Best Man

"It's so fucking cold in here that it feels like my genitals are gonna break off like a graham cracker."

That was the first thing Billie Joe heard as he looked up from where he sat in the studio; good ol' Blue upon his lap. And there stood Tre, hands on his hips, and leaning in the doorway between the recording booth and the control room of the studio at 880.

He wore a simple pair of khaki shorts that surpassed the knees of his stubby legs, along with a gray T-shirt that said 'Zildjian' on it in black lettering, and then an impish smirk dangling from his lips like a cliffhanger about to fall from the highest peek of Mount Everest.

"Wha---?" Billie Joe muttered, a little confused by the younger man's comment.

"Who turned the air conditioning up to below zero?" Tre questioned, stepping further into the room. "I get that it's July now and all, but is subzero temperatures really the solution?"

Billie Joe stared at Tre; his expression unwavering and showing no sign of responding to the question at hand. Then, "Speaking of solutions, what was yours to your fucktarded lack of thought you had last Thursday when you got all Casanova on Caroline?" Billie Joe demanded. "I mean, seriously, Tre. What the fuck were you thinking?"

Tre shrugged and took a seat at his drum set's stool and swiveled from side to side on it as he picked up some drum sticks and began to tap the snare with one stick and the ride cymbal with the other; clearly avoiding the subject.

"I asked you a fucking question, asshole," Billie Joe pestered, his tone snippy at best.

Unfortunately, Tre just kept drumming even though he looked his friend right in the eye.

Exasperated and a moment away from ripping Tre a new one, Billie Joe set Blue down on the floor beside him and swiveled his own stool around to better face the drummer.

"I'm fucking serious, man," Billie Joe continued. "Why are you putting the moves on Caroline and putting a wedge back between you and Mike? After everything we've worked for all these years?" Billie Joe shook his head in disgust. "And you're gonna throw it away on a fucking relationship you haven't had in over a fucking goddamn year?"

Casting his eyes down, Tre stopped his riffs and set his hands on his knees as he twisted his lips in thought.

"I still love her," he finally mumbled.

"Good for fucking you. You love her. We all love her, Tre. She's a great woman. But you broke up. She left you. Meaning, she didn't want a relationship with you anymore other than friendship, and you trying to work your way back into her heart however the fuck way you're attempting at is only gonna drive her the fuck away and piss Mike off more."

"I want her back," Tre bit out.

"Well, she doesn't want you back. As harsh of a truth that is, it's just that. The truth. And for Christ's sake, she's engaged to Mike now. They're gonna get fucking married and start a life together. Can't you just let the past be the past and get over it?"

"Did you ever get over Amanda?" Tre quipped.

Billie Joe's eyes went stone cold. "Low blow, Tre. Low blow."

"Did you?"

"You know I loved her, but we broke up and I found Adrienne again and I realized Adrienne was where I wanted to be and I haven't looked back since."

"But tell me you don't sometimes wish you could change everything."

"When I'm having a bad day or when Adrienne and I are having a fight, yeah, maybe. But when I think about how good I have it and how I wouldn't have my boys if I'd 'changed' everything...no. I wouldn't change a thing," Billie Joe replied, momentarily thinking of his ex-girlfriend from long ago who moved to Ecuador with the Peace Corps and he hadn't seen since but had communicated via letters every so often over the years. "Not to mention Amanda's got her own life now. And like I said, the past is the past. And that's how it stays."

Tre could see that Billie Joe still remembered his ex-girlfriend fondly but that he was more than happy with his life. That it was all he really wanted. But Tre just shook his head.

"Maybe for you, but not for me," he remarked, trailing the tip of a drumstick along the edge of one of the tom-toms. "'Cause for me, history's gonna repeat itself."

Not believing his ears, Billie Joe just stared at Tre.

Then, without a word, he leaned forward, picked up Blue and stood up. And as he watched Tre look away from him and focus on his drumming, the guitarist shook his head with disdain and walked out of the studio.



On the opposite side of the country, in Central Florida, Mike and Caroline walked hand in hand through Disney World's Magic Kingdom, with eleven-year-old Estelle skipping a few feet ahead of them; still talking animatedly about how Cinderella waved to her during the parade earlier in the day.

"This place really is magical, don'tcha think?" Caroline cooed as she squeezed Mike's hand.

He smiled and leaned into her while looking ahead, keeping an eye on his daughter. "I still can't believe you've never been here."

"I was only at MGM Studios and that was only for the better part of one day when I was a junior in high school when me and my family came to Florida for Easter," she replied. "I never got to see the other parks."

Turning his head, Mike looked upon Caroline's profile and laughed to himself at how she was just as in awe as Estelle was.

It was refreshing.

It was refreshing to have someone in his life who could be just as happy vacationing with him in Disney World than she could be in the ritziest resort in Europe.

As they made their way toward the small lake in front of Cinderella's castle, they walked up to the bridge as the moon up above in the night sky shined brightly down upon them.

With his daughter safely on his left, Mike placed a hand on her shoulder and an arm around Caroline's waist as she rested her head on his right arm.

"A dream is a wish your heart makes..." Caroline sang with a smile as she looked up at Mike just as he looked down.

Smirking, he pressed his lips to her forehead.

"When's a good time to start talking about wedding plans?" he wondered, a little out of the blue.

Pulling back, Caroline blinked, then shrugged. "I dunno. I really haven't been thinking so much on it just yet. I mean, we have all the time in the world to plan on it, right? Why rush it?"

"I'm not trying to rush it," he assured. "It's just that, being here with my two favorite girls, in such a magical place...it makes my mind reel with ideas for our life. And with questions. Like, what color of bridesmaids dresses do you wanna have, do you want a spring wedding? Or summer. Maybe autumn."

Biting her lip in uncertainty, Caroline shrugged and offered him a smile. "I...I dunno. I suppose I'm not like all the girls who dream about their wedding day all their lives. Who plan how it's gonna be the biggest, best day of their lives."

Mike's face fell a little.

"I mean, yeah, don't get me wrong. It is going to be an important day, but it's not going to be the only day in our lives that will be great." Then she added, "Because I see every day with you as great. Why should a ceremony with a bunch of people dressed all sorts of fancy and then a reception with free liquor and a DJ be such a big deal?"

Mike shrugged this time. "I guess it's because my weddings to Ana and Sarah were so small and simple. I just want something bigger this time around, because it's my swan song. My last marriage," he laughed. "I want my single days to go out with a bang."

At that moment, the first set of fireworks went soaring into the air, bursting into a multitude of color.

The event caused Caroline's breath to hitch in surprise, followed by a smile on her lips as the rainbow-sparkling lights mirrored in her eyes.

"I know I want Giselle as my Maid of Honor," Caroline muttered plainly. "Then Adrienne. And Estelle as flower girl. But, other than that, I haven't given any other thought to the wedding. Not even to what kind of dress I want to wear. And I don't know if I want an indoor or outdoor wedding. A DJ or a band." She smiled and shrugged yet again. "I just don't know."

Smiling as he watched Caroline study ever burst of fireworks, Mike lifted his hand from her waist and ran it all the way up her back and then ran his fingers through the hair on the back of her head.

Turning to look at him, Caroline offered him a demure grin, tilting her chin upward as he brought his lips down upon hers. Then, shifting her stance to face him, she hooked her arms up under his and grabbed onto his shoulders with her delicate hands.

Estelle simply leaned to the side and look up at her dad and his fiancee, and she smirked.

Because, unlike Cinderella, she wasn't going to have an evil stepmother.



Later that night, after they returned to their hotel suite, following the Wishes Nighttime Spectacular, Estelle was already sleeping soundly in her adjoined room while Mike and Caroline lie in their bed, wearing nothing but the bed sheet that was just barely covering their bodies.

Curled into his side, The Sinners' frontwoman watched her left index finger as it drew circles on his abdomen.

Caroline then trailed her finger around his belly button and the strip of hair that lead south, which caused an appreciative groan from Mike.

"I hope we didn't wake up Magic Kingdom," Mike joked.

"I'm sure Mickey's saying that to Minnie at this very moment."

Letting out a small snort, the bassist rested his arm around Caroline's shoulder and kissed her head as his eyes began to close from exhaustion. Exhaustion from their busy day in the park, and from his most recent romp in bed with his little lady.

Listening to his breathing as it steadied out and then turned into a light snore, Caroline knew he had fallen asleep. And though she found every little thing he did to be cute, she couldn't help but feel a little irritated by it tonight.

And she didn't know why.

And that small amount of confusion worried her.