Denial

“Hey short shit, come in” Brian motioned for Johnny to enter the house and Johnny sighed. He wasn’t sure if this was the right place to be at if Brian was in one of his ‘funny’ moods. He walked into the house and saw Tammy coming out of the kitchen, in her hands a large bowl of salad.
“Hey” she smiled widely at him and Johnny walked over to her to kiss her cheek “do you want to grab the meat? It’s in the fridge, we can start right away”
“Thanks for having me, Tammy, didn’t mean to intrude on your dinner” Johnny apologized as he walked into the kitchen to fulfill the task Tammy gave him. They all met up outside, where Brian already took his place at the BBQ.
“No problem at all, we always have too much”
“I’ll kill you if you take this baby from me though” Brian said, dangling the biggest steak in front of Johnny’s face.
“Brian, don’t be an ass” Tammy smacked his head as she came back out after getting some beers.

Johnny snickered, Brian had always been the ladies man, the cocky bastard, but since Tammy came in his life he sure had taken it down a peg or two. It was pretty fun to see all his friends being in relationships, they all had their big mouths when they were with the five of them on tour, but when the wives were around…. They all were the obedient husbands.
The three of them were enjoying their dinner, having some light conversation, and Johnny kind of decided he wouldn’t talk to Brian tonight, he would figure it out himself. He was having a too good of a time with his friends. Johnny saw Tammy eyeing him the whole time though, he knew she wouldn’t let it go, she was annoying like that. So he wasn’t really surprise that she mouthed “him or me” to him when she got up to put away their dinner mess.
Johnny motioned his head to Brian with a weary smile.
“I’m going to make some coffee, I’ll be right back” Tammy. She kissed the top of Brian’s head and walked into the house, shooting Johnny an encouraging smile.

The two men leaned back in their chair, both full of the excessive dinner. Johnny tried to find his courage, beating himself up over it. Brian was one of his oldest friends, what the fuck was wrong with him? Deep down those nerves made him realize how important this was to him. He didn’t want Brian to make fun of him, or Nessa, this was a big deal to him. He didn’t even know how to start. As if Brian knew that his friend needed an opening he spoke up.
“So Christ, what did you do today?”
“I bought new furniture, I kinda needed it since I threw everything out when Kat left” he decided to get everything out in the open now.
Brian shot him a surprise look “But Kat left months ago…”
“Yeah”
Brian had the joke on his lips, but when saw the hurt in his friend’s eyes, he decided to swallow it.
“Did you go alone? I could have gone with you”
Johnny felt the heat coming over him, his neck felt hot and he knew the blush must have reached his face by the feel of it.

“CHRIST! SPILL!” Brian smiled widely, sensing something good going on for his friend “It’s that girl from the concert right? Tell me! I know it! I’m right” He had jumped up from his chair and paced within a yard, talking agitated with his hands, looking at Johnny expecting.
“Seriously Brian, take it down a notch, you act like you just been rewarded a star on the walk of fame” Johnny tried to act annoyed, but he couldn’t help but smile at his friend’s reaction and thinking back to that afternoon, especially thinking back to that afternoon.
“I’m just happy for you, man” he clapped Johnny’s shoulder and sat down again “So, tell me, when will we meet her properly”
Johnny’s face fell and the happy feeling moved to the background. Brian saw the change in his friend and leaned forward, his arms leaning on his legs.

“Okay, I guess there is more to the story, huh? Start talking Christ”
Johnny started to tell the story, on how they spend the day yesterday, had dinner, how they spend the entire day again today, however conveniently leaving out he kissed her twice already.
“Sounds like you had a great time with her, when are you seeing her again?” Brian smiled at his friend, relieved to see him more happy finally.
“I don’t know, we didn’t really made a new appointment” Johnny said quietly “Probably within a few days, I guess”
“Okay” Brian hesitated, confused on the signs his friends gave off earlier “what’s with the long face then?”

“I… “ for a second Johnny thought about his will to tell Brian all of it, but he was so frustrated with the whole situation, he needed another opinion. So he just blurted “I kissed her, twice”
Brian’s eyes widened as he continued “she kissed me back, both times. There is something between us, I feel it and I’m pretty sure she feels it too, but she only wants to be friends. She doesn’t want a relationship.”
Brian sighed, but then he got a grin on his face “I get that you like her, so just convince her that she does want a relationship. A relationship with you. Because you my man… are a catch” Brian made his voice all high pitched at the last part of the sentence.
Johnny put his head in his hands “She warned me before hand, just friends, she said, I think she repeated herself a dozen times and I had to fall for her. She has been hurt, badly, it’s keeping her from moving on. I think I figured it out pretty good, I mean, she rather go for a deadbeat guy, expecting nothing, knowing he will disappoint her, than go for someone nice and really get hurt again.”

Brian took a second to process the information he just got from his friend. He was convinced Johnny really liked this girl, and if he had to believe the story, she wasn’t unimpaired by him either. But if she had this big a walls around her, they sure needed the big guns. Tammy walked outside with a tray full of cups of coffee, looking at him with her brows raised and he shook his head slightly, only for her eyes to see.
“There you go boys, fresh coffee, enjoy. Unfortunately I have to leave you for a bit, I have a deadline” and with that information she made her way back. Brian thankful that his wife understood they needed the men time.

“So, Christ, you need a plan. You’ve come to the right person. I mean, we all know I landed the most girls in my days, coming to me was the only one choice, you did good” Brian put on his cocky self, mostly because he wanted to lighten the mood, partly because he really found truth in the words he chose.
“Don’t make me regret coming to you, asshole, I really like her.”
“Good, we’ll make a plan, but we need another drink” Brian grabbed Johnny’s coffee cup and headed inside. As soon as he was out of Johnny’s sight he got his phone out of his pocket and shot Zack a text

“I need you fuckers here, we have to make a seduction plan for Christ, bring the others and leave the wives at home!”

In the time Brian had brought beers outside and he and Johnny got only a few lines into their plan, Zack, Arin and Matt came storming through the door.
“I’m don’t need a plan seducing Christ, I’ll do him anyway” Zack came storming outside with a grin on his face, rushing over to Johnny, grabbing his face. Johnny squirmed and got out of the guitarist’s grip and shot up, watching all his friends come in.
“Seriously, Gates! If I wanted everyone here I would have called them myself!” Johnny shot an angry look at Brian.
“We need the power of five, just like the power rangers used, I mean, come on, this is big”

The other three looked at Brian in confusion, which made Brian bring them up to speed in record time.
“So this is about getting Christ the girl” Matt said, grabbing one of the beers Brian just brought outside.
“That shouldn’t be too hard, look at how cute he is” Zack, sitting next to Johnny, pinched his cheek, making Johnny jump up again.
“CUT IT OUT! Damn!”
“Well, it should be easy” Zack continued, while he got up and stood with his back to the others. He looked over his shoulder “You should give her some Johnny lovin” he put his arms around his body, his hands on his shoulder and back, pretending someone else was feeling him up. Brian and Matt let out a chuckle, but Johnny had reached his boiling point.
“Fuck this! I’m going home, this was a bad idea”

“Is it Nessa?” Arin said calmly. Johnny snapped back at him.
“Yes” He groaned, afraid Arin was going to fight him over her. To his opinion Nessa and Arin had just been a little too cozy after the concert. Arin’s reaction therefore surprised him.
“She fits you Christ, good job.” Arin turned to the others “Don’t be assholes, she is really nice. But we need a plan, I think she isn’t too easy to convice”
Johnny sat back down and stared at the bottle in his hands, the other 4 following his example. Silence fell over them for a few minutes, all lost in their own thoughts.

“Just send her flowers and chocolate, every girl likes that” Arin offered
“Take her to see a movie, you can do a lot of touching there. Always worked for me” Brian added
“Seriously, you guys are uninspired. Take her to dinner, Italian restaurant” the others looked at Zack, their brows raised as if they wanted to say… ‘what’s special about that’, but Zack had waited with the punch line “….. IN FUCKING ROME! Just take the plane and fly over!”
Arin and Matt face palmed their selves, while Brian seemed to give the idea a serious thought.
“That’s not a plan Vengeance, that’s just crazy! The girl just wants friendship and you want to fly her to the other side of the world?” Matt shook his head.
“Hawaii would be a better plan then anyway” Johnny said quietly.

“Maybe I should just call Izzie, she is good with these kind of things” Matt said, more to himself than to the others.
“No you’re not, Izzie did more than enough, she put me in this mess in the first place” Johnny said, angry at first, then suppressing a chuckle, thinking back to all the murder plans he and Nessa made.
“What?” Matt asked.
“No, nothing…” Johnny smiled, receiving weird looks from the others, who shook their heads.

“Okay, so let me get it straight, you already took her to dinner, you went shopping with her and you kissed two times and she still didn’t surrender?” Matt summarized, Johnny could only nod “Okay.. so what did you say to offend her?”
“Nothing! Fucking hell, why was I friends with you again?”
“Because we loved you from the first time we saw you, we didn’t need any convincing”
“Maybe it would have been better if we had… needed some convincing… now we are stuck with you”
Oh Great, Johnny thought. Brian and Zack had their comedy act on again. He send a desperate look to Arin, but he just shrugged, it was out of his hands.

“I need something stronger if I’m having to put up with you guys any longer” Johnny groaned. Brian jumped up and got the bottle of whiskey and glasses.
“But Christ, are you sure, just being you isn’t going to work? I mean…” Brian put the glasses on the table and put the hand with the bottle in the air, while his other hand was on his crotch “Easy as that! Right?! RIGHT?!” he looked around the group as if he just had solved the problem of world hunger.
“Oh boy” Johnny let out.

“For me it just worked to walk in the room” Zack stated matter of factly.
“I only walked into a closet”
“But you had fucking help!” Johnny let out in frustration, thinking back on how Brian and Zack both landed their wives. The five men looked at each other with wide eyes and all let out at the same time “Izzie”
“Told you we should call her!” Matt said, already getting his phone out. Johnny quickly snatched the phone out of his hand before he could push the speed dial.
“We. Are. Not. Calling. Izzie” he emphasized. He played a with the phone in his hands, thinking his friends weren’t really the best advisers. They practically got their better halves thrown into their laps, they never really had worked for it. He was wondering what they would have done if the girls had been more reluctant to be with them?

“Matt, what did you do when you… you know… cheated on Izzie?” He asked carefully, knowing Matt didn’t like to talk about it.
“I don’t know Christ, we talked, for hours, everything out in the open, no secrets, no mysteries, everything on the table. We had a lot of history you know…” Matt fell silent and seemed to lost in thoughts before he finally continued “But maybe that’s the only way… tell her how you feel, be honest with her, maybe she just needs time” he shrugged.
“And flowers Johnny, flowers always help” Arin added with a smile.

The guys shared a few more drinks, stories and laughs before Johnny decided to go home. He thanked his friends for their good for nothing advice and headed towards the front door. He got distracted by chatter coming out of Tammy’s writing room/library and put his head around the door to wish her goodnight.
“Tammy, I’m going home, thanks for…” He stopped midsentence when he saw the view before him. In the room was not only Tammy, but also Izzie and Mia.
“I didn’t know you were here”
“No one did, only Tammy. She called us after Brian made the men come here.” Izzie said with a blush on her face. He wanted to be angry with her, but that was the problem when he was face to face with one of the three or all three of them for that matter…. His resolutions faded fast.
“We eavesdropped, we’re sorry” Mia added with a shy smile “But we do have our two cents too if you want it”

“Ah hell why not, I’ve been listening to bad advice all night anyway” Johnny closed the door and sat down next to Mia “Good, make it quick, I want to go to bed”.
“So you bought new furniture, huh? What did you buy?” Tammy asked with a smile, making herself comfortable.
“I thought you were going to give me advice and now you want to know what I bought?! I’m too tired for this” he sighed as he wanted to get up again.
“No Johnny please” Mia begged, putting her hand on his arm.
“Okay Okay, I bought a dinnertable, chairs, recliners and a couch”
“And a bed” Tammy said
“No, not a bed”
“Yes, you did buy a bed”
Johnny looked at Tammy annoyed, this was not the time to fuck with his brain.
Then Mia opened her mouth “You have to tell Nessa you also bought a bed and that you are decorating your whole house. Trust us. We have the best plan ever”

While Johnny listened to Mia and Tammy tell all about the plan they cooked up, he got more and more amazed on the way these women thought. He didn’t think it was a good idea, but it was better than nothing, and what did he have to lose? Izzie had been awefully quiet and just listened to the other two talk. When they finished he turned to her.

“And you? What do you think?”
“I think I should stay out of this, I’m sorry for intervening” she said quietly.
“I could just kill you when I found out, but hey, that made some pretty good common ground with Nessa, so I actually have to thank you for the nice dinner we had. But Izzie, if this doesn’t work out, please stay out of my lovelife?”
Izzie nodded, a little shame in her face.
“Well, what do you think?” He walked over to her and sat down on the armrest of her chair.
“She likes you and I’m really happy you like her back. She needs time, but she also needs some convincing, so I think the plan is good, she will not be able to deny you anymore. I think it will be okay, Johnny” she took his hand in hers and pinched it softly.
“Good, so I’m looking for a painter tomorrow.”
The three women around him nodded in agreement and took Johnny into a grouphug. They broke their hug up when they heard some noise outside of the room.

“Oops, guess we’d better get home.” Mia giggled, grabbing her bag.
“Yes, I want you all out, this night turned out way different than I had planned” Tammy pouted.
“Oh! You and Brian!” Izzie let out, going in to girl talk mode.
“Leave me out of it!” Johnny quickly head over to the door, walking into the other 4. He just pointed inside the room as a reaction to their raised brows and quickly made his way out.

He sure hoped the advice of the women would get him what he wanted, all of this was driving him crazy.

Notes

Yes!
Another chapter.... I hope you guys like it... It's my longest chapter ever! :o

What will happen now? What is the plan of the women?
And more importantly, will it work?

Happy 4th of July for my American readers! <3