To the Moon and Back

Busy Bee

The smell of hand sanitizer and squeak of my shoes sticking to the linoleum floor consumed my senses as I was being brought up to my new inpatient floor at the hospital. 

"This will be your office Miss Brighton," the charge nurse opened a door for me, the room filled with natural sunlight overlooking the downtown core. "Laura, the lead coordinator of programs will be over shortly."

"Thank you," I smiled, "Please call me Jenna". She nodded and closed the door behind me. I put my bag and coffee tumbler down on the desk and texted Hunter quickly.

J: At work - day 1, here I go!

H: Have a great day baby. XO

I slid my phone into my purse as I heard a knock on the door. I opened it to find a petite blonde woman with a lot more energy than most people have at 9am. "Hello again Jenna – so glad to see you again," she extended her hand . 

"Yes, Laura – absolute pleasure to be here" I replied as I shook her hand. We discussed policy and procedure, filled out an incredible amount of paperwork and she toured me around the ward. The rest of the day was a whirlwind, getting to meet clients awaiting space in long term care, or who've progressed rapidly into their illness and are in need of more intensive care. I always loved working with seniors and found dementia to be such a whirlwind of an illness, sad but mysterious and intriguing.

I looked at my watch and the time read 4pm. Also a coffee fiend and dog-lover, Laura and I had a lot to chat about walking down to the front of the hospital together. "Have a great night, see you tomorrow." I waved as we parted ways. A huge perk of working at St. Thomas was that it was just a ten minute walk to the condo. 

I turned my key in the door and found Hunter sitting on the couch, strumming his guitar and he smell of something cooking in the oven.

"Lasagna," Hunter said, getting up from the couch, "how was your day babe?"

"Great," I kissed his cheek, "thank you for starting dinner. "any plans tonight." 

"I was thinking we could practice some songs for your demo," his expression was playful, and I nodded. 

"Sounds good. I'm going to change first." I wiggled out of my work clothes and put on some leggings and a tee shirt. We enjoyed dinner and cleaned up together before having our music practice. "How lucky am I to have you as a boyfriend, a mentor and a fairy godfather?"

"Fairy godfather?" Hunter laughed, "You are so talented Jen, I just want you to have the chance to share your gift."

Blushing, we started. We never really got into practice when Hunter first sprang this on me over a month ago. "Everything has Changed", I said, sorting out the papers, "are we both playing or..."

"I'll play first, you just sit there, and sing your pretty little heart out." He smiled, tuning the guitar and setting the capo.

We ran through it once, we made a few adjustments and Hunter wiggled his phone out from under him and set the recorder on.

 "All I knew this morning when I woke
Is I know something now, know something now I didn't before
And all I've seen since eighteen hours ago is green eyes and freckles
And your smile in the back of my mind making me feel like
I just want to know you better, know you better, know you better now " 

Hunter pressed the red button to stop the recording, "Love it," he said quietly. He handed me my guitar, "once more." This was like music city boot camp. 

"And all I feel in my stomach is butterflies the beautiful kind
Making up for lost time, taking flight, making me feel likeI just want to know you better, know you better, know you better now"

We heard a crash and bang and the lights went out. We stopped, listening to the continued crash and downpour of rain. Hunter stopped the recording and flipped his phone over to turn on the flashlight. I got up and found the lighter and lit a few candles in the kitchen and living room. We put the guitars down and cuddled up on the couch, watching the thunderstorms.

"I guess we can take a break," he kissed my cheek, he knew that thunderstorms were my favourite. Eventually the storm passed and the lights came back on. The time said eight, "Back to it?"

"Sure," I smiled and picked up my guitar. Hunter turned the recording on and we made it through the song twice, perfectly. 

"This is great Jenna." Hunter smiled and reached over to kiss my hand. "Any other songs pop out at you?"

I shuffled through the pages Hunter had given me and put a check mark beside Everything Has Changed, and waved another page. "I want to hear this song." It was one of the two Hunter wrote. He told me that even though these were written for me by him, he put them on the shelf because he wasn't sure if and when I would want to release this demo and the writing credits would be good. The song was called In Case You Didn't Know.

"Dann helped me with it," he smirked, "I had the idea but I was having writer's block. I told him I wanted to write it for you." He played the song and I scribbled on the paper as he strummed along. I loved it. We ran through it once, Hunter's eyes were sparkling. "Well, being me, I could keep at this," he glanced at his watch, "however, we need to be responsible, we both have work in the morning." We tidied up and blew out the candles, making our way to bed. 

"I love falling asleep next to you," I said quietly in the darkness, "it's nice knowing I don't have a flight to go catch." 

Hunter turned over, wrapping his arm around my tummy, holding me close. "I know babe. Trust me, I feel the same way. Sweet dreams."