Don't Change The Way You Think Of Me

Way Out West

June 2002

Paisley's POV
"What can I get for you?" The waiter asked.
"I'll have a glass of your house red wine." I said and then remembering my manners "please?"
I don't know why I worry about manners, this is Los Angeles not Paintsville Kentucky. It didn't matter, even after living in New York for almost 10 years, you couldn't take the southern manners out of me. One of the other manners impressed upon me growing up was to be on time. I had no tolerance for anyone who kept me waiting. Strike one for my date, who was now 15 minutes late. I decided to go ahead and get a table, even if the guy was a no show I would just eat dinner alone. I was used to eating alone since I moved to Los Angeles, leaving New York behind along with my failed marriage.
The waiter brought me a glass of wine. "Are you waiting for someone, or would you like to order?"
"I'm waiting for someone." I knew the waiter could hear that I was annoyed, I hoped he didn't think it was with him.
"Would you like to order an appetizer now, perhaps something for when your other party arrives?"
"Thank you, but I have no idea what he would like. I'll just have wine for now."
I hate blind dates or people trying to fix me up with someone by inviting them to any social event they could trap me in, so I couldn't escape. Why did everyone think because I'm almost 30 and single again that I have to meet someone? I really wasn't looking for a man and I wasn't worried about my biological clock ticking. I just wanted to work on my career, I didn't need a man in my life. Unfortunately, I just couldn't tell Gretchen, my longtime friend and now coworker no when she set me up for this date. She is the one who helped me get on at the PR firm here. It's a newer firm trying to build itself, I'm a new me building a new life, it seemed like a good fit. I love her, but this guy was now almost 30 minutes late.
"Paisley Callahan?" His voice shook me from my thoughts.
"Yes, you must be Frank?"
"Floyd, Floyd Nave" he said.
"Sorry, I'm not good with names." I motioned for him to sit down. He was handsome, meticulously dressed and very personable. It's too bad this was going to be two dates in one as my daddy would say, the first and the last. Ten minutes late is one strike, twenty minutes late is strike two and thirty minutes late you're out of the game. We had a nice dinner, I was polite but probably distant. He escorted me to my car and said he would call me. I hadn't asked if he was going to call me and my manners prevented me from telling him not to bother.

As soon as I walked into my apartment, my phone rang. I knew who it was without looking at the Caller I.D.

"Hi Gretchen, what's up?"
"You know what's up! Floyd said you practically ignored him during dinner."
"He's over exaggerating, I wasn't clinging to his every word, but I wasn't ignoring him."
"Okay Paisley, what's wrong with this one?"
"He was 30 minutes late."
"Oh he broke the number one rule, punctuality. Did he say why he was late?"
"He babbled on about something, I forget."
"You mean you didn't listen."
"That is correct. We have a staff meeting early in the morning. I think you need to get some sleep and stop worrying about my love life."
"I'll see you in the morning. At least I can say I tried."
"That's the thing, stop trying. For the thousandth time, I don't need anyone and I'm not looking,"
"Okay, I give up. I'll see you in the morning."
"Good! I'll see you in the morning."

I appreciated everyone trying, but I didn't move to California to meet a man and get married again. I am focused on my career, I sacrificed my own ambitions to be a perfect corporate trophy wife for 8 years. I started over at 25 I will never sacrifice my dreams for anyone ever again.

Matt's POV
We had really started to make a name for ourselves and build a fan base. Despite problems with finding the right bass player, we were solid. The thing I didn't feel good about was all of us taking the rocker lifestyle so far that it got us in trouble. We needed someone to help us stay in line and have the right image to stay on track.

I talked to our manager who suggested a PR firm, someone to promote us, schedule us for appearances and make sure we didn't forget to show up to them. I didn't have any idea how we could afford that, we couldn't afford hotel rooms most of the time when touring. He said he had a friend from college who had just started his own firm and owed him a favor. He could pitch it to him to bigger clients in the music business.

"If he can help you guys, he can manage PR for anyone." He said.
"Thanks a lot." We both laughed.
I hoped he could pull it off, of course convincing the guys that we need this was going to be tough also.