Late Dawns & Early Sunsets 7/28/06 (not factual)

The next day, Andie awoke late. Gerard had obviously been up for awhile. He was in the kitchen sipping coffee and talking on his cellphone.

Andie noticed the pot was only half full as she fixed herself a mug full. She sat down on a stool, half asleep, watching him.

"Sounds great... Okay, I'll see you then...Thanks. Bye." Gerard closed his cellphone and smiled at Andie. "Sleep good? You were out like a rock. Kinda creeped me out a little." He confessed.

"Yeah, yeah...I think I feel better just being home." Andie replied with a lazy grin. "Mmm...good coffee. How long have you been up?"

"A couple of hours. Man, everyone has been calling me! You'll never guess what Brian just told me this morning." He sat down on the stool next to her.

"What?" Andie asked over her coffee.

"We're doing two shows in San Diego next weekend!" Gerard exclaimed. "That means the guys will be out here and you can come see us!"

"Oh my God, Gerard!" Andie was awake now. "I can't believe it!"

"I know! I know! But there's more...THAT was Scott Allie at Dark Horse. I'm meeting with him in three weeks at Comic Con in San Diego. He said he wants to interview me for a press release about my comic!"

"Oh Gerard...you've been working so hard on that...among everything else! This is so awesome!" Andie was genuinely excited for him. "So...what exactly will you do there?" She sipped her coffee.

"Well...I'll do that interview with Scott, and it's a convention, so they'll have a table set up for me to sign autographs and meet people."

Andie was realizing this was something more of a promotion for him. She wouldn't want to be in the way.

"Well...maybe I'll just stay in the hotel."

"What? I wouldn't feel right if you were holed up in a hotel room the whole time. You have to come see it. You just have to. If you're tired, yeah, I'll get you back to our room. But I want you to go. Okay? And don't forget, we'll be in Japan the day before, so it will be a really tight schedule!"

"Holy shit..." Andie thought aloud...so the whirlwind begins.

"Oh yeah, your insurance agent called, too. And guess what?"

"What? You mean there's more? I only slept one night this time!" Andie grinned.

"I know! It's a lot...I'm sorry. But you're supposed to go pick out a new car. That truck driver's insurance company already paid for it. You just have to pick up the check."

"Yeah? That's great! I mean, my Corolla was okay, but I am definately down with some new wheels." Andie thought to herself a moment. "Hey, why don't we go this morning?"

"Sure, I guess. I mean, as long as you feel up to it. You did just come home yesterday..." He was so worried about her well-being. He wondered if he was more concerned about her than she was.

"Well, we could go now. Then we might be done early enought to come back here and rest."

"Okay, but only if you'll tell me if you're tired." Gerard conceded. "Oh yeah, your agent called, too. Kay something. You're supposed to call her back. She didn't even know you'd been released and wanted to know how you were doing."

"Oh shit!" Andie grabbed her head. "I never called her. AND I never got to tell her about going on tour with you guys!"

"Really? Oh shit is right!" He sipped his coffee. "You know, I was thinking about that. Are you under contract with her? Because if you're not, our management could just hire you outright."

"I am. It ends with the end of this year. But then we could do that if you still want to."

"Oh yeah. I mean, I'm sure Brian will want a contract too, but at least you don't have to share your earnings with a middleman...or middlewoman? You know what I mean."

"Yeah, that would be nice. I mean, Kay's really nice, don't get me wrong. I like working for her. But it's every stylists' dream to be someone's exclusive."

Gerard slipped his hand around her waist. "You can be my exclusive."

"Yeah?" She teased. "Something tells me you're gonna be high maintenance, aren't you?"

"Ha! Ha! Maybe I will be!" Then he considered. "But seriously, look at my roots already coming in."

He lowered his head as she ran her fingertips through his short hair.

"Yeah. You're natural color is a dark brown, right?"

"Yeah, reeeally dark brown. Can't you tell?"

"To keep this color up, I'll have to re-color it every couple of weeks at least."

"Great..." Gerard was reconsidering his latest hairstyle.

They had a small breakfast and were about to leave to go car shopping when Gerard realized this would mean Andie would have to test-drive whatever she looked at. She swore she was fine to test drive a car. Besides, the car rental agency would pick up her rental, and Gerard could drive her new car home.

It didn't take Andie long to pick out a vehicle that morning. She chose a shiny new black Jeep Liberty with dark tinted windows and a sunroof. They were actually back by 2pm. So they spent the rest of the day being lazy together.

They ordered a pizza and put in a movie. But as soon as Andie had something on her stomach, she snuggled up next to Gerard on the sofa and fell asleep.