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The Cost Of Winning

A Good Time Isn't As Much Fun As It Used To Be

ASHLEY'S POV :

"HONNNNKK!"

I sit straight up as the noise blasts my eardrums, barely stopping myself in time to keep from slamming my head into the bottom of the bunk above me. "What the fuck was that?" I blurt out, and I hear several people burst out laughing.

"Happy Birthday!" everyone yells, and I finally get my eyes opened enough to see the rest of the band standing by my bunk, along with Yanni, Jesse, Jon, and Inna, who is spending a few days on the road with Jake. And I also notice that Andy and CC are holding air horns, which explains why my ears are ringing now.

"Was that really necessary?" I groan, as I roll out of bed. "Are you guys trying to get out of the show by making me give myself a concussion?"

"Sorry, dude. I didn't even think about that," CC says, as he and Andy both look a bit sheepish. "It just seemed sort of party-like."

"It's cool, guys," I tell them. "Just don't be too shocked if you get a taste of your own medicine before the tour is over."

Inna moves forward and gives me a peck on the cheek, saying, "Happy Birthday, Ash! Come on up front, Jake and I made you breakfast, and we have all of your gifts there."

"Thank you, I'll be there in a couple of minutes," I reply, as I move past everybody to head to the bathroom, congratulating myself on actually remembering to wear my pajama pants to bed last night, instead of just my boxers.

I go to the bathroom, then spend a few minutes cleaning up and brushing my teeth before I join everyone in the front lounge. Inna motions me to the table, and when I sit down, Jake puts a covered dish down in front of me, while Jinxx places my laptop next to it and opens it up. I see that a Skype session has been set up, and then Fianna and Bren appear in front of me, both of them snuggled up in our bed, with a tray in front of them.

"Happy Birthday, babe," Fi says, giving me a big smile.

"Happy Birfday, Daddy!" Bren chimes in. "Us ams gonna has beffast wif you. Aunt Inna and Unca Jake is made yous some wockles, so us can all has they."

I take the cover off of the plate and see a couple of waffles and some scrambled eggs, and CC sets a little dish of berries down on the table next to the computer, while Andy hands me a coffee mug. I'm pretty sure that I'm grinning from ear-to-ear, since this is the best gift they could give me, short of actually having them here. "Thanks, guys, this is great!" I say, as I start putting the berries on the waffles.

I see my aunt putting plates of waffles in front of the girls, and after she wishes me Happy Birthday, she heads out of the room, leaving them alone with the computer. They start on their food as well, and we converse through the meal, just like when I'm home. The only actual difference is that I'm telling them tour stories, instead of just talking about what's going on at my office, or what we've got planned for the day. And as we're eating, Bren suddenly gets a startled look on her face and exclaims, "Oh, no, me fordotted! Mommy, cans me go get mine stuffs to shows Daddy?"

"Okay, but hurry, Smidge. You don't want your breakfast to get cold."

I see her slide off of the bed, and hear her footsteps running from the room, and inquire, "What's that about, anyway?"

"Sorry, love, I promised that I'd let her tell you," Fi answers, with a grin.

A few seconds later, Bren climbs back onto the bed, and holds her hand out toward the screen, waving several bills. "Wookit, Daddy! Me gots moneys, and Aunt Cawol ams gonna takes me to somewheres to gets a new toy. The wittle futterbye wady weft it in mines bed."

It takes a minute for me to translate this, and then the lightbulb goes on. "Did you lose a tooth, cutie? Let me see."

She leans toward the computer screen and opens her mouth, displaying the gap where one of her bottom teeth used to be. "And Mommy say that the wady give kids more moneys for thems first falled-out toofie, but next time me don't get as many, or her no will has some for the ubber wittle kids. But me gots this many, Daddy. Is me wich?"

She spreads the money out in front of her, and I see that she has five one-dollar bills. "No, cutie, you're not quite rich, but you should be able to find a fun toy for that much. And if you have any quarters in your puppy bank, you can take those, too."

We finish eating, then Bren says, "Now you cans opens yous pesents, since yous eat all yous beffast. Aunt Inna have ours pesents fors you, so asts she to gives you they, Daddy, and you cans see mines sp'wise! It ams a seekit, me don'ts even shows Mommy!"

I direct a look at Fi, who also looks a bit confused, but she explains, "When I talked to Inna, and she said that she was gonna be visiting Jake when your birthday came, I sent her our gifts, and asked her to take them along. So if you hurry up and open them, we can both see this big 'sp'wise'."

Jinxx points to the shelf behind me, and I look around to see a pile of gifts sitting there, which Inna starts handing to me, one by one. I have gift cards, a couple of books, a new leather vest from CC and Anna, some new sketchbooks, and a new watch from my aunt and uncle, and then Inna hands me the package from Bren, who leans eagerly toward the screen to watch me open it.
She obviously wrapped it herself, and I work my way through the tape to find a picture of all three of the horses, with Yoda prancing around their feet. But the big surprise is the signature scrawled at the bottom of the paper, somewhat tipsy-looking, but readable.

"Are you kidding me?" Andy marvels. "She's only three, and she can already write her name? Wow!"

She bounces next to Fi, grinning proudly at me through the screen. "Am yous sp'wised, Daddy? Cody teached we how to dwaws we's name, so Ivy cans does it, too! Now you won'ts fordot who maked yous pitcher! Does yous wike it?"

"I love it, sweetheart, that's a very good surprise!" I reply, watching Fi give her a big hug and a kiss on her nose. "You're a very smart girl to learn that so soon, and Mommy and I are very proud of you. And I'm going to put your picture up by my bed until I come home, so I can see it every day."

She claps her hands together and yells, "Yay! Now open Mommy pesent, you wills wike it!"

"Just to clarify, babe, what you have there isn't your actual gift," Fi interjects. "It's a bit too big to take on the bus with you, but this will explain what it is."

This piques my curiosity, so I start tearing the paper from the package, and open the box, to find a roll of paper, tied with a blue ribbon. I untie it, unroll the paper, and my jaw drops when I realize that I'm holding ownership papers for a fabulous black Thoroughbred stallion whose owner I've envied every since he started boarding his horses with Patty. "Are you serious?! He's had a ton of offers for Hondo before, and wouldn't even consider them, so how did you manage to pull this off?"

"Patty called a couple of weeks ago looking for you, wondering if you were still interested in the horse. Apparently the owner and his wife have had a rather unpleasant divorce, and have to divide everything up. I guess she's not a horse person, and could care less who got him, so the guy asked Patty to see if you still wanted him, so he could be sure he went to somebody who'd take care of him properly. So, when she told me that, I thought he might be an acceptable gift. He's still there at the stable with Reno and the girls, until we can get everything set up at the new place."

"Acceptable?! That's the understatement of the decade, darlin'! This is great, babe, thank you, I love it!" I inform her, and she gives me her beautiful bright smile.

"I'm glad to hear it, love, I was worried that maybe I'd gone a little overboard," she says. "I'm really happy that you like it. And now that you've opened your gifts, do you guys have any other fabulous plans for the day?"

"We have the show later, of course, and a meet and greet afterward, but I think that's about it."

"Oh come on, Ash, do you mean to say that we're not gonna go out and celebrate the occasion?" CC blurts out.

"I don't think so, not this time," I tell him. "I need to keep my head together, just in case something happens. And besides, I promised Fi I wouldn't let that happen anymore."

Before any of the guys can respond, I hear Fianna say, "Babe, it's your birthday, go have fun with your friends. If we were there, especially Smidge, it might be different, but we aren't, so feel free to cut loose a little."

"Do you really mean that, Fi? I thought you..."

"I didn't like it when you did nothing but run around and party, but you promised that won't happen again, and I trust you, so enjoy your birthday, Ash," she says, still smiling at me.

"You are the absolute best, darlin'," I reply. "I don't know what I ever did to deserve you, but I'm glad I did whatever it was."

We talk for a few more minutes, then she signs off to go use her monitor, while we all just spend the rest of the day on the bus watching movies and playing with the Playstation until it's time for soundcheck. We do that, then hang out backstage goofing around with the other bands and getting ready for the show.

Once we finally get out in front of the audience, I feel myself start to get revved up a little, because the time onstage is the only time of the day where I can really think about anything but Fi and Bren, and my stress levels ease up just a bit. "Maybe she's right," I think to myself. "Maybe I do need a chance to cut loose for a while."

When we finish the set, everyone takes a quick shower, and then we go back out for the meet and greet, which lasts for a little over an hour and a half. Then, once that's over, we head to the hotel where we're staying tonight, drop off our stuff, and head down the street to have dinner at a little Thai place we found during the last tour, which also happens to be just two doors down from a nightclub, where the guys have decided we should have our "celebration".

Inna decides to go back to the hotel after dinner, but tells Jake to go on with us, and as we walk into the club, I realize that this time, we're in the unfamiliar position of having Andy as our "responsible party", since he gave up drinking after he got sick with that blood infection while we were doing the last album. CC and I look at each other, and I say, "This could be interesting."

We go to the bar and order, with Andy sticking to straight Coke, while I go for a Long Island Iced Tea, and the other guys make their selections. We find an empty pool table, and I have a couple more drinks while we switch off playing against each other, with the fifth person attempting to keep track of who's actually ahead. When we get to the third game, it's my turn to sit out while Andy and Jake play against Jinxx and CC, so I head to the men's room for a minute. When I come back, I find an exceptionally well-endowed brunette standing in the spot I just left, holding a fresh Long Island in her hand. She holds it out to me, and when she says, "Hello again, Ash. This round's on me, birthday boy," I recognize her as someone we saw earlier at the meet and greet.

"Thanks, but no thanks, hon. I think I've probably had enough for tonight."

"Well, I bet that's a first," she retorts. "You didn't fizzle out this quick the last time you guys came through here. Or don't you remember? Damn, I didn't realize I was that forgettable."

This makes it pretty clear that I most likely did a bit more than just drink with this chick the last time we played here, and I hope she's not expecting a repeat performance. My hopes are dashed, however, when she moves next to me, her lips actually touching my ear, and whispers, "But if you'd rather skip the drink and just go back to the bus, I'm okay with that, too."

I step away from her and say, "Sorry, that's not happening, either. I guess you haven't been keeping up with current events, or you'd know I got married last month."

"Oh, yeah, I know that," she announces. "But I also know that you only did it because of your little girl, so why should it interfere with you enjoying yourself?"

At this point, I'm not entirely sure if I should be pissed off, or just laugh at her stupid ass, so I settle for something in between, telling her, "I have no idea where you got that ridiculous fucking idea, but you couldn't be more wrong. I'm very much in love with my wife, and the only reason she and my daughter aren't with me right now is because she's pregnant with our son and can't travel at the moment. So I'm sorry if whatever happened last time made you expect that it would happen again, but I'm not interested. So if you'll excuse me, I'll be going now."

She stands there looking like I just smacked her with a dead catfish as I walk over to the guys and tell them, "Hey, you guys go ahead and enjoy yourselves, but I'm gonna head back to the hotel and call it a night."

I think Andy may have seen part of the exchange, because he just gives me a nod, but CC looks surprised, and shouts across the table, "But it's your fuckin' birthday! I thought we were here to have a good time, dude!"

"Like I said, you can go right ahead and do that, I'm not trying to be a buzzkill for the rest of you," I respond. Then, as I look back to where the brunette is still standing and glaring at me, I add, "But if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go back to the hotel and call my wife. Because right about now, a good time just doesn't seem like as much fun as it used to be."


























Notes

Comments

@Merelan
Definitely something to consider. If not an actual prologue, it would probably be interesting to have her remember some of the things that happened in this book, so i'll most likely have to find a way to work that in somewhere. Thanx for the thought!

Red Phoenix77 Red Phoenix77
8/21/18

Oh yes PLEASE a sequel! I would love to see events through Bren's eyes! Something fun you might consider is a recap of the story told by a teen Been, as like a prologue.
I look forward to seeing what you devise next!

Merelan Merelan
8/21/18

@Merelan
Cool, glad you enjoyed it!

Red Phoenix77 Red Phoenix77
8/20/18

Awww, such a sweet chapter! Yay for Ash and Fi!

Merelan Merelan
8/20/18

Ah, I love this story! Good on you, Fi!

Merelan Merelan
8/13/18