SPOTLIGHT (Colt Seavers) ✔︎

16 | Technical Difficulties

Jody left shortly after our conversation, insisting she had to meet Gail and go through the footage from the day. I bid her farewell, turning back to my drink as Nigel ascended the stage. I tapped my phone screen again, sighing at the absence of a message from Colt. Where was he?

I felt a presence beside me and turned to see Dan, taking Jody's—now empty—seat. "Hey," he said, leaning an elbow on the bar to look at me. "Everything okay?"

I nodded. "Yep." He didn't seem convinced. "I'm just waiting for Colt." I glanced at my watch. It was almost 8 P.M. The bar would be closing soon. "If he shows up."

"He'll be here." I chuckled at Dan's unwavering certainty. "I know Colt and he wouldn't stand you up."

"Yeah, okay." I scoffed. Dan tilted his head curiously. "What, like he did with Jody?"

"That's different."

I shook my head, draining the remainder of my drink and pushing the glass away. "How?"

Dan shrugged. "You know what? I don't know." I chuckled under my breath. "Colt's told me a lot about you." My interest peaked and I mimicked Dan's position, with my elbow on the bar. He smirked. "He seems quite taken by you."

"Really?" I replied. Dan nodded. "Well, I like Colt. He's cool." Dan didn't respond. "I'm just mad at him right now."

"Right." The front door opened and closed behind us. I didn't look up, but Dan did. "Well, what did I tell you?"

I followed Dan's gaze, to where Colt had just walked in, clothes torn and covered in cuts, with a dog at his side. "What the...?"

"Hey," Colt greeted, a small smile on his face. he made his way over to us, taking the seat on my other side. The dog jumped in the seat beside him. "Sorry I'm late."

"Where were you?" I demanded, my voice distressed. I was still upset with him, but his current state was concerning at best. "What happened?"

"Were you at a rave?" Dan asked jokingly. "Or in the sewer? What's with the dog?"

Colt just shrugged, hailing the waiter behind the bar. "It's a long story. Hey, can I get a sunset on ice and a water bank?" 

"Coming right up." The waiter nodded and placed the items in front of Colt, who—with no hesitation—tossed a mobile phone on the bar and dunked his hand into his drink.

"What are you doing?" I asked him as he sighed in relief. I glanced down at the phone on the bench, which I didn't recognise. "What's that?"

Colt looked up at me. "It's Ryder's phone?"

 Dan leaned forward to see past me. "Why do you have Ryder's phone?"

"All I know is that some really bad guys are trying to get it."

"Are you serious?" Dan whispered, leaning over me to hear Colt over the loud music. "What?"

"I just gotta figure out what's on there." Colt side-eyed me as I watched his hand in the glass. I could now see the bruises and congealing blood on his knuckles. What the hell did he get himself into?  "Then find Ryder and get him to finish Jody's movie."

"Okay, well shit, yeah," Dan rambled, trying to take this all in. "Why are you doing this by yourself? Why don't you go to the police?"

Colt sighed. "Gail said I couldn't go to the police." I felt his knee gently brush mine, as if to let me know that he was okay. I didn't move away. "And I wasn't by myself; Skye's been helping."

"What about Venti?" I leaned back in my chair and glanced over at Venti, who was wrapping up her song on the stage. Dan and Colt both followed my gaze. "Could she unlock the phone?"

"Oh yeah," Dan agreed. "She's like a tech genius. I'm sure she could." I ducked my head as Dan waved his arms to get Venti's attention. "Hey, Venti!"

"Hey," she replied, waltzing over to us. "What's poppin' on, boys." Her eyes landed on me. "And Skye."

Colt picked up the phone with his uninjured hand and held it up for Venti to see. "Can you get into this thing?"

"Oh." Venti took it from his hand, looking it over. "I've seen some of these guys. This thing is a vault." I side-eyed Colt, who looked slightly disheartened. "It'll take me like two or three days to crack this thing."

"Yeah, but you're like a tech genius," Dan responded, taking a sip of his drink.  "You know?"

I sighed. "What if you don't have three days, though?"

"You need the password," Venti replied, rather bluntly. "I'm telling you that." I shot her a grateful smile as she handed back the phone, making her way back to the stage. "You're next," she told Dan as she retreated,  who giggled childishly.

I rolled my eyes, turning to Colt. His gaze was already on me. "What happened to your hand?"

Colt just shrugged, waving me off. "It's just a bit bruised." I shot him an unconvinced look. "These guys jumped me and Ryder's assistant, when she was about to give me his phone and I got a few hits in." I rolled my eyes. "You could've come and helped."

"I'm starting to think I should have." I waved the bartender down and asked for a glass of iced water which he handed me. I placed it in front of Colt and gently removed his hand from the sunset, taking a look. It didn't look too bad actually. A bit of antiseptic and a bandage would be enough. "I didn't think you would go looking for trouble, though."

Colt chuckled as I lowered his hand into the ice water. "I'm really sorry about earlier. It won't happen again." I nodded in acceptance and a small smile graced his face. "Now, about that phone. Knowing Ryder, the passcode is written on a post-it note in his apartment somewhere."

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah, probably."

"Alright!" The DJ called out again over the speakers. "Next up we've got Dan!" Both Colt and I turned to look at the man beside us. "Come on buddy. Come on mate!" He looked torn. "Don't be shy, mate."

I rolled my eyes, looking at Colt. "I think we can manage." Colt nodded in agreement. I turned back to Dan "Go for it. We'll be fine."

Dan's grateful expression was short-lived, as he ran over to the stage, Venti and Nigel cheering him on.

"Are we good?" Colt asked me, removing his hand from the glass and drying it on a napkin. I nodded. "Good." We dismounted the stools and made our way to the door. Colt gestured for the dog to follow us. "Allons-y."

"Where did you get him from?" I asked as we ran down the street towards my car. I opened the back door and the dog jumped straight in. Colt and I got in the front. "What's his name?"

"He's Ryder's dog," Colt explained as we buckled our seatbelts and I started the car. "And his name is Jean-Claude."

***

Another day, another chapter. I'm watching the film as I write this to make sure that I get all the plot points and dialogue correct and we are officially past halfway! I'm really happy because it's starting to feel like I'm making progress with this story, but it's also kind of bittersweet because I'm enjoying writing this so much!

Okay... So I finished watching The Gray Man. And you know what? It was fine. It wasn't anything remarkable, but it was still fun. I thought the visuals were great, so it was just a bit disappointing that the story wasn't as good.

Although, I definitely didn't miss Chris Evans foreshadowing Ryan Gosling in the Barbie movie. And in 2022? I want to know if that was deliberate or not, because he would've been cast as Ken already, at the time this film came out.