Heroes...And The Rest Of Us.

"Maneater, make you work hard, make you sweat hard, make you walk hard!" I half sing half scream to myself in my kitchen. I have the stereo turned up as loud as it will go while I make dinner for Liv, Daisy, and Janin, who are all coming over tonight for an all girls dinner before we go see Adam and his band play an all acoustic set at the bar I used to work at. The dogs are sitting on the couch in the living room watching me with big doggie smiles on their faces. Jack is with my brother, Mike doing something. And Adam is over at Brad's doing something.

"Maneater, make you work hard, make you sweat hard, make you walk hard. Maaaanneater!" I sing loudly, shaking my denim cutoff clad ass around the kitchen. I turn my back on the dogs, still dancing and grab some stuff out of the refrigerator for dinner. When I turn around towards the living room again, I see Adam staring back at me instead of the dogs. He smiles big at me and starts laughing.

"Sing it, rock it out." He says.

"You're a jerk." I lean across the bar and grab the back of his head, pulling him towards me for a kiss.

"I probably am a jerk, but you love me regardless."

"Don't you ever forget that." He turns the stereo down and walks around the bar into the kitchen.

"So what are you doing here anyway? Aren't you supposed to be carpooling with Brad to the show tonight?" I ask him.

"I decided that I would make a pitstop here first." He pushes me up against the counter and slips his hands into the back pockets of my shorts, kissing my lips.

"What exactly did you have in mind for this pitstop?" I ask.

"Shower, change my clothes, eat something....probably you."

"Eat what?" He laughs and starts kissing my collarbone.

"That depends, what are you making?" He asks kind of suggestively.

"Something hot."

"Oh wow, you're really asking for it aren't you?"

"Who me? Ask for what? Never." I smirk and guide us around the bar to the couch, unsnapping my shirt. He quickly pushes me down on the couch and unsnaps my shorts, pulling them down on my thighs. I grab his hair and hold his head level with my waist, he teases me with his fingers and I quiver with anticipation. When we're done, he drops off of the couch onto the floor on his back. I lay down gently on top of him, laughing.

"You're insane, you know that?" He says to me with a jagged breath. I prop myself up on my elbows against his chest and stare at him.

"You think I'm insane?" I say softly and he tucks a peice of my short hair behind my ear.

"Insanely beautiful. Just like this, when you're this close to me, just natural like we are right now. That's when you're the most beautiful to me."

"You're just being sweet because you got laid."

"Probably. In ten minutes, I'm gonna get up and act like a total asshole." I laugh at him.

"But no, I'm serious. You are the most beautiful person in this world to me. You are my everything, my inspiration for everything I do, everything I write or sing, that's for you." He says. I smile and kiss him, and then I hear the doorbell ring.

"Shit!" I yell, jumping up off of him, scrambling to get dressed.

"Who is that?" He asks, quickly gathering his clothes.

"I don't know, probably Daisy or Liv." He runs into the master bedroom and shuts the door behind him. I quickly button up my shirt and run to answer the door. Daisy is standing there with one raised eyebrow when I answer out of breath.

"Since when do you lock your door? We've known each other since we were sixteen and we've always been able to walk in without knocking. What's up with that? And why are you out of breath right now?" I mentally tell myself to do Adam's favorite thing to him tonight as a way of thanking him for locking the door when he came home earlier.

"Adam must have locked it." I say, moving out of the way so she can come in.

"What's he doing here? I thought this was supposed to be an all girls dinner?"

"It is, he just came home to change his clothes and shower."

"And where is your kid?"

"Jack is with Mike, shopping or something. Mike's gonna drop him off at the bar later so that he can help set up."

"Gotcha. Whoa! Where is the food? I thought that like, dinner would be ready by the time I got here."

"Daisy, you're the first person here. You seriously thought I would have dinner waiting when you got here? And since when would I let you get out of work that easy?"

"Since you started locking your front door."

We get started cooking dinner and about 15 minutes later after we get the eggplant parmesean in the oven, Janin arrives with Roo, who I haven't seen since she started walking for the first time the other day. Janin is walking close behind her, with a hand out ready to catch her if she falls.

"Roo, you're walking! That's so great baby!" I crouch down to her level and hold out my hand to her for a high five.

"Give me five, babe." I say to her and she smacks my hand as hard as she can with hers. Daisy crouches beside me and holds out her hand, but Roo just stares at her confused, then she looks up at Janin.

"Can you give Daisy and high-five?" Janin asks her daughter with an amused look. Roo turns around to face Daisy and I again, and then slaps Daisy's hand.

"Alright." Daisy says laughing. Roo looks quite impressed with herself now, she's smiling and clapping, walking around the kitchen in circles.

"Neil said that she's been walking. When did that start?" I ask Janin.

"Just the other day. We were all just sitting around and Adzy asked her to bring him her toy, and we all just expected her to crawl over to him, but she got up and walked over to him. It was pretty amazing."

"Aww, that's great." Right at that moment, Adam walks around the corner freshly showered and dressed. He wraps one arm around Janin's shoulders and gives Daisy a kick in the ass.

"What's up, ladies?" He asks.

"Not a lot, making dinner. Are you all ready to go?" I ask him.

"Pretty much. Hey Roo, how's my girl doing?" He bends down and picks her up off the ground. She laughs and hugs his neck.

"I should get going now. You guys have an excellent dinner, and I will see you later tonight." He says, putting Roo down and giving me a kiss.

"Alright, keep an eye on Jack until I get there." I say.

"Will do. Love you, Babe." He says, putting emphasis on the word "Babe."

"Love you too." He walks off towards the front door. A second later he comes running back through the kitchen to the back door.

"Your sister's here." He says by way of explaination.

"This should be good." I tell the others. Adam sneaks out the back door and around the front of the house to the driveway. I hold up a finger to the others to be quiet. I hear a loud scream and a lot of swearing coming from my sister outside.

"Adam you son of a bitch!" She screams. Adam comes back in the through the back door laughing his ass off, followed by my sister who looks pissed.

"You should have seen her jump." He says, still laughing. Liv hits him on the chest with the back of her hand.

"Asshole."

"Hi Liv, how are you?" I say.

"Hi honey, I'm fine. How are you, other than the fact that you have an asshole of a husband, of course?"

"That hurts, Liv. When my tears dry, I'll give you a hug or something." Adam says.

"Don't you have a concert to do, or something?" She says to him sarcastically.

"I'm gone. It's obvious that I'm no longer wanted here."

"Bye, Babe." I say.

"Bye." He leaves out the back garage, leaving the five us alone.

"He scared the shit out of me." Liv says once he's gone.

"He's just a big kid sometimes. He used to do that shit to me all the time." Janin tells her.

"He's never done that to me." I say.

"That's because he has to sleep with you everynight!"

"That's true."

"He doesn't ever try to scare me, he just kicks me and shit. He like, picks me up and throws me around, or pulls my hair and tells me I'm short." Daisy says.

"You are short."

"He's just a bully."

"Lets just hope that when you have kids, you don't have a boy for him to teach his tricks to." Liv says. I laugh at her.

"That's not happening anytime soon, so you don't have to worry about that, Livy."

"You guys would have beautiful kids. Not to mention a little demented, but that's managable."

"Thanks Daisy."

"Well, it's true."

"Yeah, and if you're going to have rugrats you should do it soon. You guys aren't getting any younger." Liv says.

"Are you trying to say that I'm getting old?"

"No, but your biological clock is ticking louder and louder. Tick, tick, tick."

"I'm not discussing my clock with you right now, Liv. Seriously!" Janin and Daisy are laughing their asses off at us, but I'm not finding Liv's snooping half as funny as they are.

"Whatever you say, little sister."

"Well, I say we talk about something else."

After we get done eating Liv and Janin go home. Janin is going to drop Roo off at her mom's house, then meet us at the bar. Daisy is staying with me to take care of dinner, and then she'll ride with me to the show. I put on one of Adam's black zip-up hooded sweatshirts and a pair of flip flops when we're done cleaning up, and we go out to my car that's parked in the garage. Daisy picks out a Theory of a Deadman cd to listen to while we're driving.

When we get to the bar I park next the Adams car, by the equipment trailer. Daisy and I go inside and order drinks from Tripp, who's working the bar tonight. Then we go to find the guys. We find Jack first, setting up the mic stands.

"Hey mama." He says to me, using his nickname for me. "What's up?"

"Not a lot, where's Adam?"

"Him and Brad went outside to smoke. Neil and Barry are around here somewhere."

"I see. How are you, how was your day?"

"It was a good day, until I had to come here."

"Why's that?"

"My ex is here with her new guy, my ex best friend and bandmate."

"Are you kidding me? Where?"

"Over by the bar. Dark hair, with the guy with the dyed black hair." I look and see a girl who would have looked pretty good if she had layed off the drugs and cigerettes, and wore about half the makeup.

"Well, just stay away from her, honey."

"If you need a pretend girlfriend, I'm here to help." Daisy volunteers cheerfully. He laughs and taps Adam's mic to make sure it's working.

"Thanks, but I'm fine. She was already over here in my face and I told her to fuck off, so I think she'll stay away."

"Good. Does Adam know she's here?" I say.

"No I didn't tell him. I didn't want to make a big deal about it. You don't have to tell him, I don't want him to be worried about that when he's onstage."

"OK, babe. I'm gonna go say hey to Sully, he just got here." Daisy and I walk over to the bar, where I go say hey to Sully, and she wander's over to where Jack's ex is standing with her boyfriend. A minute later she comes over to me and grabs my arm, pulling me away from my conversation with Sully.

"We have to get a table so we can watch Adzy." She says.

"What's the deal with the ex? I saw you snooping." I say to her when we sit down.

"She's a hot mess. Track marks on her arms, and she smelled like a hooker."

"She smelled like a hooker?"

"Yeah... don't ask."

"Well as long as she stays away from Jack, I don't care what she smells like."

We sit and enjoy the show for a half hour, until they end the first set. I see Jack standing "side stage" for the majority of the set. I take a few pictures with my digital camera, and when I look back to the place where he was standing, he's gone. That's weird.

"Did you see where Jack went?" I ask Daisy. She shakes her head and looks around the bar. I spot him standing by the bar talking to his ex's boyfriend. I get up and start to walk over to them, but Daisy grabs my arm again, stopping me.

"I've got this. Go find your husband and tell him how awesome he was." She says. I nod and walk off in search of Adam and the other guys.

"Hey, Babe." I say when I find him.

"Hey, how'd we do?" He takes my drink from me and takes a sip.

"Great. Not bad for rookies."

"Who are you calling rookies, woman?" Barry says from behind me.

"You."

"Kick her, Adzy." Neil says. I laugh.

"Aww, you know I think you're great, Neil." Daisy comes up to us quickly, looking upset.

"We've got a problem." She says.

"What do you mean? Where's Jack?" I ask, starting to panic a little.

"That's the problem. By the time I got to the bar, they were gone. All three of them."