Chapter 39: Forgetting Kate Morgan

“Aidan, you haven’t thought this through.”

“I’ve made my decision.”

“Just take a little time and think—“

“This is not up for discussion, Annette.”

“It’s career suicide.”

“I’m aware of that.”

“It’s a sold out 30-city tour. You can’t just cancel. Do you understand what kind of lawsuits you’ll be looking at?”

“Yes, I understand.”

“You’ll never work again. Never. You’ll never come back from this.”

“Well, that’s kind of the point.”

“There are other ways, Aidan. There are ways to handle a retirement without permanently burning every bridge in the entertainment industry.”

“I’m never making a comeback. OK? I’m done. I’m getting on a plane to New York. She doesn’t want to live in LA? She doesn’t want to give up her career? So fine. I’ll give up mine.”

“Aidan, you’re obviously emotional right now. Why don’t you just tell me where you are, and I'll come meet you, and we can talk about this—”

“There isn’t time! The flight leaves at 4:15.”

“At least let me sit on the story for 24 hours before I make the announcement.”

“I don’t care how you handle the announcement. It really doesn’t matter.”

“Have you  told the other band members?”

“No.”

“You don’t think you should maybe break the news to them yourself before they see it on Entertainment Tonight?”

“Fine. Sit on it for 24 hours.”

“So you’re just going to walk away. Even if it means shitting all over your friends. Shitting all over your fans—“

“This is what I have to do.”

“Aidan—“

“I gotta go. Her flight leaves in half an hour. It’s probably already boarding.”

“Don’t—“

Aidan hung up before he could hear the end of Annette’s sentence. It didn’t matter what she had to say anyway. The decision was made. The decision was final.

He’d only made it two miles down the 405 freeway before it had come to him, clear as day. He didn’t know why it hadn’t occurred to him before. He'd been so hung up on convincing Kate to stay in LA, and all the while the answer had been right in front of him, staring him in the face. He couldn’t let her fly back out of his life again. He couldn't just turn around and go back to his hotel and forget Kate Morgan ever existed. That's the way the story ended the last time around, and look where it had gotten him. Nowhere. There was no point to anything in his life – his career, his music, everything he’d worked so hard to build for himself. There was no life if she wasn't in it. So what if it was everything he had? He’d trade everything he had in a heartbeat if it meant he could have her.

So that was it. If that’s what it was going to take, that’s what he would do.

He sat now in the driver’s seat of his car, pulled over at the edge of a freeway fill-up station. He turned the ignition back on with a decisive flick of the wrist. No time for dilly dallying. He needed to get back to the airport.

He was just reaching for the gear shift when he heard his bat phone ring. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked down at the caller ID. Annette. He had nothing more to say to Annette. There was only one person he needed to talk to right now, and he’d have that conversation in person.

He hit Decline, and the ringing stopped, only start in again a moment later.

“Dammit Annette!”

Didn't she get it? Had he not made his decision abundantly clear? To hell with it. To hell with all of it. If he was going to burn every bridge he ever built in the entertainment industry, might as well start with this one.

He cracked open the driver side window and chucked his bat phone out onto the pavement. The roar of the engine drowned out the ringtone he'd grown to know so well, as he threw the car into gear and sped away.