An Address Book Romance

Some Distraction Techniques

The flight from California to New York had taken eight hours total. Well actually the flight as well as all the security checks Grace had to go through had taken eight hours.
It didn't help that Grace hadn't been able to leave California until around eight am this morning because there hadn't been any available flights out the night before. So Grace didn't make it to New York until Four in the afternoon.

At least the flight hadn't been too unpleasant. She had managed to get a tiny bit of sleep despite the fussy toddler a few seats over. She'd even eaten the on flight meal which had consisted of chips, a diet coke, and something that somewhat resembled a turkey sandwich. One couldn't be fully sure with airplane food though.

Grace let out a yawn as she made her way to baggage collection area grateful that she didn't have to worry about hailing a taxi now. She had gotten a call on her cell phone from Tre right before she'd boarded her flight and he'd been pretty insistent that he would get someone to pick her up from the airport.

She dragged her suitcase by it's handle through the crowded airport grateful that she had invested in a pull along suitcase a long time ago. She searched through the crowds unsure of what exactly she was supposed to be looking for.

All Tre had told her was she'd know it when she saw it. She rolled her eyes realizing exactly what he'd meant when she finally did spot it.

A man standing holding a white sign that said: Graceful Harper.

She shook her head as she finally made her way over to him. She managed to clear her throat as she spoke up. “I'm Graceful.”

The man simply nodded his head before staring down at her one suitcase. “I'm Lukas one of the band's drivers. Mr. Wright has asked me to pick you up and take you to him. Is that suitcase all you have?”

“Yeah. I didn't want to pack too heavily.” She replied trying not to laugh at the mention of Tre's legal name.

Lukas nodded his head again taking her by surprise as he reached behind her and took her suitcase from her. He spoke up over the crowd as he turned around leading her out of the airport. “Mr. Wright has asked me to take your bags up to his hotel room for you. He wants you to wait for him in the hotel bar. The band will be doing an interview in Billie Joe's hotel room and it may take a long time”

She simply nodded her head as she was led out to the parking lot and to a white van where she was quickly let into the backseat.

She turned her cell phone on as they pulled away from the airport frowning when she realized that she had three missed calls.

The missed calls were all from Jen and there was even a voice mail message. She silently contemplated checking the message, but quickly decided against it.

She stared at the screen for a moment before she finally worked up the nerve to hit the delete button deciding that she just wanted to ignore this whole situation for the time being.

Grace would be lying if she said that she wasn't still angry. A night spent sleeping on a row of seats in a noisy busy airport hadn't done anything to cool off any of her rage.

She still couldn't believe that someone whom she considered to be her best friend had the nerve to fight that dirty and strike a nerve with her on purpose. It had hurt and the fact that it had come from someone who was almost like a sister to her had made it hurt even more.

Yes the mature thing to do would be to be the bigger person and call Jen to make up, but her feelings were way too hurt to be mature about all of this.

She had a feeling that it may be a long while before she was calm and rational enough to even attempt to have any kind of civil conversation with Jen.

Grace stuffed her phone back into her purse as she tightened up her seat belt feeling a tad bit uncomfortable. The car was totally silent. There wasn't even a radio on and she had the feeling that this Luke guy wasn't the most social person in the world.

She felt the stress of the day finally get to her as she began to feel her eyes get a little heavy. She actually almost fell completely asleep before she felt the car come to an abrupt stop. She opened her eyes and pushed up her sunglasses a little higher on her nose as the back door opened.

As soon as she stepped out of the car she was handed a hotel room key card by Luke who spoke up as he pointed over at the entrance to the hotel. “Mr. Wright has asked me to tell you that if he takes more than an hour to meet you then to feel free to go ahead and go up to his room. He's on the top floor in suite number eight.”

She nodded her head shoving the key card into her jeans pocket before she spoke up attempting to be polite. “Well thank you for everything."

Luke simply nodded his head as he climbed back into the van. “No problem. I'll take your bags right up.”

She opened her mouth ready to tell him that she wouldn't have any problem taking her bags up herself. She didn't have an opportunity to do that though before Luke pulled the van away heading to the parking lot obviously going to find a close parking spot.

It didn't take her long to find the hotel bar which was practically abandoned at this hour of the day. She sat at a bar-stool and attempted to make herself comfortable as she ordered a diet coke.

Grace sat alone at the bar sipping her soda for about ten minutes before she heard a familiar voice behind her. “Grace hey, you just now got here. When I talked to Adrienne last night she said that you were flying out last night.”

Grace turned around in her bar-stool smiling as she spotted Brittney. “I couldn't get a flight out until this morning.”

Brittney nodded her head as she took a seat beside her. “So did you take care of everything with work. I thought you said that you weren't going to be able to come out until late October.”

“I was able to quit my job a little bit quicker than I was originally planning to. So I was able to come out sooner than I'd planned.” Grace lied not wanting to bring up her fight with Jen.

“Oh well that's good. Have they found a replacement for you at work already?” Brittney asked as Grace took another sip from her glass of diet coke.

“Yeah we found someone who was perfect for the job so I went ahead and quit.”Grace lied once again as she attempted to give the women a relaxed smile.

Brittney nodded her head as she ordered her own drink. The two women sat in silence for a moment before Grace spoke. “So the guys are still in an interview?”

“Yeah. I was getting tired of waiting up in Mike's and my room for them to finish up so I decided to come down to the bar for a little bit.” Brittney murmured as she took a sip from her own drink.

Grace cleared her throat as she spoke up again. “So how has it been being the only women out here so far? Have the guys been misbehaving way too much?”

“Oh it's been all right. The guys have been well....typical.” Brittney joked as she took a sip from her own drink.

Grace smiled slightly tempted to ask what really was typical with Billie, Mike, and Tre. She didn't have a chance to though since she was practically yanked out her bar-stool and engulfed in a ridiculously tight hug by Tre.

Tre squeezed Grace as tightly as he could and pressed numerous kisses to her face. She finally pulled away from him as best as she could manage to before she spoke up frowning a tiny bit. “Tre your squeezing a bit too tight.”

Mike barely noticed this comment since he automatically gravitated over towards Brittney. Billie however noticed and he rolled his eyes as soon as he heard it.

Billie spoke up as he stared over at Tre whom still hadn't released Grace from his clutches. "She has a point. You're acting like you haven't seen her in years.”

Tre said nothing in response to Billie's input. He did loosen his grip on her only a tiny bit as he spoke .“Well that's nice. We've been apart for a month and the first thing you do is complain to me about me squeezing you too tightly. No hey Tre I missed you or Hey sweet cheeks I'm so happy to see you.”

She smiled giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. “I've never called you sweet cheeks nor would I ever plan on calling you that. I'm sorry but your bone crushing hug is kind of making it a little hard for me to breathe. I did miss you though if that's any consultation.”

He smirked not missing his chance to speak up. “You don't call me sweet cheeks but I do recall you calling me baby a couple of times. Especially whenever you're on top of.......”

Grace quickly slapped a hand over his mouth frowning when he took the opportunity to lick her palm. “You're an extremely perverted individual.”

“Like I haven't heard that one before.” Tre murmured as she finally removed her hand from his mouth.

She rolled her eyes as she heard this. “Why doesn't that surprise me.”

He let out a huff not amused by her statement. He released her from his hug as he spoke. “Okay I'll let you go.......for now. You weren't waiting down here for too long right? Luke already told me that he brought your bags upstairs. He didn't say when he picked you up though.”

“No I haven't been here for more than fifteen minutes. I probably could have managed to carry up my own bag. I just had one suitcase.” She responded shrugging her shoulders slightly.

“Only one suitcase?” Tre asked looking at her as though she had sprouted a second head.

“Yeah well the suitcase, my carry on bag, and my purse. It's not my fault that I don't pack up every little thing I own like you.” She teased causing him to frown.

“You should see his bus. He insists on buying useless junk at every truck-stop we stop at. Last week he bought every ashtray he could find in the truck-stop. I'm just glad that we have separate buses or Mike and I would constantly be tripping over all his crap.” Billie blurted out causing Tre to glare over at him.

Tre spoke up rolling his eyes as he stared back over at his girlfriend “I am not that messy.”

Grace shook her head smirking. “Oh yes you are. I've seen your bedroom. It looks like a disaster area so I can only imagine what this bus of yours looks like.”

“All right I'm a huge slob. Now that we have that settled I vote we get out of this hotel bar. Grace and I have some serious catching up to do.” Tre exclaimed practically dragging Grace away.

Grace felt her cheeks flush realizing exactly what he meant by catching up.

----------------------------------------------

Tre let out a sleepy yawn as Grace and he laid completely nude underneath the sheets in his dimmed hotel room. He attempted to pull her even closer to him as he spoke up. “I've really missed this.”

“What sex?” Grace asked causing him to snicker.

He spoke up running a hand along her back.“No....okay well yeah I did miss that, but I really did miss being able to be this close to you as well.”

“If you were lonely you could of asked Billie to cuddle with you. I'm sure he wouldn't have minded.” Grace joked.

He snorted slightly as he heard this. “I tried but he told me to go back to my own room. I'm pretty sure Adie would murder me for snuggling with her husband anyway.”

They laid in silence for a few moments and Grace was just about to drift off to sleep until Tre spoke up again. “Are you hungry? The guys and Brittney and I were originally planning on going out to a steakhouse or something like that. I'd much rather spend the evening in with you and order room service though.”

“Do whatever you want. Going out is fine and room service is fine too.” Grace mumbled as she opened her sleepy eyes.

He nodded his head as he ran a hand through her tangled hair. “Okay room service it is then. I'm going to be pretty busy doing a meet and greet at some record store tomorrow afternoon. I'll be busy all morning as well. We're playing on some late night show that's going to air tomorrow night so we have to do all the filming in the morning. Then we have to fly to London to film some more interviews. So I hope you brought your passport.”

She raised an eyebrow a little bit surprised by how busy his schedule was already. It hadn't even been a full month since the album had been released.

It was already selling like mad and one couldn't turn on a radio or a television without hearing about Green Day or American Idiot.

“I have my passport in my purse. When exactly do you guys start touring? I mean this is all promotional stuff right now right?” She asked.

“Yeah this is all just promotional junk right now. The first half of our North American tour wont even start until two weeks from now. The first show will be in L.A. Until then though we're stuck doing loads of promotional work. At least we're getting a few weeks off around Thanksgiving and then Christmas. We've been stuck touring during the holidays before though.”Tre sighed knowing that things weren't going to calm down at all anytime soon.

He ran his hand back down her back as he spoke up again. “You're still not going to be able to meet Ramona until the beginning of November when we'll be back in New York. I wish you could meet her sooner but my schedules pretty hectic right now. I would fly her out to see me on tour for at least a week if she wasn't in school right now.”

“It does all sound pretty hectic. I don't know how you're managing to deal with how insane things have gotten. I guess you're sort of use to it though right? I mean you've been through this a few times before. Look at it this way at least you'll be able to really spend some time with her without any distractions around Christmas.”

He let out a sigh as he pulled Grace practically over on top of him. He ran his hand down her back pausing to caress her backside as he spoke up totally changing the subject. “Your cell phone chimed earlier when we were …..busy. So you may want to check it. Your phone does make that sound when you have a missed call doesn't it?”

“No it'll be fine. I'm sure it's not important.” Grace assured giving him a quick kiss on the lips.

“Okay if you say so. Did you get you're whole rent situation sorted out with Jen? I was thinking about getting her a backstage pass to the show in L.A if you think that she would like it and would be able to drive over to see it.” He said noticing the way she frowned when Jen's name was mentioned.

“Yeah it's sorted out.” She muttered not answering his question about the backstage pass.

Tre frowned noticing the annoyed look on Graces face. He gave her a tender kiss on the lips before speaking. “What's going on? I thought you'd jump at the chance to get Jen a backstage pass.”

Grace shrugged her shoulders not answering his question. Instead she pressed a kiss to his jawbone and his neck before she began to move down his body pressing kisses as she made her way down.

She made it down to his right hip bone avoiding the one place where he probably wanted her mouth the most before he spoke up in a strained voice. “I know what you're trying to do.”

She lifted the sheet up staring up at him before grinning. “Well I'd hope that you would know exactly what I'm about to do.”

He smirked staring down at her. “I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the fact that you're only doing this so you can distract me from thinking about what I just got through asking you. Trust me as much as I'm loving this distraction technique I still want to know whats bothering you.”

“Nothing is bothering me and I'm not trying to distract you. I just thought I'd show you how much I missed you.” She muttered.

He shook his head as he ran a hand through her hair. “You're not fooling me Graceful. You're just trying to avoid this and it's not working. Now get back up here and talk to me.”

She let out a slight huff as she scooted back up his body as slowly as she could manage hoping that maybe she could somehow tempt him into forgetting this discussion.

“I really don't want to talk about it.” She scoffed as she rested her head back against his chest.

Tre sighed as he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “You don't want to talk about what?”

“Jen. We just had a little bit of a disagreement about some things . We said some things that we shouldn't have and we're not exactly on speaking terms at the moment. That's all I'm going to say about it. I left Oakland right after the fight. I just needed to get away from the situation” Grace grumbled wanting to drop the subject.

“So you came out to see me so you could avoid her. Are you just going to keep ignoring her calls because I don't think that's going to work forever.” He asked causing her to shrug her shoulders.

“Tre that wasn't my only reason for coming to New York. I really did want to come be with you. I don't know how long it'll be before I'm ready to talk to her. I just don't want to think about any of it right now. I just want to enjoy being here with you. So lets just drop all of this and enjoy being together please.” She begged.

He let out a sigh as he spoke up “I know that's not your only reason for coming here and I am really thrilled that you're here. Whatever happens with Jen I'll back you up. I guess we'll drop this for now.”

She nodded her head knowing that she really didn't want to pick this subject back up anytime soon.

Grace laughed a little as he pressed a kiss to the side of her neck. He nibbled on the side of her neck as he spoke. “So do you think you can show me some more of those distraction techniques?”

She pressed her lips to his as she let his hands roam her body. She defiantly had no problem with this type of distraction.