Is the 'I Love You' Worth It?

I woke up at five thirty.
The boys have to be at SFO at eight thirty and they cannot be late. I made sure Tre packed his stuff last night so we wouldn't waste any time with that this morning. I get out of bed and wander into the kitchen, waiting for my morning sickness to kick in. I decide since it's a special day, I'll make breakfast for the two of us. Plus I was planning on making him some snacks for the plane because I know he'll get hungry. I figure I should take a shower before Tre wakes up to give him time to do so and not be rushed. Plus, if I take a shower before he wakes up, I don't have to deal with him bothering me. I get out of the shower, get dressed and head to the kitchen. Once I start breakfast, my morning sickness comes on, so I take a break to get to the bathroom as fast as possible. When I'm done, I return to the kitchen and finish breakfast.

At six thirty, I go into wake him up so he'll have time to eat before he gets ready.
"Tre," I say. "Honey wake up."
He just groans and pulls the pillow over his head.
"Tre," I nudge him. "Come on, I made breakfast."
"Not hungry."
"It's tour day."
His head shoots up. "Oh yeah!" He practically jumps out of bed. "What'd ya make?"
"I thought you weren't hungry," I say sitting on the edge of the bed.
"Well, now I am," He grins.
"Go see," I kiss his forehead. He scampers out of bed and into the kitchen. I follow.
"Pancakes!" he squeals and grabs the plate I made up for him. We don't have a table so we eat in the living room. I watch him shovel pancakes into his mouth.
"So remember you have to be there at 8:30, so I figure we should get going at seven, to make sure you're on time," I say.
"Mm hmm," he says not paying attention.
"So it's six forty-five now so you have like fifteen minutes."
"Yup."
"So when you're done, go take a shower, okay."
"Huh?" he says raising an eyebrow at me.
"You need to take a shower when you're done eating so you're not late."
"Oh, okay."
I roll my eyes and take my plate into the kitchen.
"You've got fifteen minutes!" I shout
"Fifteen minutes for what?" he calls back.
Grr.
"Fifteen minutes until we have to leave," I say going back into the front room. "Go take a shower and get ready. We're going to be late."
"Okay," he gets up from the couch pouting. "No need to be bossy."
He's in the bathroom for twenty minutes.
"Tre," I bang on the door.
"Huh?" he says from the other side.
"We're officially five minutes late."
"Late for what?"
"Are you high?" I ask opening the door.
"Not yet," he says pulling me into a hug.
"No," I push away. "Go get dressed and meet me at the car. I'm taking your luggage out."
"'Kay," he grins.
I drag his suitcases out to the car and put them in the trunk. Ten minutes later he comes out.
"Ready? Got your wallet, stuff like that?"
He nods and climbs into the drivers' seat.
We drive to SFO and he parks a few rows down from the terminal. He unloads his suitcases. I see Billie Joe and Adrienne wrapped up in each other near the entrance. This must be hard on them.
"Well, I guess I'll see you," he says reaching down and kissing me.
"Yeah," I say trying not to cry.
"HEY!" Mike yells.
"HEY!" Tre screams back waving wildly. He takes off running towards Mike, his wheelie suitcase rattling behind him.
"Bye," I call after him, but I don't think he hears me. He jumps on Mike, almost knocking him over into his girlfriend, Anastasia. Mike kisses Anastasia and he and Tre head into the terminal. Tre stops at the door and calls for Billie Joe. Billie holds up a hand and continues to hug and kiss Adrienne until the last possible minute.

I get back into the car and drive home. I have to work from eleven to six.
***
"What can I get for you?" I ask my first customer of the shift.
"A sugar cookie and a diet Coke." I always think it's funny that they get a cookie and a diet Coke. Whatever. I ring her up and give her her food.
At my break, Paige comes in to start her shift.
"Did you get my message?" she asks putting on her purple apron.
"Oh yeah," I sigh. "Sorry I didn't get back to you. I've been dealing with stuff."
"Like, what kind of stuff?"
Sometimes she just doesn't get it. Okay, all the time.
"Oh stuff with my mother and my boyfriend."
"Are you breaking up?"
I laugh lightly.
"Oh, no. He left on tour this morning."
"Tour?"
"Yeah," I say getting up and pushing in my chair. "He's in a band."
"Oh yeah, I forgot."
We walk out together and I finish out my shift.
**
It's weird coming home to an empty house, especially after having lived with Tre. It's actually quite lonely. I decide that I need a project, so on my first day off with Tre gone (his seventh day on tour), I clean out the entire bedroom and re-do it. Just as I'm putting the broom away, the phone rings.
"Hello?" I pick up immediately, thinking it must be Tre.
"Hi, it's Adrienne."
"Oh, hey," I say semi-sighing.
"You sound disappointed," she giggles.
"Oh, no," I laugh. "I just thought you might be Tre."
"No, just me," she says. "I was wondering if you wanted to do something."
"Yeah, sure. I just finished my project of the day, so now I don't have anything to do here at home."
"Project?"
"Cleaning out the bedroom," I say.
"Oh," she laughs.
"Yeah. So what's on your mind?"

We meet at an outdoor café fifteen minutes later.
"So what's it like to be married?" I say.
"And pregnant," she laughs shyly.
"What?" I choke. "You're pregnant?"
She nods.
"Yeah. We found out the day after we got married. I thought you knew."
"No," I say astonished. "No one tells me things."
She smiles. "Yeah, I wanted to wait a little while, but Billie went and told everyone."
"Well, welcome to the club," I say.
"Hmm?" she squints at me for a few seconds before breaking into a grin. "You're-"
I nod. "We haven't told anyone yet, but we've known for a while."
"That's so great!" she says. "Are you getting married?"
"I don't know," I let my voice trail off. "We talked about it, but it's kind of hazy."
"Yeah, I can see how that would get that way. I mean we found out the day after, so that means I was pregnant before we were married. I'm just glad that we found out after. Even if it was only one day."
I nod. "It's been pretty stressful."
"Especially if you had to keep it a secret," she says.
"Yeah."
We're quiet for a minute.
"So how many times a day does Tre call you?" she laughs.
"How many times a day? How much does Billie call you?" I ask.
"At least once every day. Sometimes more than once. Usually before he goes to bed."
"Oh."
When I'm quiet she asks,
"What about you?"
"He hasn't called me."
"At all?" she gasps.
I shake my head. "I figured he's just really busy."
"I'm sure it's not malicious," she says quietly.
I nod. "He'll call when he has time."
"Yeah, He will."