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After hours and hours of gruelling behind the scenes work for the tour, I was finally shutting down my laptop and discarding my headphones for the night. I knew planning a tour would be demanding, but I hadn't expected it to be so overwhelmingly exhausting.
I was ready to wash the day off me and jump into bed, but first, I had to check on Toya. That conversation we had in the parking lot had me feeling anxious and out of sorts all day, especially since she wasn't responding to any of my texts or answering my calls.
What was I even thinking, suggesting a break if us being together proved to be too much for her? I shook my head as I locked up and turned to head to the parking lots. I knew exactly what I was thinking, that Toya didn't need the extra stress of people assuming she needed to sleep with me in order to become somebody in the music game. It was a noble attempt at giving my girlfriend peace of mind, but the more I thought about what that would mean for us, the worse it actually sounded. We hadn't even been together a month yet. We deserved a real chance. We wouldn't get that if she left me over Amira's assumption.
I walked past the mostly closed doors of the rehearsal rooms, stopping in my tracks when I heard a familiar piano melody drifting over the mostly quiet atmosphere around me. The words "you are love, ready to be fallen into," popped into my head, the words she'd sung while I played contentedly beside her. Words that I knew she meant, and probably still felt, since she was privately playing the song right now.
Smiling besides myself, I peered into the rehearsal room she was seated in. Her back was to me and I noticed she'd changed. Not only her clothes, but her hair too. It was no longer in the long, kinky twists she'd had for a few weeks. She now had her lush natural hair grazing her shoulders and tied back with a silky bandana scarf. She looked relaxed in the baggy t-shirt and sweats she'd put on with Crocs and fuzzy white socks.
Glancing at the watch on my wrist, I remembered the nights we spent together right here in the studio space, our bond growing over quiet conversation and our shared love for music. My heart swelled. Even in the awkward space we were in from this afternoon's tense conversation, I couldn't help the excitement that bloomed from merely being in Latoya's vicinity again.
"Still a workaholic, huh?" I spoke up, walking into the room and noticing that the music stopped as soon as I spoke, Latoya whipping around to look at me. Her face was missing the usual openness I'd gotten used to seeing whenever we interacted, and that made my steps less confident. What if she'd decided to take me up on my offer? What if this was it and we were really done?
"The work won't do itself." she replied, her voice cutting into the panicked stream of thoughts plaguing my mind. She turned back to the keyboard, scooting over to let me sit next to her.
"It won't get done at all if you don't rest, though." I cautioned, noticing that she had coffee and snacks, a clear sign that she planned to pull an all nighter. "What time did you come back here?"
