Celebratory Drinks & Fleeting Embraces

CD&FE Part Two

Jake POV

We were back to work, not that there was much of a break in between tours. It was enough. We released the new album and headed out. It was what we did. After a smattering of shows, we took a few weeks off before starting up again. It was a week until the next round of shows - starting in St. Paul. We were on schedule to meet with the venue people via online chat to just make sure all the logistics were in place for our needs. It was certainly something that the management team could have handled alone, but they always liked to have at least one of us in those meetings just to ensure we wouldn't circle back and blame them if something was not right or did not meet expectations when we arrived at said venue. We had a long line of these meetings over the course of the week and we decided to double up so as to survive the gauntlet together.

It was the first stretch of the very long day, and I sat next to Josh as the suits gathered around the conference table with the screen a shade of reddish orange with a flashing string of pending dots that slowly pulsed. I was already annoyed. I dragged my sunglasses down from the top of my head and covered my eyes in hopes that I could at least hide my disconnect from everyone during this. Josh, however, was babbling along with everyone in pleasant conversation to pass the time. I was already checked out when the screen flipped over to a wide conference room located somewhere in the capital city of Minnesota.

I was barely listening. Truth be told, my eyes were drifting closed with pictures of a quiet house for me to retreat to in several hours worth of time. Josh would tap my elbow, as if he was checking to make sure I wasn't fully asleep. That had happened - probably too often. At the forty minute mark, I stood and drifted out of the room with a signal of just needing a break. The meeting was rolling on and that was fine. I hunted down some coffee and some water before returning to the room.

"Our graphics team is being headed by Y/n/L/n. Y/n?"

My grin tugged a bit at a memory of a girl that had that first name from way back when things were still small. A night of celebration. She still skated through my thoughts in those long stretches of bus travel when others just did not seem to do. I took a sip of coffee and listened a little more to this woman talk without actually looking at her face. I doodled out little swirls and boxes and swords and ... whatever the hell that fuzzy piece of ick with eyeballs was? Finally, I allowed my eyes to turn to the screen to take in the split screen of four faces. The one in the upper right hand corner made me freeze.

Fucking. Hell. I nearly dropped my coffee cup in my lap. Josh glanced at me with a raised eyebrow. It was her. I was pretty sure that my jaw hung open as I tried to pull myself together. I shifted around in my chair only to have Josh lean towards me with a WTF look.

"It's fine," I whispered, eyes flicking to the screen once more.

"The hell it is," he whispered back, looking at me like I was half crocked. "You look fucking spooked."

I rolled my eyes and leaned forward on my elbows, palms pressed tightly together. I resolved myself to look at her. I could still see her pretty in her eyes, but she was way more polished, more professional than the last time our paths crossed. I fought blurting out 'Deep Purple!' She was answering questions of the team without even a glance at the paper she was holding in her hands. She knew her shit and worked in a manner that surprised me. I took a long drink of my water and settled my brain into the present. It was still a management meeting. I was still required to be professional. I diverted to Josh to answer anything, however. My eyes kept straying to her corner of the screen for the twenty minutes that she resided there.

Flashes of what had been that night echoed through my skin. There was a thinly veiled put-togetherness that she had worn over a carefree smile that had captured my attention right away. Ann Arbor... Yeah. In that little bar. And she was gorgeous in that frilly shirt, and that high slit skirt. I felt my eyes roll back into my skull as I tried to rein in my thoughts to save myself from getting hard right there.