by Nelson, Cara
“And a lot of coordination. How are you two busy peeps going to pull that off?”
“Phone and Skype…daily.”
“Oooh,” Brynn said, smiling again. She was raising her eye brows in a playful manner and eventually I burst out laughing.
“Just shush.”
For the rest of the day, Brynn and I chatted some, but honestly, I was completely distracted with all the work I had to do. The number one thing was revamping my paper to hand to my professor.
And what a mission it was turning out to be. It had all the elements: achievement, intrigue, sex, massive man crush, and helping others. I shocked myself by the thinking of others being last on my list. It was a sure sign that Simon had gotten under my skin.
Chapter Eighteen:
A Whole New World
Five weeks passed by so quickly and it was really strange only talking to Jessie via telephone and the occasional Skype, not being able to physically touch her. I couldn’t stand it, but she did have school, not just this concert. The amount of work she’d put in was admirable, though. She wasn’t a slacker and I appreciated that.
My flight had finally landed at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport and that’s where I sat, waiting for Jessie to board. I was pre-occupied, thinking about how one of the new acts that Blaze Line had just signed had gotten into some legal trouble. Did I cancel their contract, which I could, or still take a chance on them? I had a hard time being tolerant of people who got great opportunities and acted dumb.
Staring out at the tarmac and hoping that everyone would board the flight quickly so the 737 could get back in the air and start making its way to Newark, and then finally to West Africa, I thought about how there had better not be any unexpected surprises that I couldn’t take care of from across the ocean. It wasn’t like Gauge or Hunter could help me out until they arrived in West Africa for the concert. I was going to be gone for ten days and all the forms of technology I relied on regularly might not always be available or at optimal performance. I just had to hope that I’d put everything into perspective.
“Simon, hi,” Jessie said.
I jumped up and if it wasn’t for the extra space in first class, I would have bumped my head on the overhead luggage bins that would have been there.
“Jessie, hey there.” I looked at her. She looked like a walking ball of sunshine, wearing a white t-shirt with an abstract orange swirling sun on it, a white skirt and some sandals. A bit hipster, but she pulled it off, especially when you factored in her slightly tanned skin and the smile. She instantly made me happier and I felt like a better man.
I stood up and grabbed her carry-on bag. “Overhead?”
“Under the seat,” she said.
I slid it under the seat as she stood in the aisle and then turned around. It was only then that we hugged each other and I gave her the ‘friendly’ two back pats style hug, but I didn’t want to let her go. That floral scent she wore came back to me and I really liked it.
“Want me to take the inside seat?” she asked.
“If you don’t mind.”
“No problem,” she said, looking around. Her left eye brow raised slightly and then eased past me to sit down. Her skin brushed against my leg and although it was just material on material, my flesh reacted like she’d just seductively stroked my inner thigh.
I dropped into my seat and watched her fiddle with her seat belt. “Everything okay, Jess?”
“I guess. I was just looking around. This is so luxurious up here. Where’s everyone else?”
“In coach.”
“That makes me feel kind of snobby. You didn’t have to spend this money on me for first class, you know. I bet it costs more than a semester of grad school.”
“I don’t know if it does or doesn’t, but we haven’t had a chance to talk face-to-face for five weeks. I kinda thought we might have a lot to say. Easier to talk up here than it is in coach, yes?”
“I have no idea, but the money this cost could have probably been put to a better use,” she said.
I looked at her and thought, oh no, here we go again. Her money, rather lack of money, fascination tripped me up a bit.
“No turning back now,” I commented.
“Well, I’ll be eager to see how different a conversation is in first class than in coach,” she said, winking at me.
A flight attendant came up and smiled. “Would you care for some champagne or another beverage before take-off?”
I saw Jessie contemplating it. “I think you should have champagne to celebrate the kick-off to the festival.” Then I looked at the attendant and said, “I’ll take one, as well. Thanks.”
Two minutes later, we had crystal champagne flutes in hand and were toasting our adventure as the plane started to taxi down the tarmac, preparing to take flight again.
“To Eradicate Festival’s success,” I said.
“To our success,” Jessie added. “And a successful flight.”
My face dropped and she sensed her comment warranted an explanation.
“I recall you saying you didn’t care for flying,” she said, smiling and patting my hand with her free one. “Let me know if you need me to hold your hand.”
Okay, she was teasing me, but I didn’t mind. We each took a sip of the champagne and I tried to hide the fact that I despised champagne. Why I even thought I’d drink it just for the sake of the toast with Jessie was beyond me. It wasn’t something I’d normally do, but it seemed fitting.
Jessie, on the other hand, took a sip of the slightly amber bubbly liquid and as it slid down her throat, I saw her smile in complete delight. I loved how she appreciated the indulgence at that moment. I would have loved to indulge in her, but that would have to wait until we’d pulled off our business partnership. Oh yeah, and there was the friends thing, the ‘it happened once’ deal that we’d discussed at my apartment that morning. I’ll admit, it had thrown me off that she’d brought that up because that was usually what I might do—business before pleasure and all that. Oddly enough, I wouldn’t have said a word that day about it; didn’t think it was necessary. Didn’t want it to be necessary.
“It’s great that Brynn gets to come to do a story on the concert, isn’t it?” Jessie asked.
“Definitely. She’s become quite a well-known woman on the music scene, good for The Rift’s business, that’s for certain.”
“Yet her best work has been done outside the parameters of The Rift, in my opinion, anyway.”
“What do you mean?”
“Without she and Gauge hooking up, Trinity wouldn’t have met Hunter, and… I wouldn’t have met you.” She blinked, then blushed and quickly added, “For getting this concert thing done.”
Interesting. It sounded like a relationship hint, not a very subtle one, either. I didn’t show a smile on my face, but I felt myself light up from the inside out. “It’s been a lot of hard work and intense nights, but I think we’re ready.”
“Is there anything in specific I have to do with you when we get there? I know we have a week for coordinating efforts and whatnot, but I need to manage my time between the lab and learning what they’ve already done and sharing my research, and the village itself. Not sure how good I’d be at coordinating the actual venue.”
“And you don’t have to worry about it…unless you want to, of course.”
“No, not really,” Jessie said earnestly.
I would have never said it out loud, but I was quite thankful to hear that. Remembering how ticked she’d gotten at me for just taking over that day had startled me a bit and I didn’t want to have to deal with any emotional issues when it was time to take care of the details. Still, we’d come far since then. Maybe a bit too far that one time.
*****
After what seemed like forever, we were on the way to Freetown, Sierra Leone, for the concert. The pilot had just announced that we were beginning our descent, but Jessie didn’t notice. Her blond hair was tickling my neck and I glanced down at her, rely
ing on my peripheral vision. Her head was nestled into my shoulder and she was sound asleep. I couldn’t recall anyone ever sleeping on my shoulder like that before.
It was a strange feeling to know that I couldn’t move around and do what I wanted, but I didn’t want to disturb Jessie, either. So I sat there, my heart softly pounding and thinking about everything that was going on, checking and double checking the plans. And when I was sick of doing that, my thoughts were about Jessie, wondering how she’d felt that night when our business turned into some pretty great pleasure.
Maybe it was just having her head on my shoulder, but it was true I’d loved the sex with her and the conversation afterward. Then I’d felt a bit nervous about those thoughts deep inside me, my subconscious mind betraying me every time I thought of Jessie as more than just a friend, a business partner.
“Fasten your seatbelts to prepare for landing,” the flight attendant whispered to me.
I nodded my head and looked over at Jessie, again through my peripheral. She was blinking her eyes and starting to wake up. “We’re here,” she whispered, still sounding so groggy.
“Almost, good sleep?” I asked.
“Thanks for lending your shoulder to me. I don’t even know how that happened.”
I laughed. “Well, you were sleeping erect and I was going over some spread sheets on my tablet and then ‘plop,’ your head ended up on my shoulder. It just sort of toppled there.”
“Oh no, I’m so sorry, Simon. Why didn’t you wake me up?”
“I really didn’t mind,” I said softly. I put my hand out on her leg and gave it a gentle pat, which reaffirmed that regardless of how much internal bitching I was going to do about it, I really didn’t mind. Having her next to me felt good and I’d take it however I could get it, even if it was a sleeping beauty. At least I found out she didn’t drool.
“What are you smiling at?” Jessie asked.
I realized that I’d been lost in a thought and I looked over at her, “I don’t think you want to know.”
“Okay,” she said, stretching her arms above her head, “I’ll take your word for it.”
In about a minute flat, Jessie was energized and completely awake. It was zero to sixty with her—coffee not mandatory.
“I’m just so curious about Freetown. I wonder if they’ll understand that we’re there to help them. My research shows that they are a bit guarded, but research doesn’t really help you when it comes to the spirit of human interaction, right?”
“Makes sense, but for business, research is everything. I’ve hired the best interpreters to help relay that message and talk about the concert, so hopefully.”
Jessie looked at me and shook her head, a smile playing on her full lips.
“What was that for?” I asked.
“Simon, I doubt many of these people even own a music device. They are caught in their ways, a bit untrusting of some Westerners and superstitious about new technologies. I feel like it’ll be a challenge, but I think it’ll best be conquered by them seeing us in action, not just telling them we’re great.”
“You saying I’m not great?”
Jessie laughed and reached over to squeeze my hand, brushing her arm against mine in the process. There was a slight pause and then she softly said, “I think you’re really great, Simon.”
Chapter Nineteen:
No Itinerary Here
I watched out the window of the taxi in complete awe as we made our way through the narrow streets of Freetown to the hotel. What a city! I’d never seen anything like it. There were over a million people, but very few tall buildings could be seen anywhere. Sadly, and as expected, most of what I saw looked like run-down, pieced-together homes as we made our way into the heart of the city. Bags of trash littered the street corners and dozens of school-age kids were running around. Why weren’t they in school?
Simon was busy looking down at his telephone, already in business mode, checking messages, coordinating details, and who knew what else.
“You should do that later, you’re going to miss this. It’s amazing,” I said. He glanced at me and smiled, but put it away. “It seems so sprawling, like more people would live here than even do.”
“Sure.”
I knew he just agreed to be nice and couldn’t care less about it, but I wasn’t going to let it bother me. I could just feel this connection with this city and the thought of getting to work in the lab at their university for a few days to see what they’d done in the way of natural research and compare it to what I’d done…the possibilities were endless.
“Simon, do you think that’s a government building or something?” I asked, pointing to one in general. “It’s huge. And it looks really nice.”
He started laughing. “Jessie, that’s our hotel. The Radisson Blu.”
“You’re kidding!”
“No, I’m not. See.” I followed where his finger was pointing and looked up to see Radisson in huge letters along one of the sides of the building.
“Are we all staying there?”
“Yeah,” he said.
I smiled. I hoped to get a chance to know some of the other people that were a part of this concert and idea better. The ones that came that day with us were in coach and others would be trickling in on various flights on different days. I just wanted each and every one of them to know how thankful I was to them.
As we pulled up to the hotel, I was a bit taken aback to see a bunch of photographers there, taking pictures of us getting out of the cabs. There was a line of about six cabs for everyone who’d come with us on the plane.
“Whoa, Simon, you’re that popular here?”
“They are here because I hired them. They’ll be documenting everything and capturing the images that we’ll be using for a long time to come when it comes to talking about this concert.”
“And relief effort,” I added. It was getting kind of old adding that in, but I felt like I had to. If I didn’t, Simon could easily lose sight of it and who knows, maybe I could get trapped in all this out of place glitz in Freetown, too.
As Simon opened the car door, a bell hop from the hotel, a young boy who looked like he should be in school, opened the door the rest of the way. “Welcome to Freetown,” he said, smiling widely, showing a large gap in his front teeth. He wore it well, though.
Behind him was a woman who wore a blue suit, her hair pulled back tightly, and was so tall, about six feet, or so it seemed to me.
All Simon said was, “Would you please go register us all, Marina?” he said in a voice I’d never heard before, clearly his I-am-your-boss, you-will-do-as-I-say voice. He didn’t even say ‘hi’ or ask her how she was doing. Kind of rude!
We followed her into the lobby and Simon introduced me as “our outreach director” to some of the people that I’d be working with. Outreach director, really? That was the first time that I’d heard that statement. I’d say that I was the heart of the operation, and there was no spinning that.
Still, I was happy to meet some of the people. There was a lighting expert, Doug, who was really nice and fun. He said he knew Brynn, too, and I found out that he’d been a part of her summer internship following ProVokaTiv around last year. I met the interpreters next and one, Abena, was to assist me whenever I needed it. Wow! I felt way too important.
“Abena is a beautiful name. What does it mean?” I asked.
“It mean ‘born on Tuesday’.”
My face must have dropped. Did I hear her correctly?
She started laughing and said, “African names sound more beautiful than they mean. This true sometimes.”
“A family name?” I asked, raising an eye brow.
Abena laughed again. I loved her laugh! “No. My parents not know what to name me. They fought between family names and were stubborn. So, they picked Abena.”
“Please tell me you were actually born on a Tuesday, though,” I said.
“Yes. This true.”
I loved her choppy English and her infectiou
s spirit. We were going to have a lot of fun, I could just tell.
“Okay, Jessie, your room is set. You’re in number 2168. The bellhop has your luggage.” Simon said this to me and put his hand on my elbow, like he was my father and afraid he’d lose me. I bit protective, which was kind of hot and kind of “what the hell?”
Abena started to walk away. “Wait—Abena, how will I be able to get in touch with you when I need your help?” I asked. It was a fair question.
Simon looked at Abena. “We’ll need you tomorrow morning first thing, okay?”
“Yes, sir, thank you,” she said.
I looked at her, dressed bright and festive in a yellow straight skirt that made her ebony skin look even darker, her curly hair that was tied back with a headband, and a simple white blouse and white shoes. She looked so lovely, so different from anyone I ever saw in Minneapolis. And I had to admit, I wondered how she stayed clean making her way about the city because it seemed a bit dirty and dusty.
“Bye Abena, I’m looking forward to it,” I said, waving at her.
My hotel room was amazing and I just stared at the rich colors of rust and orange and yellow in it, accented by stark white sheets and pillows, and even countertops. Walking over to the window, I glanced out. My room was facing the back side of the hotel, which meant I could see the pool, and beyond the large palm trees, the ocean in the distance. Really, the view outside my window was entirely different than the one I had when walking into the hotel. Funny how a window could make for such a different perspective.
I unpacked my things and took a shower. I couldn’t wait because I felt so grimy and that was a long flight. I thought about how I’d fallen asleep on Simon’s shoulder. Hopefully I hadn’t stunk.
Before long, there was a firm rhythmic 1-2-3 rap on the door of the hotel room. Didn’t need to look to see who that was. I walked over to it and opened it up. “Hi.”
“How’s your room?”
“I love it, it’s beautiful.”
