Page 82 of See Her

Jack

I’mon top of the world the next morning, showered, and the first one at bus call.I’m sitting back in one of the armchairs in the bus’s lounge area, picking at my acoustic when Matt and Josh come on board, stashing their bags in their bunks before joining me, each sitting down in the window seat.

Josh and I still aren’t completely on the level, but with the efforts I’ve seen him make, we’re getting there. At least there’s no friction in the air when we’re in the same room now.

“Where’s Chris?” I ask, staring down at my guitar, trying not to give anything away.I kind of messed with him this morning while he was sleeping, before I got on the bus.Hey, I never said I was mature.

“He’s coming,” says Matt. “He’s moving slow. He’s all kinds of hungover and pissed off. I think we need to cut that one off, at least for a couple of tour stops.”

“Oh, I think he’ll turn it down a notch,” I say, still trying not to look up, and really trying not to smirk.

“Why?” asks, Josh. “Did you do something? What did you do?”

Before I can answer, Chris stomps on to the bus.His hair is wet, and his clothes are stuck to his skin – probably because he had all the towels removed from his bathroom. He throws his bag in his bunk and trudges into the sitting area, trying to be intimidating.

“Who. Made. Me. Piss myself?!” he demands.

Matt and Josh erupt in laughter, their heads tilted back and shoulders shaking. I’m trying to hold back my own laughs, but it’s not working. Chris’s head immediately whips in my direction. “Jack? What the fuck?!”

Still casually resting my head on the back of my chair, I swivelto face him and speak to him the way a sensible grownup would to a disgruntled third grader.

“Chris, I was in the middle of an intimate conversation with my wife. You came clamoring in like a drunken man-sized toddler and interrupted us.”Not to mention I was post-coital, I don’t add.

“Come on, man, I was totally hammered! Did you really have to put my hand in a bowl of water while I was passed out?!”

“It was one-thirty in the morning. I was naked in bed and sporting a semi. You busted in and sprawled yourself across my bed,” I say, looking down and plucking at a few strings. “I want you to take a moment and let that scenario sink in.” Josh and Matt are still howling with laughter and holding their stomachs. “Besides, I’ve had to go commando twice this week because you keep freezing my boxers.”

“You fucked with me while I was passed out! That is so wrong and fucked up, Jack! I woke up hungover, in my own piss no less, and had to shower without drying off!”

“I felt it was important to make sure you got the message that last night’s behavior was not acceptable,” I conclude calmly, with a drawn-out strum of my strings.

“You,” Chris points a threatening finger at me, his bloodshot eyes going wide, making him look like a cracked-out cartoon, “better watch your ass! I mean it, Jack-ass,” he continues when I start laughing. “Watch your ass. Like, you better have an electric fence and guard dogs circling it the next time you sleep!”

I admit that one chokes me up a bit as he grunts, turns, punches the wall, and stomps to his bunk to sleep off the rest of his hangover.

“You’re in a good mood,” Josh acknowledges when the laughter dies down. I smile and keep lazily strumming.

“Good talk with Mrs. Krasinski last night?” Matt asks with his eyebrows raised. I play it cool, but I fucking love it when people call Mayzie that. Her having my last name really makes me feel like she’s a part of me, that we’re always connected.

“She’s going to meet us in Miami,” I say, punching my fist in the air.

“Yeah!” both Matt and Josh exclaim at the same time, and I laugh. I feel so much relief at the idea we’re going to be together soon, and the guys can tell I’m much lighter and more focused.

Before we hung up last night, Mayzie told me she was going to look for flights and try to get Ian and Tina to come to our house to dog sit for the next few weeks, which is what we have left on the tour. The bus starts rolling, taking us to Tampa where we’ll do a show tonight, and then get back on the bus and drive through to Miami. There, we’ll sleep and have a sound check before putting on another show.And hopefully, somewhere in the middle of all of that is when my wife will show up. Matt and Josh get their guitars out and start tuning them up, and for the next couple of hours, we jam, we brainstorm new lyrics, we bullshit, and act like a band again.

39

MAYZIE

By the next morning, I have a flight booked for early the following morning.That gives me less than twenty-four hours to pack for the next two weeks, get some writing done, and get Ian over to the house to dog sit.Still, I’m feeling so much lighter, joyful even. Before last night, I felt like I had been carrying a brick around in my chest.Things have felt so wrong these last few weeks, but honestly, I think we needed to see that, as painful as it was.I’m at the table with my laptop open, confirming my flight and organizing the writing jobs that I’ll have to do over the next week on the road.I also decide to google Turn it Up, to see what the reviews of last night’s show have to say.When the page pops up, I’m greeted by another unsavory new headline:

Turn it Up’s Jack Krasinski continues to enjoy the party life of being on the road. Click here for details of last night’s events in Baton Rouge!

Last Night?That isn’t right. I saw Jack in real time last night, and he skipped the partying.I know what time the concert wraps up, and how long it takes to pack up. I know what time those after parties start, and Jack did not go.He was talking to me, for hours, completely sober.

I go ahead and click on the link. I’m not afraid of what I’m going to read because I already know it’s bullshit.The story is on a gossip site called The Scope, where there is a photo paired with a brief paragraph.

The photo depicts Jack with his arm around a brunette whose face I cannot see, but… she’s wearing my black flowery top that I had on at the first concert in Seattle.

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