When The Lights Go Down

Hotel Key

Figuring out hotel rooms was usually fairly easy, there was one for Fred and Mary, one for FP, one for Alice, and 2 double-bedded rooms to accommodate the band. But now with Gladys and June pulling a surprise visit, there's a scrambling of finding them a bed in a booked solid hotel.

The easiest thing, and something that crosses FP's mind for the briefest moment is letting them share his room. But he immediately shakes the idea. June? Sure, she'll probably crash with him anyway. But he and Gladys in such forced proximity doesn't exactly seem like the greatest idea and he recognizes it quickly.

"You can take my room." Alice offers, earning a pointed glare from the icy brunette.

"So you can go crash with my husband?" She scoffs. "I don't think so."

"That wasn't-"

Mary cuts off Alice's incoming defence and makes a decision for them all. "Alright here's how this is going to go. Alice, FP, you both keep your rooms, you two are our headliners and need the best night's sleep you can get so you're ready to perform. The band will keep their rooms as usual. And Gladys and June will stay in with Fred and I, the couch pulls out into a bed and we can fill it up with blankets and pillows to make it as cozy as possible. There, is everyone happy now?" There's a murmuring among the group of them as they stand in the lobby and Mary sighs in relief. "Good. Now let's go."

"It's kinda like a sleepover." June tells Mary and Fred, chatting their ear off as she follows them into the elevator.

FP hangs back in the lobby, needing a moment to breathe before heading up with the group, he just doesn't realize he's not the only one with that idea until he feels a hand on his shoulder.

"You okay?" Alice wonders.

"Oh, yeah, just have a bit of a headache is all." He says. "I'm sorry Gladys snapped at you, you didn't deserve that."

"It's okay, it's probably weird for her, I guess I did sort of take her place." Alice shrugs.

"But she chose to leave in the first place, she can't be upset about us replacing her when it was her choice." He groans as he sits down in a chair. "I'm happy they're here, I'm always happy to see June, but I just wish they had called first, y'know? Given a little warning. Does that make me a bad person?"

"You're not a bad person, FP." Alice tells him sincerely. "I'm pretty sure you're mot the only one stressed out by it if Mary's little outburst is any indication."

He chuckles. "Yeah, I think I saw steam come out of her ears at one point."

Alice shares his laugh and extends her hand to him. "Well you can't avoid everyone forever, shall we?"

<>

There's something about having people you love watching you do what you love that just makes it even more special. Something that FP realizes is truer and truer every time June is backstage. He can always see her out of the corner of his eye, bobbing her head to the music and grinning from ear to ear.

It also completely wipes her out, something made abundantly clear by how quickly she falls asleep during the ride back to the hotel.

FP situates her in his arms and is careful not to jostle her as he carries her to bed. Gladys helps pull back the covers and smoothly transition the sleeping girl into bed, not that there was much worry for waking her since she sleeps as heavily as her father.

"She's getting so big." FP comments as he looks at his daughter, reaching down to brush her hair out of her eyes.

"She keeps having growth spurts, I'll buy her pants and a couple weeks later they're too short for her." Gladys tells him with a snicker. "I think she's gonna be tall like you."

He swallows awkwardly as he and Gladys stand in an uncomfortable silence, so much to say yet unable to say it with Fred and Mary in such close range. "Well I'm gonna head to bed. I'll see you guys in the morning." FP excuses himself and slips out of the room and down the hall to his own.

He blearily pulls off his shirt, a nice hot shower calling his name even as his body aches for sleep. Neither option is in the cards just yet though, as a soft knock garners his attention. He looks out the peep hole and finds Gladys standing in the hall, and opens the door for her. "Hey, everything alright?"

"Yeah everything's fine." She assures him. "Can I come in?"

He nods and steps aside for her, reaching for his t-shirt again and slipping it over his head. "Could've kept it off, I wouldn't have minded." Gladys flirts.

FP stays stoic. "What's up, Gladys?"

"I just thought we could talk. It seems like there's things we need to say."

"There has been for a while now." He agrees. "What's on your mind?"

"I'm not with him anymore." Gladys states vaguely.

"Not with who?"

"You know who." She tells him, not wanting to say the words out loud.

"You mean the guy you cheated on me with? You're telling me that didn't work out? Im shocked." He mocks, unamused.

Gladys rolls her eyes. "I'm trying to be honest with you here, FP, at least try and hear me out?"

"What is there to hear, Gladys? You broke up with the man who you gave up our marriage for? Good for you."

"I'm sorry I hurt you," She tells him, her voice small. "I knew it would hurt you but for some reason I didn't care. I guess I just felt so lost in life and in my career that I needed excitement."

He scoffs at the weak explanation. "If it's excitement you want go buy a motorcycle, cut off your hair and dye it purple, don't have an affair!" He cries. "You broke up our marriage, our family, for a cheap thrill that didn't even last?"

"Doesn't it make you feel better that it ended? Like some sort of karma for hurting you?" She wonders.

"It'd make me feel better if it lasted so I know you didn't just throw everything we had away for some rando who wouldn't last. I want you to be happy Gladys, and if that's not with me that's fine, but-"

"That's what I'm trying to tell you if you would just stop talking for a minute." She cuts him off. "You make me happy, and I can't believe I let it slip away." She steps closer to him so they're chest to chest and hears his breath hitch.

"Gladys-"

"Tell me you don't feel anything," She whispers, pressing her lips to his collarbone. "Tell me that seeing me again didn't bring all of our good memories back. Tell me it doesn't feel like old times. Tell me that and I'll leave, but I have a feeling you can't, I think you feel this too." He wants to fight it but then her lips are ghosting over his and his brain just sort of goes cloudy.

It's surreal kissing Gladys again. She had hurt him so bad and he's tried to erase her from memory, but it all comes back so naturally. Like how his lips slot against hers and how his hands still know the curves of her body. It's so familiar, and for a little while he can pretend they never went wrong, and get lost in the memory of what they were.