THE ICING ON THE CAKE
MEL
The entire next day, once home from the hospital, Mel slept. The painkillers she was prescribed for the
couple of days worth of cramps that the doctor said would follow were pretty good--however, she knew she slept just to keep her mind off of what happened.
She only woke up on a few occasions, long enough to pee or for Taylor to force juice down her throat. He had to do it. If he didn't make her at least drink something, she wouldn't have gotten any sustenance at all. Not that she cared either way. She wasn't hungry, she wasn't thirsty, and if she wasted away and died, well then, what did that matter?
By the time day two rolled around, Mel still hadn't spoken a word, but she stayed awake longer, much to her dismay. Tay never left her side. She wanted to appreciate him for it, except that her emotions seemed to have
told her to kiss their asses. She felt nothing. Except for the cramps. And the gross, bulky pad she wore in her underwear because she wasn't allowed to wear tampons yet.
By day three, Mel felt gross. She got out of bed and showered. Physically she was feeling better. The cramps came less and less, though she wasn't sure if it was because she kept the painkillers in her system or not. The bleeding had lightened up and was slowly tapering away. Soon, there would be no sign that she'd ever had anything growing inside her body. She looked in the bathroom mirror for the first time in three days and was shocked. Who was that looking back at her? The woman looked old and haggard, at least ten years older than she. Was it this bad? This is what Tay looked at every day and woke up next to every morning? This was revolting.
However, she wasn't even close to feeling like a beauty queen. So she splashed water on her face, brushed her teeth, rubbed in some moisturizer and crawled back into bed in her clean pajamas. She didn't lay down. All
she'd done was lay down since she came home from the hospital. She knew she needed to feel some sense of normalcy but she wasn't ready to jump right back into the real world just yet.
Tay walked into the room and his eyes lit up at the sight of her sitting up in bed. "Hey, sunshine." He leaned over and kissed her forehead and then sat on the edge of the bed next to her, taking her hand. "It's good to see you up and about."
She managed a barely-visible smile.
"Hey, I have a surprise for you. I uh, got you a new laptop. And even better, they were miraculously able to recover all your information from the other one, so everything is being restored. I was such a bastard that day, Mel. I am so sorry."
She merely shook her head in disagreement.
He smiled and patted her leg. "Okay. Well, you sit tight, I'm gonna bring you something to eat."
"Tay--" she finally said. She almost couldn't get it out. After three days, speaking felt awkward.
He sat back down and took her hand.
"What do you think it would have been?" she asked him.
His eyes searched hers for a moment before he crawled into bed with her and sat beside her, taking her hand in his again. "Well, it's hard to say," he said quietly. "Neither one of us actually knew, so it's not like we had
the opportunity to say what we 'felt' like it would be. What do you think?"
Mel was silent as she thought of the answer to her own inquiry. "I think it would have been a girl. Every time I go to sleep, all I see is pink. I don't know if that's just the blood all over the sheets from that night or if it means I was having a girl." She looked at him remorsefully. "But we'll never know."
"Everything's gonna be okay," he said, hugging her close to him. "I promise."
And then she cried the first tears she had cried since she had gotten the news.
_____________________________________
TAYLOR
Mel cried and Taylor held her. And he smiled. It wasn't an asshole move. It was because he knew she was back. She hadn't shown any emotion since the moment he first saw her in the hospital bed and he was afraid he'd lost a piece of her somewhere within herself. He was grateful for any emotion that came out of her and if it happened to be tears, then he'd happily take it.
She cried for a good while. He was pretty sure she wiped her nose on his shirt but he pretended not to notice. A little later, her crying was abruptly ended when the grumbling of her stomach could be heard over her tears. She stopped, looked down at her stomach, and then up at Tay and burst out laughing. Hysterically laughing. And then she couldn't breathe and she wheezed and she even squeaked a little and he couldn't help but
laugh with her. She was infectious. Finally she was able to breathe out, "Did you hear that? That was my stomach saying 'Fuck this shit, I'm over it. Feed me now!' "
When they finally calmed down, Taylor more than relieved that she even wanted to eat anything without being forced, asked her what she wanted. "I don't care," she said. "Hell, I might even go downstairs and rummage for myself."
That woman ate for the rest of the damn night. Under normal circumstances he would probably have found her excessive munching alarming. But on this night he was thrilled and amused. She wouldn't even sit for a meal. She was constantly munching on something, from popsicles to lunch meat to cookies to cereal to vegetables. She was like a bottomless pit and she was probably WAS one. She'd hardly eaten anything in three days, so what she wasn't shoving down her own throat, Tay was offering to her.
That night in bed, before Tay turned off the light, he asked Mel, "Is there anything you need before we call it a night?"
"Yes," she said matter-of-factly. "Go to work tomorrow."
This caught him by surprise and he found himself confused for the moment. "What?"
"Please," Mel scoffed. "Don't pretend like you aren't itching to get back to work. I know you are. I know you. I've seen how fidgety you've been these past few days. I may have zoned out for a bit, but I could still see it. Just go to work. I know you have stuff to do. Music to work on, your little liquor store tours you and Ike like so much...I know you have stuff to do. Go do it."
"But--but what about--I mean, I can't leave you here alone. What if you need me?"
"I will be perfectly fine. You go and...and spin your tunes and whore your beer. I have plenty to do here."
Tay looked at her and then smiled in disbelief. "Did you just--? I think you just called me DJ Pimp."
Now it was Mel's turn to look at him, confused. "What? Where did you get--? Ooohh...ha ha, how so very witty of you. Well, you know, if the shoe fits."
"DJ Pimp..." he repeated thoughtfully. "You know, I could do so much with that name..."
"No. Absolutely not. That name does not leave this bed. Actually. I mean--shit, Tay, just go to sleep!"
Tay was rolling by this point, but he turned off the light and settled in bed close to Mel, still smiling into the dark. Today she had laughed, cried, eaten, and displayed sarcasm. He knew she wasn't emotionally out of
the woods yet, but this was definitely a step in the right direction.
____________________________________________
MEL
Taylor had worked all week and Mel was glad for it, for his sake. Unfortunately for her, that meant being alone with her own thoughts all day but she tolerated it. Tay loved to work, he always had. It's how he was happiest. So she didn't dare tell him about the meltdowns she had had in the mornings after he left. She felt that if she did, it would hold him back. She knew that if he knew she was still bothered, he would force
himself to stay home again and she didn't feel the need to make her misery his. Especially when it was unreliable misery, coming and going at a moment's notice.
When Sunday rolled around and Mel woke up to find Tay's side of the bed empty, she wasn't surprised. Unable to go back to sleep, she tied the mess that was her hair on top of her head, slipped on some socks, and stumbled downstairs to rummage for yogurt. When she stepped into the kitchen, she thanked her lucky stars she had actually worn pants to bed the previous night. Not only had she not expected Tay to be home, she also hadn't expected to find Isaac and Zac scouring her refrigerator.
None of the men had noticed her standing there and she decided to watch for a moment before she spoke up. She could smell both the toaster and the toaster oven cooking and the island was covered in Pop Tarts, bagels,
English muffins, and various condiments. A doughnut hung from Zac's mouth as he turned from the refrigerator with a carton of orange juice in his hand. His eyes fell on Mel and he froze.
"Don't your wives feed you guys?" Mel asked.
Biting off the doughnut, he offered her the rest. "Doughnut?" he asked with his mouth full.
Mel wanted to gag.
She looked at Ike and Zac. She loved how the three of them, as a band, were so intelligent and cool and suave and talented. They oozed sophistication everywhere they went. But behind closed doors, in moments like these, they turned into repulsive, savage beasts, not caring about themselves or their surroundings.
Typical men.
Tay's tired eyes lit up when he saw her and he smiled. "Good morning! Did you sleep well?"
"Uh, I guess..." she responded uncertainly. "What's going on here?"
"Oh. Just a little breakfast before we head back in."
"We'll clean this up, I promise," Ike assured her.
Earlier that year, Mel had a room built onto the house as a gift for Tay. It was built with soundproof walls so the guys' playing wouldn't disturb the rest of the house. Now the room housed more instruments and
computer equipment than a person knew what to do with so they could write to their hearts' content whenever the mood struck them. Now Mel contemplated having a kitchenette put in, as well.
"Go back in?" she asked in disbelief. "Did you--did you even come to bed at all?"
Tay crossed the kitchen and kissed her. A reassuring kiss. She knew each one. "We had a major breakthrough at, like, three in the morning, it's fantastic!"
"So you're running on zero sleep? How are you guys even functioning?"
"We--we napped...some..."
"Where? You know what, I don't even want to know."
"We'll only be a couple more hours, I promise. We just have a really good thing going on right now and we don't want to lose it."
Mel hated that she understood, but she did. And she always loved when he was excited about a project. He was adorable. His passion made her smile.
She poured herself a cup of coffee and sat at the island next to Ike, plucking a package of Pop Tarts from the box in front of her. "So how're you holding up?" he asked her.
"Um, I'm okay. Thank you. It gets a little better every day. It'll never go away, that much I know. I'll never forget, I know that. But I'll be okay."
"Nikki miscarried twice, once before and once after our oldest. Neither one was any easier than the other, for either of us. You're always left with that nagging feeling, wondering 'what if.' But then life happens, and you're happy again, but it's always there. In the back of your mind. And it's okay to go back to it now and then. It'll happen. But it'll be okay. I promise."
Mel smiled over at Ike. There were times where she couldn't be more grateful for another person, and this was one of those times. Her love for Ike was different than her love for anyone else. She had the utmost respect for him. And, being an only child, he excelled at being the big brother she never had. She knew that whatever was going on in her life, she could always count on him to either be bluntly honest, understand her exactly, or always know the right things to say. She couldn't compare herself to Nikki, because everyone was different. But just knowing that he'd been through it and that he understood her was more than enough comfort for her.
Mel hadn't known Zac had been at the hospital that night until days later and she had called him to personally to thank him for being there for Tay like he was. If you couldn't count on your brother to drag himself out of
bed at two in the morning in freezing temperatures, who could you trust? So when he came behind her and wrapped his arms around her neck, nearly knocking the coffee mug out of her hand, she couldn't be TOO annoyed at him. Though his bear hug nearly choked her, she knew his intentions were good and she
giggled anyway. He didn't offer any consoling words and he didn't need to. Mel knew his actions enough to know what he wanted to say without him having to say it.
For the rest of the time the guys pillaged the kitchen, Mel sat in silence, munching on her toaster pastry as the guys animatedly talked amongst themselves about the music they'd been working on all night. As mentions of Fool's Banquet and MOE came up, Mel began making a mental list that caused a knot to form in the pit of her stomach. Sure, she had her dress and her venue. Those were two major details marked off her list. And now she was dealing with Fool's Banquet, MOE, a second MOE in New York, the summer tour, and let's not forget to throw in all the studio work, promoting the beer, all the business meetings and merch, and all the other little things in between. How was she supposed to plan a wedding with her fiancée when there weren't enough hours in the day, even for him? She decided she might have to rethink how she was going about this planning business. She wanted Tay to be involved, but she didn't want to bog him down, either.
'We'll clean this up, I promise' ended up consisting of Zac putting away his juice, Tay unplugging the toasters, and Mel and Ike doing the rest. Well, at least she knew one of the Hanson brothers was reliable for something. Pouring himself a fresh cup of coffee, Tay placed a quick peck on Mel's cheek and then followed his brothers back to the music room. He had said a couple more hours. Again. She knew better.
_______________________
Late that afternoon, after watching three Hansons take over the stand-alone and wrap-around sofas in the living room, in all their snoring harmony, before they went BACK to the music room, Mel was curious when the doorbell rang.
When she opened it, a sight for sore eyes stood before her. Nikki and Kate had their hands full with bags they could barely carry. Immediately grabbing at the bags to help them, Mel could smell the mouthwatering aroma
coming from them. She smiled as they walked in. "What in the world are you guys doing here?"
"It's awards season!" Nikki said, matter-of-factly.
Closing the door, Mel followed the two women to the kitchen. "Um, okay..."
Putting the bags down on the island, Kate stated, "Awards season is like football season for women. We do this every year. We watch the pre-shows, the red carpet interviews, the whole nine yards. Except this year, we thought we'd bring the party here. Yanno, considering..."
Mel felt immediately guilty before Nikki saved the day. "You know, considering our men are already here and all. It only makes sense."
Mel smiled as the three of them began unpacking the loot. "So what is all this?"
Nikki smiled and inhaled the scent. "Japanese takeout and saki. And some wine. And there's a cheesecake in one of these bags. Girl, we are pigging out and praying for the poor women that Joan Rivers will tear apart later this week."
Mel wanted to cry for joy. "You guys have no idea how much I need this."
Kate's face softened. "I know," she said gently.
"Have the guys even slept?" Nikki asked suddenly. "I mean, at all?"
"Um, Tay claims that there was some napping last night. I didn't ask him to elaborate," Mel responded. "But they napped for a couple of hours in here today and then Tay brewed a fresh pot of coffee and now they're back at it. I haven't dared peep my head in at all today, but if they're working like this, I'm starting to get a little curious."
"I wonder if we should bother them and let them know we brought dinner," Nikki pondered."
"We should probably just take it to them," Kate said.
"Just drop the food and slowly walk away," Mel joked. "You don't want to spook them."
The three women laughed and went about their work. They took dinner to their husbands, who, honestly, hardly noticed their presence in the room. They acknowledged them enough for an enthusiastic thank you and
promised yet another 'couple more hours' where Kate finally put her foot down and said, "When the awards are over tonight, I am taking my husband home with me. Period."
Half an hour later, the women had set up shop in the living room, their food and their alcohol splayed out before them on the coffee table. Mel sat cross-legged on the sofa with Fred perched on her leg as she fed him bits of rice.
"You know that's gonna create bad habits and tummy aches for him," Kate informed her.
"But he likes it," Mel argued, disappointed.
"Of course he does," she responded. "Just as much as you're gonna like cleaning up the random poop spots later, or swatting him out of your food in a few minutes."
Mel briefly scowled at Kate and turned her attention to Fred. "Did you hear that, Freddie Flintstone? Auntie Kate says this stuff isn't good for kitties."
Kate rolled her eyes and popped a shrimp in her mouth.
"Did you know Jason's gonna be presenting tonight?" Nikki asked.
Mel smiled. "No, I had no idea. Is that, like, something he does or something?"
"Wow, you sure are behind," Nikki responded. "But no, I think this is the first one I've seen him presenting on. I'm kinda glad it's not one of the more formal events, it could be fun."
"This'll be interesting," Mel said.
"So you haven't heard from him?" Nikki asked.
"I mean, he's texted me a couple times, but..."
"Does he know?"
Mel shook her head. "I didn't feel it really necessary to tell him. Is that bad?"
"I don't think so," Kate chimed in. "I mean, it's your business, you can tell or not tell whoever you want. He doesn't need to know every aspect of everything that's going on in your life, does he?"
"No..."
"Problem solved, then."
"Do you think he'd be upset if he ever found out and that you didn't tell him?" Nikki asked.
Mel shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, I wouldn't think so. I would hope he would be understanding...he's not so easily offended...I would hope he wouldn't take it personally..."
"He shouldn't," Kate said. "He's your friend, he's not the one you're marrying."
Mel was growing to love Kate. And one of the things she loved about her was her blunt honesty. She appreciated people like that. And while, to a person on the outside looking in, her harsh honesty could be considered offensive, it was one of the things Mel and Nikki loved her for.
As they were finishing their dinner and Mel was letting Fred lick her plate, much to Kate's dismay, the red carpet pre-show came on and all attention was turned to the TV as the women found themselves deep in discussion about each dress and outfit that came across the screen.
Towards the end of the show, Jason came onscreen. "Aww, look!" Nikki squealed.
Mel smiled. Jason looked fantastic, as always, in a white button-down shirt, black dress pants, and a vest. After the interviewer asked the obligatory 'who are you wearing' and Jason answered, charmingly, that he honestly had no idea, the next thing the interviewer said nearly made Mel fall off the couch. "So you're presenting with Andrew Brooks tonight. How are you with that, considering the recent controversial
interview of hers that just came out?"
Mel's mouth dropped open and she and Nikki and Kate all exchanged surprised looks.
Jason Kamealoha, always full of grace, paused for a moment and chuckled before he answered. "Um, I've known Andrew for a couple of years and, uh, she's a great actress and I'm sure that maybe some of the way the article was printed COULD be out of context, but I guess we'll never know. Either way, they asked me to do something here tonight and I'm going to do it. I'm not going to play diva about it and throw a tantrum over it or anything. I mean, it'll be fine, I have no doubt about that."
As the pre-show went over and Mel changed the channel to the awards show, she said to Nikki and Kate, "Can you believe that shit? Would they really stoop that low and pair them together like that, KNOWING the shit she said about him? Are they THAT desperate for ratings?"
"Sometimes it's just all about the show," Nikki said. "Someone knew what they were doing when they paired them, there's no doubt about that. Which reminds me, why didn't we see Drew on the pre-show?"
Mel rolled her eyes. "Probably either choosing to be fashionably late or trying to avoid the inevitable questions that would come up. Probably both, because of the latter."
"You know, for someone who can say such things about another person, she sure doesn't have the balls to confront it," Kate said. Mel felt for Kate and she understood the special disdain she had for Drew. It was bad enough how things were in the beginning, which Mel still felt guilty for knowing but would never rat Zac out like that, but now that Drew had aired dirty laundry about Zac and their teenage years all over Cosmo, Kate did not hide her feelings for her and Mel couldn't say she blamed her.
The show was enjoyable. The women talked and laughed throughout it. Forty-five minutes in, THE MOMENT happened. When Andrew Brooks and Jason Kamealoha were announced, and walked onstage, the three of them held their breaths. You could cut the tension onscreen with a knife, not just onstage, but when they panned the crowd, come of the facial expressions of the celebrities were priceless.
Drew stood next to Jason onstage in a sequined, nude-colored cocktail mini dress, her red waves sporting a faux bob. Jason stood with his hands in his pockets, obvious, to Mel at least, that he was ready for this to be
over. It amazed her that, even live on screen, states away, in a completely different atmosphere, she could still read him like a book.
The two of them obediently read the prompter, exchanging scripted witty banter, and before the nominees were read, Jason suddenly stopped for a moment and said, "Hey, is it okay with everybody if I do something real quick? Just real quick, there's something I want to do."
Applause filled the room and Drew fought to hide the nerves on her face. Kate commented on how Drew was starting to lose her shit and then laughed.
Jason fished his phone out of his pocket and said into the microphone, "Is it okay with everyone if I take a quick picture of all of you?"
Drew laughed nervously and tried to improv herself into whatever it was he was doing. "Wow, Jason, I'm sure this isn't the last awards show you're ever going to be at."
Laughter from the audience.
"It'll only take a second," he responded to her. "I'm sending a picture to my best friend, who couldn't be here tonight. I always send pictures to my best friend. It's just the kind of things best friends do."
The audience responded enthusiastically and Drew had no response. Jason then took and sent the picture as Drew presented the nominees.
As the nominees were played onscreen, a text alert came across Mel's phone. The three women laughed and cheered as Mel passed her phone around for Nikki and Kate to see the picture Jason had sent her. When she got her phone back, Mel quickly replied to him, "Thank you, that was fantastic! Nikki and Kate loved it too!"
When the lights came back up, Jason was looking at his phone. He looked up and smiled, holding up his phone. "Best friend got the picture. She's with her two girlfriends, they all say thanks for being great sports."
Once again, cheering and excitement filled Mel's living room. It was then that the guys finally came out of their cave and stepped into the living room. "What is going on in here? Are you guys watching football or
something?" Zac asked.
"Nope. Awards," Kate answered. "And we just watched Jason school Drew all over national television. This is gonna go viral for sure, if it hasn't already."
"Are you guys finished for the night?" Mel asked.
"Yeah, I think we're gonna call it a night," Tay said. "We're all exhausted, but we're excited about the progress we've made. It was like a never ending burst of genius or something."
"Well we still have a couple of hours before we're leaving, so maybe you ought to go find a shower or something," Nikki suggested. "I mean, not trying to be rude, but I know how long you guys have been working, and...yeah..."
Once again, the three Hanson women were left alone with their Hollywood show and for the last hour they pigged out on cheesecake and wine and cackled over the rest of the show. The best part of the night? How Jason won two out of the three categories he was nominated for and Drew lost both of hers.
Mel had known that karma would come and get Drew. She just didn't think it would happen quite this publicly.
"You think this is something?" Nikki said. "You wait till the next two Maxim issues come out. That'll just be the icing on the cake."
MEL
The entire next day, once home from the hospital, Mel slept. The painkillers she was prescribed for the
couple of days worth of cramps that the doctor said would follow were pretty good--however, she knew she slept just to keep her mind off of what happened.
She only woke up on a few occasions, long enough to pee or for Taylor to force juice down her throat. He had to do it. If he didn't make her at least drink something, she wouldn't have gotten any sustenance at all. Not that she cared either way. She wasn't hungry, she wasn't thirsty, and if she wasted away and died, well then, what did that matter?
By the time day two rolled around, Mel still hadn't spoken a word, but she stayed awake longer, much to her dismay. Tay never left her side. She wanted to appreciate him for it, except that her emotions seemed to have
told her to kiss their asses. She felt nothing. Except for the cramps. And the gross, bulky pad she wore in her underwear because she wasn't allowed to wear tampons yet.
By day three, Mel felt gross. She got out of bed and showered. Physically she was feeling better. The cramps came less and less, though she wasn't sure if it was because she kept the painkillers in her system or not. The bleeding had lightened up and was slowly tapering away. Soon, there would be no sign that she'd ever had anything growing inside her body. She looked in the bathroom mirror for the first time in three days and was shocked. Who was that looking back at her? The woman looked old and haggard, at least ten years older than she. Was it this bad? This is what Tay looked at every day and woke up next to every morning? This was revolting.
However, she wasn't even close to feeling like a beauty queen. So she splashed water on her face, brushed her teeth, rubbed in some moisturizer and crawled back into bed in her clean pajamas. She didn't lay down. All
she'd done was lay down since she came home from the hospital. She knew she needed to feel some sense of normalcy but she wasn't ready to jump right back into the real world just yet.
Tay walked into the room and his eyes lit up at the sight of her sitting up in bed. "Hey, sunshine." He leaned over and kissed her forehead and then sat on the edge of the bed next to her, taking her hand. "It's good to see you up and about."
She managed a barely-visible smile.
"Hey, I have a surprise for you. I uh, got you a new laptop. And even better, they were miraculously able to recover all your information from the other one, so everything is being restored. I was such a bastard that day, Mel. I am so sorry."
She merely shook her head in disagreement.
He smiled and patted her leg. "Okay. Well, you sit tight, I'm gonna bring you something to eat."
"Tay--" she finally said. She almost couldn't get it out. After three days, speaking felt awkward.
He sat back down and took her hand.
"What do you think it would have been?" she asked him.
His eyes searched hers for a moment before he crawled into bed with her and sat beside her, taking her hand in his again. "Well, it's hard to say," he said quietly. "Neither one of us actually knew, so it's not like we had
the opportunity to say what we 'felt' like it would be. What do you think?"
Mel was silent as she thought of the answer to her own inquiry. "I think it would have been a girl. Every time I go to sleep, all I see is pink. I don't know if that's just the blood all over the sheets from that night or if it means I was having a girl." She looked at him remorsefully. "But we'll never know."
"Everything's gonna be okay," he said, hugging her close to him. "I promise."
And then she cried the first tears she had cried since she had gotten the news.
_____________________________________
TAYLOR
Mel cried and Taylor held her. And he smiled. It wasn't an asshole move. It was because he knew she was back. She hadn't shown any emotion since the moment he first saw her in the hospital bed and he was afraid he'd lost a piece of her somewhere within herself. He was grateful for any emotion that came out of her and if it happened to be tears, then he'd happily take it.
She cried for a good while. He was pretty sure she wiped her nose on his shirt but he pretended not to notice. A little later, her crying was abruptly ended when the grumbling of her stomach could be heard over her tears. She stopped, looked down at her stomach, and then up at Tay and burst out laughing. Hysterically laughing. And then she couldn't breathe and she wheezed and she even squeaked a little and he couldn't help but
laugh with her. She was infectious. Finally she was able to breathe out, "Did you hear that? That was my stomach saying 'Fuck this shit, I'm over it. Feed me now!' "
When they finally calmed down, Taylor more than relieved that she even wanted to eat anything without being forced, asked her what she wanted. "I don't care," she said. "Hell, I might even go downstairs and rummage for myself."
That woman ate for the rest of the damn night. Under normal circumstances he would probably have found her excessive munching alarming. But on this night he was thrilled and amused. She wouldn't even sit for a meal. She was constantly munching on something, from popsicles to lunch meat to cookies to cereal to vegetables. She was like a bottomless pit and she was probably WAS one. She'd hardly eaten anything in three days, so what she wasn't shoving down her own throat, Tay was offering to her.
That night in bed, before Tay turned off the light, he asked Mel, "Is there anything you need before we call it a night?"
"Yes," she said matter-of-factly. "Go to work tomorrow."
This caught him by surprise and he found himself confused for the moment. "What?"
"Please," Mel scoffed. "Don't pretend like you aren't itching to get back to work. I know you are. I know you. I've seen how fidgety you've been these past few days. I may have zoned out for a bit, but I could still see it. Just go to work. I know you have stuff to do. Music to work on, your little liquor store tours you and Ike like so much...I know you have stuff to do. Go do it."
"But--but what about--I mean, I can't leave you here alone. What if you need me?"
"I will be perfectly fine. You go and...and spin your tunes and whore your beer. I have plenty to do here."
Tay looked at her and then smiled in disbelief. "Did you just--? I think you just called me DJ Pimp."
Now it was Mel's turn to look at him, confused. "What? Where did you get--? Ooohh...ha ha, how so very witty of you. Well, you know, if the shoe fits."
"DJ Pimp..." he repeated thoughtfully. "You know, I could do so much with that name..."
"No. Absolutely not. That name does not leave this bed. Actually. I mean--shit, Tay, just go to sleep!"
Tay was rolling by this point, but he turned off the light and settled in bed close to Mel, still smiling into the dark. Today she had laughed, cried, eaten, and displayed sarcasm. He knew she wasn't emotionally out of
the woods yet, but this was definitely a step in the right direction.
____________________________________________
MEL
Taylor had worked all week and Mel was glad for it, for his sake. Unfortunately for her, that meant being alone with her own thoughts all day but she tolerated it. Tay loved to work, he always had. It's how he was happiest. So she didn't dare tell him about the meltdowns she had had in the mornings after he left. She felt that if she did, it would hold him back. She knew that if he knew she was still bothered, he would force
himself to stay home again and she didn't feel the need to make her misery his. Especially when it was unreliable misery, coming and going at a moment's notice.
When Sunday rolled around and Mel woke up to find Tay's side of the bed empty, she wasn't surprised. Unable to go back to sleep, she tied the mess that was her hair on top of her head, slipped on some socks, and stumbled downstairs to rummage for yogurt. When she stepped into the kitchen, she thanked her lucky stars she had actually worn pants to bed the previous night. Not only had she not expected Tay to be home, she also hadn't expected to find Isaac and Zac scouring her refrigerator.
None of the men had noticed her standing there and she decided to watch for a moment before she spoke up. She could smell both the toaster and the toaster oven cooking and the island was covered in Pop Tarts, bagels,
English muffins, and various condiments. A doughnut hung from Zac's mouth as he turned from the refrigerator with a carton of orange juice in his hand. His eyes fell on Mel and he froze.
"Don't your wives feed you guys?" Mel asked.
Biting off the doughnut, he offered her the rest. "Doughnut?" he asked with his mouth full.
Mel wanted to gag.
She looked at Ike and Zac. She loved how the three of them, as a band, were so intelligent and cool and suave and talented. They oozed sophistication everywhere they went. But behind closed doors, in moments like these, they turned into repulsive, savage beasts, not caring about themselves or their surroundings.
Typical men.
Tay's tired eyes lit up when he saw her and he smiled. "Good morning! Did you sleep well?"
"Uh, I guess..." she responded uncertainly. "What's going on here?"
"Oh. Just a little breakfast before we head back in."
"We'll clean this up, I promise," Ike assured her.
Earlier that year, Mel had a room built onto the house as a gift for Tay. It was built with soundproof walls so the guys' playing wouldn't disturb the rest of the house. Now the room housed more instruments and
computer equipment than a person knew what to do with so they could write to their hearts' content whenever the mood struck them. Now Mel contemplated having a kitchenette put in, as well.
"Go back in?" she asked in disbelief. "Did you--did you even come to bed at all?"
Tay crossed the kitchen and kissed her. A reassuring kiss. She knew each one. "We had a major breakthrough at, like, three in the morning, it's fantastic!"
"So you're running on zero sleep? How are you guys even functioning?"
"We--we napped...some..."
"Where? You know what, I don't even want to know."
"We'll only be a couple more hours, I promise. We just have a really good thing going on right now and we don't want to lose it."
Mel hated that she understood, but she did. And she always loved when he was excited about a project. He was adorable. His passion made her smile.
She poured herself a cup of coffee and sat at the island next to Ike, plucking a package of Pop Tarts from the box in front of her. "So how're you holding up?" he asked her.
"Um, I'm okay. Thank you. It gets a little better every day. It'll never go away, that much I know. I'll never forget, I know that. But I'll be okay."
"Nikki miscarried twice, once before and once after our oldest. Neither one was any easier than the other, for either of us. You're always left with that nagging feeling, wondering 'what if.' But then life happens, and you're happy again, but it's always there. In the back of your mind. And it's okay to go back to it now and then. It'll happen. But it'll be okay. I promise."
Mel smiled over at Ike. There were times where she couldn't be more grateful for another person, and this was one of those times. Her love for Ike was different than her love for anyone else. She had the utmost respect for him. And, being an only child, he excelled at being the big brother she never had. She knew that whatever was going on in her life, she could always count on him to either be bluntly honest, understand her exactly, or always know the right things to say. She couldn't compare herself to Nikki, because everyone was different. But just knowing that he'd been through it and that he understood her was more than enough comfort for her.
Mel hadn't known Zac had been at the hospital that night until days later and she had called him to personally to thank him for being there for Tay like he was. If you couldn't count on your brother to drag himself out of
bed at two in the morning in freezing temperatures, who could you trust? So when he came behind her and wrapped his arms around her neck, nearly knocking the coffee mug out of her hand, she couldn't be TOO annoyed at him. Though his bear hug nearly choked her, she knew his intentions were good and she
giggled anyway. He didn't offer any consoling words and he didn't need to. Mel knew his actions enough to know what he wanted to say without him having to say it.
For the rest of the time the guys pillaged the kitchen, Mel sat in silence, munching on her toaster pastry as the guys animatedly talked amongst themselves about the music they'd been working on all night. As mentions of Fool's Banquet and MOE came up, Mel began making a mental list that caused a knot to form in the pit of her stomach. Sure, she had her dress and her venue. Those were two major details marked off her list. And now she was dealing with Fool's Banquet, MOE, a second MOE in New York, the summer tour, and let's not forget to throw in all the studio work, promoting the beer, all the business meetings and merch, and all the other little things in between. How was she supposed to plan a wedding with her fiancée when there weren't enough hours in the day, even for him? She decided she might have to rethink how she was going about this planning business. She wanted Tay to be involved, but she didn't want to bog him down, either.
'We'll clean this up, I promise' ended up consisting of Zac putting away his juice, Tay unplugging the toasters, and Mel and Ike doing the rest. Well, at least she knew one of the Hanson brothers was reliable for something. Pouring himself a fresh cup of coffee, Tay placed a quick peck on Mel's cheek and then followed his brothers back to the music room. He had said a couple more hours. Again. She knew better.
_______________________
Late that afternoon, after watching three Hansons take over the stand-alone and wrap-around sofas in the living room, in all their snoring harmony, before they went BACK to the music room, Mel was curious when the doorbell rang.
When she opened it, a sight for sore eyes stood before her. Nikki and Kate had their hands full with bags they could barely carry. Immediately grabbing at the bags to help them, Mel could smell the mouthwatering aroma
coming from them. She smiled as they walked in. "What in the world are you guys doing here?"
"It's awards season!" Nikki said, matter-of-factly.
Closing the door, Mel followed the two women to the kitchen. "Um, okay..."
Putting the bags down on the island, Kate stated, "Awards season is like football season for women. We do this every year. We watch the pre-shows, the red carpet interviews, the whole nine yards. Except this year, we thought we'd bring the party here. Yanno, considering..."
Mel felt immediately guilty before Nikki saved the day. "You know, considering our men are already here and all. It only makes sense."
Mel smiled as the three of them began unpacking the loot. "So what is all this?"
Nikki smiled and inhaled the scent. "Japanese takeout and saki. And some wine. And there's a cheesecake in one of these bags. Girl, we are pigging out and praying for the poor women that Joan Rivers will tear apart later this week."
Mel wanted to cry for joy. "You guys have no idea how much I need this."
Kate's face softened. "I know," she said gently.
"Have the guys even slept?" Nikki asked suddenly. "I mean, at all?"
"Um, Tay claims that there was some napping last night. I didn't ask him to elaborate," Mel responded. "But they napped for a couple of hours in here today and then Tay brewed a fresh pot of coffee and now they're back at it. I haven't dared peep my head in at all today, but if they're working like this, I'm starting to get a little curious."
"I wonder if we should bother them and let them know we brought dinner," Nikki pondered."
"We should probably just take it to them," Kate said.
"Just drop the food and slowly walk away," Mel joked. "You don't want to spook them."
The three women laughed and went about their work. They took dinner to their husbands, who, honestly, hardly noticed their presence in the room. They acknowledged them enough for an enthusiastic thank you and
promised yet another 'couple more hours' where Kate finally put her foot down and said, "When the awards are over tonight, I am taking my husband home with me. Period."
Half an hour later, the women had set up shop in the living room, their food and their alcohol splayed out before them on the coffee table. Mel sat cross-legged on the sofa with Fred perched on her leg as she fed him bits of rice.
"You know that's gonna create bad habits and tummy aches for him," Kate informed her.
"But he likes it," Mel argued, disappointed.
"Of course he does," she responded. "Just as much as you're gonna like cleaning up the random poop spots later, or swatting him out of your food in a few minutes."
Mel briefly scowled at Kate and turned her attention to Fred. "Did you hear that, Freddie Flintstone? Auntie Kate says this stuff isn't good for kitties."
Kate rolled her eyes and popped a shrimp in her mouth.
"Did you know Jason's gonna be presenting tonight?" Nikki asked.
Mel smiled. "No, I had no idea. Is that, like, something he does or something?"
"Wow, you sure are behind," Nikki responded. "But no, I think this is the first one I've seen him presenting on. I'm kinda glad it's not one of the more formal events, it could be fun."
"This'll be interesting," Mel said.
"So you haven't heard from him?" Nikki asked.
"I mean, he's texted me a couple times, but..."
"Does he know?"
Mel shook her head. "I didn't feel it really necessary to tell him. Is that bad?"
"I don't think so," Kate chimed in. "I mean, it's your business, you can tell or not tell whoever you want. He doesn't need to know every aspect of everything that's going on in your life, does he?"
"No..."
"Problem solved, then."
"Do you think he'd be upset if he ever found out and that you didn't tell him?" Nikki asked.
Mel shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, I wouldn't think so. I would hope he would be understanding...he's not so easily offended...I would hope he wouldn't take it personally..."
"He shouldn't," Kate said. "He's your friend, he's not the one you're marrying."
Mel was growing to love Kate. And one of the things she loved about her was her blunt honesty. She appreciated people like that. And while, to a person on the outside looking in, her harsh honesty could be considered offensive, it was one of the things Mel and Nikki loved her for.
As they were finishing their dinner and Mel was letting Fred lick her plate, much to Kate's dismay, the red carpet pre-show came on and all attention was turned to the TV as the women found themselves deep in discussion about each dress and outfit that came across the screen.
Towards the end of the show, Jason came onscreen. "Aww, look!" Nikki squealed.
Mel smiled. Jason looked fantastic, as always, in a white button-down shirt, black dress pants, and a vest. After the interviewer asked the obligatory 'who are you wearing' and Jason answered, charmingly, that he honestly had no idea, the next thing the interviewer said nearly made Mel fall off the couch. "So you're presenting with Andrew Brooks tonight. How are you with that, considering the recent controversial
interview of hers that just came out?"
Mel's mouth dropped open and she and Nikki and Kate all exchanged surprised looks.
Jason Kamealoha, always full of grace, paused for a moment and chuckled before he answered. "Um, I've known Andrew for a couple of years and, uh, she's a great actress and I'm sure that maybe some of the way the article was printed COULD be out of context, but I guess we'll never know. Either way, they asked me to do something here tonight and I'm going to do it. I'm not going to play diva about it and throw a tantrum over it or anything. I mean, it'll be fine, I have no doubt about that."
As the pre-show went over and Mel changed the channel to the awards show, she said to Nikki and Kate, "Can you believe that shit? Would they really stoop that low and pair them together like that, KNOWING the shit she said about him? Are they THAT desperate for ratings?"
"Sometimes it's just all about the show," Nikki said. "Someone knew what they were doing when they paired them, there's no doubt about that. Which reminds me, why didn't we see Drew on the pre-show?"
Mel rolled her eyes. "Probably either choosing to be fashionably late or trying to avoid the inevitable questions that would come up. Probably both, because of the latter."
"You know, for someone who can say such things about another person, she sure doesn't have the balls to confront it," Kate said. Mel felt for Kate and she understood the special disdain she had for Drew. It was bad enough how things were in the beginning, which Mel still felt guilty for knowing but would never rat Zac out like that, but now that Drew had aired dirty laundry about Zac and their teenage years all over Cosmo, Kate did not hide her feelings for her and Mel couldn't say she blamed her.
The show was enjoyable. The women talked and laughed throughout it. Forty-five minutes in, THE MOMENT happened. When Andrew Brooks and Jason Kamealoha were announced, and walked onstage, the three of them held their breaths. You could cut the tension onscreen with a knife, not just onstage, but when they panned the crowd, come of the facial expressions of the celebrities were priceless.
Drew stood next to Jason onstage in a sequined, nude-colored cocktail mini dress, her red waves sporting a faux bob. Jason stood with his hands in his pockets, obvious, to Mel at least, that he was ready for this to be
over. It amazed her that, even live on screen, states away, in a completely different atmosphere, she could still read him like a book.
The two of them obediently read the prompter, exchanging scripted witty banter, and before the nominees were read, Jason suddenly stopped for a moment and said, "Hey, is it okay with everybody if I do something real quick? Just real quick, there's something I want to do."
Applause filled the room and Drew fought to hide the nerves on her face. Kate commented on how Drew was starting to lose her shit and then laughed.
Jason fished his phone out of his pocket and said into the microphone, "Is it okay with everyone if I take a quick picture of all of you?"
Drew laughed nervously and tried to improv herself into whatever it was he was doing. "Wow, Jason, I'm sure this isn't the last awards show you're ever going to be at."
Laughter from the audience.
"It'll only take a second," he responded to her. "I'm sending a picture to my best friend, who couldn't be here tonight. I always send pictures to my best friend. It's just the kind of things best friends do."
The audience responded enthusiastically and Drew had no response. Jason then took and sent the picture as Drew presented the nominees.
As the nominees were played onscreen, a text alert came across Mel's phone. The three women laughed and cheered as Mel passed her phone around for Nikki and Kate to see the picture Jason had sent her. When she got her phone back, Mel quickly replied to him, "Thank you, that was fantastic! Nikki and Kate loved it too!"
When the lights came back up, Jason was looking at his phone. He looked up and smiled, holding up his phone. "Best friend got the picture. She's with her two girlfriends, they all say thanks for being great sports."
Once again, cheering and excitement filled Mel's living room. It was then that the guys finally came out of their cave and stepped into the living room. "What is going on in here? Are you guys watching football or
something?" Zac asked.
"Nope. Awards," Kate answered. "And we just watched Jason school Drew all over national television. This is gonna go viral for sure, if it hasn't already."
"Are you guys finished for the night?" Mel asked.
"Yeah, I think we're gonna call it a night," Tay said. "We're all exhausted, but we're excited about the progress we've made. It was like a never ending burst of genius or something."
"Well we still have a couple of hours before we're leaving, so maybe you ought to go find a shower or something," Nikki suggested. "I mean, not trying to be rude, but I know how long you guys have been working, and...yeah..."
Once again, the three Hanson women were left alone with their Hollywood show and for the last hour they pigged out on cheesecake and wine and cackled over the rest of the show. The best part of the night? How Jason won two out of the three categories he was nominated for and Drew lost both of hers.
Mel had known that karma would come and get Drew. She just didn't think it would happen quite this publicly.
"You think this is something?" Nikki said. "You wait till the next two Maxim issues come out. That'll just be the icing on the cake."