The Darkest Days

127. Vanessa's Plan

Vanessa walked a little in the garden and took a few mental notes to get herself certain flowers at her own home.

"Are you into gardening?" Albert's voice made Vanessa turn. He handed her a glass of wine.

"Not exactly. But I don't mind it either."

"Ah. Not many people know but I might be more passionate about gardening than football."

"What? Really?"

He nodded.

"So all this is your work?"

"One hundred percent."

"Impressive."

"I'm sure you must've had those times when you feel drained and want to be felt alone."

"Yes."

"But in our cases, alone time can be rare."

"Yes."

"I try to spend that rare time here. That's why it's not how I want it yet. But I always come here whenever I can."

"My room is my escape space. I miss it all day, every day."

He laughed. "All kids your age say that."

"Well, I guess I'm not that different from them."

"Do you feel that you're different?"

"Absolutely. Not to sound arrogant but look at me, my daily schedule is nothing like what it used to be three years ago."

"Hm. And what about Audrey? Does she feel different?"

"Maybe. We don't really talk about this stuff anymore. We used to in the beginning. We used to keep checking up on each other," she chuckled, "but now all our checkups revolve around our music or dance."

"Why?"

"I don't mean we're not close. It's just that we're kind of used to things better now? It's been years. We know what we're doing and how it's done-"

"Like you've got the control."

"Yeah. You've felt this?"

He nodded. "A year into my career and I was a know-it-all."

"I wouldn't call us a know-it-all..." She laughed.

"I didn't call myself that either!" He laughed as well. "That's what my friends started calling me."

Vanessa frowned. "Why?"

"Well.. you know, it's kind of obvious that you'd lose friends after your career goes in a different lane than them."

"True."

"I had my fair share of friendship breakups."

"I never had an official breakup but we just stopped talking. It's hard to keep friends who aren't in the industry and see what happens because they won't understand that you'd be gone for days or weeks, months if you're touring with absolutely no contact."

"Yeah, and you'll need to pick up right where you left off without any complains and it's kinda unfair for someone living a normal life."

Vanessa sighed. "You get it."

He laughed. "Absolutely."

"But it doesn't necessarily have to be someone in the industry. Like one of Audrey's friend.. his father works for Aiden so he already has his father gone for long and he understands."

"Audrey must like having someone like that."

"Yeah."

He thought for a second with a smile and then spoke. "Would you, by any chance, be free tomorrow night for dinner?"