Chapter 54

The moment the elevator doors shut Jon felt lonely again. He liked her around and if he could he would have asked her to stay but he didn’t have enough space for 4 extra kids here. The New Jersey house would but right now he liked living in the city. He still had his kids until Monday morning when he brought them to school but after that he’d be all alone again, although his kids their companionship wasn’t the same as Melody’s.



That same night Melody still phoned Jon when she knew the youngest two would be in bed and they would both have time to talk. Melody sat down on her bed, the side where Jon had slept all week, she was sure the pillow would still smell like him and Jon answered the phone on the second ring.
“Hey babe,” he said, the same way he always did and gave Melody butterflies, “did you get home ok?” He wanted to tell her he missed her but felt too butch to do it.
“Yeah all fine, except I miss you. I liked having you around. It’s so different without you here.”
“I miss you too, but we’ll see each other soon enough, right?” He asked a bit hopeful, he knew she would be working longer hours this week.
“I don’t know I’m working all week.” She had to disappoint him, but not only him, she wanted to see him sooner too. “The week after that I have Tuesday off though.”
“That’s a whole week.” He leaned back in the couch he was sitting, 10 days were too long.
“We’ll make it work, we’ve done it before when you were on tour, we have phones and you should figure out how that webcam on your laptop works.”
“I know how it works.” He said a bit more hopeful, she was right, they could still see each other.
“You do?” Melody asked a bit surprised.
“Yeah, I have that Skype thing, I know how that works.” He explained to her.
“Great, we can do that then we can see each other.”
“Yeah we can.” He agreed with her and remembered something. “I have to go to an award dinner thingy Thursday, do you want to go with me?”
“A thingy? What kind of thingy is it?” Melody asked interested.
“It’s the Can Do Awards, do you want to go? I don’t want to go alone.”
“Is it formal?”
“I think so.”
“I can go shopping?” Melody asked excited, buying a dress for an event like that would be really nice, there’d probably be camera’s too. “Will there be press?” She asked a bit worried.
“Probably.” He wasn’t very sure but most likely there would be.
“Oh God.” She sounded even more worried.
“It’ll be fine; I’ll be there to hold your hand.” He tried to comfort her; he knew it wasn’t easy to have cameras in your face all of a sudden.



When Melody said goodbye to him and hung up, she couldn’t believe how stupid she had been, he lived a 2 minute walk from her work, she could just stay there the whole week, and she wouldn’t have to get up as early either. Luckily she had asked Stephanie and Jesse their cell phone numbers earlier, she could text them in the morning. She felt like she couldn’t just show up to surprise him, just in case they didn’t like the idea, she wouldn’t want to upset any of the kids and preferred asking them before just showing up like that.



Sunday morning started early for both Jon and Melody. Jon was woken by 2 little boys in the living room watching cartoons a bit too loud. The noise of the tv could be heard to his room. He grunted and turned around, why did those two always have to be up at 7 on weekends but on school days they wouldn’t get out of their beds. He pulled at his sheets and tried to close out the annoying noise of cartoons voices.

Melody woke up to the smell of burning toast; the kitchen was right next to her bedroom so the smell didn’t have to spread far. It wouldn’t be the first time someone forgot their toast so she got up to check it. When she got out from under the covers the room felt cold and she looked around for some warm sweatpants she could wear instead of the shorts that were next to her bed. She had worn them in the evening when she was still watching tv but usually took them off when she went to bed to sleep in panties and a t-shirt. When she got into the kitchen J just took the toast out of the toaster, examining it if it was still ok to eat.
“Don’t eat that.” Melody said to him, most of it was black.
“Alright.” He threw it in the trash can and started toasting two other pieces and went back to the living room.
“You might wanna stay here and watch it so it doesn’t burn again.” Melody told him when he did.
J turned around and walked back, “You’re right, good thinking mum.” and stood in front of the counter watching his toast.
Melody shook her head thinking he’s just slightly weird. She opened the fridge in search of food herself and found some yogurt.
“So is Jon coming over this week too?” J asked when she stood up again.
“No,” Melody paused, “I think I’m going over there for the week, it’s right next to work.” She said.
“Living together huh?” J took his toast and went to the living room and sat in front of the tv again.



Melody texted Stephanie and Jesse at the same time, asking them both if they would mind if she came over tonight and to ask Jake and Romeo too but not tell their dad. Almost immediately she got an answer from Stephanie Yeah, Great! Melody was a bit surprised by how happy it sounded but was sure she hadn’t asked the other ones and texted her back to ask if she did. She was still typing when her phone buzzed again. This time it was Jesse, Romeo says awesome, Jake says great and I don’t mind at all. She erased her message to Stephanie and phoned Robert instead to tell him she’d be bringing the children over at 6 so he didn’t have to pick them up. That way she could be in New York by 7, perfect. As every morning when they were both home Melody phoned Jon to talk to him before the day started.
Jon was still in bed when he picked up the phone. “Morning.”
“Good morning sweety, how did you sleep? Any nice dreams?”
“I had a really good one but the tv ruined it.” He said with a sigh.
“You slept on the couch?” Melody asked confused why he would do that.
“No silly, the boys are watching cartoons a bit too loud, I can hear it all the way to my room.”
“Wow, that is really loud.” It might be an apartment but it was big, there was a hallway and an office between the living room and the bedroom so the sound had to travel a long way.
“I know.” Jon said with a grunt, he wanted more sleep but was surely not getting it especially when there was a knock at his door followed by a little boy walking in. “Can you hold a second?”
“Sure.”
Jon held his phone down and waited. “Dad, I’m hungry.” Romeo said in a complaining voice.
“I’ll be there in a second.” He told him.
“Are you talking to Melody?” Romeo asked and Jon nodded. "Tell her I said hi and...” He stopped himself from saying something else and left the room.
Jon didn’t think twice of it and put the phone on loud speaker so he could get up and put some clothes on. “Romeo says hi.”
“How sweet, tell him I say hi back.”
“I will, so what’s today for you?”

Chapter 55