Worry Rock

”Girls and guys can’t be just friends,” Billie Joe snarled, “You don’t get it. Look at us!”

“Oh please, you had every intention to be with me,” I spat. “You’ve said so yourself. My god. If you hate Travis so much then stop obsessing over him.”

“Obsessing?!” Billie Joe cried out. “I’m not fucking obsessing over him! I’m asking you to stop obsessing over him! He moves to California for you--,”

“He moved to California because he wanted to. When I first met him he told me he wanted to move here.”

“Oh right,” Billie Joe hissed, “And he just so happened to somehow move to the Bay area like where we are.”

“Oh please. I helped him look at homes when we were in Florida last year. I brought him a few Real Estate magazines.”

“So you wanted him to move here.”

“He’s my best friend, damnit!” I cried out in anger, “who do you think you are to judge that?”

“Rachel is your best friend.”

“Yes,” I agreed, “But she is one of you. She’s with Tre. I need someone I can vent to when we have a fight that won’t sit there and try to convince me how much you love me.”

“Well then you’ve found the right person to talk to.”

“Travis has never done a thing to you, Billie Joe. From what I recall, you started that fight on the boardwalk with the poor guy.”

“He had it coming.”

I scowled at him, lifting a hand that had been aching to slap him within the last fifteen minutes. “Travis is my best friend, Billie Joe. You are my fiancé. I gave birth to our child. Stop acting like a victim to a terrible crime.”

“Your husband is going to have a cow.”

I giggled as I wrapped my arm around Travis’s neck. “So you’re the one I’ve gotten that from. I’ve been telling that to Billie Joe a lot lately and it’s pissing him off.”

Travis chuckled. “Then don’t tell him where it came from. God knows I don’t need another reason for that man to hate me.” I smiled sleepily against Travis’s naked chest. He sighed softly but smiled as he ran a hand through my hair. “What are you doing up at this hour, hon?”

“I can’t sleep. I’ve been feeling so terrible and now Billie Joe wants me to take counseling.”

Travis cocked an eyebrow. “Counseling? Don’t you hate that?”

“Yes!” I cried out, causing the man next to me to jump. “So much! So much. And Billie Joe knows that, he just…doesn’t know what else to do.”

“About what?” Travis asked, cocking an eyebrow slowly.

He was tired; it was obvious every time I looked at the thirty-seven year old. His eyes had circles under them as did my own now. Every time I looked over at him he seemed to be mid-yawn, his eyes watering subconsciously from lack of sleep. I sighed softly. “I’m sorry,” I apologized. “You look dead. I should go and let you sleep.”

Travis groaned. I now raised an eyebrow towards him. “It’s two in the morning, sweetie,” he muttered, “of course I’m tired. But you came over here distressed about something, so it’s all good.”

I shook my head and stood up. Travis scowled but buried his head into the couch cushion. “I should go. I’ll come back tomorrow.”

“And how would you get home?” Travis asked slowly.

“A cab. Just like I got here,” I stated simply.

Travis groaned again. “No.” He sat up straighter and pulled me back into his arms. I wrapped my hand in the t-shirt that Travis had thrown on once he had told me I could go over that night, [or morning, depending on how you looked at it] so that he wasn’t in only boxers. “How about we do this. Stay here so you don’t have to pay for the taxi again. Any taxi driver now would probably hate you anyway, famous or not. Stay here, you can have the guest room or wherever pleases you and tomorrow we’re dissect all your problems and I’ll make you one of my amazing breakfasts.”

I laughed at Travis’s cockiness about his cooking. “I may just have to take you up on that offer.”

Travis grinned widely. “Good.” He looked at me for a moment. “Are you going to be alright sleeping in that? If not, I’ll lend you a shirt and boxers? Or I’m sure I’ve got sweatpants somewhere. Even a pair of shorts would--,”

“I’m fine,” I interrupted Travis’s ramblings with a grin, “I’m comfortable.”

Travis nodded and went to get up. He hesitated and then sat back down. “Don’t you think you should call your husband so he doesn’t flip at the fact that you’ve gone missing?”

I snorted and stood up, pulling Travis up with me. “No, but thanks. I think the only thing that’d piss him off more than me taking a cab to come over here at two in the morning is actually calling him at two in the morning.”

The man next to me cringed. “Your husband isn’t going to throw a flip once he finds that you’re here right now, will he?”

I thought for a moment. “Yes,” I admitted. “But he’ll get over it. It’ll be more of a territorial thing. Why I came to you at two in the morning instead of him when he was just lying next to me in bed.”

Travis watched me, deep in thought for a long moment. “Why did you come to me?” He asked slowly.

I smiled softly and then wrapped an arm around his neck. I stood on the tips of my toes, given the fact that Travis was about 6’0” or taller and pressed my lips to his check, right near the side of his mouth. “Because you’re my best friend. And I love you.” I smiled softly as I went from the tips of my toes to rest my head on his chest. “I trust you.”

Travis smiled lightly and nodded down at me. His eyes were soft and there were unsaid words hidden through them as we both smiled one last time at each other.

And if it was a true fact that during ever awkward silence a gay baby was born, there would have been a proud parent.

+++

“I was worried.”

“I’m sorry,” I apologized softly. “I didn’t know what to do so I just took a cab over here.”

“You could have woken me up. That would have been much better than taking a cab to his house at two in the morning. You can wake him up but not me?”

“He didn’t just get home a few hours ago from the bar because he had broken down at the studio.”

“I’m not some mental patient, Joe. I just didn’t have a good day. I didn’t get drunk. I went to the bar and had a drink or two because I was sulking. I came home tipsy. I wasn’t stumbling or slurring my words when I came home. I wanted to go to bed and do nothing but cuddle with you. I know it’s not as good as sober, but there was no reason why you couldn’t have woken me up last night and came to me.” He was quiet for a moment and then sighed deeply. “You’re supposed to do that. You’re married to me, Joe.”

“Billie, baby, it’s nothing like that. I love you. Honestly. And of course I married you.” I didn’t know what to say at that moment. It was terribly obvious that I had hurt my husbands’ feelings by getting in a cab and coming over here, but I didn’t feel guilty. “And I wanted to talk to you, I just--,”

“You just rather pay twenty bucks for a quick escape to your best friends’ house instead of shaking me awake,” he murmured. “Of course. You could have woken me, but I was drunk, more so than I thought then. I understand,” he finished quietly.

I hesitated, the guilt flooding for the first time. That had done it. He became quiet for the first time, making it obvious that he was sulking. My heart felt as if an anchor made out of lead was tied to it when the picture of my forty-five year old husband sitting in bed underneath the duvet, his small body surrounded by the white sheets sulking entered my mind. When the image of him sobbing in the middle of the studio as Mike had described replaced that, it was almost too hard to take. “Can you come get me in an hour or two?” I whispered. “Travis isn’t up yet, and well, I came over at two in the morning. I just need to talk to him quickly.”

“Yeah,” he answered quietly.

I brought my knees up to my chest and buried my face in them, my cell phone pressed against my ear firmly. “I’m so sorry, Billie,” I apologized. “Sometimes I just do these stupid things like this. I just figured that after that shit at the studio you were sick of my crying and whining. I reacted without thinking. Yes, you are my husband and I love you. I’m sorry.”

And for the first time in about three weeks, I began to sob. But for a different reason. “Fuck,” Billie Joe hissed. “Joe, let me come get you now.”

I sobbed lightly into my hands, shaking my head. I could hear Billie Joe rustling around on the other side of the phone, pulling his clothes on when the door to the guest bedroom was opened. My eyes widened as I looked up from my curled up position on the bed. Travis sighed. “Hang up the phone, sweetie.”

I placed it on the bed, wiping feverishly at the tears running down my cheeks. Travis crossed the room and picked it up. “Billie?” I could nearly see the disgusted look on my husbands face as he heard Travis’s deep voice. “I’m going to take your wife for a little while. Let me talk to her. I’ll drop her off later.” Billie Joe spoke back. Travis rolled his eyes and sat down next to me, bringing an arm around my body. “I’m not going to fight with you right now. I told you, I’ll drop her off later. Take your daughter to school, or do whatever you would normally do even if Mandy was there. A few hours apart won’t kill you considering you go on tour for months.” I watched Travis intently as he listened to my husband ramble, the disgust in the older man’s voice finally fading while becoming replaced with worry. Travis smiled softly to himself and nodded, his arm still wrapped around my body and rubbing my arm. “I know.” Another silence. Travis nodded slowly. “Alright. Thank you. Bye.”

Travis closed my phone and placed it on the bed slowly. I looked down at it as he pulled me closer against his warm body and sighed. He seemed to hesitate and then got up and walked out of the room. I continued to sit on the large bed, my eyebrow now quirked in confusion until he came back with a sweater that read Florida State across the front in red and yellow. “What’s this for?” I asked softly, wiping the last of my tears away.

“We’re going outside,” Travis answered simply. “You know how cold it gets.”

Travis was lucky enough to have one of the most beautiful homes in the Bay area, right on the Bay. It was absolutely beautiful during the day and night. I had always been jealous of his house, to be perfectly honest. Billie Joe and I lived in a beautiful house, true, but Travis’s was not only beautiful but right on the bay so that he only had to walk down his back yard to the rocks that lead down to it. Whenever I had gone over during the summer, if Billie Joe and I had had a fight or when he was away on tour or to just simply spend time with Travis, a good majority of the time was spent on the rocks. His kitchen was huge, with a huge window above the sink so that when you were eating or cooking or doing anything, you could simply look up and see the bay. When storms came, it was one of the most amazing and terrifying thing to be at that house.

Because of the fact that he lived right on the water, the breeze was unbearable and it seemed to be always cold outside there. Whenever I would go over to his home, I’d have to make sure I had a sweater so I didn’t freeze to death. Travis was use to it, so it made no difference to him.

I slid on the two-sizes too big Florida University sweatshirt and stood up slowly. Not even bothering to brush the mess my hair had become last night, I pulled the hood up over my head so that no one could notice the birds nest it resembled. I looked down at my sweatpants that I had changed into quickly before I had come over the night before, out of my original pajama bottoms and then followed him out of the large bedroom quickly. Travis was already downstairs making a pot of coffee. “Is it cold out?” I asked when I entered the kitchen.

Travis turned away from the coffee to look at me. He grinned widely. “Nah. It’s actually nice today.”

I winced. “So that means about ten degrees lower than what I’m used to, right?”

Travis chuckled. “That depends. What exactly are you used to?”

“Seventies is nice,” I mumbled.

Travis crossed the large kitchen to the large back doors that lead out to his backyard. “Sixty four.”

I scoffed while Travis laughed and poured us each a cup of coffee. He handed the mug to me and took the other for himself and then lead me to the back doors, letting the both of us and his cat outside. I closed the glass door behind me and took his warm hand in my own as he led me back amongst the rocks.

Did it make me a bad person to not be bothered by handing anyone else’s hand than my husbands?

Yeah. Pretty much. You know you’d flip if you saw Billie Joe holding anyone else’s hand.

So I’m a hypocrite. What else is new? It’s not like Travis is going out of his way to prevent this.

…And you expect him to?

He’s got good morals, but he’s still a man.

I could feel his eyes on me as I sat down on the only flat rock next to him silently. “What’s up?” He asked, taking a sip from his coffee.

I shook my head, snapping out of thought and then looked over at him. “What?” I asked slowly.

Travis grinned. Over the years his smile had never changed. It’s was amazing and completely contagious. “You were staring. Completely out of it.”

I giggled and slid closer to the thirty-eight year old, entwining my fingers with his own.

”We’re best friends, Billie Joe. Please stop.”

Billie Joe snorted. “Best friends? Oh please. If your lips moved anymore to the right or left when you two kiss each others cheeks you’d be fucking making out!”

“Oh you’re disgusting,” I snarled. “I never saw Travis like that and he’s never seen me like that--,”

“Don’t lie,” Billie Joe spat, “don’t even try that shit.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “Are you telling me you think I secretly fancy my best friend?”

Billie Joe stared at me for a few second. He laughed. “Are you too stupid to see what everyone else sees?” He asked.

I watched my husband in confusion as he glared back at me. “What?”

“Oh come on, Joe. That man is completely in love with you.” He hesitated. “He has been for the past fourteen years.”

Travis never showed any sign of love to me other than being a best friend to me. Our lips had never met, and he had never even tried to change that. A big part of me did wonder if what Billie Joe had said was true, and if that was the actual reason as to why he hated the younger man so much, or if it was simply Billie Joe speaking when he was upset.

I rested my head against Travis’s shoulder, watching the water below. I felt Travis tense slightly and then ease. “You know what we need to do, right?” He asked me softly.

I took my head form his shoulder to look up at him. I grinned suggestively. “Have an amazingly fun water fight and then go and watch a movie with each other?”

Travis chuckled. “No, darling.”

“Get sugar for the coffee?”

Travis chuckled again. “One last chance.”

I grinned and wriggled my eyebrows. “Forget what we were talking about and give sex on the beach a whole new meaning?”

Travis laughed now. He reached in back of him, laying down across the rock so that he could place his mug on the solid ground instead of holding it. “Unfortunately not.”

I placed a finger underneath my eye and drug it down my cheek to resemble a tear as I pushed out my lower lip. “Well we can push aside whatever else we’ve got to do and replace it with one of those things I just mentioned?”

Travis smiled. “I wish.”

A silence overcame us.

“Your husband is worried about you. Apparently you’ve been hysterical for the past month now.”

I scowled. “Lies. I haven’t cried for the past three weeks.”

Travis smiled sympathetically. “And before that?” He pushed.

“Yeah,” I muttered, “Kay, fine. I’m a bit of a crybaby.”

Travis rolled his eyes playfully. “Not what I had in mind. What’s been going on, hon?”

“Nothing,” I stated simply. “I’m perfectly over it.”

“Over what?”

“It.”

“And what’s it?”

I watched Travis for a moment, both of our eyes connected. “It was stupid. I’m alright.”

“But your husband isn’t.”

I could feel my body tense as his did only a few moments ago. I sighed. “He’s just…I don’t know. He tells me I’m not the same. I’ve changed. I’ve changed before, haven’t I?”

“You never came to my house at two in the morning because you couldn’t talk to him,” he told me. “You’ve never been not able to talk to him.”

I scowled. “That doesn’t mean I’m different. I’m just a bad a liar.”

Travis smiled. “And now we’re getting somewhere.”

“But there’s nowhere to go, Trav,” I stressed. I stood up on the rock, my hand squeezing his subconsciously as I became nervous that I’d fall. “For a while I was just depressed over a stupid decision over my own. I’m a terrible liar, so I made much more of a big deal out of it than I should have.”

Travis watched me. “And what was that--,”

“I’m on birth control,” I muttered.

Travis cocked an eyebrow. “…Haven’t you always been?”

“Yes,” I agreed, “or well, since February.”

I sat down on my best friend’s lap, curling up against his chest. “Billie Joe wants to have a baby, Travis.”

Another proud parent.

“…Oh.”

“Yes,” I murmured. “And ever since my birthday. Since that whole screwed up shit…I just realized that I can’t carry another child of his now. I can’t have a baby when I can barely trust him.” I laughed. “But that’s so stupid. Because now I’m just as bad as he was. I’m lying to him. He’s been trying to make a child with me for the past few months, but,” I laughed dryly, “I’m on birth control. So really, you can see why that doesn’t work out.”

Travis was silent for a while. A part of me felt bad, knowing that this conversation was probably putting images that he didn’t want to have in his head there. “I think you should--,”

“Tell him?” I finished. I stood back up. “Yeah. You and the rest of the world. Everyone I talk to. Or did talk to when I was sulking over how stupid I was. Everyone says the same damn thing, Travis. Tell him. Tell your husband.” I rolled my eyes, mimicking everyone. “He has a right to know.” I paused. “But didn’t I have a right to know where my husband was all those nights when he was lying to me?”

“My head hurts,” Travis admitted. “You’re on birth control. Your husband wants to have another baby. Why did you agree to this in the first place, darling?”

“Because a few months ago it was perfect. I was the one that brought it up. I do want another baby with him. Not to sound narcissistic or anything, but have you seen my daughter? Our daughter? We make beautiful babies, Travis. And I loved raising Sydney. It was so fun when she was a little baby. I would love to have another child,” I stated. I hesitated, now pacing on the rock. “Just…not now.”

“Right,” Travis mumbled.

I smiled. “And there you go. End of story.”

“Why have you stopped crying and gone to being a hermit now?” Travis asked slowly.

“A what?” I laughed. “I’m not a hermit. I’m just…sulking in a new way. I know what I did was stupid, Trav. It was very stupid.”

“So get off the pills.”

“But then I may get pregnant.”

Travis winced. “Are you and Billie still having sex as much as before?”

I imagined that question must have been harder for him to ask than it was fun to get teeth pulled. I smiled swiftly. “We haven’t had sex for the past three weeks. Ever since I stopped crying daily.”

Travis hesitated. “Why have you suddenly stopped crying?”

I sat down once again. Travis scowled and grabbed onto my hips so that I couldn’t get up. I grinned. “Because I can’t cry anymore, Travis.” I admitted. “Honestly, I can’t. I’ve cried so much recently that crying this morning was painful. I don’t want to sound like an emo teenager, but it hurts to cry.” Travis watched me. “Besides. I can’t. I’m still a mother and a wife. I’ve got to stop acting like such a brat on what I’ve done and just…get over it.”

“But if you aren’t having sex, why can’t you just stop taking the pills?”

“Because we will have sex, Travis,” I said simply. “You’re a man. How long can you go before you get any?”

Travis’s eyes widened slightly. I giggled. “It’s true and you know it. I think that once Billie Joe overlooks the fact that I’ve been such a depressed creep lately, he’s going to start wanting it again. He always does. I mean, you think you hormones are out of control?” I laughed. “He’s a rock star. With all the drugs he’s done in a lifetime, his body still feels like it’s going through puberty.”

Travis chuckled. We both sat in silence for a moment as he tried to think. “You need to change.”

I snorted. “Thanks darling.”

“No, no listen.” He paused. “This time last year, you were on birth control, were you not?”

I thought for a moment and then nodded. “I was.”

“And how were things between you and your husband?”

I shrugged. “Same as always.”

Travis smiled. “Which is good, right?”

I nodded. “Very good. Perfect.”

“Then you need to go back to thinking like that. Sweetie, you can be on birth control and still have a great time with your husband. You’ve been doing that for what, fifteen years now?” I nodded. “You need to go back to thinking like that. To not letting this bother you. The more it bothers you, the more it bothers Billie Joe. The more it bothers Billie Joe, the sooner he will do something about it. He’s not going to just let this marriage fail and let you go. And hospitals today, they’ll find out if they do a test on you. It’s in your blood. It’s amazing the shit they find now. You need to let this slide to the back of your mind and go on as if what you did was just a mistake. We all make mistakes, but we don’t dwell on them forever.”

“But I know that I’m taking them.”

“Yes,” he agreed, “but no one else has to.”

My eyes widened. “Are you telling me to continue to lie to my husband, but to be a better actress?”

“No,” Travis stated simply. “You already know you’ve got to tell him what you’ve done to your body. I’m not going to waste my breath by telling you that. And you will tell him,” he continued, “when you’re ready. The more people pressure you, the more you break down. I love you, but you’re not one to put pressure on.”

I shook my head slowly, trying to think. “You need to go home,” Travis continued, “and you need to go back to your old self. Its easier than it sounds. Look at your husband how you used to. You were on birth control when you got pregnant with Sydney, so just look at it as whatever happens, happens. You can’t let this ruin your marriage, Mand. Billie Joe and you need each other. You’re perfect for each other. If you need to, remind yourself of that every once in a while. He loves you more than anyone else. You, Sydney, Joey and Jacob are his world. You’re his wife, most likely the one thing that’s keeping him going. And the same to you. He’s keeping you going. The way you two were previous to this year was perfect. Go back to that. You’ll both be so happy, and within a matter of months you’ll come to me and hug me and thank me.”

“Do I have to tell him?”

“No,” Travis admitted. “But you should. It doesn’t matter what I say. I could tell you that you’ve got to tell him and you still wouldn’t. I know. You don’t want to kill this man’s feelings. Knowing the truth will most likely hurt him, but what could kill him is not knowing at all.”

+++

Billie Joe opened the door to the house slowly, wearing only a t-shirt and boxers. He smiled weakly once he saw me standing there in only a pair of sweat pants and still Travis’s sweatshirt as Travis drove away. I grinned back at him and slid my arms around his neck, stepping closer to his body so that his chest touched my own. I pressed my lips against his own, my eyes fluttering shut along with his as we shared what seemed to share the first real, meaningful kiss in the past few weeks.

I pushed him back inside and closed the door behind us, Travis’s words still fresh in my mind.

”You were on birth control when you got pregnant with Sydney, so just look at it as whatever happens, happens. You can’t let this ruin your marriage.”

“I’m sorry,” I apologized against his lips. “I promise that won’t happen again. If I ever need to talk, I’ll talk to you. I love you.”

Billie Joe pulled his lips away from my own, gasping for air. He stared at me, and then broke out in a grin. “Thank you.”

I nodded and then placed my hands on his chest, pushing him back against the wall. “Where’s Sydney?”

“Chris’s house.”

The poor kid’s sounded almost as if Billie Joe was speaking about a criminal. “Oh really?” I hummed. “Til’ when?”

“She’ll be home around six.”

I turned to look at the digital clock built into the TV. 3:13 I grinned. “Perfect.”

My lips were attached to Billie Joe’s once again as we went stumbling blindly, loudly and giggling furiously through the house until we finally hit the counter in the kitchen. Billie Joe gasped as the marble dug into his back. He turned is around quickly so that I was now pushed up against the marble of the island in the middle of the kitchen. I giggled as he placed his hands on the back of my legs and picked me up so that I was sitting on the counter with my legs wrapped around his narrow waist, our lips never leaving each others.

And at that moment, as terribly cheesy as it sounded, at that moment as we desperately removed each others clothing while still fully aware that we were in the kitchen, nothing had ever felt so perfect because to be perfectly honest, in the past few months the both of us hadn’t had such a rush of excitement with each other.

And during those months, I had never realized how much I had actually missed my real self.

“You know we’ve got to clean up downstairs,” I murmured into Billie Joe’s neck, kissing the bead of water that ran down it.

We had just slid out of the two-hour too long shower that we had just taken, both of our bodies feeling like nothing but a pile of worn-out muscles. But it still felt fantastic. “No we don’t. It’s fine. I mean, sure, we knocked over a thing or two--,”

I rolled my eyes and swatted my husbands arm. “I mean the island and kitchen, dumbass. I don’t know about you, but when I plan on eating later, I honestly don’t feel like eating on a counter that hasn’t been washed after your forty-six year old bare ass rolled around on it.” Billie Joe snorted. “Not to mention Sydney unfortunately is too much like her father and barely ever uses plates.”

Billie Joe winced. “That’d be awkward.”

“Especially because we ran out of mayonnaise a few days ago.”

Billie Joe cocked an eyebrow and then laughed after a moment, understanding what I had meant. “I don’t know why I married you. You’re disgusting and that’s appalling,” Billie Joe mumbled.

I shrugged. “Well, if you want, I could leave again.” I sat up more and went to get up, but was stopped as Billie Joe held onto me.

“Don’t you dare leave this bed before I do.”

I giggled as Billie Joe wrapped his arms back around my body and pulled me as close to him as he could, wrapping his legs around mine and his arms around my waist. I continued to giggle as my husband brought both of us underneath the duvet, then slid on top of me. We both looked at each other, wild grins still covering our faces as we did so, our breathing heavy.

Billie Joe smiled softly, moving his head closer to mine. “You look so happy,” he whispered.

I continued to grin up at him. As he looked down at me, for the first time for a while the glint was back in his eyes. I lifted my head to press my lips against his own. “So do you.”

“I am,” he admitted. “You just seem so different ever since you came home.”

I lifted my arm and rested it around the back of Billie Joe’s neck and then lifted the other one to run my hand through his slowly graying hair. “In a bad way?” I asked softly.

Billie Joe shook his head, continuing to look down at me. “Not at all. You just…I don’t know how to explain it.”

I pushed a lock of hair behind my husband’s ear while continuing to smile. “Travis and I talked and it helped me like I knew it would.” Billie Joe nodded, his eyes shifting from my own. I bit the bottom of my lip as he sighed softly. “Are you upset with me because I ran to Travis?”

He shook his head again. “I’m just upset that you ran to begin with.”

Billie Joe rolled off from me and lay next to me, both of us still lying completely underneath the duvet. I slid my hand into his own, entwining our fingers. I pressed my lips against his again, gently tugging on his bottom lip. “I’m sorry,” I apologized. “Sometimes I just panic and go. It’s nothing against you.”

He nodded slowly, watching me closely. I cocked an eyebrow, as if to ask what. “I want you to be able to talk to me, Joe. These past months – I feel like you’ve done nothing but hide shit and run from me.” He hesitated and then moved closer. “I love you. I married you thirteen years ago. You’re not scared to talk to me,” he paused, “are you?”

“Of course not,” I murmured, cuddling closer to his warm and naked torso so that I could rest my head on his chest. “I know I can talk to you. If I couldn’t, things would be difficult with us.”

…And they were peachy before?

We both stared at each other for a moment longer until he broke out in a smile. “How ‘bout we both promise each other that there’ll be no more lies or secrets, and we’ll always tell each other everything?”

I chuckled. “Darling, do you realize that what you just said is one of the most cliché lines from hundreds of movies and books ever?”

Billie Joe closed an eye. “Is it? I don’t watch or read those. I’m not that much of a girl.”

“You also don’t watch scary movies anymore.”

“They’re so cheesy.” I giggled as I pressed my lips to his warm cheek. I slid my arm around his bare waist, cuddling up inside his frame. “Does it work?” He asked after a second of silence.

I lifted my head from his tattooed chest to connect my eyes with his. “Hmm?”

“You said that what I just said was an overly-cliché line from movies and books. After the man or woman in those says that, does it work out well?”

I smiled softly to myself, closing my eyes. Things were better. They were definitely better and they would stay that way. I snapped out of my thoughts to find Billie Joe watching me with a quirked eyebrow. I grinned wider and nodded. “Of course.