Love At First Joke | Sal Vulcano

26

The Tenderloins were getting ready for their upcoming live show tour. It was going to be 3 weeks spent travelling across America in their tour bus.

Sal was packing his last few things as Cassie entered the room. She was very heavily pregnant and found it difficult to walk far.

Sal noticed her out of the corner of his eye and turned to face her.

"Hey, come sit down. I know it's tiring for you to stand." He smiled, as he walked her over to the bed and then continued packing.

"Thank you." She grinned. "I'm going to miss you..." Cassie spoke softly, as she dropped her head down and stared at her feet.

Sal walked over from packing his clothes. His hands cupped the sides of her face and pulled her into a tender kiss.

"I'm going to miss you too baby girl." He sighed. "Promise to call me every day. I don't want to miss a single thing the babies do, okay?" Cassie nodded.

He returned to neatly folding his clothes and placing them into his suitcase.

**

Once Sal was all packed and his bags were ready by the front door, he wrapped his arms around Cassie and kissed her forehead.

"It won't be long and I'll soon be back." He whispered into her ear, sensing the tears forming in Cassie's eyes. She buried her face into his chest and let out a light sob.

"I'll be here waiting." She replied.

With that, the brightly coloured tour bus parked outside of their house. Joe came bursting out of the door, yelling

"YO JA CRISPY! CHECK OUT THESE SET OF WHEELS BRUH?"

Sal sighed, as he let out a slight chuckle, scratching his eyebrows with his hand in embarrassment.

Sal bid goodbye to Cassie, promising her that he'd call her everyday until he was back home.

**

The tour bus parked outside their first venue. All four stepped out and entered the building.

"I'm just going to call Cas, tell her we've arrived." Sal whispered to Murr, as the others were talking.

"Hey Cassie, we've arrived. Yeah. Yep. Yes Cassie, stop worrying that I've forgotten something. I miss you too. The journey? Yeah it was okay thanks. We made a rule about no shitting on the bus but Joe seemed to break that almost instantly." Sal chuckled. "I'll be home before you know it. How are you feeling? How's the babies? That's good to hear. I need to go get ready for the show. I'll speak to you later sweetheart. Bye, love you." He soon hung up the phone and went to prepare for the show that night.

**

"That went great!" Q exclaimed. He pulled the the other three guys into a group hug backstage.

"Fellas, we did it!" Murr smiled. "Man, I love our live shows. They're so fun and you never know what's going to happen!" He gleamed.

"Just one more show to go before we can return home." Joe added.

The group spent the evening in the tour bus, just reminiscing about the old times and how far they'd come.

Sal's phone started to ring in his pocket, it was Cassie.

"Babe?" He answered.

"Sal? I don't want to alarm you but I think my water's just broken" Cassie cried.

Sal jumped up in panic, pacing back and forth, up the length of the tour bus.

"Babe are you serious? I-I need to get home now. Ring Bessy and get her to take you to the hospital. I'll try and get home as soon as I can, if the tour manager let's me that is." He sighed, hanging up the phone.

He ran back into the communal section of the bus, whilst hyperventilating.

"Sal, what is it bud? Is everything okay?" Joe questioned, sounding alarmed.

"Cassie....gone...into...labour...babies...on...their...way." He puffed, gasping for air as he fell to the floor, fainting.

The three guys crowded around Sal, trying to help him gain consciousness. He slowly opened his eyes, wondering why he was on the floor.

"Sal, bud. We need to get you home now. You can't miss the birth of your children!" Murr panicked.

Sal rushed outside to the luggage holder of the tour bus. He grabbed his belongings and called for a taxi.

When in the taxi, he called the airport and asked to book tickets to their next flight to New York, which was in an hour's time.

**

Sal arrived at the airport and sprinted to security. He tried to get through as fast he could, so that he'd make his flight in time.

As he was running towards his gate, his phone rang again.

"Hello?" He panted, tired from the running.

"Hey Sal, it's Bessy. Just wanted to let you know that we're at the hospital and Cassie's doing great. When do you think you'll be home?" She asked.

Sal turned his head to the flight screen and saw that his flight had been delayed for an hour. He sighed, before replying to Bessy.

"My flight has been delayed an hour. Tell Cassie I'm sorry and that I'll be there as soon as I can!"

"Okay, see you soon. I will keep you updated." Bessy replied before hanging up.