Chapter 15

The buzzing of my cell phone alarm awakened me only four hours after I'd fallen asleep. I was not pleased by the prospect of riding into the city and renting a vehicle. If the bed were more comfortable I might have phoned Matt and told him I'd hitchhike in later.

But the bed was designed for a child – and I was no longer a kid.

I rolled my legs over until my feet hit the floor and then sat up carefully because I'd bumped my head on the top bunk more than once. Grudgingly I stood and stretched.

More than just my shoulder popped and creaked. I had been on my feet for most of the day before so my legs and back hurt. I had slept perhaps seven of the previous 48 hours and my eyes hurt.

I decided on the spot that if this is what getting old entailed, I wasn't going to participate. My major decision of the day out of the way, I wandered to the kitchen and cursed silently.

I had forgotten to start the coffee pot timer. I'd phone Matt and have him bring me a cup from their house. I opened the fridge to grab the bag of grapes I'd bought the morning before. The bag was half empty already, partly because I had snacked on them in the car and partly because Liz had found them the night before.

I was surprised to see five beers left on the bottom shelf. I glanced around and saw a single soldier sitting (still half full) on my counter. Liz apparently didn't like to drink alone – an affliction I didn't share.

The living room showed signs of Liz's presence, but aside from the half-full beer bottle and the half-empty grape bag, the rest of the house did not. She had picked up her shoes and her travel bag. She had left some notes on the coffee table but they were stacked neatly and bound with paper clips or in notebooks.

I pondered my options while I popped another grape into my mouth. I decided they weren't very good and that Liz could have the rest of them for her breakfast.

I stood in the living room in my boxer shorts. I had not taken clothing with me into the spare bedroom and I didn't keep clothing there. Well, that wasn't exactly true. I didn't keep my clothing there. I kept clothes for Lucas and Brandon but they were just a tad bit smaller than me.

I also had none of my toiletries in the hallway bath. I could do without a shower until later, I supposed, but I desperately wanted to brush my teeth – not only to rid myself of the taste of the sour grape but because my breath smelled like a Florida outhouse.

"Shit," I mumbled as I wiped gunk from the corner of my eye. I had little choice but to enter the room where Liz slept. Even if I had put on last night's clothes – which, as was my habit, had been tossed into a ball on the floor and were wrinkled – I still needed a toothbrush and some deodorant.

My bedroom door wasn't locked and I pushed the door open as softly as I could. I doubted Liz had been asleep for more than an hour or so. My bedroom window faced westward so the rising sun had not yet seeped through the blinds – unlike the room where I had slept the night before. In the dim light from the hallway I saw Liz curled up on the bed.

She was on her left side, facing away from me and the sheet had tangled itself around her legs, giving me a very clear view of her pale, rounded butt.

A stray thought hit my brain and worked itself to completion before I could stop it.

I figured I could get half a million dollars for a picture of what I saw before me. I noticed Liz had one of my pillows cuddled to her front and estimated I could post it on eBay for fifty grand. I upgraded my estimate when I leaned forward and pulled the sheet over to hide Liz's bare behind. She had one leg draped across the pillow and the edge of it nestled between her legs. I figured some sick fuck would pay me two hundred thousand just for a sniff of that corner. I noticed Liz wore the shirt she had taken from the closet a day earlier. That would be worth fifty grand easily.

I shook my head and finally hit the reset button on my brain.

The idea of one person creating so much interest among so many groups struck me as slightly insane. I had sat through the rookie symposium while I was playing baseball. I had heard the lecture about protecting my finances, protecting my image and the team's image by making good choices; ensuring my friends were not just hanging out with me because I had some cash. I had gotten the same lecture from my parents before I went to college and after I had been drafted.

I had spent five days with my parents in Anaheim as we worked out the final structure of my signing deal. I had been given a tour of the stadium and introduced to the players. A couple of the bigger stars obviously had not paid attention when they were my age. They had entourages that numbered in the dozens. They had their own security teams that kept even other players away; their publicists crafted and shaped every syllable that the player uttered; their stylists made sure that the player always looked freshly coiffed and tailored every time he appeared in front of a camera. These people traveled with the player everywhere he went. They had hangers-on by the dozens that nodded like bobbleheads every time the player spoke and then laughed behind his back when they thought no one was watching.

I considered that Liz's life was exactly like that but multiplied by a hundred or even a thousand.

Liz hadn't stirred when I fixed the sheet but I saw her in the mirror when I opened the drawer where I kept my underwear. She sat up in bed and stared at me for a moment.

"Travis?" she asked.

"Sorry," I said. "I forgot to get clothes for today. I didn't mean to wake you."

"It's OK," Liz said. I still looked at her in the mirror and saw her blink her eyes a few times. "I put your clothes on the dresser in the other room. I thought about it last night and I worried you wouldn't just come in to get what you needed. Oh, I put a toothbrush in there, too. I keep a fresh one in my carryon bag so it's never been used or anything."

"Oh," I said, turning around. "Then I'm doubly sorry I woke you. I'm not at my best of a morning."

"It's OK," Liz said again. "I went to bed a little after you did. I think I used up more energy on stage than I normally do. It's usually six in the morning before I can fall asleep after a show. It's why I usually just head straight to the airport."

I realized I was standing in my underwear and shifted nervously. Liz chuckled.

"We're even now," she said. "You saw me in my undies yesterday and I got the show this morning."

"Little do you know," I replied. "Your hiney was bare to the world when I walked in. I decided I could probably quit work if I somehow documented what I saw when I came in the room."

Before I derailed the train of thought, my brain had informed me that I wouldn't make three quarters of million dollars working in the next 15 years.

"You're terrible," Liz said, smiling in spite of the early hour. "If you want the big payday you'd have to lift my shirt and debunk the implant rumors. I bet the bidding war for that picture would hit a million pretty quick."

I shook my head sadly.

"Come here for a minute," Liz said. I looked up to see her gesturing toward the bed. "I want to see your shoulder."

I glanced at the offending body part. There was a huge scar that ran from my armpit in the front to my armpit in the back. I sighed at sat down on the bed next to where Liz rested. She lightly traced the scar with the tip of her finger.

"When you said you screwed this up bad, you weren't kidding," she said. "Ryan had a couple of knee surgeries but he doesn't have anything that looks like this."

Liz had stopped touching the scar and moved to gently massaging the area around it. It felt pretty good.

"There was a lot of damage," I said.

"You think?" Liz asked with a laugh. She shifted in the bed, freeing her legs and sitting behind me with one on each side of my hips. My mind immediately put forth the image of how short the shirt she wore was and what ... exactly ... was pressed against my boxer shorts at that moment.

"Relax," she said as she rubbed both my shoulders at the same time. Her warm breath on the back of my neck did absolutely nothing to help me follow her command. A certain portion of my lower anatomy absolutely refused to pay attention. It worsened when I realized that it was Liz's pubic hair tickling the base of my spine. I shifted forward.

"Did that hurt?" she asked with genuine concern in her voice.

"Uh, no, no," I said quickly. "It's just ... what you're wearing and how you're sitting."

I kept my eyes forward, barely winning the fight to turn to see if my brain had painted an accurate picture.

I heard a snort then felt Liz's arms circle my waist. She kissed me softly between my shoulder blades.

"Sorry," she said. "I ... I put on the shirt out of consideration for you. I usually just sleep naked when I'm alone. Most of the time, I sit around the apartment in as little clothing as I can wear and still be comfortable. I guess it's my little 'screw you' to the world."

"I get it," I said with a nod. "I was just thinking how insane it is to have every single nuance of your life documented and analyzed."

"Yeah," Liz admitted. "I pulled the sheet across my lap so you don't have to keep your back to me now."

I shifted around again and Liz resumed the soft massage of my shoulder. I've never seen anyone wake up pretty but somehow Liz managed it. Even though her hair looked like a bird's nest and she had crust at the corner of her eye, she was still beautiful. I looked away.

"You've been really great," she said. "I ... I needed some time to decompress. I've been touring for six months. I was in the studio for a year before that. I've been dealing with label issues and fighting with the streaming services. I just needed someplace that I could ... stop. I guess I just needed someone to ... take care of me. On the road ... in the studio ... I have started to be a bit of a tyrant. Ryan told me yesterday that having you around was good for everybody. If I hadn't spent yesterday with you I'd have spent it watching over the sound engineer's shoulder and going over the security details that Ryan had gone over a hundred times already.

"Instead I hung out with you and let the people that know their jobs do their jobs. That's the thing, Travis. These people are really good at what they do ... a lot better than I am at what they do. But they put up with it because..."

"You're the boss," I finished.

"No," Liz corrected. "They put up with me because we're friends. It's the same way Sarah puts up with you or you put up with her. Yeah, on the stage, I'm the boss. And, I suppose, in theory, they work for me. But it's just in theory. I'm not sure you got that part. I offer my input on how Ryan does things but I don't ... change them. I will talk things over with Stephanie about what promotions I do outside those the label has established. I will make suggestions to Annette about the clothing for tour. But then I invariably do what they think is best. It will be the same way with you guys."

"I didn't get that impression," I noted.

"At the beginning, I'll be ... obnoxious," Liz admitted. "It's like last night. I knew you were right but I wanted it to be my idea. Just keep pushing. I'll try to watch it but if you really believe something keep after me."

"You know how you want to be perceived better than we will," I pointed out.

"Maybe," Liz said. "But I don't know how to do it or even if doing it is possible. That's one reason I want you on the team so badly. I won't be a total bitch around a guy I'm trying to seduce."

She leaned forward and kissed my arm. I heard my phone ringing in the other room. When I looked back at Liz she was the picture of innocence.

"Get some pants on and get going," she said with a wink. "Or ... get your pants off and come to bed with me. No, scratch that. I'm going back to sleep. So leave your pants on if you come to bed with me."

I stood up to answer the phone and Liz patted my butt. I ran my hand down my face as I grabbed the phone just before the call went to voicemail.

"You still asleep, you lazy sod?" Matt asked. He was far too jovial for that time of morning.

"I'm awake," I said. My voice cracked and I sounded like I had just hit puberty. Matt laughed.

"Sarah said she'd run you into the city later if you wanted to sleep a little longer," he told me.

I gave the idea a moment of consideration as I looked back to my bedroom where Liz was in my bed. I shook my head at that thought but I knew I could use another two or three hours of sleep before I drove anywhere.

"Was she serious or just being polite?" I wondered. I remembered who I was talking to as soon as Matt burst into laughter.

"Polite," he muttered. "That's a good one. You must be having a hell of a dream if you thought my wife would be polite about anything."

"Yeah, good point," I said. "I'll take her up on the offer. I feel like it has been a week since I slept and later sounds better than now."

"I figured," Matt agreed. "OK, I'll tell her. She's going back to bed after the boys are on the bus. She said after noon. Is that OK?"