The Fling

43

My phone alarm went off and I silenced it quickly. Then I slipped out of bed and got dressed without waking Abigail. I needed to make my escape before the kids saw me, but there was no reason for her to be up this early, too, especially after staying up so late. She'd slept fitfully, waking me at least half a dozen times when she rolled over.

As I proceeded down the stairs, I spotted Stan at the front door and my heart sank into my stomach. After what my girlfriend said last night, I knew this would crush her. "Are you leaving?" I whispered with a hint of frustration.

"Yep, I have a long drive home," he replied with a weak smile, though his blue eyes looked guilty.

I approached him. "Don't do this, man. Be here when Abigail and the kids get up. Have brunch. Spend some time with them. Do anything but sneak out before they have a chance to say goodbye."

He sighed. "You're apparently familiar with my modus operandi."

"I honestly don't know a lot about you, but what I'm certain of is that your daughter feels hurt because you refuse to be here for her. My guess is that this feeling has multiplied since her husband walked away, too."

He took a step towards me. "I left because I knew they'd be better off without me. That's why Tammy forgave me years ago, bless her heart. I love my daughter, but seeing me only every once in awhile is why she doesn't hate me. If I was around more, things would go downhill. They always do- just ask my sons." He spoke softly, but his voice cracked on the last sentence.

"I'm not asking you to commit to anything more than this morning."

Stan narrowed his eyes. "So why are you hightailing it out of here at dawn?"

I rubbed the back of my neck. "For the kids' sake, I don't sleep over when they're here. They've been going through it lately, and I'm not going to do anything to stress them out. Like you, I couldn't drive last night, so we broke the rules. Now I need to go before they see me."

He chuckled. "I doubt they'd care, but I respect your commitment to their feelings. You're a stand-up guy, Shawn. Tell you what...I'll stay and see everyone before I go. A cup of coffee will do me some good since I've got brain fog from that weed."

I knew it was possible that he was lying and would leave five minutes after me, but that was on him. "I hope to see you again, Stan."

"Likewise," the older man said before lightly punching my arm.

I went home and slept for three hours. After that I slammed two coffees, ate breakfast, hit the gym, ran a few errands, and called my parents. I considered a second nap but decided to work on a song. I had a large upstairs balcony with comfy lounge chairs which I'd recently found very conducive to writing. Once I had a solid medley, I called my best friend Brian and played it for him.

"That's a good one," he said simply. "You should let Mike listen."

"I will. Maybe he can help with the lyrics."

Brian chuckled, "It sounds like a love song. I suspect if you think about Abigail, the words will come."

"I don't want to fall into the habit of relying on a woman for inspiration. My fans got sick of that, remember?"

One of the biggest mistakes I made professionally was admitting to the public that most of my songs were about my first love. To me, it was romantic, yet to a large chunk of my fans, it was cringey. I'd also released several singles after my big breakup, and the response had not been particularly positive. It was crazy to me because the only good part about getting my heart broken was that I could pour my pain into my art, but apparently a lot of people found it annoying.