CHAPTER FOUR
MEL
Mel stumbled through the crowd, giggling, and swigging the liquid sin that now occupied her water bottle. She couldn't even taste it anymore. And where was Big Willie? Ah, well. She would survive. She felt invincible! Well, she would when the room stopped spinning.
As she approached the bar, she noticed a tall, blonde supermodel smiling at her. What the hell was she
smiling at? Mel was straight!
"Oh. It's you," Mel said to Drew when she was close enough to recognize her.
Drew started laughing hysterically. "What happened to you?"
"I am working!" Mel responded, her speech obviously impaired. She couldn't feel her tongue.
"You are drunk," Drew said.
"Hey, what the hell are you doing here anyway? Hey...we gotta leave before they come back onstage and see
us!"
Drew continued to laugh. "What??"
Mel was drunk and she was frustrated. "I am so dead, aren't I?"
"Dead how?"
"I screwed up this interview. This job. My life. THAT MAN--" Mel started yelling and gesturing toward the stage. "--HAS RUINED MY LIFE! AND MY NIGHT! And now my
job..."
"Mel, if I were in your shoes, I really wouldn't worry about the job."
"What, so I can mope around and cry all day?"
Suddenly she heard Big Willie's voice from behind her. "Drew, thank god. You made it fast."
Mel looked at Big Willie with an expression of betrayal. "YOU called her?? But I told you, I'm not drunk! I have my camera and my tape recorder, see? If I have these, I can't get drunk. It's a guran-an-nan-tee, guarantee. I am not drunk."
And with a twist of a stiletto, Mel was on the floor.
________________________________________________
DREW
Drew couldn't keep herself from laughing. This was actually quite sad. The last time she had to retrieve
Mel from a bar like this was after her husband's funeral. And before that when she and Taylor split up. And even at that time she was underage and wasn't supposed to be in a bar.
It was sad, and a little pathetic. But it was still funny as shit.
As Drew and Big Willie helped Mel off the floor, she was muttering, "Goddamn man, shoemaker man,
people, put fucking spikes on these goddamn shoes. I'm okay! But they're so glittery. I love them..."
"You gotta get her home," Big Willie said to Drew.
Drew sighed and looked at her best friend, three sheets to the wind. "I know." She was slightly disappointed. She came because her best friend needed her help. But she couldn't help but admit that deep down she had high hopes of seeing Zac Hanson. It had been so long. But they hadn't even come back out onstage yet.
"Do you need me to help you?" Big Willie asked, interrupting her thoughts.
"No," Drew responded. "I'll probably need your help hailing a cab, though. There is no way we're walking home tonight. Not like this."
With Mel oblivious to pretty much the entire world, Big Willie took a moment to give Drew the paper that Zac had slipped him earlier. "What's this?" she asked him.
He chuckled. "Hey, I'm just the messenger. Take care of my girl, there."
Drew wanted badly to open the piece of paper, but she had bigger fish to fry at the moment. She shoved it
in her purse and took Mel by the arm. "Okay, let's go."
Mel scowled at her. "Get your hands off me, you damn dirty--"
"HEY! Don't you dare," Drew warned.
Mel huffed and let her walk her to the cab that Big Willie had waiting on them.
In the cab, Mel sat in silence, in a drunken pout. She had opened her water bottle and had it to her lips when Drew snatched it out of her hand. "Give me that," she demanded.
"Hey!" Mel protested.
Drew smelled the contents and coughed in response. "Goddamn, Mel. No wonder you're trashed."
"Noooo," Mel retorted, shaking her head like a child. "I was drunk BEFORE that."
Drew shook her head and thought about the note in her purse. Now was still not a good time. She whimpered to herself.
Back at the Brownstone, after Drew had forced some coffee and water down Mel's throat, along with half a pack of crackers and a fistful of Advil, Mel was a little more coherent than she'd been an hour earlier. "Drew," Mel groaned. "I have to get this review in. They want it tomorrow morning. I am going to seriously lose this job."
"I really don't understand why you keep it," Drew said. "It's not like it's a full time job, and it's certainly not like you need it."
"It keeps me busy," she groaned.
"I'll write it for you." This wouldn't have been the first time Drew had "ghost written" for Mel. Every once in awhile Mel would have a particularly hard time with different genres of music. If she felt Drew would be more knowledgeable on the subject and more beneficial to the project, Mel would let her write it for her. Drew obliged. It wasn't often anyway and it was kind of fun. She sure wouldn't want the job full time.
"Are you sure? You'll be up all night."
Drew smiled and tucked Mel under a blanket on the couch. "I'm used to being up all night anyway. Besides, you know this subject is kind of my specialty."
Mel groaned again. "Please. My stomach had just calmed down. Make sure you wake me in a couple of hours so I can proofread it before I send it in."
"Sure thing, captain," Drew joked.
_____________________________________
Drew was beyond stoked. Not because she wanted to write the article. Hell, she had enough knowledge on the subject that she herself wouldn't have needed to attend the show. Had she known this was Mel's story tonight, she would have written it for her before the show even started then dragged her to see the concert in leisure.
Dragged her kicking and screaming.
Drew was stoked because this gave her a chance to read the mystery note Big Willie had given her. Her
heart was racing. She knew she had higher hopes than she should have, but a girl could dream. And she definitely was a dreamer.
She ran to her bedroom and quietly closed the door behind her. As she opened the paper, she recognized Zac's handwriting immediately and stoked was quickly turning into stroke. The note was simple. Four words, seven numbers. "Miss you. Call me. 555-1022."
To stay quiet, Drew screamed inside her pillow and danced around her room. She knew he was married. She knew he had kids. Did she care? Not really. After all, they had stayed friends when they had chosen to end their relationship. A girl could be excited to hear from an old, dear friend, right? Right?
What time was it? Midnight. Damn. He wouldn't be back on the bus till at least 1:30 or 2. She was for sure going to call him. She didn't care about the time. This was too good to be true.
She decided to kill some time and start on Mel's article. As she was gathering supplies, she remembered the tape recorder. The tape recorder! 'Oh, bless you, Mel, for staying old school!' Drew thought to herself. The recorder would have Zac's voice on it. That would suffice until she called him.
After she listened to the interview (which was actually quite hilarious with Mel in her drunken
stupor) and swooned over the sound of Zac's voice, she finally dedicated herself to the review. This would be the greatest one she'd ever ghost-written. And it was so easy! She was almost tempted to sneak behind
Mel's back and submit it under her own name. But only almost. If people ended up hating it she certainly didn't want them knowing it was hers!
As Drew wrote, the hair on her arms and the back of her neck suddenly began to stand on end and she stopped
typing and looked around. She saw nothing. She heard nothing. But she felt something. She was sure that whatever it was, it was benevolent but it creeped her out, nonetheless. Ever since Drew was a small child she experienced a sixth sense of sorts. She didn't necessarily see or speak to the dead or act as some kind of medium or anything. Nothing that extreme. She had quite a few experiences in her lifetime that could be called paranormal but nothing that garnered her having her own television show or charging for her services. It was more like a gift, as she liked to call it. She always knew when things "weren't quite right." She knew when she "wasn't alone" or sometimes, the more creepy times, she knew if she was "being watched." The only people who knew about her "gift" were Mel, Tay, Zac, and her grandmother. Ike knew, also, but was too much of a skeptic to buy into it. She had tried to "go public" with it once before at recess in the school yard
and again in high school but it wasn't received well. So she chose to keep her secret close to herself and her closest friends. After a few minutes, the feeling went away. They never lasted long. She sat for a couple
more minutes to make sure it didn't happen again. Whatever she felt wasn't evil so she was able to calm down quickly. After all, the Brownstone was an old home. Chances were, she could have been feeling the passing of an original resident. She would never know.
Finally, she was calm enough to continue.
When she felt she'd done the review, and the New York Times, and Hanson, and Mel justice, she checked the
time. 2:08am! She'd been so engrossed in the review she'd lost track of the time!
Thankfully, her bedroom had a balcony. She took her phone off the charger (of course she had made sure
to have a full charge) and stepped outside into the warm, New York City summer breeze. It was relatively quiet out here in this section of the city. That was a rarity.
Drew curled herself up in one of the patio chairs and looked Zac's number up in her phone. She hadn't
wasted any time programming it in. She had her finger poised for "send" and then she hesitated. It had been years. YEARS. He was married. With two children. What would she say? What would they talk about?
Screw it. He's the one who gave her his number.
She squeezed her eyes shut and hit the button and swiftly held the phone up to her ear. She was so nervous she could have soiled herself right there.
Zac picked up after two rings. There was a moment of silence on both ends before Zac said, "Hey, Nancy Drew." The smile in his voice was evident as he addressed her by her old nickname."
"Hello, Zachariah," Drew responded, her smile widening on her end of the phone.
They both chuckled nervously. "Man, I can't believe I'm talking to you," Zac said, his voice now filling with nostalgia. "It feels like yesterday but then again not."
"I know," Drew agreed. "I would have stayed, but Mel was kind of in rare form tonight."
Zac laughed heartily at that. "God, I know. I'm surprised she made it through the interview. It was all I could do to keep it together."
"I know!" Drew agreed. "I laughed through the tape recording. It was all *I* could do to write the review!"
Zac sounded puzzled. "YOU wrote the review?"
"Yeah. Sometimes when she needs help, I'll write them for her. Sort of ghost writing, actually. Tonight was one of those nights."
"Well, then, if somebody has to ghost write, I can't think of anyone else better for the job."
Drew smiled, and then she frowned. "She's going through a lot, you know."
Zac sighed. "Yeah, I know. And Tay's a wreck, too. A complete basket case."
"Some things never change," Drew responded. They both laughed in agreement.
"So," Zac continued. "How has life been treating Andrew Brooks?"
Oh, the life conversation. Not something Drew was sure she really wanted to tackle right now. She knew the subject of his marriage was coming up soon and a sickening knot of nerves bundled themselves in the pit of her stomach with no intention of leaving.
But she could at least be honest about her answer.
"Life has been quite interesting actually. After Mel and I came out to New York, I became an actress. A professional actress."
"Yeah, I remember when we talked some after that you were taking classes and preparing for auditions. So it worked out for you, huh?"
"Mostly, yes. I do mostly stage acting, a few commercials. I have a couple of guest spots coming up on a couple of TV shows and some REALLY big news that I haven't told anyone else about yet. You wanna hear it?"
"Seriously? You haven't told anyone else? And you wanna tell ME?"
"Why not?"
"Well, lay it on me, then."
A wide grin spread across Drew's face. "I've been invited to audition for a lead role in a major motion picture!"
"That's awesome!" Zac responded. "I'm so proud of you! So, no chance of that being a major motion porno, huh?"
"Why would you need a porno when you could have it live action?"
Silence.
Crickets.
Drew mentally face palmed herself. "Uh, too soon?"
Zac chuckled nervously. "I, uh, had to remember who I was and what decade I was in again. I guess I didn't really think this through.."
"What's to think about? We're friends. Friends for life. If we can't joke like this with each other, who can we joke with? I know you're married. I don't really care. Have you ever known me to care about anything that didn't matter?"
"I kissed Mel."
This stunned Drew for a second. "What?"
"I kissed Mel. That summer, when we all went to the beach. We were talking, and we had a moment, and I kissed her. But nothing else happened, I swear. I felt so guilty that neither one of us told you and I've felt guilty all these years and I am so sorry!"
Unexpectedly, Drew burst out laughing. Deep, belly laughing.
"Drew, why are you laughing?"
She allowed herself to calm down before she spoke. "Okay. I know Mel. She and I have an understanding. If she truly felt it meant anything at all and that you in any way meant to be devious, she would have told me. The fact that I'm just now hearing about it tells me that I didn't even have anything to worry about during that moment. Besides, Mel slept with Ike, and I kissed Ike I and gave Tay head, so. We've all slept with each other. No biggie."
Now it was Zac's turn to be stunned. "WHAT??"
"Zac, we were stupid kids. Seriously. What's past is past. This is now. And right now here we are. Having a conversation and catching up and rekindling a friendship. Nobody need feel threatened here."
"When can I see you?"
"Okay, this conversation is getting way out of hand."
"Seriously, when can I see you?"
Aggravated that this was moving too fast for her to collect her thoughts, Drew asked, "Where are you
now?"
"On the bus headed south."
"Well then shouldn't the question be when can *I* see *you?*"
That silenced Zac. "Touche. Listen, I don't cheat on my wife."
"I never said you did."
"And I don't want you to be my mistress."
"I better fucking not be. I was there first. What are you getting at?"
Zac sighed. "I really don't know. All I know is I want--I need--to see you."
"I want to see you too. Like, you have no idea."
"I'll text you my schedule. I don't want us to lose touch again."
"Believe me, we won't."
"I have to go now, though. I need to get some sleep, if I can. We have another show tomorrow night."
"Yeah, you go get rested up. I gotta go wake Mel so she can proof read her own story she didn't write."
Zac chuckled. "I really have missed you, Drew."
"I've missed you, too."
They said their goodbyes and hung up with each other. Drew sat staring at her phone for what seemed
like hours. Not believing what had just taken place.
Married.
He was married.
But she felt like his wife was the intrusion, not her. It almost felt as if he was cheating on her with his wife. It was the weirdest and most frustrating feeling she had ever had. And in a way, she didn't care. Because no matter what happened in this life, anywhere in the world, she knew that he would always be hers because she knew she would always be number one in his heart.
And that is what made everything okay for her.
MEL
Mel stumbled through the crowd, giggling, and swigging the liquid sin that now occupied her water bottle. She couldn't even taste it anymore. And where was Big Willie? Ah, well. She would survive. She felt invincible! Well, she would when the room stopped spinning.
As she approached the bar, she noticed a tall, blonde supermodel smiling at her. What the hell was she
smiling at? Mel was straight!
"Oh. It's you," Mel said to Drew when she was close enough to recognize her.
Drew started laughing hysterically. "What happened to you?"
"I am working!" Mel responded, her speech obviously impaired. She couldn't feel her tongue.
"You are drunk," Drew said.
"Hey, what the hell are you doing here anyway? Hey...we gotta leave before they come back onstage and see
us!"
Drew continued to laugh. "What??"
Mel was drunk and she was frustrated. "I am so dead, aren't I?"
"Dead how?"
"I screwed up this interview. This job. My life. THAT MAN--" Mel started yelling and gesturing toward the stage. "--HAS RUINED MY LIFE! AND MY NIGHT! And now my
job..."
"Mel, if I were in your shoes, I really wouldn't worry about the job."
"What, so I can mope around and cry all day?"
Suddenly she heard Big Willie's voice from behind her. "Drew, thank god. You made it fast."
Mel looked at Big Willie with an expression of betrayal. "YOU called her?? But I told you, I'm not drunk! I have my camera and my tape recorder, see? If I have these, I can't get drunk. It's a guran-an-nan-tee, guarantee. I am not drunk."
And with a twist of a stiletto, Mel was on the floor.
________________________________________________
DREW
Drew couldn't keep herself from laughing. This was actually quite sad. The last time she had to retrieve
Mel from a bar like this was after her husband's funeral. And before that when she and Taylor split up. And even at that time she was underage and wasn't supposed to be in a bar.
It was sad, and a little pathetic. But it was still funny as shit.
As Drew and Big Willie helped Mel off the floor, she was muttering, "Goddamn man, shoemaker man,
people, put fucking spikes on these goddamn shoes. I'm okay! But they're so glittery. I love them..."
"You gotta get her home," Big Willie said to Drew.
Drew sighed and looked at her best friend, three sheets to the wind. "I know." She was slightly disappointed. She came because her best friend needed her help. But she couldn't help but admit that deep down she had high hopes of seeing Zac Hanson. It had been so long. But they hadn't even come back out onstage yet.
"Do you need me to help you?" Big Willie asked, interrupting her thoughts.
"No," Drew responded. "I'll probably need your help hailing a cab, though. There is no way we're walking home tonight. Not like this."
With Mel oblivious to pretty much the entire world, Big Willie took a moment to give Drew the paper that Zac had slipped him earlier. "What's this?" she asked him.
He chuckled. "Hey, I'm just the messenger. Take care of my girl, there."
Drew wanted badly to open the piece of paper, but she had bigger fish to fry at the moment. She shoved it
in her purse and took Mel by the arm. "Okay, let's go."
Mel scowled at her. "Get your hands off me, you damn dirty--"
"HEY! Don't you dare," Drew warned.
Mel huffed and let her walk her to the cab that Big Willie had waiting on them.
In the cab, Mel sat in silence, in a drunken pout. She had opened her water bottle and had it to her lips when Drew snatched it out of her hand. "Give me that," she demanded.
"Hey!" Mel protested.
Drew smelled the contents and coughed in response. "Goddamn, Mel. No wonder you're trashed."
"Noooo," Mel retorted, shaking her head like a child. "I was drunk BEFORE that."
Drew shook her head and thought about the note in her purse. Now was still not a good time. She whimpered to herself.
Back at the Brownstone, after Drew had forced some coffee and water down Mel's throat, along with half a pack of crackers and a fistful of Advil, Mel was a little more coherent than she'd been an hour earlier. "Drew," Mel groaned. "I have to get this review in. They want it tomorrow morning. I am going to seriously lose this job."
"I really don't understand why you keep it," Drew said. "It's not like it's a full time job, and it's certainly not like you need it."
"It keeps me busy," she groaned.
"I'll write it for you." This wouldn't have been the first time Drew had "ghost written" for Mel. Every once in awhile Mel would have a particularly hard time with different genres of music. If she felt Drew would be more knowledgeable on the subject and more beneficial to the project, Mel would let her write it for her. Drew obliged. It wasn't often anyway and it was kind of fun. She sure wouldn't want the job full time.
"Are you sure? You'll be up all night."
Drew smiled and tucked Mel under a blanket on the couch. "I'm used to being up all night anyway. Besides, you know this subject is kind of my specialty."
Mel groaned again. "Please. My stomach had just calmed down. Make sure you wake me in a couple of hours so I can proofread it before I send it in."
"Sure thing, captain," Drew joked.
_____________________________________
Drew was beyond stoked. Not because she wanted to write the article. Hell, she had enough knowledge on the subject that she herself wouldn't have needed to attend the show. Had she known this was Mel's story tonight, she would have written it for her before the show even started then dragged her to see the concert in leisure.
Dragged her kicking and screaming.
Drew was stoked because this gave her a chance to read the mystery note Big Willie had given her. Her
heart was racing. She knew she had higher hopes than she should have, but a girl could dream. And she definitely was a dreamer.
She ran to her bedroom and quietly closed the door behind her. As she opened the paper, she recognized Zac's handwriting immediately and stoked was quickly turning into stroke. The note was simple. Four words, seven numbers. "Miss you. Call me. 555-1022."
To stay quiet, Drew screamed inside her pillow and danced around her room. She knew he was married. She knew he had kids. Did she care? Not really. After all, they had stayed friends when they had chosen to end their relationship. A girl could be excited to hear from an old, dear friend, right? Right?
What time was it? Midnight. Damn. He wouldn't be back on the bus till at least 1:30 or 2. She was for sure going to call him. She didn't care about the time. This was too good to be true.
She decided to kill some time and start on Mel's article. As she was gathering supplies, she remembered the tape recorder. The tape recorder! 'Oh, bless you, Mel, for staying old school!' Drew thought to herself. The recorder would have Zac's voice on it. That would suffice until she called him.
After she listened to the interview (which was actually quite hilarious with Mel in her drunken
stupor) and swooned over the sound of Zac's voice, she finally dedicated herself to the review. This would be the greatest one she'd ever ghost-written. And it was so easy! She was almost tempted to sneak behind
Mel's back and submit it under her own name. But only almost. If people ended up hating it she certainly didn't want them knowing it was hers!
As Drew wrote, the hair on her arms and the back of her neck suddenly began to stand on end and she stopped
typing and looked around. She saw nothing. She heard nothing. But she felt something. She was sure that whatever it was, it was benevolent but it creeped her out, nonetheless. Ever since Drew was a small child she experienced a sixth sense of sorts. She didn't necessarily see or speak to the dead or act as some kind of medium or anything. Nothing that extreme. She had quite a few experiences in her lifetime that could be called paranormal but nothing that garnered her having her own television show or charging for her services. It was more like a gift, as she liked to call it. She always knew when things "weren't quite right." She knew when she "wasn't alone" or sometimes, the more creepy times, she knew if she was "being watched." The only people who knew about her "gift" were Mel, Tay, Zac, and her grandmother. Ike knew, also, but was too much of a skeptic to buy into it. She had tried to "go public" with it once before at recess in the school yard
and again in high school but it wasn't received well. So she chose to keep her secret close to herself and her closest friends. After a few minutes, the feeling went away. They never lasted long. She sat for a couple
more minutes to make sure it didn't happen again. Whatever she felt wasn't evil so she was able to calm down quickly. After all, the Brownstone was an old home. Chances were, she could have been feeling the passing of an original resident. She would never know.
Finally, she was calm enough to continue.
When she felt she'd done the review, and the New York Times, and Hanson, and Mel justice, she checked the
time. 2:08am! She'd been so engrossed in the review she'd lost track of the time!
Thankfully, her bedroom had a balcony. She took her phone off the charger (of course she had made sure
to have a full charge) and stepped outside into the warm, New York City summer breeze. It was relatively quiet out here in this section of the city. That was a rarity.
Drew curled herself up in one of the patio chairs and looked Zac's number up in her phone. She hadn't
wasted any time programming it in. She had her finger poised for "send" and then she hesitated. It had been years. YEARS. He was married. With two children. What would she say? What would they talk about?
Screw it. He's the one who gave her his number.
She squeezed her eyes shut and hit the button and swiftly held the phone up to her ear. She was so nervous she could have soiled herself right there.
Zac picked up after two rings. There was a moment of silence on both ends before Zac said, "Hey, Nancy Drew." The smile in his voice was evident as he addressed her by her old nickname."
"Hello, Zachariah," Drew responded, her smile widening on her end of the phone.
They both chuckled nervously. "Man, I can't believe I'm talking to you," Zac said, his voice now filling with nostalgia. "It feels like yesterday but then again not."
"I know," Drew agreed. "I would have stayed, but Mel was kind of in rare form tonight."
Zac laughed heartily at that. "God, I know. I'm surprised she made it through the interview. It was all I could do to keep it together."
"I know!" Drew agreed. "I laughed through the tape recording. It was all *I* could do to write the review!"
Zac sounded puzzled. "YOU wrote the review?"
"Yeah. Sometimes when she needs help, I'll write them for her. Sort of ghost writing, actually. Tonight was one of those nights."
"Well, then, if somebody has to ghost write, I can't think of anyone else better for the job."
Drew smiled, and then she frowned. "She's going through a lot, you know."
Zac sighed. "Yeah, I know. And Tay's a wreck, too. A complete basket case."
"Some things never change," Drew responded. They both laughed in agreement.
"So," Zac continued. "How has life been treating Andrew Brooks?"
Oh, the life conversation. Not something Drew was sure she really wanted to tackle right now. She knew the subject of his marriage was coming up soon and a sickening knot of nerves bundled themselves in the pit of her stomach with no intention of leaving.
But she could at least be honest about her answer.
"Life has been quite interesting actually. After Mel and I came out to New York, I became an actress. A professional actress."
"Yeah, I remember when we talked some after that you were taking classes and preparing for auditions. So it worked out for you, huh?"
"Mostly, yes. I do mostly stage acting, a few commercials. I have a couple of guest spots coming up on a couple of TV shows and some REALLY big news that I haven't told anyone else about yet. You wanna hear it?"
"Seriously? You haven't told anyone else? And you wanna tell ME?"
"Why not?"
"Well, lay it on me, then."
A wide grin spread across Drew's face. "I've been invited to audition for a lead role in a major motion picture!"
"That's awesome!" Zac responded. "I'm so proud of you! So, no chance of that being a major motion porno, huh?"
"Why would you need a porno when you could have it live action?"
Silence.
Crickets.
Drew mentally face palmed herself. "Uh, too soon?"
Zac chuckled nervously. "I, uh, had to remember who I was and what decade I was in again. I guess I didn't really think this through.."
"What's to think about? We're friends. Friends for life. If we can't joke like this with each other, who can we joke with? I know you're married. I don't really care. Have you ever known me to care about anything that didn't matter?"
"I kissed Mel."
This stunned Drew for a second. "What?"
"I kissed Mel. That summer, when we all went to the beach. We were talking, and we had a moment, and I kissed her. But nothing else happened, I swear. I felt so guilty that neither one of us told you and I've felt guilty all these years and I am so sorry!"
Unexpectedly, Drew burst out laughing. Deep, belly laughing.
"Drew, why are you laughing?"
She allowed herself to calm down before she spoke. "Okay. I know Mel. She and I have an understanding. If she truly felt it meant anything at all and that you in any way meant to be devious, she would have told me. The fact that I'm just now hearing about it tells me that I didn't even have anything to worry about during that moment. Besides, Mel slept with Ike, and I kissed Ike I and gave Tay head, so. We've all slept with each other. No biggie."
Now it was Zac's turn to be stunned. "WHAT??"
"Zac, we were stupid kids. Seriously. What's past is past. This is now. And right now here we are. Having a conversation and catching up and rekindling a friendship. Nobody need feel threatened here."
"When can I see you?"
"Okay, this conversation is getting way out of hand."
"Seriously, when can I see you?"
Aggravated that this was moving too fast for her to collect her thoughts, Drew asked, "Where are you
now?"
"On the bus headed south."
"Well then shouldn't the question be when can *I* see *you?*"
That silenced Zac. "Touche. Listen, I don't cheat on my wife."
"I never said you did."
"And I don't want you to be my mistress."
"I better fucking not be. I was there first. What are you getting at?"
Zac sighed. "I really don't know. All I know is I want--I need--to see you."
"I want to see you too. Like, you have no idea."
"I'll text you my schedule. I don't want us to lose touch again."
"Believe me, we won't."
"I have to go now, though. I need to get some sleep, if I can. We have another show tomorrow night."
"Yeah, you go get rested up. I gotta go wake Mel so she can proof read her own story she didn't write."
Zac chuckled. "I really have missed you, Drew."
"I've missed you, too."
They said their goodbyes and hung up with each other. Drew sat staring at her phone for what seemed
like hours. Not believing what had just taken place.
Married.
He was married.
But she felt like his wife was the intrusion, not her. It almost felt as if he was cheating on her with his wife. It was the weirdest and most frustrating feeling she had ever had. And in a way, she didn't care. Because no matter what happened in this life, anywhere in the world, she knew that he would always be hers because she knew she would always be number one in his heart.
And that is what made everything okay for her.