Wine drunk was always a more pleasant drunk than vodka drunk or tequila drunk. It lets you slide into inebriation slowly without even realizing that it's happened until you try to stand up to use the bathroom.

Wine hungover is a completely different ballgame.

Tyler sat up quickly and immediately wished that she hadn't. Her head was throbbing and she quickly covered her mouth as her stomach threatened to empty all of its contents into her lap.

The worst part of being hungover in general was the nausea. You got that distinct wave of stomach-sloshing bile that threatened to crawl up your throat and the annoying part being that you never actually threw up. It probably wouldn't be as bad if you did.

"Rise and shine, sleepy!"

Cringing, Tyler looked down at her lap trying to figure out exactly where she was. She was in Jason's area of the room in his real bed as opposed to her sofa-bed. That would explain the lack of coils digging into her ass. Her favorite jeans were unfortunately stained with wine and there was what appeared to be a newly torn hole in the inner thigh of her jeans inching towards her crotch.

"Fuck."

Jason snorted and plopped down on the bed with her. "I know right? I told you that you'd be mad hung over."

"Not that you asshole." Tyler glared in Jason's direction before slapping him upside the back of the head. She cringed as the impact of the blow left her head throbbing. "These are my fucking 200 dollar jeans and they've got a huge hole in them."

"That explains why you can only afford a couch in my studio..."

She ignored the comment since she was never late on a rent payment and the jeans had been a splurge for Christmas last year. They were a worn black biker-style skinny jean and they fit like a glove. If she could have found them somewhere cheaper she would have, but for some reason the styles she loved always seemed to be some off-season or quirky piece.

"Whatever. Why the fuck am I in your bed?"

Laughing, Jason gave her knee a squeeze and strode into the bathroom. "I like to take advantage of my drunk female companions in their sleep."

"Not funny, Jason." Tyler slid back down into the pile of blankets and pillows that her own sofa-bed unfortunately lacked.

"Relax. You were pretty drunk so I figured you'd rather wake up hungover in a real bed as opposed that shitty thing you call a matress in the corner" Jason called from the bathroom. "And don't get too comfortable because we're leaving in twenty minutes."

"What? What do you mean 'we'? You got a mouse in your pocket?"

Ambling back into the room, Jason ran a hand through his ragged brown hair. "We, as in you and I, have a meeting with my manager at Three Tower Audio. They've got a band that just signed on to use them for their upcoming tour and the boss-man is putting together an all star team of roadies for the gig." Jason shot her a smirk and grabbed a red flannel off the ground to throw over his white t-shirt. "Say thank you, bitch."

She flung the covers off her with a groan and pulled herself out of bed. Tyler got a whiff of her shirt, flinched and pulled it over her head on her way to the bathroom. She offered Jason a smartass grin before slamming the door. "Thank you, bitch."

Twenty-five minutes later Tyler sat next to Jason on the M train headed northbound to Generation Records from their stop at Myrtle St in Brooklyn. Tyler held her head with one hand, feeling her stomach lurch everytime the subway hit a rough patch in the track and kept a death grip on her coffee with the other. She would have been excited knowing that Generation Records was the Greenwich Village spot notorious for its punk and hardcore selections if she didn't feel like she was going to lose her breakfast. Which would have been quite sad being that breakfast this morning had consisted of two salteens and three ibuprofen that were not doing the trick as proclaimed on the bottle. Jason had his headphones on and was air-drumming along to some new metal band that he had recenly discovered and wasn't paying much attention to anything around him. He nudged Tyler with his shoulder, gesturing to the coffee he had made her in order to help with the hangover.

Taking the hint from her rather pathetic look he threw an arm about her shoulders so that she could lean on him for the remainder of the ride, focusing on the threads fraying from the knee of his pants rather than the swaying floor.

Three Tower Audio had conveniently rented a vacant space on Thompson St above Generation Records for their NYC offices and sound studios. The space had previously been owned by Gen Records as well but with the ever-rising rent prices the record company had rented it out. Three Tower had snatched it up in the hopes of keeping yet another independent record company from being bought out by a corporate giant and in the process possibly accruing future clients by association.

The record store was the perfect mix of vinyl treasures, punk, hardcore and metal memoribilia and the few rare EP's that some of the best alternative rock outfits had bothered to press into CD form. Jason had to practically drag Tyler up the spiral staircase located at the back of the store as she stood around pretty much drooling and not knowing which bin to dive into first.

"We are here for a meeting."

A look of frustration crossed Tyler's features as she reluctently put down a vinyl copy of The Misfits' Static Age and followed him up the stairs.

The office was much more comforting than Tyler had expected it to be and she smirked remembering why she risked financial instability on a daily basis to pursue a career she actually loved rather than plug through a nine to five office job to have her own bedroom.

"You must be the lovely Tyler I've heard so much about."

Tyler looked up as a heavily tattooed gentleman in his late thirties with a British accent approached her with a cheeky grin.

"Yes, you. The one with the boobs" The man chuckled at Jason as he made himself comfortable on a red leather couch dropped nearly in the center of the room. The room contained not much else except for an extremely large wooden coffee table. "I thought you said she was strong, there Jay. She doesn't look like she could move an amp if her life depended on it."

The man let out an extraordinary laugh at the the angry look on Tyler's face as she was about to protest with a few belittling choice explitives. "I'm just joshing there, love. I've heard plenty about your brilliant skills in the audio production world and have no doubts about it. Don't rip my balls off."

"No promises." Tyler sneered.

"Can't say that I wouldn't enjoy it. If you're going to get action why not get it rough?" He laughed and patted the spot next to him on the couch as he took a seat.

Tyler raised an eyebrow in amusement before taking her seat.

"The name's Richard, but you can call me Dick if you'd like."

She snorted. "I was planning on it."

Luckily, Richard hooted and clapped her on the back. "You've got an attitude problem, doll. I like it. Polite women make me nervous. Prolly why I've taken a liking to dominatrixes and prostitutes over the years, eh?"

Now it was Tyler's turn to laugh as she nearly spit out the sip of coffee she had just taken. She shot Jason a look of approval as he sat there looking quite pleased with himself. He had snagged himself quite the gig to be Assistant Operations Manager under this guy, Tyler thought.

"And she thinks I'm kidding" Richard shuffled some papers around on the table. "Now let's get down to business. I've heard all about you from Jay over there and I have to say I'm impressed. He nicked me a demo tape you did for that radio station of yours back in Boston and I have to say I've never seen such professionalism in a college produced station in many years. You definitely have the chops for audio production and sound design. My only hesitation is that you've never done a long term stint such as a tour before but hey we're all newbies once, right?"

Unsure if this was a rhetorical question, Tyler nodded.

"So really, all we've got to do is train you on our equipment and make sure you're good to go. You just have to promise me the next couple months of your life and we're peachy, eh?"

"It sounds a hell of a lot better than guessing as to whether I'm going to be able to afford to eat within the next week, does a bed come included in this deal?"

Richard shrugged. "Well, a bunk, yes."

Tyler clapped her hands together. "A step up! Where do I sign?"

"Smashing!" Richard laughed at his own use of cliche British jargon. "Great. We'll get you trained the end of this week and we're set to ship out the 28th, yeah?"

Nodding, Tyler eagerly took the pen signing her tour contract. Having a set job for the next few months was a roadie's dream and she could really care less where they sent her as long as there was a paycheck at the end of the week. Which according to the paperwork, there was.

"So, who exactly are we touring with?" She asked, fingering her worn Gaslight Anthem tank top hopefully. She hadn't heard that they were touring anytime soon, but she knew that Brian Fallon had a side project in the works for the very near future so it wasn't entirely out of the question. Not that it mattered to her, since this company was seemingly one that she would like to have on her resume either way.

"Ah, yes. You will be meeting the band soon enough. They're finishing up the European leg of this tour so unfortunately you won't be able to meet them beforehand but I assure you they are all fine gentleman." Richard smiled. "And actually you're signing on with us at a good time. I'm sure Jay here has told you that this New York chapter is a rather new chapter to Three Towers and we're looking to expand our services to a wider range musicians, make the company more accessible, you know?"

Picking up her coffee, Tyler nodded.

"With this chapter we're looking to delve into a more mainstream market I guess you could say, especially since there is so much to be explored in terms of media in New York City. We're looking to possibly get more pop artists as clients since they're so versatile. We just happen to be lucky enough to have one of our very first new groups be one of the biggest pop bands in the world. You lucky chaps will be working with none other than the Backstreet Boys!"

This time Tyler really did spit her coffee halfway across the room.