Page 5 of Everything After (Everything Trilogy)
ALFIE
For two days, I’d managed to shut out the world, forget about music, and had lived a blissfully normal-ish existence with my wife.
However, as always, the time we’d spent together had passed much too quickly.
So, when Oscar, my new bodyguard, called to pick me up on a dreary, London morning, Lily and I said another long, angst-filled goodbye—again.
Tearing my gaze away from her soulful, green eyes tore at my heart.
Each time I left her had gotten harder than the last and I’d grown frustrated and tired of the lack of normality in our lives. Chasing my dream had become jaded by the fact I was living it mostly alone.
The rest of my band had already boarded as Oscar and I climbed upon my private plane for the flight from California to Australia.
From there on out our schedule of gigs was tight for another five weeks.
Due to my bird undergoing an engine service, I’d flown by a commercial flight to London where I’d met up with Lily.
My fatigued eyes met Drew’s. I sat down across from him and buckled myself in my seat, already regretting not flying directly to Brisbane from the UK. From the way my buddy’s brows knitted together in concern, I guessed I must have looked as wrecked on the outside as I had felt inside.
“You look as if you haven’t slept for a week,” he muttered, his gaze dark.
“I’m good, just dog-tired after the flight.” My jaw ticked as I ground my teeth and stared silently toward him, momentarily jealous of the set-up at home he had.
“You need to cut yourself some slack. There are two of you in your relationship, and a marriage is more than meeting and hooking up.”
“Thanks, Dr. Ruth,” I bit back, pissed that he’d voiced his opinion when his life ran so smoothly. Elle, his wife… and Lily’s best female friend, gave up her career as a dancer to become a full-time mom.
Before she’d become a parent, I would have sworn Elle was too high maintenance for my bandmate Drew. Nothing could have been further from the truth.
We were about to embark on another four and a half weeks of travel with concerts in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. After those, we were headed back to Europe. Knowing that by the time we hit the Schengen region Lily would be Stateside in New York, brought fresh pain to my heart again.
As we taxied the runway, I believed my mindset required a major shift because right then, I was emotionally unprepared to entertain our fans as I’d ever been at the thought of facing the following month alone again.
“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about us taking a break,” Drew disclosed as we began our ascent to the sky.
“A break? We have a couple of months after this before the promoter plans anything else.
“That’s just it, I need longer. With the new baby coming, Elle’s going to need me around for a while.”
“True.” I shrugged. “Okay, what do you need? I mean it’s not like we’re desperate for money or fame now.”
“I want a year. I don’t want to miss all those precious milestones during my kid’s first year like I did the last two times.”
“Alright, I get it,” I replied. A small pang of envy tugged at my heart. Drew had that one aspect I’d felt was missing from my life. A wife that was happy to follow him wherever life took him.
Don’t get me wrong, I have been immensely proud of Lily, and all the hurdles she’s overcome to be a lead in a famous band. But the personal cost of success to us had me questioning how our future would play out.
“Okay, guys, what say we take a year off after Europe?”
“Cool,” Andy, our drummer, replied.
“I’m in,” Des agreed.
“That’s settled then. Let’s get the next five weeks over with, and I’ll let the record label, PR and everyone else know we’re taking a year off, once we get back to the States.”