Chapter 9

With her hands together and her head looking down to the floor she started, “Jon I think this is going a little too fast. We really haven’t known each other very long and now you’re talking about me joining you on tour. You never asked me about coming with you and I have a life here. But you’re right about one thing is that I have very strong feelings for you. And you’re confusing the hell out of me.” She said as she was trying very hard not to cry.

 Saying to himself ‘Don’t cry; just don’t cry I hate it when they cry.’ Getting up he moved over to the sofa and put his arms around her. “Baby please don’t cry. I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you about coming on tour. I just assumed that’s all. I know you have a life here okay. I guess the question is do you still want to see me?” he asked afraid of what the answer could be.

Mary got herself under control, turned herself around and looked up into his deep blue eyes. They sat there holding hands and she answered “Of course I want to still see you. I…” she lowered her head again and Jon finished her sentence.

 “I hope you were going to finish that with love you because that’s how I feel about you too.” And with that he slowly picked up her chin with his knuckle and gently placed a kiss to her lips. They slowly parted and looked at each other. Jon started, “Look I won’t push okay. I’ll leave you my schedule and that way when you’re feeling better and want to come out and visit me you’ll know where I am. I was going to give this to you anyway. Otherwise if it’s okay I’ll try and call as much as I can. It’s pretty hard sometimes being on the road to call every night.”

 Mary cut him off, “Jon it’s okay if you can’t call every night. I understand that you’re busy. And if you really want to I will visit you as soon as I’m up to it. I’ll let you know when you call okay. But it will be hard letting you go. I’m kind of used to you here.”

 “Same here Babe. And I’ll miss you too. You know it’s only nine so we still have some alone time.” he said waggling his eyes.

As she giggled, “Really now so what are you going to do about it huh?”

With a wicked grin on his face he started to slowly get up then grabbed her by her right arm then her legs and threw her over his shoulder.

“Jon! Put me down you nut!” Jon slapped her butt and laughed as they headed toward her bedroom. “OW! Oh you so are going to regret that mister!”

“Oh I’m so scared little girl. Now it’s my turn to show you who is in charged.” He said laughing and putting her on the bed.

“Ow!” she let out as he put her down.

“Oh God did I hurt you?” he asked lovingly. Looking down at her afraid that he actually had hurt her, but she couldn’t hide the giggle any longer.

“Oh you little shit! I thought I actually hurt you.” he said as she gave him the little pouty face when she realized that now she was really going to get his wrath. “Don’t give me that little girl look. You are so going to get it.” He said as he now did with a little wicked chuckle. Grabbing her foot he started to pull her towards him as she started to squirm underneath him. It was going to be a long and euphoric morning. It was nearing twelve noon and Jon needed to get ready before the car arrived at one. He jumped into the shower and after his he carefully washed her seeing she still had her stitches in. “God you giggle a lot don’t you?”

“Well the wash cloth tickled. Excuse me!” she explained to him while she slapped him on his arm.

“You’re excused Babe.” He said as he bent down to kiss her. “What time is it?” he asked.

She looked over to the clock and let out a sigh. “It’s ten of one. The car should be here very shortly.” She said quietly. He looked at her lovingly and gently lifted her chin up so his eyes were looking right into hers.

After their shower they were sitting in the living room, “Hey, we won’t be apart for long okay? I’ll call you when I get there, I promise. And I don’t break my promises.” He told her as she shook her head okay. “Alright then, let me see that beautiful smile and no tears, okay.”

“Okay.” Just then they heard a beep from outside. Mary’s heart dropped into her stomach as it did Jon’s. They just stood there looking at each other for a few minutes then finally another beep from outside. “I think that’s for you.” She said as she tried not to cry.

 “Yeah. Come here.” He said as they passionately kissed goodbye. “Babe please stay here okay. I don’t think I can leave if you come out to the car with me.” He said sighing.

“Okay. Safe trip.”

 “Oh hell I’ll say it. I love you.” He told her as his eyes had teared up.

Trying not to cry as promised “I love you too.” As he smiled he turned and walked out the door one very happy man. She watched as the car drove off and wondered what the hell she got herself involved in.

It was late afternoon and Mary was resting on the couch watching TV when her brothers walked into the house.

“Hey sweetheart how are you feeling?” A.J. Asked.

“Not bad.” she said.

“Where’s Jon?” he asked as Rick listen intently.

“He left.” she answered.

They just looked at each other and shrugged. “Okay I’ll bite, what’s with the two word answers?” A.J. asked her.

“What do you mean?” she answered him a little bit annoyed.

Rick jumped in “You seem like you’re in another world.” He said as he sat down next to her on the couch as A.J. went to the chair across from her.

“No I’m fine.” Again they just shook their heads. “So why are you guys here?”

 “Mom asked us to drop in to make sure everything was okay.” A.J. said.

 “Checking up on me?”

 “Is that a problem?” Rick asked.

“No I guess not.” She said with a slight smile. She secretly loved her brothers caring for her but she wasn’t going to admit it to them. “So are you guys on another case?” she asked.

They both shook their heads no. Then A.J. spoke up “Jon paid us very nicely. He was very generous.”

“That was nice.” she said. Again they just looked at each other.

Rick got up. “Okay do either of you want anything from the kitchen?” They both declined.

When he left A.J. asked her what was wrong. “Nothing A.J. I’m fine. Okay. God I just hurt that’s all. Okay?”

“Okay. We’ll leave you alone alright.” And with that he joined Rick in the kitchen.

They stayed for a while until they felt they were getting on their sisters nerves and finally to her relief they left her alone. Later that evening her mother had come home so she retired to her room. She just didn’t feel like she was much up for company. It was getting late and she was tired. It was quarter past twelve in the morning and she thought that was late enough to wait up for him to call. She didn’t want her thoughts to go their but they did. It didn’t take that long for him to break his promise. But deep down she hoped that something did come up that did prevent him from calling. So she had convinced herself to wait a little longer and see what happens. Maybe in the morning things would be a little different. She didn’t sleep very well and morning took longer than she had hoped. It was a very very long night. Finally around six am she fell asleep. Her mother had looked in on her around eleven to make sure she was alright. She finally awoke around one o’clock in the afternoon and went down stairs to see if her mother was around. There was a note on the refrigerator door. It read:

‘Sweetheart didn’t have the heart to wake you. I’ve gone out with the girls today; don’t know when I’ll be back. Left food for you. Call your brothers if you need anything. Oh and there wasn’t any phone calls before I left. Sorry honey.

Mom

She went back to check if there were any messages on the machine and there were none. Why did she expect there to be. She made herself some tea and curled up on the couch and turned on the TV. About a half hour later the phone rang. Thinking nothing of it she answered it and it was A.J. checking up on her. Once she convinced her brother that she was okay and didn’t need anything she hung up and continued her show. About another hour had past and she was half asleep when the phone rang again. She reached over to answer it sleepily “Hello?”

“Mary? Is that you Baby. Did I wake you sweetheart?” Jon asked.

Still not quite awake, “Who’s this?” she asked.

“What?! Who the hell else calls you Baby and sweetheart? Babe!” he said joking.

“Jon?”

“Yessss” he empathized.

“What time is it?” she asked him.

“It’s a little after four in the afternoon. Are you okay?”

“Yeah I didn’t get much sleep last night.”

 “How come Babe?”

 “I don’t know how come! I just couldn’t okay!” she said annoyed.

“Oh okay when we don’t get enough sleep we get grumpy good to know.” He said kidding.

“You think it’s funny!” she said really getting mad now. Not knowing what to say to that.

“No I don’t, I was just trying to lighten the mood that’s all. What’s gotten in to you?” he asked.

“Nothing I just woke up that’s all and I’m still not feeling all that well, is that alright?”

“Yeah it’s alright Babe. I didn’t mean to upset you? I’m sorry.” He said really feeling bad now not knowing what he did.

“No I’m sorry I don’t mean to snap at you. So did you guys get in okay?” she asked.

“Yeah we did. But it took like forever. We had to wait to take off because the plane before us had some problems, so then we had to circle because of too many planes trying to land, so that took another hour. Then between getting all our stuff, checking into the hotel, and I had to do some interviews I didn’t get back to my room til really late and didn’t eat til around eleven last night. Then the guys all piled in and before I knew it, it was two am in the morning and I didn’t want to call and wake you up. I hope you weren’t mad?” he told her not know that she was waiting for his call.

 “Who me? Mad. No of course not what makes you think that. I knew you must have had a good reason why you couldn’t call me last night. Don’t worry about it.” She told him feeling a little bit better and a little stupid.

 “Well good because I don’t know what I’d do if you were mad at me. I miss…Oh shit!”

“What’s the matter?”

“Doc’s yelling for me. Crap! I gotta go Babe. I’m sorry.” He apologized.

“No it’s okay go do what you have to do. Love you.” she told him.

 “Thanks Babe. Love you too.” And he hung up.

She hung up the phone feeling a little bit better. Actually she felt kind of stupid for feeling the way she did not trusting him for not calling right away. She should have known he had other things to do than call right first thing. The week went by pretty fast after that. They talked on the phone when they could. And by the end of the week her mother had taken her to the doctors to get her stitches out. She was feeling much better and finally convinced her brothers to at least let her work in the office.  “Okay Honey we need to go out and check this out for Mrs. Martin. If you need us this is her number.” Rick said.

“No problem Rick. I’ve done this before.” She said sarcastically.

“I know you have okay don’t get smart with me!” Rick stated.  Mary just shook her head.

“Oh and if creditors call…” A.J. started to say.

“I know wrong number.”

“That’s our girl. We’ll see you later.” A.J. said and they left. It was a quiet morning with mostly wrong numbers, creditors, or divorce cases coming in. It was now past twelve so she thought she would call Jon and see if he was in. She had his direct number of his hotel so she waited for him to pick up. By the fourth ring someone picked up the phone but it wasn’t Jon. A female voice answered.

“Hello?”

Mary was taken aback a little when she heard her voice but played along. “Yes is Jon there?”

 Giggling she answered “He just got into the shower. Is there a message you want me to give him sweetie? Ah because he is kind of busy right now.”

“NO no message.” And she hung up. ‘Boy am I the fool’ she thought. They had talked all week and he had acted like nothing had changed. But that was when he had called her. She had never called him. So he wasn’t expecting her to call him still thinking that she wasn’t feeling all that great and sleeping late herself. ‘Why the hell do I do this to myself? Why do I pick guys who are like this!’ she kept asking herself. She turned on the answering machine and left her brothers a note saying she was going home for the afternoon. Back in Chicago Jon had gotten out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist and entered his bedroom.

 When she heard the shower stop Missy told Dave the message she took for Jon. “Wait a minute Missy you answered Jon’s phone?” Dave asked.

“Yeah it rang about five to ten minutes ago. Why?” she asked.

Richie looked at her in horror. “Because we don’t allow any of the girls to answer our phones, it’s one of the rules we have.” Richie looked at the other guys with a worried look.

“Well nobody else was here a moment ago and there’s no answering machine so I don’t see a problem?” She really didn’t. The guys picked these girls up last night in the bar so they didn’t know the rules.

Richie move to Dave and asked “What was she doing here in Jon’s room?”

“I thought you said we were to meet here in five.  So I let her in. I was going to follow her but I had to go get Alex. Shit man Jon’s going to explode. You don’t think that was Mary do you?” he asked Rich.

“Well you better have hoped not. Or Jon has a lot of explaining why a female answered his phone while he was in the shower.” As Jon dressed the rest of the guys nervously waited for him to enter the main room. Richie and the other guys said goodbye to they’re lady friends before Jon had a chance to realize what was going on. They waited nervously for him. It was only another five minutes before Jon came out of the bedroom. He saw all they’re eyes on him when he came out.

“What is my fly open or something?” he asked. “Okay what the hell happened? Is the hotel complaining about something? Were we to loud last night? What?!” He asked impatiently.

Tico stepped up, “Jonny there’s something first we need to tell you before we get started today.”

 “Yeah okay what it is?” he asked.

“Well you know our rule about not letting any of the girls we bring in answering the phone when it rings.” Tico continued. Jon just shook his head yes.

Richie continued “Well apparently that was broken when you were in the shower.” He said meekly. Jon just sat there at first quietly. Then as calmly as he could asked, “What are you talking about?”

 Dave picked up where Richie left off. “Well Richie said to meet you here in five so I let some of the girls in here then I remembered I had to get Alex so I left them…”

 “You what?” Jon asked getting slightly annoyed.

“I know man and I’m sorry I didn’t think. And your phone rang and Missy answered it and she said it was a girl, but didn’t leave a message.” Jon cut Dave off.

“She answered MY PHONE!” his voice now raised. He shook his head yes. “Do you know what the HELL she said to this person?” Jon asked Dave. Dave shook his head again yes. “Well are you going to tell me!” he asked through gritted teeth.  

“She said that ah you were in the shower and if she could take a message. But the person said no and hung up.” He said stepping back behind Richie. Jon stood there for a minute not saying anything. His hands on his face, then ringing them through his hair.

 “Okay everyone OUT! NOW!” he yelled. They didn’t give him a second chance. They all got up and left as fast as they could but Richie stayed behind. Jon looked at him and asked “What!”

 “You don’t know if it was Mary. It could have been anyone Jon.” Richie said trying to smooth things over.

 “Rich with my luck it was her and she’s not going to understand why some girl answered my phone and said I was in the shower. That’s how I lost Dorothea. She never trusted me. Or did you forget that.” He said.

“No I haven’t forgotten that. But Mary isn’t her, is she. Look she seemed really cool.” Richie said.

“But you don’t know that she already had an ex that fooled around on her plus hit her also.” Jon said. Richie couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“Some asshole actually hit her? With her brothers!” He just seamed amazed by this.

“Yeah but she never told her brothers that he hit her. She dealt with it herself. Her mother told me when she was in the hospital.”

 “Well why don’t you call her and see if it was her first and then go from there.” Richie said. And with that he said goodbye and left Jon alone.

Jon paced his room for what seemed like hours but was only about ten minutes when he finally got the courage to call her.

“Hello?” Cecilia said as she answered the phone.

 “Mrs. Simon, this is Jon. How are you?” he asked Cecilia.

“I’m fine Jon how are you dear.”

 “Fine Mrs. Simon, I was wondering if Mary was there?”

“No dear she’s not. She was feeling better so the boys let her go into the office today.”

“Really? That’s great. Well I’ll try her there.” He told her and then hung up. Jon had the office number so he tried that but he only got the machine, and when it picked up he left a message. After trying both numbers and not reaching her, he tried her at her brother’s house. Still no answer. He wondered where she could be. He hoped she didn’t go out with her brothers knowing that it was only a two weeks since the assault. He thought he would try her a little later and went to seek out his band mates and get ready for sound check this afternoon.

It was a half hour later when Mary got home. “Oh hello dear. Your home early.” Cecilia questioned.

“Yeah I wasn’t feeling that well. I’ve got a headache so I thought it was better if I headed home.” She told her mother.

“Well that’s a good idea. Why don’t you go upstairs and lay down for a while and I’ll let you know when dinner is ready.” Her mom said.

“That sounds good Mom. Oh and if you could, don’t bother me. I really do need to get some sleep to get rid of this. Thanks.” Mary said as she headed up the stairs. But before she reached the fifth stair her mom called out to her.

“Oh sweetheart I forgot to tell you that Jon called.”

“Thanks Mom, do me a favor but if Jon calls back will you tell him that I’m out or sleeping and that you don’t want to wake me or something. Okay.” She asked.

“Is everything okay dear?” she asked her daughter.

“Everything’s fine Mom. But I really need to get some sleep to get rid of this headache, okay.” She asked her mom.

“Sure dear whatever you say.” Cecilia told her daughter even thou she thought that was strange. She would have to ask her about it later.

It was nearing six o’clock in the evening and the band was just sitting down to eat dinner when Jon decided he would give Mary another try and call her. He tried her mom’s home first. “Hello?”

 “Mrs. Simon, It’s Jon again. Is Mary there yet?” he asked.

 Cecilia hated to lie to him so she would use a little white lie. “Yes Jon she is but she came home with a terrible migraine and went straight to bed. I would get her but I don’t want to wake her. Could I have her call you back later?”

 “Um well I have to be on stage in a few hours do you think it would be alright to try after the concert?” he asked her hopefully.

 “Well that would be terribly late wouldn’t it?”

 “Yes ma’am it would.” He said disappointedly.

 “Why don’t you try tomorrow. Hopefully she’ll be feeling a lot better by then.”

 “Thanks I will. Tell her goodnight for me?”

 “I will dear.” As Cecilia hung up she thought to herself that she would have to find out what was bothering her daughter.

Cecilia went up to her daughter’s room and knocked.

“Come on in Mom” Cecilia walked in and asked her daughter what was going on between her and Jon. “Well dear do you want to tell me what’s going on between you two?”

“There’s nothing going on Mom. I’m just not feeling well that’s all.” She said as she lied through her teeth.

“Sweetheart I know you better than yourself. Did he do something to upset you?”

“No Mom he didn’t. I just don’t feel well. Why do you have to beat this into the ground?” she asked.

 “Okay, I’ll let you get some sleep. So do I keep telling Jon you have a headache or you’re not here?”

 “Yeah please?”