“Oh, c’mon, Miss!  You can’t expect me not to do… anything.  You’ve been on tour!  You know what it’s like!”

Missy rolled her eyes, letting a thread of smoke unfurl from between her lips before side-eyeing Pickles.

“Dude…  It’s like one month.”

“One month of all the guys smashin’ chicks they bring on the Dethbus or backstage and groupies throwing themselves at me!  Like two at the same time!” he said.  “Listen, it’s not like I wanna fool around with other girls…  But I’m… I got needs, y’know?  You can’t just come along with me?”

She let out a sigh, sitting the joint in the ash tray.

“Pickles.  Babe.”  She rolled over, resting herself on his chest and taking his face in her hands.  “Listen.  I wish I could, you know I do.  But I gotta get this next album out if I wanna get back on the road myself.”

His bottom lip poked out in a pout.  He looked up at her with pleading eyes.  Leaning closer still, she kissed the tip of his nose. 

“Don’t be like that.  It’s one month.  Not even that.  Like, 28 days.  You love me enough not to fuck around for 4 weeks, right?  I mean, you were the one that suggested we be exclusive.”

“Always rubbin’ that in my face,” he groaned rubbing between his eyes.  “Fine.  You want me to prove to you that I can be a good boy and keep it in my pants, I’ll do it.  I’ll fuckin’ do it.  Even if it kills me.”

“It’s not going to kill you.”

“It might.”

“It won’t.”

Pickles let out an exhale and he reached for the joint she had sat aside.  He took a long drag, blowing it to the side before looking back up at her.

“You’re cool with going to go a whole month without gettin’ any?” he asked.  “I know I might be a slut, but you’re not exactly chaste yourself.”

“It’s gonna suck, yeah.  But I mean, it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve gone without,” she said.  “It’ll be good for me.  I do my best work horny.”

He couldn’t help but grin.

“Horny is your default state, honey.  Sexually frustrated is a different beast.  And you might have gone without before, but you haven’t yet gone without me.”

Missy grabbed the joint from him, giving it one long drag before leaning down and pressing her mouth to his.  He kissed back in earnest, hands finding her hips as her tongue knifed between his lips to breathe the smoke into his eager mouth.  All too soon, he felt her hands on his chest, pushing herself back before she broke away and crawled off of him.

“I gotta get going.”

“C’mon!” Pickles said in disbelief as she crawled out from under the covers.  “You’re gonna work me up like that before I go off for a month?”

“Sorry, but I shouldn’t have stuck around this long to begin with.  I wanted to leave you with a little something to remember me by.”

“You wanted to leave me with a ragin’ hard-on,” he mumbled.  “Fuckin’ douchebag.”

After pulling her shirt on, she walked to the side of the bed he was laying on and kissed his forehead.

“Have fun in Europe for me, Pickles.  Okay?”

“Didn’t ya just tell me not to have fun?” he griped, causing her to give him a light shove.

“I told you not to fuck around.”

“Fine.  Deal.  But I expect you to do the same.  No dildos or toys either.  That’s cheating.”

“What?” she scoffed, folding her arms.  “That’s not cheating.”

“Is too.  You were all nonchalant about this because you can just buzz yourself to a good mood.  I know your game, Miss.”

“Oh, fuck off.  If that’s cheating, then jerking off is cheating.”

“Jerkin’ off isn’t cheatin’!”

“Is too.  Neither of us are allowed to get ourselves off then.”

“Fine.  Whatever,” he said.  “I’ll save it all for when you get back.” 

“Fine.  Deal.”

“That’s my girl.”  He sat up in the bed, donning a smirk.  “Now, gimme a real kiss before you go.”

~

Weeks had passed, and they were grueling.  Pickles could hardly even talk to Missy between their busy schedules and the time difference on the other side of the world.  He knew the moment one of the guys caught on that he was abstaining for Missy’s sake that he’d get relentlessly roasted until he slipped up, so he suffered in silence.  Instead of holing up for the entirety of the tour, he subjected himself to the torture of partying with the band while they partied with Swiss sluts and German groupies.

A few shows in, he realized if he got wasted enough, there’d be no temptation because the obscene amounts of substances in his system would render it useless anyway.  So, he stayed pretty fucking sloshed the entire time… even more so than usual to drown any urges that tried to present themselves.

Missy, on the other hand, didn’t have that luxury.  She had to stay sober enough to oversee the progress of her band’s latest album.  Being a bit of a control freak, she didn’t trust anyone else to make the final decisions, and she didn’t trust herself to do it under any sort of influence.

The first few weeks were great.  She was so busy with the recording and re-recording that the time flew by.  When it got to the mixing and mastering, things began to unravel.  Pickles wasn’t lying.  Sexual frustration was a different beast.  As things got more stressful and she started to butt heads with her producer, her band, and everyone around her, she wanted nothing more than to blow off steam.  She couldn’t help but wonder what he was up to, and what they could be doing if she was in Europe too.  She counted down the days until the tour ended.

~

After a long few weeks, the band had arrived back at Mordhaus.  Pickles trudged back to his room and collapsed on the bed.  He shut his eyes, feeling the wrath of both jet-lag and a hangover claiming him.  As he lay there, pondering whether he should call Missy and tell her he’d made it back or do so after getting some rest, but the familiar weight settling on his lap made his decision for him.

“Missy?” he mumbled.

“Miss me?”

He smiled without cracking his eyes open and nodded.  He held his arms open for her, hoping for a bit of cuddling, but her hands went straight for his belt, and his blood went straight below the belt.

“God, it’s been too long,” she said, making quick work of his fly and zipper.

“Dude…”  He couldn’t help but chuckle.  “It was like a month.”

“Shut up.”