throwin' knives down the damn hall!"

      "Settle down there, Hit-Girl, it's me!" he called in response. "I just thought I heard voices, and I wanted to be sure everything was cool."

      He heard a slight giggle from Aerin, then a male voice saying, "Hey there, Ash! It's just me. I shot Aerin a text asking her to call me when she woke up, and found out she was still up when I got the Skype notification not five minutes later."

      Continuing on down the hall to Aerin's room, he stepped in to see her cross-legged on the bed in a Sailor Moon tank top and a pair of black boxers. She had her laptop positioned in front of her on a stack of pillows, with her eyes fixed on the image of Bobby Dall that filled the screen, shifting his eyes between herself and Ashley.

      "Hey, Bobby," he replied. "How's the tour going?"

      "So far, so good," the older man replied. "The crowds are fantastic, nobody's gotten sick, and no one's gotten into any fistfights this go-round. Not yet, at least, but we've still got almost two weeks to go, so I better shut up before I jinx it."

      "I can definitely relate," Ashley chuckled. "When I was in the band, at least two of us would have gotten hurt in some way by this point. Mostly Andy, but everyone, including the crew, had a turn at one time or another."

      At this point, Aerin seemed to have noticed the time, because she arched an eyebrow at Ashley and drawled, "I didn't expect to see you 'til after daylight, since you didn't make it back before the bars closed. And you seem strangely sober for someone who was out bar-hopping with Shi and Joey, now that I think of it."

      He returned the raised brow, along with a slight smirk, and said, "Probably because I spent the last couple of hours working it off, if you know what I mean."

      "Oh, we know what you mean!" Aerin and Bobby shouted in unison, sending themselves into a brief fit of laughter. After they had recovered, Aerin inquired, "Well, why'ntcha just spend the night at her place, then? Or bring her here? Not like I ain't slept in my earbuds a time or three since I've been here."

      "I didn't bring her here because this wasn't someone I know well enough to want her to have my address just yet" he explained. "It was that new barmaid I was telling you about at the Pit Stop. The one that looks like the chick in those old Whitesnake videos. And I didn't stay over because it turns out that she's living at home with her dad until she can find an apartment, and I had to leave before he came home from work. Just the way my luck goes lately."

      "I remember those days," Bobby stated, "That shit was eighteen different flavors of fun for a few years, but then it actually got kind of boring. There was no challenge to it anymore."