“Wait, so you’re going back to New York already?”

“In a couple days,” Kate nodded, turning her head to look at Paul from the other end of the hotel room couch. “I fly back on Sunday.”

Paul met her eyes with a brief look of surprise, before returning his attention to the slice of pizza sitting on a plate in his lap. “Damn this stuff is like crack,” he said, taking another bite. “Why is this so good?”

“NY-style,” Kate replied. “Here, have another slice.”

“NY-style, huh?” Paul lifted his plate to receive the slice of pizza Kate held out to him. “I guess New York beats LA for pizza… and bagels.”

“And cheesecake,” she added.

“Sure,” he agreed. “No contest. But the tacos don’t hold a candle.”

“I guess I’m not all that into tacos.”

They each took another bite and chewed in unison as the silence grew. Paul glanced down at his watch. “Are you sure I’m not keeping you? I can go—”

“No no,” Kate said, reaching out a hand and touching his arm. “Aidan will be back soon. Annette said she’d have him back here in an hour. And you shouldn’t be alone right now.”

“Nah,” he shrugged. “I’m fine. Really.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

He looked over at her. “It’s not that big a deal. Honestly, Kate. It’s not like she was the love of my life or something.”

“But you didn’t see it coming at all?”

Paul shook his head slightly. “Probably should have. I mean, Hal didn’t exactly have the longest attention span in the world.”

“When did she tell you?”

“That she was dumping me?”

Kate nodded.

“She texted this morning. Apparently, she’s seeing Aldous Snow now.”

Kate let out a disbelieving laugh. “She texted you that?”

“Hey, he’s a good catch for her. Lead singer. I’m just a guitarist.”

“But Paul—“

“Listen," he said, holding up a hand to stop her in mid-sentence. "I knew going into it that I was just a rung on her ladder.”

“Then why did you go out with her?”

He took another mouthful of pizza. “Usual reason,” he laughed.

Kate screwed up her face at him. She wasn’t buying this act. Not from Paul. He might try to play it off like he didn’t care, but she knew him better than that. He’d always been the sensitive one. The guy who’d lock himself in his room with nothing but an acoustic guitar for hours on end – practicing the same melancholy chord progression over and over – whenever some girl he was trying to pick up at a bar turned him down.

Paul shrugged and looked down at his plate. “It’s not that easy, you know,” he said softly.

“What?”

“You think – when you’re just a kid in a band – you think if you could only make it big, it would be so much easier. Getting girls. I mean, that’s pretty much the whole reason guys start bands.”

Kate smiled at him. “Not the whole reason.”

“Maybe like 90% of the reason.”

She laughed. “And it isn’t easy?”

“Sure. I could go out tonight and come back with someone new. And Aidan—well, you know. He has to beat them off with a fly swatter.”

Kate looked away, the smile fading from her face as she stuffed another bite of pizza into her mouth.

“But that’s why it sucks so much,” Paul continued.

"Doesn't sound like it sucks that much."

“No, but you can never tell what’s real and what’s fake, you know? Who actually likes you, and who’s just in it for whatever else. Money or fame or whatever. It’s a piece of cake getting laid, but to actually find a girlfriend? A real girlfriend who actually means it when she says she loves you? Way easier back when we were nobodies.”

“What was easier?” Aidan’s voice asked from the other side of the room.

Kate looked up in surprise. She hadn’t heard him come in – too focused on the coversation with Paul. “Halley broke up with him,” she said to Aidan as he came across the room to where they were sitting.

“Yeah I heard,” he replied. “I just texted Ritchie. He’s on his way with the whiskey.”

“It’s really not necessary,” Paul said, keeping his eyes on the half-eaten slice of pizza on his plate. “How'd you hear anyway?”

“The Pop Candies Youtube channel has video of her with Aldous.”

Paul winced and stood up, walking over to the living room window and looking down at the street below.

“Already?” Kate asked.

“They run a tight ship over there,” Aidan shrugged. “Annette got them to hold off posting it for a few days, in exchange for the interview.”

“That was your interview?” Paul asked over his shoulder. "Why are you doing interviews with Youtube channels?”

“You don’t want to know,” Aidan said, shooting Kate a smirk.

She smiled back at him, feeling her cheeks start to warm under his gaze. Before she could come up with a retort, they were interrupted by a knock at the door. Kate rose to answer it. She passed Aidan her plate of unfinished pizza and slung her purse over her shoulder as she went.

“Where are you going?”

She pulled the door open to see Ritchie standing in the hallway, carrying a stack of paper cups and a handle of whiskey.

“Room service!” Ritchie called, stepping past her into the room.

Kate wrinkled her nose as she stood in the doorway and watched him pass out the cups. “I’ll let you guys do your thing,” she said.

“You don’t have to go, Kate.” Paul held out a cup in her direction. “Drink with us!”

 “Stay?” Aidan said, watching her uncertainly.

She shook her head. “That’s OK. I’ve got some work stuff to catch up on anyway.”

“Just don’t go to the airport,” he said.  “Promise.”

She broke into a grin. “You don’t go to the airport!”

“No no.” He shook his head. “I’m not allowed to leave the room for 24 hours. Annette put me in time out."

Aidan heard her chuckling in the hallway as she let the door swing closed behind her, and he turned his attention back to his friends.

“Dude,” Paul said to him the moment the door was closed. “What the hell is the matter with you?”

“What?” Aidan looked back to see his friend glaring at him.

“Why are you letting her go?”

“She hates whiskey!”

“Not that!” Paul responded. “Why are you letting her go back to New York?”

“She’s going back already?” Ritchie asked, holding out the whiskey bottle toward Aidan.

“On Sunday,” Paul confirmed.

Aidan took the bottle and poured himself a cup. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Come on, man!” Paul said, sitting down across from him. “You’re crazy to let her walk away again.”

“I know, OK? I'm aware.” Aidan took a long gulp of his drink, closing his eyes at the burning sensation as it slid down the back of his throat. He really didn't want to think any more about Kate right now. He'd just had what was probably the most stressful morning of his entire life. Now he wanted nothing more than to escape into an alcohol-induced stupor and worry about someone else's relationship problems for a change.

Paul set his own cup down on the coffee table, untouched. “So tell her not to go!”

“Did you miss the part of the conversation where I said I didn’t want to talk about it?” Aidan replied. He kept his eyes closed as he leaned back against the couch.

“Is she coming out with us on tour, at least?” Ritchie asked.

Aidan didn’t respond. Maybe they would let the subject drop in a moment if he just ignored them.

“That could be good, actually,” Paul replied. “You guys could get your own private bus, just for the two of you—“

“She’s not coming on tour,” Aidan snapped. “OK? She’s got a job. A real job. The kind that involves more than looking pretty and smiling at a camera. She can’t just drop everything and come out on tour with us.”

“Bullshit.”

“Seriously, Aidan,” Ritchie said. “It’s a mistake – trying to do the long distance thing. You can’t even talk on the phone when you’re touring. You know the way your voice gets so shot.”

“I know it’s a mistake,” Aidan growled. “I don’t exactly have a say in the matter.”

They both stared at him in shocked silence.

“Did you ask her to come?” Paul asked after a moment.

“Why are we still talking about this?”

Ritchie picked up the whiskey bottle and walked it over to refill Aidan's cup. “Can’t you just sprinkle her with some of your magic ladies-man juice or something?”

“Is it a juice?” Paul asked from the other side of the table. “I always thought it was more like a powder.”

“What, like that nasty protein powder stuff?” Ritchie said over his shoulder.

“No, like a colorless, tasteless powder you mix into a girl’s drink when she gets up to use the bathroom.”

“Pretty sure you’re thinking of the date rape drug.”

“Whatever works, man.”

“OK guys,” Aidan interjected. “Thanks for the pep talk. Really.”

“I know!” Ritchie continued, ignoring the interruption. "Maybe we can do like Steve Martin in that 80s movie. You know, the one where he’s hideous and he gets his handsome friend to talk to the girl for him?”

“Roxanne?” Aidan said, pinching the bridge of his nose. He was starting to get a headache.

“Oh yeah!” Paul replied. He saluted Ritchie with his paper cup. “Darryl Hannah. Damn, Aidan. How did you never get with Darryl Hannah?”

“He tried,” Ritchie said before Aidan could reply. “Remember? That time in Vegas?”

“Oh that’s right! That was brutal!”

Aidan set down his cup and stared up at the ceiling. “You guys are such good friends. Have I mentioned that recently?”

“No no, we’ve totally got your back,” Ritchie said. “If you lose your voice, you can just write whatever you want to say to Kate on cue cards and we’ll do the talking for you.”

“Yeah, but I think you have it backward,” Paul told him.

“Have what backward?”

“In Roxanne,” Paul said. “The ugly friend has the good-looking friend do the talking for him. Not the other way around.”

“Wait,” Ritchie replied slowly. “So Aidan's the good-looking one? Then which of us is the ugly one?”

Aidan pulled his eyes back down from the ceiling and saw Paul smirking at him from across the room. At least this conversation seemed to be taking his friend's mind off his troubles.

“What?” Ritchie said. “Me?”

“Well, you are the bassist, Ritchie.” Paul grinned at him.

“Oh OK," Ritchie retorted. "At least I still have a girlfriend.”

Paul laughed. “Does it count if she only sleeps with you when she’s stoned?”

“Fuck you, man!”

Aidan covered his face with his hands. “I find you both extremely attractive. OK? Can we drop it now?"

“No, but seriously, man,” Paul said, turning his attention back toward Aidan again. “You have to make this thing work with Kate. Like, my entire belief system will be crushed if you can’t close the deal on this one.”

“I’m working on it.”

“Do you have a plan?”

“Of course I have a plan,” Aidan said, picking up his cup and draining it in one long gulp. “I always have a plan. I just don’t know if the plan will work.”