The Summer at Lake Minnetonka (Completed)

XIX

August 3rd, 1983.

Wednesday

Another long night spent in the studio. While I'm stuck here, Prince is out performing a benefit concert for the Minnesota Dance Theatre. It wasn't hard to tell that Prince was slowly but surely gaining more and more recognition beyond First Avenue. I wasn't privileged with the honor of meeting Loyce, the one who set up the benefit, but I knew she was more than happy to have a tremendous talent like Prince grace the stage.

When I was almost sure it was at least three in the morning, Cecily sauntered in, looking exhausted at this ungodly hour which led me to believe that this woman never sleeps. Pretty much the only thing keeping her from passing out on the couch here was the coffee she held on to in her left hand.

"Hey girls," she greets, outstretching her arms as she lets out a loud yawn. India and Sam make themselves alert, hopping up from the said couch and shaking out the sleepiness in their bodies. The way they were acting, you'd think I was working them without a break. Luckily I'm not Prince in that respect. He would work The Revolution till the physically dropped.

"Hey Cecil, what brings you here at this hour of the morning?" I ask, slipping off the headphones that snugly sat on my ears. 

"Me and some others on the project have been talking," Cecily spoke. 

"About what?" Oh boy, I can tell where this is going.

"A relocation for the project, now don't fret, it'd only be a few months there. And before you know it, you'll be right back here."

"Where? A bigger studio, you mean?" I ask, trying to seem as clueless as possible.

"No, a bigger state is what they were going for. I'm sure you guys would love to go back to California for some more fun in the sun, right?" The girls immediately perk up at the mention of California. I don't share the same excitement, at least not this time. I feel like I have too much here that I don't want to lose, specifically Prince. Imagine being months apart with him, especially apart from Aunt Rose and Khalia. I haven't ever been too far from them for such a long amount time like this.

I feel so conflicted about this.

"Well...uhmm...I don't know, Cecily."

"Nothing is set in stone yet, not until we get the okay from every single one of you individually. So give it some time and get back to me, okay?" Cecily seems to understand my hesitation, or at least senses it. With that, she heads out probably back to her bed. The girls all quickly turn to me and give me surprised looks.

"Sapphire, please don't tell me you want to turn down this opportunity?" Sam questions, sounding a little exasperated.

"I never said that I did, Sam. But what's in California that we don't already have here?"

"A lot! Like good weather all the time, we're closer to A&M, so many things I could list!"

"I hate to say it, but Sam is right," India chimes in. Poppy doesn't even have to say anything because I already know she's for the idea, so I'm easily outnumbered. Talk about a change in mind, only last month I was more than happy to go to California now I'm not sure. I try to convince them against it but I'm quickly shot down with Sam accusing me of being selfish in the process, which is the last thing I wanted to be right now.

"Look, why don't we go home and think about it some more?" India suggests to us all, and we all mutually agree with that. I head home with all intentions of talking Aunt Rose about this in mind.

I find her in her office, reading a book from her extensive shelves of books. "Hey, Auntie."

"Hey, sweetie, what's on your mind?" From there, I go into detail about Cecily's offer and what the girls think of it. She seems to think over the whole story before responding.

"It's funny that you mention that, because my job offered me a new position in California," she states.

"What, really?!" This has to be a joke.

"Yes, I was going to wait till it was a more decent time in the morning but since I couldn't sleep...I decided why not tell you now?"

"Aunt Rose, you're considering it, aren't you?"

"Of course, I can't let opportunities pass me by. You really need to think it over soon because this is a small time window before they move on," Aunt Rose stands in front of me, rubbing my shoulders to comfort me a bit. At least she was right on one thing, I have to think this over before it's too late. I had to look over everything. 

The rest of the morning is spent with me going over the pros and cons repeatedly in my head. The pros list continuously outweighing the cons, but the con has become so important to me. Would it be right to just up and leave Prince behind like this? Even though, Cecily did say it was only a few months but now considering Aunt Rose's job offer, it'd be a lot longer. God, this really threw a wrench in the plan, didn't it? 

I can't not let Aunt Rose go for this job, all her hard work would go to waste if I was the one who made her pass it up. So, with my mind made up, I headed straight for First Avenue the next morning with the girls. We had all come to this decision about First Avenue first anyways so it was high time we put it in action.

"This place is really gonna miss you guys," Billy states, signing off our last paychecks. It was official, we had finally quit First Avenue. It was hard but it was only a small stepping stone before greatness.

"We'll miss it too, but we've gotta move on to greater things, Billy." After sharing a few more parting words, we head out to the streets, giving First Avenue one more good and long look. After finishing with Billy, I call Aunt Rose on the nearest payphone. I tell her to go for the offer before it slipped away from her.

"So does this mean you've made your decision on California?" Poppy questions. My fight against this plan was short lived, so it was inevitable of what was going to happen for all of us. No use in trying to fight it, now I had to worry about was tying up some loose ends.

"Yeah, I guess. But if we're gonna do this, I have to tie up some loose ends before I leave this city."

I had never seen Aunt Rose and Khalia move so quickly before, they were practically throwing things into moving boxes that same evening. Aunt Rose failed to mention that she had been looking into homes in California already and had her eyes on one that had been on the market for a few years. Apparently she was already in negotiations for the deed to the house as of this evening.

I didn't even get the chance to even sit down before Aunt Rose made me volunteer myself to help pack up the house some more. Of course, she didn't realize I was really strapped for time to talk to Prince. With no regards for the time, we kept going through the night, not even bothering to pick up the phone as it rang incessantly. I don't remember what time it was, but I managed to fall asleep, leaned up against one of the boxes, all the plan I had set out to accomplish had slipped from my mind as I lulled into dreamland.

Hopefully, whatever it was could wait.