Chapter 111

He woke up to the soft touches of Sarah's lips on his chest. The gentle brushes were exciting him as he enjoyed the feeling of her soft lips against his skin. She reached up and kissed his lips, gladly he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her deeply, loving waking up like this. With his wife next to him, any morning was perfect. He sighed when Sarah pulled away from their kiss and made her way down again, placing a few kisses on his collarbone as she made her way back down to his chest. A small gasp escaped him when he felt to warm wet of her tongue over his nipple excite him. Softly, he stroked her back, to the curve of her bottom as Sarah continued her trail of kisses downwards. He knew where it was leading, the thought excited him even more.

When he felt Sarah's lips close around him, feeling the warmth of her mouth enclosed around him, he slowly opened his eyes, wanting to see her as she did so.

As he looked down to see her beautiful face on him, he had to blink a few time before he realized all he saw was his own hand wrapped around himself.

He let go and pulled his hand back, thinking of what he had dreamed. Waking up from a realistic dream like that was certainly disappointing. Now he was alone in a hotel room in Perth, Australia instead of in his comfortable bed in California with his wife next to him. Not perfect.

Regretfully, he pulled back the sheets on the bed and with a sigh, he got up. Heading straight for the bathroom. Knowing there'd be no way to get the image out of his head now, a shower would help.

He had slept longer than he had intended, then had gotten distracted, leaving him now with not that much time left before heading for soundcheck. Tonight was a fairly small concert compared to the last three shows they had played. By now he had missed a good time to call Sarah, he didn't like calling her this late and risking the chance of waking her up. Instead, he got ready to head to the venue. He'd call her after the show. A few more days, then it would all be over again and he'd have to figure out what to do with his time. Perfect.

After soundcheck, he lounged on the couch in his dressing room. David was sitting in the chair, his feet propped up on the coffee table between them. Richie had his iPad in hand, browsing Amazon as he looked for Christmas presents, alternating with eBay when Amazon didn't have what he was thinking of. Some people were easy to shop for but for others, it was a very hard task.

"What are you getting Jon?" He asked, making David look up in question. He clarified, "For Christmas?"
David shrugged. "Five dollar Starbucks gift card?"
"What?"
"I don't fucking know, he's got everything he needs." David sighed, a little frustrated at having to figure something out on the spot.
Richie nodded slowly, that was true. "But a gift card?"
"Fine, I'll get him a McDonald's one too."
That made him wonder. "What are you getting me?"
"Two Starbucks gift cards."
"You're such a generous soul."
"Thank you." David smiled at him even though the sarcasm wasn't lost on him.

Richie shook his head and turned back to his iPad, so far he had found several gifts for Daniel. He did not care at all if that meant the boy was spoiled. There were too many adorable clothes to get for him and so many wonderful toys he would enjoy. As a parent, what else was he supposed to do? Not buy him Christmas gifts? He always knew what to get his mom as her Christmas gift and had been able to finish that up in advance. Caleb was another easy one, the boy needed to expand a guitar collection and he gladly assisted in that. With Ava it was divided, he could do what she really wanted or he could just buy whatever she hinted at him for the last few weeks. Sarah would be another easy one because he knew all she wanted was time and he had lots of that to give now. Which left him with Noah. Technically it could be very easy but he didn't want the easy way out unless he had to, that left him with continuing to browse Amazon.

"If I'm getting you two Starbucks gift cards, what are you getting me?" David asked curiously, watching his friend stare at the iPad in his hands.
Richie looked up, giving it some thought. "In 'n' Out gift card?" He suggested.
"The fuck am I supposed to do with that? Jersey doesn't have those."
"I don't see how that's my problem." Richie shrugged, looking at his iPad again, scrolling down the page.
"At least get me Starbucks."
He looked up, frowning. "Why bother then?"
"I like Starbucks. I'm sharing the gift of Starbucks."
"I'm sharing the gift of burgers." Richie pointed out just as smartly. "Burgers are much more giving than coffee."
"Starbucks has muffins and cakes." David countered smartly.
He locked the screen on the iPad before looking up at David. "Seriously though, I don't think there's really anything I need so maybe we can skip it." He suggested instead.
"Like last year?"
"And the year before." He added quickly.
"And the one before that?"
He frowned in thought at what David said, he was right. "When's the last time we really got each other Christmas presents and celebrated together?"
David sighed, trying to think back in time as well.

Neither of them could come up with an answer, they'd spent their Christmases at home, with their family. Knowing they didn't really need to exchange gifts, they all let each other have Christmas privately. Birthdays were different but Christmas was for family. A few moments later, they agreed to continue their tradition of not bothering with Christmas gifts. Besides, if he really found something for David, his birthday wasn't that far away.

Finishing up on Christmas shopping, he kicked David out of his dressing room so he could start getting ready for the show. There wasn't much time left and he wanted to get into the right head space before heading out to the stage.

While on the road, he didn't often finish his day in the same way he started it. Excitement and climaxes.

Their next two shows would be in Sydney, leaving them with a travel day the next day and a four hour flight from one end of the island to the other.

The phone ringing on the night stand next to his bed woke him up, it rang five times before going silent again. Confused, he reached for his iPhone. Anyone that would need him would phone him on there, who would call the hotel room? With a swipe, he unlocked the screen, displaying the time. He groaned as he realized he had only gone to bed a few hours ago. The only person calling him at 5am, would be in California where it was yesterday afternoon. Deciding his phone didn't have any kind of missed calls or texts, it was probably just a mistake. He turned around in bed again and tried to get back to sleep. There were only a few hours before he had to get up and head to the airport.

An hour later he was disturbed by the phone again. Just as last time, it rang times and stopped again.

Noticing the time, he groaned again, he had to get up at 8am which was only two hours away. He just wanted to sleep, and didn't want to deal with the hotel screwing with his phone. The quiet persisted and he decided it was safe enough to get a little more sleep.

At 7am he realized he should have known it wasn't safe.

Frustrated, he got up from the bed. An hour of sleep wasn't going to make a difference at this point anyway. Finding some clothes, he started getting dressed, just as the phone rang again. Being awake this time, he reached to answer it before it stopped but only heard a click as someone hung up.

He knew it, he should have known from the get go.

As he headed to the door, to do as he suspected, he was stopped by a knock. Instead, he opened the door.

"Is that you?" Jon asked, seeming just as annoyed as he was feeling.
"Am I me?" He wasn't awake enough to figure out what Jon was getting at without any clues.
Jon rolled his eyes. "I've been getting phone calls for the last few hours. The front desk claims it isn't them, so is it you?"
"No." Richie answered, why would he be doing that? "But I know who."
"Who?"
"David, duh." Richie said, wanting to head straight to David's room across the hall.
As Jon realized Richie was right, he grabbed him and he pushed past him to get into the room. "You're right." He said as he walked over to the couch and sat down, a pensive look starting to form on his face.
"Of course." Confused at what was happening, Richie closed the door and turned to follow Jon.

Not much later, Richie had all his bags packed and had them standing in the hallway, watching as Jon did the same at his own door. They were ready to go.

"Ready?" Richie asked Jon as he walked over to meet him.
"Oh yeah." Jon said, crossing the hall to pound on David's door.

Richie had to stop himself from chuckling as he watched Jon pound loudly on the door, surely everyone else would hear him too. Especially when he shouted for David to get his ass in gear.

"What the hell?" David asked as he pulled the door open, seeing Jon angry.
"You're fucking late, everyone's left already."
David squinted over at Richie. "Late?" He asked, looking at Jon again. "We don't leave for another hour."
Jon sighed heavily, his frustration clear. "We adjusted the itinerary yesterday, you got the updates." Jon pulled out his phone to show David the adjusted schedule that showed they were leaving at 7am instead of 8am and it was 7:30am by now.
"I've been texting and calling you all morning." Richie chimed in, unlocking his phone to show David the calls and texts he had sent.
David looked at his phone, seeing the fake texts. "I didn't get any of that."
"Well, get your ass going." Jon said sounding thoroughly annoyed with him. "We'll meet you outside."
"Alright. Alright." David turned to go back in the room. "Fuck."

As the door closed, Jon and Richie smiled at each other. Quickly, Richie unlocked his door again and moved his bags inside, letting Jon do the same.

"I think he bought it." Jon said once they were safely inside Richie's room again.
Richie could only agree to that. "Even with your acting skills."
"Shut up, we're on the same side here."
He shrugged, Jon had a point with that.

They headed over to the balcony where Richie had a view of the entry way to the hotel. They weren't that high up and would surely be able to see David from the balcony.

To their delight they didn't have to wait long before they could spot David pulling his luggage out the door, looking confused.

The more David looked around, the harder it was for Richie to contain his laughter, which set off Jon as well. They were too high up for David to notice their laughter but that only made it better.

After a while David finally noticed their movements on the balcony. He shook his head, flashed them the finger and headed inside again.

"That was good." Jon said as they also went back inside the room.
Richie finally composed himself again as he closed the balcony's sliding glass door. "How did you think of that so quickly? Are you being tempted by the dark side?"
Jon shrugged. "I have kids."
"Don't let them influence you so much."
"They have an Uncle Richie and an Uncle Dave."
"Exactly so be weary."
Jon shook his head and rolled his eyes.
"Just looking out for you man."

Their flight to Sydney went as smoothly as most flights, which gave Richie time to catch up on sleep. The three hours of solid sleep he had had before being woken up every hour, would not be enough to get him through the day and tonight's show. Up in the air, on a plane, he didn't have all that much going on. He reclined the back of the seat and got comfortable.

From the airport in Sydney, they went straight to the venue. There'd be two different venues in Sydney. Tonight would be the large stadium and tomorrow they played a smaller indoor arena. After travel, it meant straight to soundcheck for them. As soon as they landed, everything started rolling.

And it didn't stop until they got to their hotel after the show.

With a sigh he sat down on his bed for the night.

At least he now finally had time to give Sarah a call at a decent time for the both of them. He picked up his phone and looked for Sarah's contact before pressing the button for Face time, much preferring to actually seeing her than to just a regular phone call. It'd been a few days since he had the time to do so, he needed to see her face.