Brian’s POV
“Good morning boys.” Margaret, Larry’s middle aged assistant greeted us while she got up from her chair to greet us properly. We both obediently kissed her cheek. Margaret has been around longer than we had and she had always been the one to take nurture our wounds whenever Larry chew us out. “You boys better sit down and take some coffee before you head in, he has been in a foul mood, better come prepared”

We both sat down opposite of her little desk and took the coffee she handed us. I shot Matt a weary look. It was not very hard to guess why Larry’s mood had been down the drain recently and I think I needed all the coffee I could get to go and face his wrath. I didn’t know I could take it, I had barely slept last night. I was fucking tired, I was annoyed and mad, not a good attitude to talk to your angry manager.

“I heard congratulations are in order?” Margaret turned her look to me as she leaned back on the desk. Her smile was friendly and I turned my gaze to the cup in my hands. What was I supposed to tell her? Yeah, I got drunk, divorce papers are already on their way? I knew she had seen us far worse, but now I sat here in the bright light, I was a little embarrassed about my actions. “Don’t let him tear you apart over a wedding , Brian. It was about time you looked a little more happy.” She put her hand to my cheek and sat behind her desk again. “Tell me about her?” her smile only got wider as she waited for my answer, as if I was visiting my favorite aunt, instead of my pissed to hell manager.

Silence fell between us. It just didn’t feel right to talk about Amy, Margaret would never meet her, no one would, not even me. Everything would go down quietly and soon, I wouldn’t be married again. Matt picked up the conversation by talking about the Bahamas, conveniently leaving out both girls. And I had time to let my mind wander.

The look in Amy’s eyes had been haunting me all night. She looked so hurt when I couldn’t even give her a proper goodbye, but did I interpret that look in her eyes right? Was it hurt, or was it annoyance of me not believing her charade. I wouldn’t know… I didn’t even knew her that well.
Those little voices in my head wouldn’t shut up though. And if I took only a second to listen to them, I had to admit, she did look hurt, she did look like she was going to cry and that voice with those parting words… it was close to breaking, and I was the asshole that left her there.

I thought about Amy, would she have taken up her life again? Would she be back at work? With that asshole boss of her? He would probably make good use of the time he had to spend with her to arrange our divorce. He would take his shot at being with her, I was certain of that. Amy had denied it all during the whole of our stay, but Sara had dropped enough hints, not to subtlety, and the way Amy was talking to him told me everything I needed to know. I mean… Why would your boss constantly call you when you are on a holiday if he hadn’t had any ulterior motives?

Would she look just as happy with him as she had been with me? Would he see the lust in her eyes when he made love to her? Just like I had? I took my phone out of my pocket and unlocked it, watching at the wallpaper. It was one of the picture we made at the movie theater. We both looked so carefree and happy, really happy. She couldn’t have faked that, could she?

“Both of you. In my office. Now” Larry’s measured voice took me out of my train of thoughts and I looked up. He stood in the doorway of his office and his face didn’t look happy, or angry… It looked neutral and that might even be worse. We both shot a look at Margaret and she mouthed a “good luck” at us.

Larry sat behind his desk, his fingertips put together as he motioned his head at the two seats in front of him. Matt and I looked at each other briefly before sitting down, there was no way knowing how this would go, but we both knew that the calm that Larry was displaying now, would definitely not last very long.

“How nice of you guys to come in. Finally I may add.”
“Morning” we both muttered back, he wouldn’t need anything to get started, and he definitely wasn’t done yet.
“Enjoyed your holiday?” his voice was friendly and interested, but as I looked over to him, I could see the anger coming up in his eyes. We both did nothing more than only give a small nod.

“Good, because you can’t think that I will let pull a stunt like this on me any time soon” His voice got the edge on it where I was waiting for and as soon as he stood up I realized we would be done for. Here we go.

“Before I will clearly bring you up to speed on how I am thinking about all of this, let me ask you one thing… You getting drunk is something as old as time, there is nothing wrong about that… But how on earth did you get married?!”
“I…” I opened my mouth to at least try to get some kind of explanation in, but he held up his hand, not even giving me a moment to speak.

“Don’t even try to fucking deny it! I have seen the pictures!” He picked a piece of paper up from his desk and held it up to him “and if I hadn’t seen those… this would give you away completely. I won’t read it out to you completely, because I assume you did the moment you signed it, but it is quite interesting. ‘We declare all that is stated to be true Amy Haner, Brian Haner’ Funny, I always thought I would have at least get a notification when you got married, hell, I even thought I might get invited. Stupid me!” He went full on sarcastic now.
“I’m asking you, Brian, if you wanted to get married so badly, you could have saved me all the trouble with Michelle!”

Truth was… Michelle had always wanted to marry me, maybe for the wrong reasons, but she had always been willing. I never had been. Things had gone out of hand, with her, with me, when Jimmy died and after, when I just didn’t seem to be able to behave. Larry had fixed everything for us, because… to be honest… I had done some things that could well have been the end of Avenged Sevenfold. Hell, we all had. So yes, Larry could be a little drama king, but in basics, he was right.

Larry was walking over to the big screen in his office and put it on with the remote control, the picture of Amy and me, dancing immediately displayed. I couldn’t take my eyes of the screen, that night had been so amazing. All of the nights had been.
“That’s not too bad, is it? I mean, we can do some damage control on that one. And Amy promised she would sign the divorce papers, not make it hard on Brian. I don’t see what the problem is” Matt spoke up, but I didn’t even look at them, I was too caught up on the picture.

“Oh no… It wouldn’t have been this bad if it had only been this one… But it isn’t” Larry pressed some buttons and another picture came on. Amy and me kissing at the pool, Amy and I at breakfast, clearly infatuated by each other, Amy and I at the movie theater from a distance. “Fuck” I let out on a breath, how the hell did this happen? How could I not have noticed?

“Yes. Fuck. But believe me, it even gets worse” he clicked again. Now an internet article appeared. Synyster Gates finally settling down? Said the headline, another one appeared on the screen Is this woman able to save Syn Gates from breaking everything around him?

I felt the anger boil up inside of me “I’m not that fucking bad! They make it seem as if I was bringing the band down! This SUCKS!” I stood up and paced the room.
“This isn’t it. I saved the best for last. Because even though my concern is focused on you, but you are definitely not alone in this? Have you even thought about that?”

The screen turned black and Larry pressed the play button. I saw a lot of people swarming around someone, I heard people call “That must be her!” “Where is your husband?” and with that I saw a cab door close and a dot of dark hair disappear.
“Amy…” I whispered while I heard Matt next to me do the same with Sara’s name.

“Yes. So this is how it is. The press has already found her and will not let her go any time soon. Same goes for you. This is not only about you anymore. This is about all of you, about the band and about the image I’ve fighting so hard for you guys to keep up. A quick divorce is out of the question. You have to keep up appearances for now. So you are going to call her now and tell her to come over here so we can start damage control”

I looked at him dumbfounded, he was kidding right? I wasn’t going to call Amy. I wasn’t going to stay married with her. I didn’t even want to and I definitely couldn’t ask her either.

“No”
“What ‘No’? You have no choice Gates, this is how this is going to go. I’m telling you. And if you don’t call her. I will. Your choice”
I took a deep sigh. I needed to do it alone, there was no way I was letting Larry call her. How would that even go? “Okay, I will call her when I get home. I will talk to her”
“Nope. Do it now.” He held the horn of the phone on his desk out to me. I didn’t want to do this and I definitely didn’t want to do this in front of everyone else.
“Can I at least have some privacy?” I grunted when I got the phone in my hand, and checked my own for Amy’s number.
Larry rounded up all pictures on the screen and pointed at them “I think that ship has long sailed”

I dialed Amy’s number and listened to the tone, waiting for her to pick up, thinking of what I was going to say. But she didn’t pick up. Larry even hit the redial button 2 times, but no luck.

“Then we will have to think of another way, quick before things get really out of hand and the poor girl ends up getting hurt”

The poor girl? Getting hurt? What the fuck about me!?

Sara’s POV
My alarm clock showed me it was already passed 10 and I slung my legs out of bed. Yesterday, after I dropped Amy off at her house, I hadn’t done anything much. I was too damn tired for that. After a nap, some quick cleaning and some even quicker grocery shopping, I ended up in bed early.

Not that I had slept much. My dreams were filled with everything that had happened this holiday, every moment I had spend with Matt had been there and I had woken up every single time. Feeling lonely and cold in that too big of a bed of mine. Maybe I should buy a single, I thought as I took a shower.

I dressed myself in something comfortable and put my hair up in a messy bun and made my way over to my office. That was the big pro of being your own boss, working from your own home. I could go to work in sweatpants. I thought of how good Matt had looked in his sweatpants when we said our goodbyes at the airport. Those goodbyes had been nothing but amazing, except for the fact that it was a goodbye and I really didn’t want it to be. That man would take some getting over, that was certain.

My computer almost exploded when I opened my mailbox. There were so many emails and it reminded me to check my phone too. I had put all my messages on hold, but I really needed to do something now. I sat up straight and started going through the messages one, by one. Separating the new consult requests, the information requests on old products, and he ‘other’.

I would need to make some phone calls, plan some appointments, see that I got some new assignments going on, because I couldn’t stay out of scene too long. When people didn’t see you around anymore, they tend to forget you and that would be killing for her new blooming business.

After 2 hours I had my mailbox organized, there was still much to do, but at least I had the overview again. I allowed myself to lean back for a second and opened my cloud, putting the pictures I took during the two week holiday on my screen. The pictures of Amy and Brian’s wedding passed and soon there were only pictures of Matt, and Matt and me, my hand moved to the screen and I put my fingers to Matt’s virtual cheek.

I missed him. It was okay for me to admit that now, it was okay when no one was around to hold it against me later on. I was staring at a picture of us two, him holding me close, looking down on me as I was his most prized possession. We had been perfect for each other for these two weeks. I was heartbroken and so was he, even though he didn’t want to admit it, we healed each other, we got each other ready to go on with our lives. But why did I feel this shitty now he wasn’t around?
“Oh Matt, what did you do to me?” I whispered, tears brimming my eyes.

When my phone started ringing I nearly had a heart attack and before even checking it, I had already picked it up
“Hello?”
“Sara?” Shit, shit, SHIT! Why did I keep doing that? Why, why, why?
“Hello Marc” I replied, trying to stay as calm as I could. I didn’t want to talk to him, but I couldn’t hang up on him now. Or could I?
“You finally decided to pick up my fucking calls?” His voice was icey cold, but we had fought so often, I knew this tone, and I also knew it wasn’t going to be long before he would burst. “You quickly found yourself a new boyfriend huh? When can I meet him?”
“Let me think about that, get my calendar?” I paused a bit “what about the Tuesday after never?! I don’t feel like talking to you, or better said, I have nothing to say to you anymore.” And with that I ended the call. I immediately put him on my blocked list, putting all his calls directly through to voicemail.

Within minutes I got message after message that I had a new voicemail, and another and another. That guy didn’t know when to stop! What did he even want from me?!

I really didn’t need to listen to Marcs messages, but I did need to listen my voicemail, there had been some business relations calling me that I had to get back to. But for every business call I had, I also had three messages from Marc and I was done with it. There would be another day tomorrow, I was done for today, there was no way I could call customers with the state of mind I was in now.

There was only one person who would be able to cheer me up, well… maybe two, but there was only one I could call.

“Ames? How are you?” I asked as soon as my best friend answered. Her voice sounded tired.
“Fine. Phone is driving me crazy though. Have been called by unknown numbers all day.”
I shook my head. How did the press find her? How? I found it appalling how these kind of things worked. Was there no such thing as privacy anymore?
“That fucking press. Are they around your house too?”
“It’s not the press Sara, you’ve been watching too many movies. Why would they follow me around? That’s just ridiculous and you know it. But enough about me. How are you today? Got some work done?”

“I started, but I have a hard time concentrating, there will be another day tomorrow. I don’t feel like doing anything anymore, so I was thinking… What if I come over, bring some bottles of anything with alcohol, we order food and hang out? Just us two?”
“You always have the best ideas. Will see you in a bit, you want Indian food?”
“Sure. Will be over soon. Bye”

After hanging up, I quickly grabbed some stuff to stay overnight at Amy’s and jumped into my car. The radio started blasting as soon as I started my car, it were the last notes of a song and the presenter came on “That was Enter Sandman from Metallica, let’s move over to some newer music. Avenged Sevenfold, with Hail to the King”. I didn’t pull out of my driveway, I just sat there and
listened to Matt’s voice. That voice that was sending shivers down my spine and goose bumps up my arms even from a song on the radio.

The song ended sooner than I wanted and I sighed. How was I going to get over him? I was afraid I didn’t know how. There was only way. I needed to stop thinking about what we had, I needed to let go of him. He wouldn’t be in my life, there was no need in holding on to something that would never be.

Notes

That went well... :P