Peter helped Sofie with her bags. He had driven her to the airport although she insisted she could do it herself.
"Nonsense." Peter smiled. "Its a pleasure. Plus I want to be able to say goodbye to you at the gate like they do in romantic movies."
"I'm not really a romance movie fan." Sofie sighed while doing her makeup. She closed her compact and looked at Peter whos eyes looked sad now. "I guess I will have to catch up." She added with a little smile. Peter wrapped his arms around her.
"I will miss you so much." Peter said.
"I'll be back soon enough." Sofie replied. She kissed him on the cheek.
"Not soon enough." Peter said returning the favor. "What if you meet some hunky rich guy out there and forget all about me?"
"No man in Boston could ever compare to you." Sofie said squeezing his hands. "I promise I'll be back. This is all for our future." She smiled. "Four weeks is a small sacrifice for a lifetime of comfort." Sofies head turned as she heard an announcement on the airports PA system. Her flight was ready to leave.
"You better go, you might miss your flight." Peter said kissing her one last time. "If you miss it I may have to drive you cross country in the Monkee mobile."
"Ahh honey, but what about gigs? How would you friends get to them without a car?" Sofie said as she moved to the gate. Peter followed her closely.
"What gigs?" He said with a small laugh. "I think we'll have a lot of time on our hands this month."
"I'm sure you can find something to amuse yourself." Sofie smiled. She waved to him and exited through the door that lead to the plane. Peter went to one of the big windows and waited for her plane to take off. He stayed there till it was out of sight.
A few minutes later
Peter was driving the Monkee mobile down main street when he saw a familiar figure. Peter pulled over to the side of the road and drove slowly as she saw a woman with hair in a french twist walking down the street.
"Hi!" He called out. The woman stopped stopped and turned around. It was Meagan.
"Hi!" She replied when she saw who had been quietly stalking her. "Whats up?"
"Not much. Just took Sofie to the airport." Peter said as Meagan came to the drivers side of the car. "Shes gonna be gone for a month, and I miss her already."
"Its tough to have someone you love far away from you." Meagan agreed. "Why so long?"
"Business stuff." Peter explained. "I don't know too many details. Probably better that I don't. I'm not too good with that side of it anyway."
"Oh I'm sure you are smarter than you know." Meagan said. A horn honked behind Peter. Meagan thought for a second and jumped into the passengers side, which surprised Peter.
"I think that guy wants you to move." Meagan said.
"Okay." He said moving off to the side of the road.
"This is a nice car." Meagan said.
"Thanks. Its the band car. We haul our instruments with it." Peter smiled. "We've had it for a while now, but it will take forever to pay off." Peter looked around for a second. "I got an idea. Want to go for a ride?"
"Ride?" Meagan questioned playfully. "I dont know, I'm not supposed to be in a car with a strange man."
"You're not with a strange man, its me, not Micky." Peter laughed.
"Well in that case, lets go." Meagan smiled. "Its not like we got anything better to do."
Peter turned into the road and drove toward the freeway.
"Look at this." Peter said touching a button. The convertible top came down and vanished from sight.
"Neat." Meagan said. She reached up and took two large pins out of her hair. She shook her head and her hair flew all around her. She ran her fingers through her hair. Peter watched this sight with awe before he realized he almost ran a stop sign before coming onto the freeway. They drove down in that direction for a few miles, looking at the lush and beautiful California country side. After a while, Peter saw that he needed gas so he pulled off at the nearest exit. There was a ma and pa store and diner.
"I gotta stop here and refuel, Mike will kill me if I wasted a lot of gas." Peter side pulling up to a pump.
"Let me pay for it." Meagan said. Peter looked at her. "Its only fair, you got me a new job."
"Hows that?" Peter said getting out of the car.
"Someone saw me at the gig last night and thought they might use me at this new medieval restaurant across town. I'm a barmaid now." Peter looked at her not realizing she was wearing a light coat. She was wearing a time appropriate barmaid costume on."Too bad they couldnt find the right size for me. I feel like I'm going to explode out of it at any moment."
Peter suddenly found he was staring at her, and averted his eyes to the pump. He blushed a little bit. He looked at the pump until it was done pumping at least ten dollars worth of gas. He looked up and saw that Meagan had gone across the parking lot into the combination store/diner. Peter capped the tank and ran to catch up.
Meagan had already paid for the gas by the time Peter came in. He noticed that Meagan had a small bag with her.
"I'll be right back." Meagan promised Peter. "Have a seat. You look like you need a good meal. I've already ordered for us."
Peter, still trying not to stare at her, nodded numbly and found an empty booth seat. A few minutes later Meagan came out with her barmaid costume stuffed into the little bag. She was now wearing a blue button shirt and some flared jeans.
"There, I thought I was going to die in that thing. I wonder how they managed to wear those clothes back in the day." Meagan laughed. "They have to wear them all the time, I guess I shouldn't gripe about a few hours."
"What did you order?" Peter asked as he sipped some water.
"Corned beef and cabbage." Meagan replied. Peter almost did a spit take. "What?"
"Meal sounds familiar. It reminds me of when I met Sofie." Peter said swallowing his water. "Long story."
"Tell it to me, I think they have to go out and actually grow the cabbage to use for our meal so we got lots of time." Meagan smiled.
"It was after a concert. I don't remember where but thats not really important." Peter started the story. "There were rumors that there were record people in the audience that night so we made sure to play extra good. After the concert was over one of the record companies owners was talking to us. We had a lot of potential, they said, all we need is a few good singles. Typical music stuff. Suddenly this woman comes over to us, and starts talking to the record owner. She was acting a little bit weird and I soon found out why. She fell over and threw up all over me."
"Ewww." Sofie moaned.
"I know!" Peter said. "It turned out it was Sofie, the producers daughter. She had just flown in from the coast. She hated flying cause it made her very air sick. She had had corned beef and cabbage on the flight."
"And it didnt stay with her." Meagan nodded.
"Right." Peter laughed. "Anyway we cleaned her up and sent her on the way. Micky suddenly got the idea that if one of us dated her, maybe a record deal would come our way. Since they were all dating someone at the time, guess who came in to the rescue?"
"You did." Meagan guessed. "And then you got to know each other and the rest is history?"
"I didn't know what to expect from her. But I got to know her, like you said, and things went up from there. A couple months later we were engaged. We didnt get to celebrate it till the night when I met you."
"More business eh?"
"Yeah." Peter nodded. "But its all for our future."
"Future?"
"Yeah. She wants to be rich." He explained.
"And thats not a horrible thing right?" Meagan asked.
"Well the thing is shes not crazy about me playing music. She think I am capable of other things." Peter said as the food arrived. Two steaming plates of corned beef and cabbage were placed in front of them. Peter started to gobble his up.
"I was right, you ARE hungry." Meagan smiled. "I may have to eat mine so you don't get to it."
Peter slowed down a little bit. At least now he could taste the food a little better.
"What kind of other things would you do?" Meagan asked. "I mean if you wanted to do something else besides play music, what would you do?"
"Well to tell the truth, playing music is all I want to do." Peter said. "At least I probably won't have the money worries. What about you? What do you want to do?"
"I always wanted to write movies. I still do. Thats what I'm saving money for. I'm not gonna be a bar maid forever." She motioned to the bag. "I'm one tight squeeze away from being a topless act." Peter blushed. "It's all right. I met far less graceless customers tonight. I got a ten dollar tip, which is why I paid for dinner and gas."
Peter nodded. He looked at a wall clock. "We gotta go. The others will be worrying about me."
Meagan nodded. Peter left a tip on the table as they left.
A few minutes later they were back in the neighborhood. Peter pulled up to Meagans apartment.
"Here we are." Peter said.
Meagan smiled. "It was nice seeing you again. You are a nice guy."
"Thanks." Peter said as she got out. "I'll see you around?"
"Not really." Meagan said coming to the drivers side window. "I won't be in town."
"Whys that?" Peter asked.
"Remember at your engagement party I said I had broken up with a guy?" Peter nodded. "He wants another chance. He lives in another town now so I'm going there for a day or two. See what happens."
"Wow." Peter said surprised. "Good luck."
"Thanks. I think I'll need it." She said waving to him as she went to the door. Peter made sure she got in the door alright and drove towards home.
