With Just a Dash of Adultery and a Heap of Regret.

Gerard couldn’t help but feel nervous. The time was eleven-fifty, and Chloe was due to arrive for her final afternoon at the Way household in ten minutes. The comic book artist actually debated whether or not to call the teen to tell her she wasn’t needed today… but he knew hurt she would be, and knew that his daughter wouldn’t like that, either. Bandit really had grown fond of Chloe these past few days.

He couldn’t get the dream out of his mind, though. It was still fresh, and it felt so real, he had to remind himself that it hadn’t actually happened.

The married father kept biting his nails – a nervous habit – and watched the second hand on the clock in the living room eat away at the remaining few minutes he had alone with his daughter, whose attention was fixed on yet another Adventure Time rerun.

Finally, the clock struck twelve, and with that came a knock at the door. Chloe had always been great at time-keeping and definitely hated it when others couldn’t be on time. Gerard let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding in, and stood up. He smiled down at his daughter before marching towards the front door. He grabbed the doorknob and took a deep breath. It’s okay. Just one more day.

“Hey, Gerard!” Chloe greeted with a big smile, something she had done every day. As usual, she was wearing the hoodie that was too big for her, and it was a piece of clothing that Gerard had come to despise this week; they were extremely deceiving to what Chloe actually looked like underneath.

Gerard forced a smile, “Nice to see you again, Chloe.” He stepped aside to let her in and watched again as she removed her hoodie, placing it on the back of a chair before running off into the living room to see Bandit. The father ran a hand through his hair, and so the countdown begins.

The comic was very almost complete. Gerard’s mood lightened at the thought of maybe being able to send Chloe home early if he finished quicker… But he knew it was no use thinking about it; he didn’t want to rush the end of his work, and in truth, he wouldn’t send her home early as it would only upset her and Bandit.

He looked at the time. It was four-thirty-five. Those four and a half hours had gone by surprisingly quick. Gerard’s mood lifted once more, knowing that Chloe would actually be leaving at six. He smiled to himself and he picked up his pencil and continued with the final part of his work.

While Gerard kept on working, Chloe and Bandit had spent the entire afternoon at the park at the request of the youngest Way. It had been a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky. The two girls had a lot of fun together; they looked like sisters. Chloe bought lunch on the way to the park and the pair had a wonderful picnic with all of Bandit’s favorite foods – which included pancakes.

But while Chloe was busy making sure the four-year old was having fun, she couldn’t help but wonder about Gerard. She had noticed how strange he had been since the start of the week, and she couldn’t understand why. Maybe the comic was much more hard work than he thought? Maybe he just missed Lindsey? Perhaps it was both, Chloe didn’t know. She wasn’t going to ask; it wasn’t any of her business.

As the day was drawing to a close, Chloe was surprised when she felt drops of water hit her head. She looked up at the sky and saw it was thick with dark grey clouds, and the rain started to pour even harder. She quickly packed everything together and held Bandit in her arms, as she wasn’t wearing a coat. With the house being a five minute walk away, she knew they would both be soaked by the time they got home, yet she still ran most of the way.

“Oh my god, are you okay?” Gerard asked, running down the stairs when he saw Chloe and his daughter drenched from the rain. He glanced at the teen briefly, noticing her shirt was a bit see through, before grabbing his daughter, “Kiddo, look at you! I think you need to have a bath and get into your jammies, huh?” He ran back up the stairs and into the bathroom. The father stripped his daughter of her wet clothes before wrapping her in a huge, fluffy towel. The little girl giggled at her daddy planted kisses all over her face and making sure she was warm. He started to run his favorite girl a bath before rushing back down the stairs to find Chloe still standing by the door, shivering, despite the fact she had put her hoodie back on.

“I didn’t wanna get the floor wet, so I stayed here,” she explained when Gerard gave her a questioning look. He nodded and opened his mouth to speak, but Chloe spoke first, “I guess I should go now… Thank you so much for having me around this week, Gerard.” She spoke softly.

Suddenly, Gerard didn’t want her to leave just yet, but he didn’t voice this. He knew she had to go. He nodded again before reaching into his back pocket for his wallet, and taking out a wad of cash, “Thank you for all you’ve done for Bandit this week. It’s been great having you here,” he half-lied, holding out the money.

Chloe’s eyes widened as she took it from him and quickly counted it, “Wow, $500? This is too much, I can’t accept this for three days work.” She tried to hand it back to him, but he wouldn’t accept it, “Gerard –“

Despite the fact that this was almost exactly the same as the beginning of his dream, he smiled, “You’re keeping this money, Chloe. Lindsey and I discussed it. With you going to college in the fall, this’ll give you some sort of head start. Spend it wisely, I don’t wanna hear about any underage drinking going on,” he told her playfully, knowing full well she was gonna do the opposite as college kids do.

Although she was extremely wet from the rain, the teenager wrapped her arms around the rock star’s neck, “This is so generous of you, and I can’t thank you and Lindsey enough for this.” Like this dream, Gerard felt uncomfortable with Chloe being so close to him, yet he returned the hug.

When Chloe pulled away, again like his dream, Gerard lost control and brought his lips to hers in a hard kiss. Their mouth moved against each other’s passionately, as if they were a couple who hadn’t seen each other in a long time. The kiss soon became heated when Gerard’s tongue entered Chloe’s mouth willingly. It was when Gerard placed his hand on the back of her head that the kiss broke, and they stepped away from each other.

“This isn’t right, this is wrong. We can’t be doing that.” Chloe looked anywhere but at him. She crossed her arms, “Why would you even do that anyway? You’re married!” She began to shake again, though she wasn’t sure if it was from how cold she was or because of what just happened between them.

Gerard stood back in shock, knowing this definitely wasn’t a dream now. He couldn’t believe he actually went and did that. He shook his head and touched his lips, “I’m sorry, I am so sorry, Chloe. I don’t even know what I was thinking –“

Chloe sighed, her voice shaky as she had tears in her eyes, “I like you Gerard… I really like you.” These words left Gerard stunned, and all he could do was watch and listen to the teen, “I’ve had the biggest crush on you ever since I heard ‘Bullets’ when I was twelve. I was so crazy about you when we met, and if this was happening back then… or if you and Lindsey weren’t together… I would be jumping at this chance! But I can’t. It’s wrong, and I like Lindsey, she’s really sweet to me, I can’t do that to her… And I have a boyfriend! There are so many reasons why this is wrong.”

The pair just stood in silence. Neither of them knew what to say now. What would happen from now? Would they see each other again as they used to? Was Gerard gonna tell Lindsey? But nothing more was said to each other. With one last look at a torn Gerard, Chloe turned away and left the Way household, and it was then that the married man broke down, covering his face with his hands. What have I done?

On the east coast, a very excited bass player was doing the last of her makeup before the show when she heard her cell ring. She smiled when she saw her husband’s name and answered, “Hey baby, how are you?” With her cell in one hand, she tried to do her mascara with the other, though very slowly.

After a long silence, Gerard finally spoke, “I kissed Chloe.” Lindsey dropped her mascara at hearing those three words. Was he being serious? He had to be; Lindsey refused to believe that her loving husband would ever betray her in such a way. However, she heard the seriousness in his voice and remained quiet for a moment, trying to process his words, “Lindsey? Please say something, hun.” His voice was desperate.

Lindsey blinked and cleared her throat, “What do you mean you kissed Chloe?” She was hoping she had misheard him and that he would laugh it off before repeating himself more clearly… but that never happened.

On the west coast, Gerard hung his head in shame, “I’m so sorry, Lindsey… I don’t know how it happened, it just did. She was about to leave and I just kissed her! I don’t know what came over me, and believe me when I say that I regret ever doing it. I never wanted to hurt you, hun.”

Lindsey swallowed the lump in her throat, trying to blink back the tears that this truth had brought to her eyes, “Yet you did hurt me anyway… Where is she now?” She prayed that nothing more had happened between the two. It would break her if anything else happened.

“She left… Please, Lindsey, don’t hate Chloe for this. She did nothing wrong, it was all me! She was the one that stopped it, we both feel terrible, but I promise, it’s all my fault.” Gerard didn’t want Chloe getting any hate from his wife for his mistakes. He was so thankful that Chloe had the control to stop it from getting out of hand; he knew his dream would have become a reality if she hadn’t stopped.

Lindsey sensed this, “Oh, so if she hadn’t… I’m guessing she would be in our bed right about now, huh?” Tears fell from her eyes which had only just had eyeliner put on, but she didn’t care about the streak of black on her cheeks, “I can’t believe this, Gerard.”

“Lindsey… I promise nothing else happened. I feel so terrible about it. I didn’t plan on hurting you; I never wanted to hurt you. It was just a kiss and nothing else happened.”

Mrs. Way sniffed, wiping her cheeks, “But you wanted it to.” It wasn’t a question; she knew. He knew. She knew that he knew, and what’s worse is that he knew that she knew he knew. It was a never ending cycle. When Gerard didn’t deny this, Lindsey spoke, “We’ll talk about this later, Gerard –“

“No! Please, hun. Let’s talk now –“

“Gerard… I’m now about to go on stage. We will talk about this later.” She ended the call just as heard her husband call her name. Lindsey sobbed for a moment, feeling absolutely defeated. What was she going to do now? Was their marriage over? Was there more Gerard hadn’t said?

Lindsey finally pulled herself together, drying her face and redoing her makeup. She couldn’t let the rest of the band know what was going on, and god damn it she had to keep it together for her fans. When Lindsey was satisfied with how she looked, she grabbed her bass and followed her band onto the stage, not realizing she was wearing a different brand of red lipstick.