His mouth went into an ‘O’ shape as he chanced a glance at the rocker who sat with an expression on her face that seemed to border on anger and confusion.

“What did you just call me,” she asked evenly.

Eric had two choices here. He could either run or lie cause he sure as hell wasn’t going to tell the truth. He looked at the distance between himself and the hotel’s door. He winced; there was no way he’d make it there in time. The rocker would have already killed him halfway there.

He wracked his brain for a lie. What was he going to do? Sensing his internal struggle, Aiden took it upon himself to help his distraught friend.

“He said he’s glad to have Happy Sappy Ashy back,” Elmer’s informed. “That’s the name he calls you behind your back, but, seeing as how he’s sitting in front you and he’s not behind you he can’t repeat what he just said. That’s why I said it for him.” He finished with a proud nod.

Eric shot Aiden a tight smile, “Thank you for that Elmer’s.”

“Happy Sappy Ashy,” the rocker questioned glaring at the driver.

He gulped audibly. “It’s a term of endearment,” Eric squeaked.

Ryan, always the moderator intervened, “It kind of is if you think about it Ash,” he said.

“How,” Ashley growled turning her steely gaze on the bass player.

“Well, um … well Happy is what you are whenever Spencer is around or whenever you two talk you become happy. Sappy … sappy is used to describe the smile you get whenever Spencer is mentioned and well … Ashy … I don’t know where he got that,” Ryan trailed off looking towards the driver.

“I needed another short word that ended with a y,” Eric supplied with a shrug. “Ashley was a little too long so I just … shortened it.”

“You can’t deny all that I said describes you to a tee though,” Ryan said unable to control the smug smile that pulled at his lips.

The rocker couldn’t disagree, “I guess you’re right,” she mumbled as she took another swig of her drink to conceal her smile.

“Don’t you have a birthday coming up this Friday,” Brian asked as he tore his eyes from the television to look at Ashley.