20. Hangover

“Tony.”

“Huhh?” Tony woke up groggily.

“TONY.”

“Whh... what is it?”

“I think we need to talk.”

“What's the matter?” Tony was still barely awake, his head appeared to have a small family of woodpeckers drilling away.

“What is happening Tony?” Alison asked in a stern voice. “Is there something going on between you and this girl?”

“What girl?”

“The one you are pictured in the newspaper with, again.”

As if Tony didn't hate the newspapers enough already. “I don't know what you mean, I haven't done anything wrong if that's what they are suggesting.”

“So why are you having a romantic meal with that pretty girl?” Alison's eyes teared up.

“We're friends! I invited her for a couple of drinks and we stayed for food as neither of us had eaten.”

“It sure as hell looks like a date Tony. I don't think I've even seen that shirt before”

“I bought it a couple of weeks ago, nothing special.”

“Tony, if you are doing something please just tell me.” Alison was now streaming tears down her face.

“I haven't done anything. I'm not going to do anything. She is my friend, I'll introduce you if you like, so you can see for yourself.” Tony said this out loud, before privately wondering if it was such a good idea.

Alison sniffed and wiped the tears from her cheek. “Okay.”

Tony got up and put his arms round Alison and squeezed, he rested his head against hers, looking at the wall deep in private contemplation.

“I do love you Tony, you know that right?”

“Of course I do. I love you too.”

He did love Alison, but in Tony's life things were rarely ever that simple.

Tony had met his first wife Judith Long on the set of Country Boys, and their marriage had been a happy one until the newspaper allegations that split them up. However Tony took the split very badly, running into a number of relationships over the next two years. He was truly in love with Judith, and never really got over their split even whilst married to his second wife Bea.

Bea was an extremely pretty girl with long black hair and a glowing smile. She was only just over five foot tall, and the two of them constantly joked about their height difference during their three year marriage.

They had a loving relationship, but Tony could never manage to feel as comfortable or be as open around Bea as he had Judith, largely due to his inability to get over the first real love of his life.

Eventually, Bea realised that Tony was unlikely to open up in the way he kept saying would one day happen. It was unfair for her to wait around for the hole in their relationship to fix itself, she needed to do something to fix it.

Bea offered Tony a choice. Since she had been a little girl, Bea had always wanted to go travelling and see the world, to explore new places and live a simple life. If Tony was serious about making their relationship work, he needed to go with her, travel the world for a year or two, and try and solve the connection issues they had.

Tony genuinely loved Bea, but he was far less interested in travelling, and hated the idea of not being able to act or perform. However, neither could he work past his memories of Judith. With sadness the two of them split up, and Bea moved to Thailand where she still lives, occasionally watching repeats of Tony's old shows on the local TV station.

Right now Tony was stuck in a difficult place. He loved Alison, but felt that their relationship had fizzled out, that it had become more of a habit than a real close bond. He wanted to work things out though, and had every intention of fighting to save what they had.

Tony had no intention of starting a relationship with Abbie, they were just friends. Sure she was pretty, and kind, and smart, and interesting, but they were only friends. Tony just found it rare to have a close connection with someone in the way the two of them did, she was a wonderful person and he wanted to make the most of that. She was also very pretty, very smart, very interesting, and... Shit.