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."

      "Well, I don't think you have to worry about that particular problem anymore," Ashley informed him with a laugh. Gesturing toward Aerin, he added, "I'm actually pretty convinced that 'Challenge' is this one's middle name."

      He laughed again when she raised both middle fingers to him, then said his good-nights and excused himself to go to his own room. As he left, he heard Bobby regretfully telling Aerin that he should probably end the call and get some sleep, and he paused to hear her response. After a slight pause, she responded in kind, and ended the call.

      Then, as he was about to walk away, he heard her mumble, "Fuck's sake, Bobby, if you're as interested as you claim you are, why'ntcha say anything about meetin' up again?"

      "Maybe he's wondering the same thing about you, sugar," he muttered under his breath as he finally made his way to his bedroom. As soon as he closed the door, he dropped his boots to the floor, fished his phone from his pocket, and scrolled through his contacts. When he found the number he was seeking, he thumbed the phone and listened as it started to ring.

      Midway through the second ring, the call connected, and Bobby said, "Ash? I just finished talking with Aerin, so what's up?""

      "What's up is that my roomie is as stubborn as a Missouri mule," Ashley replied. "I heard her mumbling to herself after you two finished talking, wondering why you weren't making any suggestions about seeing each other again."

      "Oh, I sure as hell thought about it, but I didn't wanna push too hard," Bobby responded. "I was kinda hoping that she'd bring it up."

      "If you're waiting on that, you might end up with a beard down to your beltbuckle before it happens. Again: Mule. Pig-headed. Utterly fucking obstinate. Plus, in a weird sort of way, I think that she's trying to... I dunno, go about things in sort of a more 'traditional' manner , I guess you'd say."

      "You mean wait for me to make the first move, then?" Bobby queried. "I've got no problem with that, but again, I don't want to push."

      "Well, why not let me do it, then? That's actually pretty much why I called you," Ashley explained. "I was thinking that between the two of us, we can pin down a time in the next month or so for you to come out here to Nashville and spend a few days out here, so you two can get to know each other a bit better."

      "If you're sure you're really up for having me out there, what would you say if I just head out to your place after the last show, instead of going home to Florida? Cause from what you just described to me, it sounds like she's getting as antsy about this as I am. At least I sure as hell hope so!"

      "Sounds like a plan to me," Ashley responded. "And I'm also thinking that you shouldn't mention it if you guys talk again before that, and we'll make it a surprise. She claims that she doesn't like them, but I'm pretty damn sure she'll make an exception in this case. Just let me know when you're figuring on getting here, and I'll pick you up at the airport."

      They talked a bit more, solidifying their plan, then Bobby ended the call, pleading exhaustion and saying that he didn't want to sleep through his entire day off. Ashley put his phone in the charging dock on his nightstand and finished undressing, then decided to take a quick shower before falling into bed. As he scrubbed himself, he smiled to himself as he ran through the surprise that he had just helped to engineer for his roommate, picturing what he imagined her reaction might be when she saw Bobby here in their home. 

      Once he had finished showering, he dried off and padded into the bedroom to practically dive into his king-sized bed. His bedside clock told him that it was now just after five AM, and he congratulated himself for giving himself an extended weekend from all of his various jobs, because there was no way on earth that he was going to get back out of bed before noon, if not later.

      As exhausted and hung-over as he was, he assumed that he would be able to sleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, but he was quickly proven wrong when his brain simply refused to shut itself down. It began to replay pieces of recent conversations he'd had, and things that he had noticed during his and Aerin's backstage visit at the concert. The spark between Bobby and Aerin had been obvious from the second they laid eyes on each other, and he had to admit that he was becoming convinced that they might actually be able to form a functioning relationship, once they got past the current speedbump of Aerin's stubbornness. 

      It was this conclusion that contributed to his sleepless state, because he couldn't keep himself from wondering why he hadn't found that kind of connection with someone. During the early years of his career, he had actively avoided the entire idea of relationships, in favor of indulging the "rock-star" dreams of his teenage years, chief among them the stereotype of "a different woman every night". But after meeting a young woman who he had actually become briefly engaged to, and a fairly long-term relationship with his ex-girlfriend Kina, he had been forced to admit to himself that there were actually good things to be said about committed relationships. 

      In an actual relationship, the parties involved actually had the time to get to know and understand each other, and to find things that attracted them other than appearance, or material objects. And while he was the first to admit that he greatly enjoyed looking at a good pair of legs or large breasts, the attraction usually faded fairly rapidly if there wasn't a fair level of intelligence and a good personality to go along with them. He chuckled softly to himself as he recalled something one of his uncles had said to him regarding an attractive, but very shallow and spoiled classmate he had developed a crush on in middle school. 

      "Lemme tell ya somethin' kid," his uncle had said as they tinkered with his motorcycle in the yard one afternoon. "Just because this girl gets your motor goin', doesn't mean she won't cause you a buttload of trouble with her stuck-up little princess attitude. You need to make sure that the inside at least matches up with the outside,  and it's even better if you end up with a nice surprise." When he had admitted that he wasn't sure he completely understood the point, his uncle had clarified, saying, "Okay, lemme put it this way; it's your birthday, or Christmas. Which would you rather have? A Playstation in a paper grocery bag, or a big, fancy-wrapped box with ribbons and party horns, but not a damn thing inside? Cause lemme tell ya, that girl you're spending so much time drooling over is a prime example of option number two. And pretty wrappings don't mean squat if there's nothin' in the box."

      His uncle had been right about the girl, and he had hung onto the memory of the conversation, even if he hadn't always followed the advice. "Not always?" he muttered to himself, as he squirmed on the mattress, trying to get comfortable. "Hell, I've ignored it more times than not, and look where the fuck it's gotten me. Mid-thirties, still screwing around like a frat boy, and no prospects of a relationship in sight. Maybe it's time for me to get my priorities straight and start paying more attention to what's in the boxes, instead of passing up the ones that aren't wrapped in neon and glitter." 

      After making this decision, he was finally able to relax enough for sleep to finally overtake him. His last conscious thought before drifting off was, "Yep, that's what I'm gonna do. Just as soon as I get Aerin to stop being so goddamn mule-headed and admit that she wants this thing to work out just as much as he does. Once I get her taken care of, then I can concentrate on fixing my own life. I just wish I was lucky enough to have someone help me find my spark."