Romance and Roses

They slept, still tangled, somewhere between dressed and not, in the bottom bunk, until day turned into night, and the bus pulled up at the first destination. The sudden stillness and quiet of the engine being turned off woke her, groggy, and lethargic from the nap.

“Show, Em,” Owen encouraged as she found clothing that would see her to the changerooms.

“Yes, I know,” she was grumpy in her sleepiness, but managed to get herself dressed and her suit bag and case in hand, trailing him from the bus and avoiding the driver’s eyes, embarrassed that he might have seen more than he should have. There had to be some type of hazard pay, she thought with flustered amusement, for the drivers of bus bands – she was pretty certain that sex in the busses was pretty common with horny fans and band members doing what came naturally to them.

The shower woke her, and she grazed on a salad as she let the stylist prepare her for the show, the men’s conversation in the background rising and falling, th