Roughly Six Feet Tall

I cocked my head to one side, a little confused when John came back from talking to Jared on the patio looking so sad. “What’s wrong, sweetheart?” I asked, walking behind him when he sat down, reaching over to massage his shoulders.

“Some record company problems, that’s all,” John sighed, forcing a smile anyways. “I’ve gotta go. We’re gonna work some of this out with Tim and…yeah,” John muttered, getting up and turning around, stretching a bit.

I wrapped my arms around his skinny frame. John hugged me back. He sounded so tired. “You’ll let me know if I can help, won’t you?” I forgot how serious John can be. He never half assed anything when it came to his music.

“You don’t worry your pretty little head about me, Avery,” John cooed, kissing the top of my head. “I’m coming to pick you up for dinner tonight. Seven. Don’t forget it. And we’re bringing Annie.”

“I’ve never brought Annie to a restaurant before…” I trailed off a tad worriedly. “Do you think we can handle her?”

“Challenge accepted,” John said with a smirk, leaning down to kiss me one more time before leaving.

I sat down with Annie for a while to go through some reading and writing with her. She was nearly three, so she could read a few words and she recognized numbers fairly well. She loved it when I read her some Dr. Seuss books because most of the words weren’t real words at all. She didn’t like to write very much, but only because it was so time comsuming. She wrote very slowly, and the only things she knew how to write were her name and the ten digits.

She liked the number eight the best because she liked the way I wrote my eights. I wrote my eights like a vertical infinity sign, but Annie hadn’t quite mastered the pencil yet. Her eights strongly resembled an incomplete snowman.

“That’s a pretty picture, Annie,” I told her as I watched her color some grass green.

“It’s for daddy,” she declared, and she grabbed the yellow crayon to roughly draw a giraffe. She’s been obsessed with them ever since John took her out that one day. Smiling to myself, I kissed the top of her head before answering my phone.

Shannon was calling and asking if she could drop by because all the boys were occupied with band business. I made some panninis for the three of us for lunch. Shannon was Annie’s godmother. John would probably have the rest of his band mates for Annie’s godfathers, but the godparents I chose for Annie were Shannon and Halvo.

When I told Shannon that she was a godmother, she was absolutely ecstatic. She was kind of like the cool, fun aunt that kids love to hand out with. Annie loved Shannon because Shannon kept her active. Never a dull moment, always on the go. I could count on Shannon to tire Annie out. Today, it was a pillow fight. Annie got so mad at Shannon when she pretended to hurt me. She whacked Shannon repeatedly with a pillow, mustering up all the strength in her tiny body, which still felt like nothing to Shannon. Annie was exhausted afterwards, and she was grateful for her nap for once.

Shannon and I caught up as Annie slept. Shannon was so proud of me for telling john about Annie. “Avery, the boys would love Annie,” Shannon promised, gently moving Annie’s head so she could braid more of her hair. “And they could help take care of her, you know.”

“John barely wants to share Annie with Halvo,” I pointed out.

“Aw, that’s so cute,” Shannon laughed. We whispered amongst ourselves a while longer as Shannon continued to braid Annie’s hair. When she finished she decided to pick out my clothes for tonight. “Where exactly is he taking you? A nice restaurant? Or what?”

“I don’t know, he never specified,” I sighed, my hands settling on a turquoise dress and cropped blazer in my closet. “I think I’ll go with this, though. Why don’t you pick out something for Annie?” Shannon stayed at our house for a while until she had to get to soccer practice. John dropped by earlier than he said he would, but Annie was fine with that. I was surprised how well he was dressed – white button up shirt, skinny tie, dress pants, dress shoes, suspenders… “John?”

“Hey, Avery,” he greeted me with a tired smile, putting down Annie to hug and kiss me. “You look great tonight,” he remarked, toying with the hem of my dress.

“You’re looking pretty sharp yourself…may I ask why?” I asked as I straightened up his tie a bit.

“Meeting with the label,” John sighed, running a hand through his already messy short hair.

“What’s wrong?” I asked worriedly. I’ve never seen him so stressed out.

“I don’t really know…” John trailed off, staring at the ceiling. “I think the label cut us. Well…yeah, I think they cut us. But, you know, I think that’s ok.”

“What? Warner Brothers cut you guys? But why?” I was surprised John was so…I don’t know if calm was the right word, but he was almost…resigned, and I didn’t like that.

“They didn’t want to put out our new album,” John scowled. “So, we’re gonna try self releasing it…which is a lot of fucking work…” He trailed off again, staring off at nothing in particular again.

I couldn’t imagine what was going through John’s mind right now, but I knew what was going through mine – the fact that John was about to go recording again. I don’t know how I felt about that. I mean, music is what he loves, but I’d really appreciate it if he spent a little more time with Annie before…

Oh, fuck it, whatever happens, happens.

“You still want to go to dinner? We don’t have to…”

After putting Annie on his shoulders, he took my hand. “Yes, of course we’re still going to dinner. And we really do have to.”

“Why is that?” I asked when he came back into the car after shutting my door for me. Annie wiggled into a more comfortable position in her car seat before buckling up properly.

John smiled serenely as he started to drive away from our house. “My parents won’t like it if we’re late.”