The Decision about Patti

I don't recall a whole lot about the date we played at the club the following week. I do remember we had a respectable turnout, not a sellout as on past dates, but about three quarters of the room was full, which all things considered was as good as we could have hoped for. There was no radio station promoting the show...no big advertising push from the club...and no time for word of mouth to create any excitement...the gig just seemed to be an opportunity to play again. The band played well, but the energy from the audience which had been so powerful on a number of our other dates, was noticeably absent...or more subdued than I was used to. What I do remember more was...Annie was coming up for the weekend, and I think I was preoccupied with that...because I had decided to tell her when I saw her about my decision to date Patti exclusively. I was very uncomfortable about having to do that, but the thought of Patti breaking off our relationship entirely made me even more uncomfortable...and although I really wanted to wait until I had more time to think it through...Patti wasn't giving me that option. If I didn't tell Annie...Patti would take that as my decision. I was caught between a rock and a hard place. And I was breaking my own rule...about not letting girlfriends have an impact on the band's future...and I never even saw that. I knew Annie would be upset...and would probably try to change my mind about it...but I also thought that in the end, she would accept it as what I really wanted, and would just continue our friendship and our musical partnership. I was very wrong about that. I could tell from the minute I said the words to her...that my words were affecting her more than I had ever thought they would. At first, I think she thought I wasn't really serious about it, and that I was just running the idea by her (which in hindsight, is exactly what I should have done). She tried to gently bring to my attention some of the things I had already seen in Patti that scared me, and she also pointed out that what I was telling her wasn't really necessary. I told her I had an ultimatum from Patti, and that I thought that it was. I could tell the words cut into her very deeply. Her demeanor changed...and she became aloof and cold and I knew this was a much bigger problem than I had thought. She was really angry. And that was the last thing I had expected..