Status: Completed

Same Time, Next Year

1992

1992

Billie Joe sat at the hotel bar of the small seaside resort, feeling completely out of place. He couldn't believe that the hotel had over booked and he was stuck here on the corner of 'no' and 'where' while Mike and Tre were probably living it up in town for the weekend while they had a few days of no show dates. He had ordered a beer was was turned down when they carded him and and saw he wasn't yet 21. So there he sat, guarding his class of Coke as if it were about to be spiked with a roofie by some ugly chick.

He wondered why the hotel management at the place the guys were at wouldn't allow the third person to the room. Granted it was a small hotel and there was only one bed, but he could slept on the floor or they could've offered to place a cot in the room. But, no...they had to be a pain in the ass. But then again, he got his own room at a seaside resort for free on behalf of the hotel. And the room was big. It was like a little cottage that was down the path from the resort's restaurant and bar. And his meals were paid.

Okay. So maybe this was a good thing.

"What would you like, miss?" was the question from the bartender that caught Billie Joe's attention. He turned his head to find himself staring at the profile of a young woman with wavy, auburn hair that seemed to be around his age.

"I'll have a strawberry daiquiri, please," she replied, sitting down on the empty seat beside Billie Joe. She turned to him and smiled. "Hi."

"Hi," he responded.

"Can I see some ID, first?" came the bartender's inquiry.

"Sure thing," she smiled, producing her Massachusett's driver's license. "Twenty-one today." The bartender looked the ID over and handed it back. "Now gimme that daiquiri." She looked back at Billie Joe and nodded to his Coke. "That looks...refreshing."

He just smirked. "It's all he'll let me buy," he gestured to the bartender who's back was turned to them.

"Why? How old are you?"

"Twenty."

"So close yet so far away, huh?" Off Billie Joe's nod, she smiled. "Well, seeing as it's my birthday and my friend's cancelled on me at the last minute, why don't I buy you something with alcohol in it?"

"Are you planning on seducing me?" Billie Joe asked. He found her eyes intriguing. They looked green, yet brown...and grey. Like a mutt of eye colors.

"If I was planning on seducing you, wouldn't I ask your name first?" she laughed as the bartender handed her her drink. "What do you want?"

"Beer's fine."

"I'll take a beer too," she added. The bartender hesitated, eyeing Billie Joe and her suspiciously, but eventually turned to pour a glass of beer from the tap.

"Billie Joe."

"Huh?" she turned to him with a caught-off-guard look.

"My name. Billie Joe. You said you wouldn't seduce me unless you asked for my name."

"I said 'if,' and hello, Billie Joe. You from Alabama or something?"

"California."

"Wow. Long way to come for a Coke," she teased, then extended her hand as the bartender handed her the beer and she passed it to Billie Joe. "I'm Mary. From here. Massachusetts."

Billie Joe knocked back a quick gulp of the beer and smiled, turning slightly on his stool to face her more as she was doing. "So, Mary...what brings you here all alone on your twenty-first birthday?"

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THE NEXT MORNING...

Billie Joe stirred awake with a deep yawn that seemed to have began somewhere from his toes. Stretching his arms out, he finally took notice of the extra weight on his own body that kept him from sitting up. He looked down to see a head of auburn hair sprawled out over his chest and two around his waist and a set of legs entwined with his own.

Wait a minute...that ain't Adi. And this isn't my room. Where am I and what happened? he wondered. Oh yeah. Booked hotel. Seaside resort. Coke. Woman with daiquiri that bought him the beer...

Mary!

Right as he move his arm from under Mary, he found his arm was asleep and tingling like there weren't no tomorrow. Then she stirred awake, herself. Lifting her head slowly, she stopped and snapped her tired face up in shock.

"Hey..." Billie Joe spoke hestiantly.

"Uh...um...hi." She pulled herself off of him and covered up with the sheet as best as she could while now laying beside him. "Did we?"

Billie Joe lifted up the sheet and looked down at his naked body. "Yeah, we did," he replied, dropping the sheet down. "You remember everything that happened last night?"

She turned to him and nodded. "Though buzzed, yes. We had a few drinks on me, talked a lot...and I came back here with you. And we..."

"Had sex," Billie Joe finished. "Yeah. But...I have a girlfriend. Adi. I think I mentioned her last night."

"You did. Adrienne Nesser. You met her in Minneapolis two years ago while touring with your band and you wrote a song about her after your first kiss," Mary said. "And I have a husband. And a son."

"Andrew Finnigan, who you married when you were seventeen when you found out you were pregnant, and you dropped out of high school. And your mother-in-law hates you. Your son's name is Christopher."

Both sat there for a few moments, letting the events of the night before sink in. And the more both sat in silence the more their nerves seemed to settle. Mary turned to Billie Joe just as he turned to her. He smiled. She smiled back. Slowly, he leaned in and kissed her lips while cupping the right side of her face with his hand. Pulling back from her face she let her hand linger over onto his chest.

"Why do you have to look so beautiful? I mean it'd make things so much easier if you woke up looking like shit like everyone else."

"I guess God thought chubby thighs were enough." Both broke out in laughter and snuggled closer to each other. "You know we can't stay like this forever...I'm a married woman and you have a very wonderful girlfriend from what you said."

"I do. Love her, too," Billie Joe agreed. "But you're wonderful too. So, where does that place us?"

"Well, I like you too, Billie Joe. A lot. But I'm also in love with my husband." She sighed. "I guess we should..."

"Make something of it..."

"Maybe...like an annual retreat. A vacation." Then she shook her head. "No...I can't. Well...maybe just this one time..."