The Songwriter by A. P. Jensen Page B

tapping her slipper.
    “ You don’t like it?”
    She glared. “That’s beside the point!”
    “ I think the lyrics need help, but I think the core of the song is good. I wanted you to hear it.”
    “ You changed our act. Why?”
    Trey rose from the couch and put his guitar on a stand. He had his back to her and when he stayed that way , she lost patience with him.
    “ I don’t know what happened to you last night but a head’s up would’ve been nice! How would you feel if I decided to change things up and you had no clue what was going on?”
    “ Johnny slept in your bus,” Trey said and turned to face her. He was wearing a hat that shaded his eyes.
    “ So? Are you listening to what I’m saying?” Gwen shouted. “My nerves are already stretched to the breaking point every night, then you pull something like what you did last night. If you want me to be a nervous wreck, you don’t have to do anything else- I’m already there!”
    “ How long is he staying?”
    “ Who?” Gwen bellowed, beyond furious.
    “ Johnny.”
    She threw her hand s in the air. “Why are you so obsessed with Johnny?”
    “ Johnny’s not the guy for you, Gwen.”
    “ Johnny’s perfect for me. We understand one another. As for you, I feel like the more time I spend with you, the more confused I am!”
    “ Same here. How the hell do you even know Johnny?”
    “ I didn’t come here to talk about Johnny.”
    “ Well, we’re going to talk about him. How do you know Johnny?”
    “ He’s a songwriter, I’m a songwriter… See a pattern here?”
    “ Johnny doesn’t ‘visit’ all songwriters.”
    “ I love Johnny. He’ll be around for a week or so, then he’ll be gone and you can forget your issues with him. What I want to talk about is you deciding to experiment with me last night.”
    “ I thought I’d change it up.”
    “ Change it up ? Why the hell would you change it up right when I don’t even have a routine?” she barked.
    “ You don’t want a show to become routine.”
    “ Believe me, performing will never be routine for me! So if I decide that I want to change our act, I can just improvise?”
    He crossed his arms. “I prefer you run it by me first.”
    “ I prefer the same,” she retorted. “What is wrong with you lately?”
    “ Me?” he shouted.
    “ Yes! You! Ever since Gabe came around you’ve been an ass and now that Johnny’s here you’re keeping me onstage, improvising when you know I’m not comfortable!”
    “ I didn’t mean to freak you out last night.”
    “ Then what were you trying to do?”
    Silence.
    “Trey?”
    “ I don’t like seeing you with him.”
    “ What does that have to do with-” Her eyes rounded and she shoved him. “You kept me onstage to keep me from Johnny?!”
    A muscle ticked in his jaw and he said nothing. She grabbed a pillow off the couch and swung at his face, knocking him back a step while his hat sailed across the room. She smacked him with all her might.
    “My personal life is none of your business! If I want to sleep with every Tom, Dick and Harry I will! God, you are such a chauvinist. You don’t want me but you’re trying to keep me from-”
    Trey snatched the pillow out of her hand and tossed it across the room, grasped her shoulders and shook her.
    “Johnny’s not good enough for you!” Trey shouted.
    “ Then who is?” she breathed.
    “ Am I interrupting?”
    Johnny was in the doorw ay, top button of his jeans undone. His eyes were heavy and he had bed hair. He eyed them sleepily. “I woke up when I realized you were gone.”
    Trey’s hands tightened on her. Gwen pushed him away because this was getting them nowhere. She walked towards Johnny, who saluted Trey and they walked off the recording bus back to her own.
    “ You okay?” Johnny asked quietly.
    “ I am so damn tired of being treated like a kid! He thinks I’m stupid or something.”
    Gwen sat at the table and glared out the window. The sun was up now and people shuffled