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“Please, Howie…I wanna come! Lyric gets to go, why don’t I?” Hilary whined.

“Lyric is my assistant, I need her to come. No one else is taking family or friends, Hilary. This is just a quick demo tour, we won’t be doing any sightseeing or anything fun – just dashing from one radio station to another and doing a couple of small shows.”

“But Howie, you promised I could go on tour with you…” Hilary unbuttoned the top couple of buttons on her shirt, letting her humongous assets spill out. Lyric resisted the urge to vomit.

“I’m sorry, Hil, but this really isn’t a tour. It’s gonna be nonstop chaos for two weeks and I wouldn’t even have any time to spend with you – you’d be bored to tears.” Howie had to try hard to keep the anger from his voice, he hated it when Hilary whined.

“Ok, then…but you swear I get to go on tour next time?”

“I promise, Hilary – you and Orchid both can come out on tour for a couple of shows when the real tour begins.” Hilary clapped her hands like a little child, happy to get her way.

Two weeks later, after four days of non-stop interviews and two shows, Howie was ready to collapse. Lyric didn’t know how the fellas managed to stay so upbeat and positive after hours of filming, answering insanely stupid questions from reporters, and then braving hordes of screaming fans.

“No more interviews until tomorrow afternoon,” Lyric assured him, helping him out of his coat. “Eight hours of pure sleeping bliss.”

“Amen, sister!” Howie sighed. He opened the mini bar and pulled out a small bottle of rum and a can of Coke. He filled the glass with ice and poured in the liquids, swirling it around to mix it. He took a deep gulp and closed his eyes. They flew open again when his phone rang, playing a clip of one of their recently recorded tunes.

“I'm spending all my money on her
No matter where I go there she is
Half-naked waiting for me
Waiting for me
Every little thing about her says she's trouble”

Howie looked at the display, it was Hilary calling. He looked up at Lyric. “Did you…?” She whistled and looked away, pretending to check out the artwork on the wall of their suite.

“Not funny, Ricky…” But Lyric saw he was grinning as he answered the phone. She walked to the window to give him a little privacy, but she couldn’t help but overhear Howie’s part of the conversation.

“It’s not morning here, Hilary – it’s 2 am. Yes, the time is different in Tokyo, honey, we’re halfway around the world.” Lyric could see the little vein in his forehead start to pop out, which only happened when he was really exasperated with someone. He took another large gulp of his drink.

“I’m not going to give you the gate code, Hilary – you and Orchid don’t need to crash at my house while I’m gone. I’m sorry the exterminator had to spray your apartment, can’t you find somewhere else to stay? It’s just that…oh ok, quit crying, please.”

Lyric was angry at Howie for giving in to Hilary, he had promised that the girls wouldn’t be staying in his house while they were gone. Lyric didn’t trust them at all, she knew they would have parties the entire time they were gone – there would be no telling how trashed the house would be.

Fifteen minutes and another drink later, Howie’s phone rang again. “I’m sorry there is nothing to eat there, Hilary. Lyric cleaned out the kitchen because we were going to be gone for two weeks. No, she didn’t do it on purpose just so you wouldn’t have anything to eat. Drive to the store and get you some groceries.” Howie closed his eyes and sighed. “I know you have money, Hil, don’t give me that shit.”

Howie held the phone away from his ear, Lyric could hear Hilary talking a mile a minute. “Is it my fault that you spent your tips on drugs?” He ran his hand through his hair, making it stand on end. “Look, are you in the kitchen now? See the canisters, you know, those white jars on the counter? Look in the smallest one, there should be some cash in there – you can use that to buy some groceries.”

Lyric groaned quietly, she knew there was $500 in the petty cash jar – and all of it would be gone by the end of the day. Oh well, it was Howie’s money and he had a right to spend it however he wanted. “Even on brain cell deprived bimbos,” Lyric thought to herself.

After the phone rang for the fourth time in an hour, Howie finally shut it off. He finished off his third drink of the night and climbed wearily into bed.

“Good night, John Boy,” Lyric called from her room. Howie rolled his eyes, he loved how Lyric always knew how to make him smile when he was stressed out.

***********

“I’m so ready to crash,” Lyric groaned as she turned onto Howie’s street.

“Me too. I can’t believe we got diverted to San Francisco!” Howie looked at his watch. “It’s been 22 hours since we left the hotel in Kyoto.”

The new record debuted successfully in Japan, they had played several shows to sold out crowds. They both were exhausted from the trip, it had been chaotic non-stop traveling. The album would be dropping in North America in just two weeks and a new month long demo tour would start shortly thereafter.

“I’m going to sleep for two days,” Lyric sighed as she pulled into his gated driveway, hit the remote control button and waited for the gate to open.

“You aren’t driving home tonight, are you?” Howie asked. Lyric could hear the exhaustion in his voice.

“Are you kidding? I don’t think I have the energy to even get out of the car.” Howie laughed, he felt the same way.

“Damn!” Lyric muttered as she rounded the corner to the front of the house.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, just tired.” Lyric really didn’t want to see that convertible Mercedes in the driveway. There was no way she could deal with Hilary’s attitude this night. “Oh look, Hilary’s here to welcome you home.” She couldn’t keep the sarcastic tone from her voice.

“Be nice now,” Howie warned softly.

“Do I have to?” Lyric parked the car and climbed out. It took both of them to drag in the luggage, which they left in the foyer. Neither one wanted to even think about laundry after their two weeks away from home.

Candles were lit in the living room and soft music played. Hilary and Orchid slept on the couch, limbs intertwined – both half naked as usual.

“Every little thing about her says she’s trouble…” Lyric sang under her breath.

“Ricky, hush!”

“You know it’s true,” she hissed, then headed for her bedroom.

She didn’t want to witness their reunion. Howie’s behavior in Japan had turned her stomach, pleading and groveling at this woman’s feet to keep her happy. Every day she had called him, multiple times, until he finally had to turn his phone off to avoid her.

Lyric took a quick shower, pulled on a t-shirt and shorts, and crawled into bed. In no time at all, she was sound asleep.

“Lyric?” The bedroom light flipped on. “Are you asleep?”

Lyric groaned and glanced at the clock, 4 am – she’d been asleep for less than two hours.

“What do you want?” She tried to keep her tone civil.

“I’m hungry. Run out and get me something to eat.”

“It’s 4 o’clock in the morning, Hilary. Nothing is open. Go back to bed.”

“I can’t sleep, I have the munchies.” Hilary sounded like a petulant child.

“And that’s my problem?” Lyric turned over and pulled the pillow over her head. She thought she’d smelled marijuana in the house when they’d arrived.

“You’re Howie’s assistant. He pays you more than you’re worth, so earn your money by going to get me something to eat.”

Lyric counted to ten before she answered. “I do not work for you. If Howie comes in here and asks me to go get him something to eat, then I’ll do it. Now get the hell out of my room.”

“It’s not your room, bitch. It’s Howie’s house, you’re an employee, and you’re just sleeping here.”

“So where does that put you then?” Lyric was getting tired of Hilary’s attitude. “You’re too stupid to know you aren’t even a girlfriend to him – just some woman who hangs out at his house.” She expected Hilary to lose her temper any second now.

“If you don’t go get me something to eat, I’m gonna go in and wake up Howie and he’ll make you go. And you know how much he likes to be woken up when he’s tired.”

“About as much as I do,” Lyric responded sarcastically. But she didn’t want the woman to wake up her boss. “If I go make you something to eat, will you leave us both alone for a while?”

Lyric wanted to slap the smug smile from Hilary’s face. She climbed out of bed and plodded down to the kitchen. There wasn’t much in there, she’d cleaned it out before they left.

“How about some breakfast, Hilary? That’s about all I can find.”

“I guess that will have to do,” she pouted. Lyric wished the knives weren’t just inches from her fingers.

Within 30 minutes, she had a full breakfast prepared – biscuits, eggs, hash browns and sausage. Even though she was dead tired, her stomach still managed to growl.

Hilary helped herself to a full plate of food, Lyric wondered how the girl stayed so thin when she ate like a horse.

“What the hell is going on?” Howie asked sleepily, running a hand through his hair. Lyric loved how he looked first thing in the morning, with his hair all messed up and still groggy from sleep. He wore only long sleep pants, leaving his muscular, and hairy, chest bare.

“I was hungry, baby. Lyric was nice enough to come fix me something to eat.” She went over and draped herself around Howie, Lyric wanted to throw up. No longer hungry, she threw away the biscuit she had been nibbling on.

“I had a feeling the smell would wake you up, boss. There’s plenty, can I fix you a plate?”

Howie nodded and sat down next to Hilary at the table. Lyric filled a plate and then poured him a cup of hot tea.

“Tea even? That was thoughtful, thank you.” The smile he gave her melted away all the anger in her heart. She turned to the sink and began to wash the dishes.

“Hil, that wasn’t nice to wake up Lyric to make you something to eat.” Howie scolded her in a soft voice.

“But what was I going to do? I was so hungry!” she whined back. “And that’s what you pay her to do anyway.”

Howie sighed. “She’s not a servant. And you could’ve heated up a Poptart or something.”

Shoving away her empty plate, Hilary stood up abruptly, knocking over her chair. “I’m finished,” she announced. “I’ll see you in bed, lover,” she purred, leaning over so that he got full view of her ample breasts.

Lyric rolled her eyes. “Whore,” she swore under her breath. She sure didn’t know what Howie saw in her, they were not compatible in any way. It was Alex that usually went for the stacked bimbos.

She often wondered about their relationship, they were never affectionate with each other and Howie was usually pretty touchy-feely with people he cared about. But Howie’s relationship was really none of her business.

Howie finished eating and brought their plates to the sink. “Thank you for making breakfast. I’ll finish up,” he offered.

She shook her head. “Go on, I’m sure Hilary and Orchid are waiting for you.” She couldn’t keep the sarcasm from her voice.

He gave her an extra long hug. “Why don’t you like Hilary?”

“Got an hour?” Lyric said, smiling.

“You’re wicked!” Howie grinned, then kissed her on the cheek. “Good night, and I hope I don’t see you for a while.”

“Hope they let you get some sleep,” Lyric called after him.

She finished putting the dishes up, turned out the light, and headed back to bed. But she couldn’t sleep, it bothered her more than she cared to admit that Howie was having sex with those women. She knew she had no right to judge him, his private life was his own and she was just an employee.

“Just an employee, that’s all I’ll ever be,” she reminded herself as she drifted back to sleep.