Chapter Four

Jon flicked disinterestedly through the local newspaper as he lay lounging on a sofa in the family room of his New Jersey home. Nothing caught his imagination as his eyes travelled over one article after another about the state of the economy, the lack of jobs and the rise in homelessness percentages. Every day the same old drivel poured forth from what used to be a pretty good read. Not any more it seemed. Scowling he slapped it down on the coffee table and stared up at the crisp white plastered ceiling with the ornate gold patterned coving framing it. He was bored to death.

It hadn’t even been a month since the last tour had ended and already he was done with lounging around. The rest of the band were busy relaxing and enjoying vacation time with their families and would most likely refuse to even answer any calls from him. He had always been a workaholic but ever since his marriage had fallen apart he had driven the band with a fierce velocity that was unrivalled in all their years together.  The only good thing to come out of that dark period in his life was a hugely successful record and their highest grossing tour yet. But now that was all done and dusted and everybody in Bon Jovi world was sleeping………everybody except him.

Getting drunk right now appealed to him, right next to getting laid. The order of it didn’t really bother him but there was as much hope of the latter happening as there was of getting Frank Sinatra to sing the National Anthem at next year’s Super Bowl. A fucking impossibility.

The antique sofa creaked as he hauled himself upright. He probably shouldn’t have even been sitting on it but lately the finer aspects of life held little appeal for him - he was surrounded by inanimate objects that at one time in his life he had marvelled over. What was the point in having a house filled with magnificent artefacts and furniture if there was nobody to show them to? Not for the first time recently he mulled over putting the house on the market and moving into the city. He’d be closer to the kids and the buzz of city life would keep him entertained. There was something holding him back though, he had a tie to this place – his kids had grown up here – he’d been happy here, THEY had been happy here.

Amidst his mutterings he found himself wandering across the vast lawn in the darkness to the studio. It was a clear summer’s night and the stars sparkled brightly in the sky’s black canvas above his head. Through the trees he could just make out the lights of the place next door that had been foreclosed on a few months back. At the time he’d felt sorry for the guy but when he found out about the tax dodging scheme that had eventually caught up with him, all sympathy for the guy had dried up. Fuck it, Jon reasoned, if you were gonna be rich then pay your goddamn taxes! Losers like that guy were partly the reason the country’s economy was in the state it was.

About to continue on his way, he stopped when he saw a light come on in an upstairs room. It had been just over a week since he’d seen the woman who had moved into it and he still didn’t know what her deal was. She seemed to be living alone, drove a nice expensive SUV and pretty much kept to herself. If he hadn’t come across her that morning out on his run, he’d barely have known anyone had moved in.

The tree beside him became a convenient support while he strained his eyes to make out her shadowy figure. She seemed to be talking animatedly to someone, on her cell phone maybe, he couldn’t be sure. Starting to feel a little stalkerish he dropped his gaze and continued to the studio. So that’s what he was turning into – a creepy old guy who hid behind trees in the dark and perved on his neighbours? He laughed dryly at the thought despite his foul humour. If that was the case the sooner he got laid the better, maybe it was time to dig up some old contacts to take care of that particular problem.

Fumbling in the darkness for the switch, the studio was flooded in bright light when his fingers finally located it. The soundboards and recording equipment lay silent and unused, gathering dust in the wake of the last record. Old newspapers, magazines and empty pizza boxes were strewn about the various surfaces – the studio was the only building on the property that he refused to let the cleaners into. Dorothea had used to come in periodically and blitz the place all the while exclaiming that she couldn’t understand how grown men could be messier than a bunch of kids. Jon smiled at the memory as he stood amidst the disorder, letting his fingers trail a streak through the light layer of dust coating the surfaces. How times had changed was the sad reflection that distorted the brief happy memory. Back then he’d been the luckiest bastard in the whole goddamn world only he’d been too blind to recognise it. His fingers curled into a tight ball as he fought against the bitter wave of resentment building momentum again. It had been over two years now yet in reality he was still no closer to accepting the fact that their relationship was finished. They were still friends and he maintained a happy front when the kids were around but the final twist of the dagger that had torn his heart apart had been the news that she was dating again.

He angrily kicked an empty cigarette box across the floor, sending it hurtling under a desk to join the bigger heap of clutter that had gathered there. Not only was she dating – she was exclusively dating a guy called Todd Webber, some banker guy that apparently owned half of New York. It wasn’t just a flash in the pan either; they’d been seeing each other for nearly six months now. He had tried to be magnanimous about it all and take it on the chin but the truth was the jealousy that raged within him was threatening to consume him. Fortunately he hadn’t had the displeasure of meeting Todd yet, the band had still been on tour when Dorothea had given him the news. Not the best timing and the show that particular night had sucked but she had been right to tell him before he’d read about it. Their divorce had been pretty public which had resulted in him locking himself up in a recording studio down in Nashville with the guys to hammer out the record that was able to get him back out on the road away from the madness. Now though he was home – alone.

Sighing he left the main recording area behind him and clunked heavily up the stairs to the small dormer kitchen. Swinging open the fridge door, he yanked out a bottle of beer that had been in solitary confinement in the icy depths of the chill box. He wasn’t gonna get drunk on it but it was better than nothing. The darkness outside the window beckoned him to gaze out once more while he leaned against the window frame. Shoving one hand deep in his pocket, he casually swigged from the bottle with his other. Across the road from him, his eyes once more honed onto the upstairs window where his mysterious new neighbour was still moving about. Higher up now, his new vantage point allowed a better view and he narrowed his eyes when he spotted a second figure moving about the room with her. So she had company it seemed. Sure enough when he glanced down at the driveway, he could just make out the form of a second car parked beside her SUV.

Shrinking back against the plasterwork he killed the light above him so he could melt into the darkness to watch unobserved. She seemed to be laughing with her companion as she pointed to something out of Jon’s view. From what he could see, the room looked bare given there were no blinds to obscure his vision so it was anyone’s guess what was capturing the pair’s attention. Her companion moved closer to the window, the broad shape of their figure instantly confirming Jon’s suspicion that it was a male visitor. Interesting.

While the man seemed to be chatting easily with her, there was still a degree of separation between them that spoke volumes. There was no intimate connection here; perhaps he was a work colleague? Jon’s heart suddenly leapt into his mouth as the woman joined the man to stare back at him from the window. She was attractive in a natural sort of way, soft blonde tresses fell about her face that shone out even from the distance between them. His heart resumed a steady beat when he reassured himself there was no way he could be seen, they were merely looking out at the night as he had been before he started playing the peeping Tom. He shrugged off the slight guilty feeling that hovered briefly condoning himself with the fact that it wasn’t like he had a telescope glued to his eyes or anything. Speaking of which, he was pretty sure there was an old one up in the attic somewhere…..

Smirking at his pathetic musings he turned back to the window only to frown as the couple moved away, shutting the light off. Apart from a light shining out from behind the front door, he could no longer see any other signs of life. His fun was over for tonight it seemed. Throwing the rest of the beer down his neck he dropped the empty bottle in the trash can with a loud clank. Time to find some other sort of amusement.