Red

She looked so peaceful asleep in my arms that I didn’t want to wake her up but I had to be at the airport in just under an hour to catch the first flight out. I pushed her hair off of her face and leaned down kissing her on her forehead. Her eyes began to flutter and she looked up at me.

“Morning,” I whispered unable to hide the smile from forming on my face.

“Mmm morning. What time is it?” She asked sitting up stretching her arms above her head. I couldn’t help my eyes from scanning her body as her sweatshirt lifted up with her arms. I had to keep my hands from reaching out and grabbing her.

“It’s just past five. My manager got me a fight that leaves in two hours.”

“Manager?” She asked as she stood up from the couch and walked toward the windows to look out.

“Yeah. Manager. Maybe I can set something up for next weekend? Come take you to that dinner?”

She turned around and smiled, “I would love that. I’m gonna go get ready. There are fresh towels in the closet next to the bathroom if you want to shower.”

Twenty minutes later I walked back into the living room dressed and ready to head back to LA. I set my bags down by the front door and turned to see Eliza walking towards me. My mouth dropped a bit when I saw her. She looked like an absolute sex smitten rockstar, and it was only five-thirty in the morning! Red studded high heels, black and white leggings covered with skulls, black lace top and a black leather jacket. Maybe I could just drag her back to LA with me. I followed her out of her apartment like a puppy dog.

I put my bags in the trunk of her car and smiled sadly to her over the top of the car before climbing in. “Ready?” She asked as she started up the engine.

“Only because I have to be,” I answered honestly. The last twelve hours were the closest to normalcy I have had in three years. I wasn’t thrilled to be leaving it so soon.

I kept the goodbye with Eliza sweet and simple. We exchanged phone numbers, hugs and kisses. I assured her that I would be seeing her sooner rather than later.

I walked through the airport with a grin on my face. I felt like I could take on the world now. I was reenergized, refocused; the whole point of this trip was a success. I browsed the newsstand looking for something to read on my flight back. I picked up a Seattle Times and Maxim.

As I sat in the terminal I pulled out the Seattle Times and began thumbing through it. It was when I reached the Lifestyle section and saw a huge photo of Eliza and myself that I froze in shock. I pulled the page out and read the caption out loud.

“Eliza Svenson danced the night away at her mother’s annual Breast Cancer Awareness Pink Gala with an unidentified man. Svenson shined at the gala, the only one not dressed in pink, catching everyones eye with her new beau.”

Unidentified man. UNIDETIFIED MAN. When was the last time that happened?

The flight to LA was sweet and short as I managed to sleep through the whole thing. It was going to feel good to get back into the studio. All the fog was gone and I’d be able to focus at the task on hand. A driver was waiting for me as I left LAX. I jumped in the back on the sedan and pulled out my phone sending Eliza a quick text message.

Landed in LAX. Not as beautiful as Seattle.

I opened my twitter app as I waited for a response. My mentions had blown up of my fans asking if I was okay. It’d been over twenty-four hours since my last tweet and apparently that means death in twitterverse.

Back in LA, looking forward to putting some work in at the studio with the fella’s.

I thought very carefully before sending out my next tweet.

They say curiosity killed the cat . . . please don’t kill me . . . do I have any fans in Seattle?

Silence. Absolute silence for a couple of blocks. Nothing from Eliza and nothing from any possible followers in Seattle. Maybe my ego was just getting in the way from the truth. We really aren’t world-

I SAW YOU IN THE NEWSPAPER #twfanmilyinseattle

Out of eight hundred thousand people, one. I guess I was okay with this. I didn’t exactly tell Eliza what I did for a living and it really would suck if she found out from someone else. I tweeted the fan back, promising to bring the band up there sometime to play a show.

I eagerly jumped out of the car and walked straight into the studio dragging my bags behind me. I could hear Max’s voice through the speakers before I rounded the corner to see everyone in the room turn to look at me.

“He’s back!” Tom sang out wrapping me in his arms for a hug. I dropped my bags at my sides as each guy came up and gave me a welcome back squeeze. I still held the newspaper in my hand and made sure to tuck it away so none of the guys would see it. Unfortunately for me, it was too late. As I was giving Jayne a hug I peeked over my shoulder to see Jay holding the newspaper with a shit eating grin on his face.

“You need time away from the spotlight and you end up on the front page of the paper?” He asked laughing holding the paper up for the rest of the guys to see.

“Yeah, but I’m the ‘unidentified man’.”

“Eliza Svenson, huh? Why were you at a gala?” Siva asked.

“I crashed. I was bored last night and the hotel I was in was having an event so I went to check it out. Met Eliza at the ball, danced around a bit, played some skee ball, watched the sunrise together.”

They all swooned around me and I felt myself turn bright red as I realized they were just making fun of me. I felt my phone in my pocket vibrate and I pulled it out to see it was a message from Eliza.

Little Britain left though, so it’s not nearly as beautiful as it was.