Sheet Music - A Rock 'n' Roll Love Story

“Okay, call it whatever you want.”

“You can package it anyway you want, but I’m still not interested.”

“Why not?” she asked, waving her arms into the air and stepping closer to him.  “Most men would think they had died and gone to heaven with an offer like this.”

Michael rested against the door frame and brought the bottle of whiskey up to his lips again.  “I’m not most men, Barb.  To me you were and always will be, Brian’s wife and I’ve got no intention of fucking my best friend’s wife for the sport of it.  Okay?  Besides, I told you, I love my wife and I will not jeopardize what I have with her again.”

He stepped through the doorway and into the kitchen then grimaced from the light.

“Where are you going?” she asked, following him to the door.

“Under the circumstances, I should probably leave.”

“I don’t want you to.”

He shook his head.  “I’m thinking it’s best I go home and spend some time with my wife and kid.  I haven’t done much of that lately and I know it’s really bothering Annie that I haven’t.”

Barbara’s eyes filled with tears.  She was jealous of what he had with Annie.  “She’s a very lucky woman.”

“No, I’m the lucky one,” Michael said.

“Will you still come by from time to time to see me? He kissed her lightly on the cheek.  Yeah, but not every day like I have been.  That’s probably not good for either of us.”

Barbara touched her cheek where his lips had just been.  “Am I still allowed to lust after you,” she smiled.

He laughed.  “You’re free to think whatever you want but I don’t want to know about it.  Agreed?”

Reluctantly, she nodded.

The bottle of whiskey was nearly empty by the time Michael arrived home.  By then he could barely navigate the hallway into the kitchen.  Miraculously, he found the couch in the family room and passed-out.  It was mid-morning before he woke to the sounds of a baby crying.

“Jesus Christ,” he complained, pushing himself upright and holding onto his head.

Annie glared at him from the doorway, trying to quiet Sammi with a bottle, but not having much luck.  “Rough night?” she asked coldly.

“No, not really.  I just need some coffee and a shower and I’ll be fine.”

She studied his movements in the kitchen.  He seemed different.  If she didn’t know better, she’d swear he had been drinking.  The thought of which made her shudder.  If that was true, she would not tolerate it, especially with a baby in the house.

He disappeared upstairs to shower.  After covering his cast in plastic, he stepped beneath the spray and let it run cold.  He thought about Annie and the baby.  His baby.  With them in his life, he had everything he had always wanted.  It had taken him a lifetime to find her and, now that she was in his life, he seemed to lack the skills at keeping her.  She was the most important thing in his life and he was driving her away.  He hated the way she looked at him now.  The light in her eyes was gone.

He fell against the shower wall.  His life was spiraling all around him and he felt powerless to stop it.  He wanted peace.  He wanted Annie and he wanted to love the little girl they had created.

He got out of the shower hell bent on spending the day with his family.  He’d do whatever she wanted: lunch in the city, a trip to the beach, or to the park.  He didn’t care what they did as long as they were all together.  But when he got downstairs, Bonita informed him they had already left for the afternoon.

He wandered aimlessly around the empty house.  His heart was heavy with a feeling of despair, continuously washing over him in waves; as it churned in his guts and threatened to consume him.  He felt desperate, as if his life depended on leaving the house.

The next thing he knew he was sitting in the parking lot of a liquor store, unaware of how he had gotten there.  He wondered if he was losing his mind or perhaps he already had.  He paid for the whiskey and found his way to the beach.  It was a secluded spot he and Brian had found years earlier.  It was there they would escape from the confining walls of the studio and create music in the open air.  As far as Michael knew, no one else knew where the spot was.

He removed his leather coat and rolled it into a pillow and lay down in the sand.  He watched the sun go down in a ball of flame behind the tree line behind him and cracked the seal of the bottle of whiskey.  He was dozing when the sound of his cell phone roused him.  He hoped it was Annie and quickly answered it.

“Hey, Mike, it’s me,” Barbara said.

“What’s up,” he replied, annoyed it was her and not Annie.

“I was hoping you’d come by tonight.”

“No.  I told you last night I didn’t think it was a good idea I come by every day,” he answered, filling his mouth with the whiskey.

“You sound funny,” she said.

“It’s been a long day and I’m tired.  Did you want something?” he asked, anxious to get her off the phone.