A week had passed since the phone call with Tawny or very nearly, and he regretted not calling to check up on her but he could certainly place the blame on the actual recording sessions. Intended to be a one day session, it had stretched out to take several days to complete, due to the fact the sessions had been plagued with equipment failures, or other such nonsense. And yet here he was, driving alone to a gig. It seemed that since that outburst it had been one failure after another, and he hoped there was going to be nothing to foul this gig up.

But luckily the traffic wasn’t giving him a headache with a backup on the thoroughfare, but his mind, it seemed, was a universe away. Idly he pressed a preset button on the radio and II Can’t Quit you Baby by Led Zeppelin came through the car speakers. Certainly an ironic song for the way he was feeling right now. Before he knew it, the exit for Sunset Boulevard was approaching, and he prepared to pull off the highway. It was certainly true. Since the evening he had met Tawny at that restaurant, he had been smitten beyond belief by Tawny, and even through this separation, it was impossible to quit her. Even at the thought of it, his heart had seemed to lodge in his throat, threatening to cut off air. Why was he so f***ing nervous? He and Tawny had known each other since 1987. There shouldn’t be any reason why he should be acting in such a manner. It wasn’t like this was a first date…or was it?

David pulled into the parking lot of the Black Cat and found a parking space in the back. Gripping the steering wheel he inhaled sharply. He glanced at the sky and furrowed his eyebrows, funny. There was no talk of rain in the forecast from what he’d heard but the sky looked like it was about to let loose at any moment, which did no small favors for him, but it lit a fire under him to exit the car, and hightail it to the stage door entrance of the club.

The backstage area was cramped, but he maneuvered to his dressing room and shed his jacket, then hung it on the inside of the door. Even from his vantage point in the dressing room, he could hear the band beginning to set up for a soundcheck. At least he wasn’t late for it.

He glanced over to the small closet in the corner and saw that his clothing for the show had already been unpacked and hung up neatly, but he was soon distracted by a knock at the door. Immediately he presumed it could be one of the boys coming to tell him they were ready to begin the soundcheck. But something told him it couldn’t be. The knock was lighter. He adjusted the leather jacket he was wearing and approached the door. He reached out and opened it. Instead, he saw Tawny, in a short dress that accentuated her curves exquisitely. The look was completed by fishnets and stilettos with her hair teased to perfection.

“I hope you don't mind me coming back here, David. A friend just dropped me off. And I thought…”

David stepped aside and gestured for her to come in, then closed the door behind her. “You look incredible, baby.”

She only gave a small smile and figited her hands in front of her, which caused David to furrow his eyebrows in concern. “Tawny?” he intoned as he urged her to sit down. br> There was another knock at the door and he could hear Adrian’s voice on the other end. “David, we need to get to that soundcheck. The management is yapping about it.”

“I’ll be out in a few, stall them for a few moments, I don’t care.” Adrian didn’t need to know he was in here trying to talk to Tawny. He glanced at the door a few moments then turned his undivided attention back to Tawny. “Baby, I can’t help you if you won’t talk to me. There has got to be something a lot deeper than just missing me. Is your depression weighing you down again?”

“David, I really don’t know what it is. I made a rash decision in the heat of the moment when I walked out. I know that for a fact. And I also think it could be the fact that I was off my medication at the time of our fight. That’s what caused me to snap. And I just…walked out without thinking. Which I shouldn’t have done.”

He sighed and stood, raising an eyebrow at this newfound information. His mind was swimming. Her outburst was now making more sense. She hadn’t been in her correct frame of mind when she’d had the outburst and walked out. But he knew the wrong thing to do at this moment was to react the way she had done. Waiting for a few moments, he came and sat beside her. “Baby, listen. If taken correctly per doctor’s orders, that medicine is there to help you. In order for me to come back home, you have to be back on it, baby. It won’t do us any good if we’re always at each other’s throats.” He took one of her hands into his and gently threaded it through her hair with the other. “Listen. After the show tonight, we’ll talk more, I promise. You know how my bandmates are. If I don’t show up for this soundcheck, they’re going to knock down that door.” It was meant as a jest, but there was an element of truth in the statement as well.” He stood, glanced down at her and squeezed her shoulder. “Try not to worry, baby. If you want to, you can either stay here or you can sit in on the soundcheck. It’s up to you.”

Tawny thought for a moment, but David could tell something else was eating at her. “Something’s bothering you Tawny.”

She sighed, as she pondered how to approach the subject. “I know it’s a Deep Purple song, but you don’t sing Soldier of Fortune much, if at all. And you really don’t talk much about your time in Deep Purple.”

David exhaled slowly, and came to sit beside Tawny. “There’s a good reason I don’t talk about it much, but I think it’s time you know. I was young when I was in Deep Purple. I was just barely into my twenties. I wrote Soldier of Fortune for a girl I had fallen in love with. It was a whirlwind relationship, and things moved fast…she also introduced me to the rock n roll lifestyle. She was a groupie that went by the moniker of ‘Stardust Delight’. Only a few months after we met, we were engaged. Her name was Sapphire Rain.” He grew quiet after a moment and he felt Tawny squeeze his hand, which gave him the resolve to continue. “We had gotten high one night, and it was storming. I was driving her back to the hotel she was staying in, and I took a curve too fast. Sapphire went through the windshield and was killed instantly. But it caused me to go cold turkey to get cleansed up.”

He sighed and squeezed Tawny’s hand. “Baby, look at me. Don’t feel you have to compete. You have my full devotion. She’ll always be a part of me, but you’ve also seared yourself onto my heart. Had that not happened, we probably would have never met.” .