Are we friends or are we more?

Chapter 33

TO: Charlotte@AtlanticRecords.com

FROM: AutumnR@gmail.com

RE: LA Job offer

Hello Charlotte,

I would love to take up the offer of to move to LA. I am excited to be working with everyone at Atlantic Records. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity.

Autumn Rouge.

My finger hovers over the send button. Once I send this it will be official that I am moving to LA, there will be no going back. 5,437 miles away from my friends and family. 

"Did you send it?" Joe asks walking over to me. He holds two blue mugs in his hand and offers one down to me sat on the couch. 

"Thanks." I say as I take the mug off him and he sits next to me on the couch. I look down into the mug at the pale brown tea and watch as the steam swirls on the top.

"No." Joe says answering his own question.

"Do you really think I should go?" I ask turning to look at Joe who is reading my laptop screen.

"Yes." Joe nods turning to me, "If I wanted you stay I would of said so. Of course you should go." 

'If I wanted you stay I would of said so." The words fly around my head like a bat in a cave, he doesn't want me to stay. I knew it. "I don't know," I say, "There'll be other record labels."

"Yes but none as good as this, Autumn you have to take it. You'd be mad not to." Joe says to me. He sounds so desperate to get me to send the e-mail.

I sigh, I guess at least in LA I might make friends that don't want to get rid of me. Joe's right, I'd be mad not to. I turn back to the laptop and look over the e-mail one last time. I sigh, take a deep breath and click send. "There." I say turning to Joe and forcing a smile.

I don't think Joe buys the smile completely but he does enough to smile back.  "Now we just have to wait for a reply."

"How long do you think it will take?" I look back at the laptop screen, it now shows my e-mail inbox, all of my mail is open most of them are Facebook anyway.

Joe shrugs, "Not long probably, they were expecting a reply today right?" 

"Yeah." I nod, "They said to get back to them by 7." I check the clock in the bottom right hand corner of the screen 4:45.

"Soon then." Joe says, "but I wouldn't sit around waiting for a reply." 

I shrug, "I've got nothing else to do." I say.

"We could go out and grab some food." 

"I'm not hungry." I say bluntly. I'm not in the mood to sit around and talk to Joe, he will just want to talk to me about LA which is something I do not want to do.

"Okay." Joe says sighing and getting up off the couch. "I probably have some editing to do anyway." He says walking into his room.

I woken up by the sound of an e-mail notification, I must of dazed off because it's now 6 o'clock. I look at the screen and the un-open message, it's from them.

TO:  AutumnR@gmail.com

FROM: Charlotte@AtlanticRecords.com

RE: LA Job offer

Hi Autumn!

That's great news, we can't wait to have you on board. We are so excited for you to move out here and get your career on the go, here's to hoping it's a success! 

We understand that big moves like this normally take at least 5 months to prepare for however we really want you to get the most out of your year contract by getting you out here as soon as possible. We will have your apartment ready by the end of next week however we do understand that that is very short notice and we recommend that you book the  plane tickets for May 4th, if you can not book them for then please be sure to contact us as soon as possible and we will see if we can help you out in anyway possible. There are a few files attached to this email with more information.

Welcome again to the team, we hope to see you soon and can't wait to get recording.

Attachment_7859439_68695.PDF

Attachment_7859439_6896.PDF

Attachment_7859439_6896.PDF

Charlotte.

May 4th is 3 weeks away, they can't seriously expect me to move out this quickly. I read the e-mail over again to check I have read it correctly. Three weeks is not enough time, that can't be right. My head starts to spin slightly there is so much I need to do in three weeks, I don't know if I can do. I look from the e-mail to see Joe walking out of his room. "Are you alright?" He frowns at me.

"They've given me three weeks." I say looking back down to the e-mail. "There's no way I can be ready in three weeks."

"All you've got to do is pack." Joe says gently as he comes and sits by me on the couch where he was sat earlier. I feel a little guilty for being so harsh on him earlier, he hasn't really done anything wrong.

"I take three weeks to pack for a week holiday let alone moving somewhere." I say, I feel myself welling up slightly I hope I don't cry, there's no such thing as a pretty crier. 

"It's alright." Joe says wrapping an arm around my shoulders, "We will be fine." He says kissing me on the top of the head, that helps me relax a little. It sends a warm wave down my body. "Come on." Joe says taking the laptop off my lap and starting to shut everything down. "Let's go and get something to eat, forget about all this for a while yeah?" 

"Yeah." I nod.