Band On The Run

Rebel Girl

Apparently completely done with their little argument, Toby squeezed his husband’s hand back before walking around the peninsula, gesturing for me to follow as he hauled a bottle of wine with him. “C’mon, I need to show you something.”

“But – food!” I whined, pointing at where Jay’s was behind the counters, making him give a deep chuckle.

“He’s still cooking,” Toby informed me, “Come with me, you brat.”

“Sometimes I feel like you’re trying to take over a fatherly role with me,” I muttered, slipping out of the seat and taking my wine glass with me before following him out back into the sitting room.

Smirking over at me and took a seat at the couch, sinking into the cushions, placing the bottle on the coffee table. “Am I sensing daddy issues?”

Grinning, I shook my head, taking a sip of the wine and followed suit. “Far off,” I replied honestly.

“Damn it,” he joked.

“So did you want to show me the couch or something?” I questioned him. “Because I’ve seen it – even sat on it before, it’s a lovely couch. But we did just abandon Jay.”

Toby shook his head, waving a careless hand. “Ah, he’s used to being in the kitchen all the time at work, I think he likes it better when he’s alone.”

I grinned towards my good friend, raising the glass up to my lips again as I shifted on the couch, hooking a leg underneath me so I could look straight forward at him. “So what was it we were supposed to talk about?”

“Oh, you mean the note?” he asked, giving a laugh. “I think I was half asleep when I wrote that.”

“Which explains the bitchiness,” I returned with a grin, propping my elbow against the couch so I could lean my head into my hand. Toby was not a morning person, something we shared in common. “You and Jay still seem to be happy,” I prompted.

This time it was a full smile that spread across his face, a loving one. And I didn’t understand why, but I felt my stomach jerk painfully at the sight of it.

“This summer we’ll have been dating for twelve years.”

“Holy crap,” I swore in awe as I thought about it. “You know that’s fucking crazy, right?”

I could barely comprehend it. I mean, sure, I wasn’t one to have one night stands of crazy monkey sex – not matter what the press thought – but I’d never been in a relationship that long. In my entire life, I’d only been in three relationships, and… Seth had been the longest at four years – and probably the most toxic, an inner snide voice whispered in my ear.

To be honest, I don’t think I’d ever been involved in something that had last twelve years. Hell, that was almost half my life. In the words of Jim Morrison, “I see myself as an intelligent, sensitive human, with the soul of clown which forces met to blow it at the most important moments.” I could never be a part of something that lasted that long, because I got scared and ran away or I just blew it.

“So you and Nick?” he prompted me out of my thoughts by patting my knee, apparently wanting to talk about our love lives now. “I didn’t hear any screaming last night,” Toby smirked, “Apparently Jay’s food is much better.”

Snorting gracelessly into my food, I shook my head. “I didn’t see him last night,” I conceded.

“What?” returned Toby, a stunned expression on his face. “You two haven’t seen each other for like eight months since he went to visit you when you were touring in Italy, and you didn’t feel the need to get together and have fantastic, chandelier shaking reunion sex?!”