I forgot how fast things work in the music industry. After our facetime call with Toby, Alyssa set everything in motion for our meeting. Later that week I signed my contract with Astralwerks for both albums and the tour to follow. I don't think it's going to take me that long to get both albums done because most of the writing is already completed but it's easier to book stadiums two years out. Yes stadiums. At first I didn't know whether they would have me do stadiums or smaller venues. But Toby wants me to go for stadiums since I've done them before.
Most of the tour details will get hammered out when we get closer but I made sure Alyssa knows that when we go overseas to make sure we have more off days in between shows. She got the message and so did Toby. Alyssa has given him updates on what happened during my tour with Halsey in the beginning of the year along with treatment updates.
Alyssa, Jack and I made the trip to Astralwerks home office in New York City last week to go over the final version of the contract. Once everything was to my liking and Jack looked through everything with a fine toothed comb, I signed. My first major record deal on my own. It was surreal. I made a post on instagram for the first time since my bridge post the night of the VMAs to share with the world my signing. It's been a hot minute but I just want to let you guys know that new music is coming now that I'm in my new home at Astralwerks. Thanks Toby for letting me run with my idea. More exciting stuff is coming soon.
The post made national headlines. Alyssa went home to LA the day after the signing and told her a few times that if I need anything I will let her know. After Alyssa went home I went into my home studio and grabbed the white board off the wall and started to number it one through fifteen.
Since then I've been playing around with all the songs I've written so far. The order of them is important. I don't think I have it right just yet but I'm getting closer. Nikki has helped me finish up the song Alone in a Room and it's ready to be put out. I've put that in the middle of the album line up and kind of built around it.
During this whole album process, Nikki came to the conclusion that she isn't going to move out. Astralwerks gave her a deal to help me work on the album and it made me happy to have her here with me. It also helps that Malia is here and Nikki is definitely enjoying their time together. We also went out and finally bought a new rug for the living room floor yesterday.
Today is Sunday and today Thea and I are going to the state fair. Yesterday Thea was working the fair and I think she was lucky to get Sunday off so we can go together. It's been years since I've been able to go and I've missed it. I was really jealous that Nicolas and Sydney went last night with Pat. He came home and brought me a bag of fried Oreos. I was in heaven and I could barely get to sleep last night in excitement.
Thea slept over last night and we plan on going on a double date with Nikki and Malia since Malia got off today also. Thea actually just officially got word that her transfer to the Gang Unit was approved. Last night was her last regular patrol with Malia and she was a bit sad when she come home to me about it. So today is going to be a nice distraction to lift her spirits.
I let Thea sleep in as I went into my studio and looked over the whiteboard. Other than Alone in a Room I only have Stay finished and on the board. Stay is the song I wrote and sent Thea from Europe mid breakdown. Just as I finished up the lyric of the song Beautiful Anyway I heard feet run down the hall towards me.
I looked up from the notebook to find Nikki rushing into the room and pushing me out of the way so she can go on the computer. I didn't say anything as I just watched her pull up twitter.
"You have to see this." Nikki said and brought up the American Music Award nomination page. Just as I was about to say something she brought up a video and turned on the sound.
"And the nominees for favorite music video are, Billie Eilish, "Bad Guy", Ariana Grande, "7 Rings", Halsey, "Without Me", Taylor Swift, "You Need to Calm Down" and Ash Monroe, "Tell Her You Love Her"." The announcer said.
"What the hell?" I said and looked at Nikki.
"What there is more." Nikki said and selected another video.
"And the nominees for favorite female artist pop/rock are Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift and Ash Monroe." The announcer said.
"Is this real?" I asked looking at Nikki.
"I promise you this is real. But this is the best one." Nikki said and clicked on another video.
"The nominees for Artist of the Year are Drake, Ariana Grande, Halsey, Taylor Swift and Ash Monroe." The announcer said.
Before I could even say anything my cell phone started ringing and the call is from Alyssa. I quickly answered.
"Is this real?" I asked before she could even say anything.
"This is very real Ash, you just got nominated for 3 American Music Awards." Alyssa confirmed and tears started to well in my eyes.
Before I could say anything a sleepy eyed Thea walked into the room and came right over to me when the first tear fell. Nikki explained to her what was going on and Thea kissed my forehead. It took me a few more minutes to get myself together and when I did, Alyssa informed me that they want me to perform at the show. I told her right away yes and she would get in touch with Britt and Diego about it.
When I looked down at my phone I got so many notifications from my twitter alone I wanted to log out. I left my phone at the studio desk and let Thea and Nikki pull me out of the room to go downstairs and get some breakfast. Nikki made me a cup of coffee while Thea got working on some eggs. A few minutes into the breakfast making the front door opened and I heard footsteps walking towards the kitchen. I looked up from my cup to find Pat standing there with a giant smile on his face holding a bottle of champagne.
"Honey you are going to need more room for all the awards you are about to rack up. I volunteer to house a few of them if you let me." Pat said and kissed my head before popping open the bottle.
"I don't have orange juice Pat." I said and chuckled.
"Then I will be right back." Pat said and left the kitchen again.
He returned a few minutes later with a very confused looking Malia and a fresh bottle of orange juice. Thea gave him some glasses as she finished up my breakfast and brought it over to me. Pat made us all some mimosa's while Nikki filled Malia in on what was happening. By the time I was half way done with my eggs Thea joined us at the table with her own breakfast. We ate together and chatted before we went back upstairs to get dressed for our day out.
The weather today was going to be nice in the high 60s and it was going to be a beautiful day for the fair. I went with a pair of jeans and a simple white tee shirt with one of my black leather jackets to go over it. I waited downstairs and a few minutes later Thea came down the stairs dressed in a dressy black tank top and a pair of holey jeans with her blonde hair almost straight framing her face. My mouth also dropped open at the sight.
"You're gorgeous." I said and pulled Thea into a kiss.
"Ew break it up love birds, nobody wants to see that." Nikki said as she and Malia bounced down the stairs.
Thea pulled away first, her cheeks all red from being caught. I gave Nikki a look as Thea broke away from me and walked off to get her jacket. Nikki looked comfortable in her comic tee shirt, black jeans and dark green jacket. Malia complimented Nikki well in a tan coat, white button down and dark blue jeans. Thea returned with her jacket and her bag and I grabbed my car keys before heading down to my truck.
Thea drove us to the fair and flashed her badge to get us in to the private parking lot. Once we parked Thea and Malia walked off to the police staging area to get the passes while Nikki and I waited in the car. It didn't take them long to come back with the passes and once they were back we started walking through the fair grounds. Nikki and Malia went off in their own direction towards the rides while Thea and I just walked around the grounds for a while taking everything in.
We met up again with Nikki and Malia as they came off the zipper and they pulled us towards another ride. They pulled us onto the ride called riptide that goes up in a giant circle. Thea screamed a few times as we got to the top of the ride before it plunged back down. I just laughed as did Malia.
After we got off the ride Malia pulled Nikki towards the bumper cars and we followed. We went on rides for most of the afternoon. The fairgrounds really filled up during the late afternoon making the waits on the lines longer. After we got off the graviton for the third time I thought we should get some food for lunch and then play some games and check out the craft stands.
Malia quickly agreed on my part for food and we pulled our girlfriends towards the food stalls and ordered a bunch of our fair favorites. After it was all ready we walked back to the police staging area and sat down at one of the few picnic tables set up behind the trailers. A few of Thea and Malia's friends came over to us and joked with us. After we were done with all the food we stayed at the picnic table for a little while I took a phone call from Toby.
After my contract signing, Toby has been checking in with me personally. He'll send me a text every few days just to say hi and I appreciate it. We spoke on the phone for a half an hour about the AMA nominations and how happy he is for me. Toby wanted to go more into detail about the song choice and things of that nature when I told him I was actually at the fair. He completely understood and told me he would call Alyssa to set up a time for us to talk about everything AMA related.
Once I hung up the phone I pulled everyone to my favorite part of the fair, the craft section. Halloween is my favorite holiday and I have a ridiculous amount of Halloween decorations I'm going to start putting up this week. I usually get a good amount of them this weekend and since it was the first time I've been to the fair in a while, this is going to put a decent size dent in my wallet.
Thea ended up holding a lot of stuff by the time I was done with one side of the craft section. Nikki and Malia went off in a different direction when they saw all the stuff I was buying. I thought I got enough for now so we put everything in the car and went back towards the fair grounds. I bought us a large bag of fried Oreos to share and we made our way to the Ferris wheel.
I tipped the guy working the ride to let us stay on the ride longer than normal and got into the cart with Thea. I sat next to my girl and cuddled into her side as the ride started to carry us to the top.
"What do you think about going on a vacation next year?" I asked Thea took a bite of a fried Oreo.
"I would need to put it for it, so as soon as you know when you would want to go the better." Thea said and stole the rest of the Oreo I was eating.
"I'm thinking middle January, maybe somewhere warm?" I said and looked up at Thea.
"I thought you like the cold?" Thea asked looking at me.
"I do, but I wanted to get away before things get crazy with my release dates and stuff. I feel like we could go in January and not have any problems. It would give you enough time to hopefully get approved time off." I said.
"That works." Thea said.
"Sometimes I just want to get in a car and drive. Maybe one day we could run away together, just pack up a car and leave and go wherever the wind takes us." I said as we stopped at the top of the Ferris wheel.
"I do have a lot of vacation time I could use, maybe before you leave for tour we could take a road trip somewhere." Thea said.
"I think I would like that." I said and kissed her neck as the Ferris wheel started to move again.
"So after we get off this thing are you going to win me a stuffed animal?" Thea asked as we went around another time.
"I will try my hardest." I chuckled.
"Good, I will sleep with every night while you are away on tour." Thea said.
"You know we will most likely come again next year before I go on tour again right?" I asked.
"Shut up." Thea said and chuckled.
"Make me." I said raising in my seat to get close to her.
Thea gave me a mega wat smile and put her hand on the back of my neck pulling me into her. My lips met hers and I couldn't help but smile in the kiss. Thea is thinking of being with me long term. It's been a while since I thought about my conversation with Allison, but maybe this would be the time to bring up marriage.
We pulled away from each other and I gave her one more kiss on the cheek before snuggling into her side. I felt Thea kiss the top of my head and we both looked out towards the fair grounds. The sun is starting to set and is paint the sky a beautiful pink color.
"We need to get a picture of this, hurry switch sides." Thea said and pushed me away from her so she could get to the other side of the car as we stopped at the top.
I followed her lead as Thea pulled her cell phone from her pocket. She snapped a few selfies of us before we started to move again. As we reached the ground, the guy controlling the ride let us off. Thea put her hand in mine and we walked towards the many different game stalls.
I dragged Thea over the water gun stall and paid for both of us and sat down. This is usually the one game I can win without a problem. Many years of playing shooting games with Asher come in handy every once in a while. We had to wait for a few more people to sit down to play but I was focused on the little target. The game started with the sound of the bell and I hit my target right away. I looked up at the poll and watched as all the lights lit up and the big light on top of my poll shine.
"Pick your prize babe." I said to Thea and gave her a kiss on the head. Thea picked a blue Llama that also has a unicorn horn on it. I just smiled as we got up and walked around the different game stalls. Thea stopped in front of the stall with the goldfish and I started to laugh.
"How many goldfish do you want?" Thea asked and paid the stall worker.
"And how do you even know you are going to get one in?" I asked as she handed me her Llama-corn. Thea picked up her first ping-pong ball and threw it towards the empty jars. The ball sailed perfectly into a jar and Thea looked at me.
"I may or may not be the current pong champion at the station. Now I ask again, how many goldfish do you want?" Thea asked and picked up her second ball.
"Well I mean, you can't just have one, he needs a friend." I said and smiled at her.
"Then a friend he shall have." Thea said and threw her second ball which once again flew perfectly into a jar.
Just as Thea was about to return her remaining three ping-pong balls Nikki and Malia found us and demanded Thea win them goldfish too. We walked away from the stall with four goldfish. The four of us didn't stay at the fair for much longer. We got some group pictures together with our new pets and made our way back to the police staging area to get my car. With the trunk full of Halloween decoration and our four new goldfish we all left the fair with smiles on our faces.
A/N: Some happy fluff, song on the side is another song that will appear on the first album Ash is going to put out. The song is called Fast Car by Tracy Chapman. This chapter takes place the first weekend of October. still going to be skipping time in the next few chapters.