Every Breath You Take [RDJ Fanfic] - COMPLETED

One Hundred Twenty Eight

I've been up since four thirty, ready to make the first call in to the east coast at eight in the morning, their time.  Robert wants to murder me, I'm sure, because he grumpily moved from the bedroom to the empty kitchen to do yoga before anyone else woke up since I was being loud and obnoxious with my interview right from the start.

My heart's been pumping fast all morning, though, and my excitement is hardly contained by my voice, but that's fine.  My first call was to a local station at home, then the next to a big channel in New York, where I'm on the line right after Taylor was interviewed, so I'm quickly informed by the trending hashtags on Twitter over the song.  There was an intermission where I called Sydney to finalize a performance on Good Morning America just before Christmas, and then I have a conference discussion with D and Devin that I want to avoid at all costs, but I'm professional and Devin hardly speaks a word outside of work to me, so it's whatever.  I spend a god chunk of time between calls on social media, watching the trends I've been alerted to.  And now, I'm on hold with a station in LA, now that the time's passed and it's nearly ten, local time, and that means Taylor and I will finally have a minute to speak over the phone, since she's in New York promoting and I'm in, well, the mountains in the middle of freakin no where.

"Yes, I can hold," I agree, going to grab a drink while I wait for her PR person to connect us once I answered the call.

I extend a hand with an empty glass at Robert, who's behind the sink, and nod expectantly to silently say 'fill it'. I don't think he's amused by the straight face he gives me, but I can't apologize because my cousin is tugging at my shirt and I have to pull away from both of them.

"Cousin Rachel, can we please go swimming now?!" she pleads, wanting to use the indoor pool on the first floor.

And then the hold ends, so I rush back into solitude with the phone, ignoring her. I hear Robert making up for it, though, kindly taking the role of cousin.

"Hey Lauren," he says sweetly before I head upstairs. "How about you go get your swimsuit on and wait on the couch for me, hmm? I'll change and take you until your cousin is done with work...how's that sound?"

"Okay!" she squeals, but that's all I hear before the Taylor picks up.

"Well good morning!" she celebrates.  "How are things out there?"

"Going swimmingly," I laugh, finally able to sit on the bed and relax on one of these calls.

"Congratulations, we've concluded the first round of press!"

"Same to you!  I'm so freaking excited that they like it.  I mean, it's you, of course they like it, but-"

"Did you see the article someone shared on Tumblr putting us in the same 'squad'?"

"No," I chuckle, but it's empowering to hear this.  "Haven't checked much outside of Twitter.  My phone's taken a beating today, but I made it work."

"You're crazy, I don't know how you're getting away with working on vacation."

"It was horrible timing," I groan.  "Like, not for this, but for the trip...remind me to book these things super far out in the future so I don't have to abide by everyone else's schedules."

She's calm and collected, unlike me, as I let my hair down and run a frantic hand through it, trying to settle the adrenaline.

"Well don't kill me, but I totally want to have this discussion in person, and I'm in town for the holidays - can you guys make it to my kind-of-late New Year's party?  In January, the second week."

"Shit," I curse, checking the calendar on my phone while she's on speaker. 

"No good?"

"Just a conflicting event, but I wasn't a shoe in for it yet, anyway.  Yeah, yeah, I'll make it."