Drive Me Crazy

Thunder Rolls

The next morning Howie awoke to the strong smell of coffee, his eyes opened instantly as the aroma hit his nostrils "Coffee" he mumbled, with all the traveling, long nights and stress in his life. He had become a big coffee addict along with AJ. There was probably not a Starbucks in the US they hadn't visited.

"Morning...I thought I would bring you some coffee to start the day off." she smiled as she sat at the uneven table, taking a sip of hers. "We still have a long way to go."

"Yeah we sure do. Although, it should be smooth sailing from here." he smiled, heading to the bathroom.

His phone rang as he brushed his teeth, taking the phone out of his pocket he answered. "Hello..."

"Yo D! What's up?" AJ sounded hyper on the line.

Howie placed his toothbrush on the counter and rinsed his mouth "Sorry I was brushing my teeth. What the hell are you doing up at this time?" Howie looked at his watch on the bathroom counter. "It's seven here...it's four there."

"I know...we just got home with Nick and we each have a sweet one here."

Howie turned to face the wall, as he leaned against the sink "Are you out of your mind. You're planning on breaking off a wedding and you're going to sleep with some random woman you don't even know this morning!"

"See D that is why I don't tell you anything, you get so fatherly. I need to get some and Millie is not going to give it up. So anyways how's it going with you two?" AJ yelled at Nick, as he waited for Howie's response.

He shrugged, still staring at the wall "...uh...it's like whatever, she's really nice, a real chatterbox, but nice."

"Yeah virgins do that...they can't seduce so they..."

Howie huffed "You're such an idiot. That is not true." suddenly there was a knock on the door, making the phone slip out of his hands, and crash onto the floor, breaking into four separate pieces "Shit!"

Millie leaned her ear on the door "Is everything ok? Are you talking to yourself?" she was startled by the door opening abruptly.

He stood the pieces of phone in his hands "You made me break my phone." he frowned as he walked past her "Great...who knows where we can get another phone." he sighed hard, taking a seat on his bed and sipping on the now warm coffee.

"I'm sorry...I just heard you talking, thought you might be talking to AJ. I have mine!" she waved it at him.

"AJ? No, I haven't heard from him. Maybe you should give him a call...or maybe I should." He was tongue tied.

"I'll call him. Are you sure you're ok?" she looked at him concerned as she began to dial on her phone. Putting it to her ear, it rang once and then again. AJ answered with laughter in the background "Hi babe...didn't expect you to be awake. I was just going to leave you a message." she heard the commotion in the background "Are you having a party?"

"What no...I was just...uh...getting a glass of water. Nick brought some people over and they are hanging out. I'm just tired."

"Ok...I'll let you go back to sleep then." Before she could say anything else, he had already hung up.

Howie inspected the woman, she gave him a smile "Forgot to remind you about the time difference." he said sympathetically.

You can't lie like this to this young woman, Howard. Freaking AJ gets me into some trouble.

"Well ready to continue our journey?" she lunged her bag over her shoulder and stopped at the door.

"Well...maybe you should wait till I get dressed."