p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Chapter One/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Paige/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Ellie disappeared through the open door, shutting it quietly behind her. I sighed as it clicked shut, hiding her behind it. It would be nice – more than nice, actually- to have what she had. A nice guy who was a little in his head at times, but always had a kind word – especially for the support staff, all the people who worked in the shadows, the ones who – without- his job would be ten times harder and almost impossible./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"At my side, my walkie-talkie squawked, Payton, another PA, called my name, breaking me out of my clichéd happily ever after fantasy./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""I'm here," I replied, "Well, I just dropped her off. She asked if I could grab her something to eat, so I'm heading to craft services, where are you?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""Craft services," Payton said with a giggle. "I'll wait for you; I want to hear everything about her."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""Okay, I'll be there in five."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Dropping the walking-talkie to the seat beside me, I turned the golf cart around and headed across the stadium./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"There is a buzz in the air, a nervous energy that is always present on the first night of a show in a new town; everyone rushing around double checking their work so that each performance goes off without a hitch./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"I find Payton leaning against the wall of a large open room where craft services have set up food for the night. She shoves a Styrofoam to go box into my hands as I walk in. "For Ellie," she murmurs so as not to be overheard."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Ellie was the girlfriend of the band's guitarist. They parted ways ten years ago and have since reconnected. Connor went to her wedding but from the rumors going around, she divorced her husband and has been working in secret with Jesse to surprise Connor at tonight's show in what the record label has yet to decide is pure marketing genius or a disaster waiting to happen./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"I work for the band The Last of Us, as a PA and have been with them for almost five years now. There are two other PA's aside from Payton and me, then our boss who works with the band's general manager. It's not a hard job, but not an easy one either. The hours can be long, the time on the road overwhelming, but at the end of every day, I go to bed feeling happy and whole./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"I take the box from Payton and say, "You didn't have to do it for me."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""No worries," she replies, "I'm not busy and figured Jesse has you running in seventy different directions tonight trying to pull all this off."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Laughing, I tell her, "Surprisingly, he's been really chill. I think he's nervous about the performance, but I think he knows her well enough to know that she can do it and not mess up. She's a nervous wreck though. Want to come with me to drop off her food?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Payton nods and we're back on the golf cart zipping across the stadium, dodging crew members and record execs./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""What's she like?" she asks as I turn a corner and almost run over a skinny kid pushing a black case./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""She's nice," I reply. "Nervous as hell though, like I said. Poor thing lost her lunch before I even got her to her dressing room."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""I would be too," Payton sympathizes. "All those people out there, staring at me. I'd probably puke too."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""Yeah," I agree. "I couldn't do it. I'm sure she'll do fine though once she has a chance to eat something and take it all in."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"I did want her to do well. I wanted Ellie to go out there and get her guy finally. I tried to ignore all the rumors that swirled around while we were out on tour, but something about Connor and Ellie's story had me hooked, lurking in the shadows to learn more./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Apparently, the story was ten years ago, Connor and Ellie dated. She got pregnant – the story varies here; some say it was Connor's baby and others say Ellie was sexually assaulted. I don't know the truth, but in my gut, I know Connor would never abandon a pregnant girl, so I lean toward the assault version being the truth, but I digress. Anyway, Connor left her, the band blew up and they didn't speak again until a few months ago. Since then, they'd been locked in a battle of wills, neither willing to forgive the past and move on./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Then Ellie reached out to Jesse, having divorced her husband, and spent some time reflecting on the past, she decided that Connor was always the one for her and asked Jesse to help her reconnect with him and here we are now./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"So yes, I wanted tonight to go well. I wanted them to both find their own little slice of happiness. Over the years, I've come to love the guys like brothers. The whole crew was like one big, loud, overbearing family and now that Ellie had reentered the picture, that sentiment extended to her as well./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Beside me, Payton said, "It was really nice of Jesse to arrange all of this. How he's managed to keep it a secret from Connor I'll never know."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""Me either," I replied, fighting to control the blush flaming across my cheeks, the heat warming my face as the memory of the look Jesse shot me from the backseat of the car as I helped Ellie exit the vehicle./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""What are you daydreaming about over there?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""Hmm?" I shook my head and turned to face her hoping she couldn't see my red face in the shadowy hallway. "Nothing; not a darn thing."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"My lips burned to spill all the details of that night last month, the desire to tell someone was overwhelming. I turned toward Payton about to confess when the door to the dressing room opened and Ryanne poked her head out./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""I thought I heard you two out here," she said with a smile./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""I brought Ellie something to eat; I figured she'd need it after…" I trailed off not wanting to embarrass her further./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""Ooh good. She's a little more settled now, she'll really appreciate this. Also, she changed her mind, she decided to wait backstage until it's time for her to go out."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"I nod completely understanding her change of heart. "Okay, thank you for letting me know. Do either of you need anything else in the meantime?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""No, I think we're all set," Ryanne replied./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"I wave as she re-enters the room and heads back to Payton. "Sorry," I say, "I really was going to introduce you to Ellie."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Payton waves me off. "If everything goes good tonight, I can meet her whenever."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"I glance at my watch, then back to Payton. "Looks like the show's about to start, let's go find ourselves some good seats this time."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Paige/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Ellie disappeared through the open door, shutting it quietly behind her. I sighed as it clicked shut, hiding her behind it. It would be nice – more than nice, actually- to have what she had. A nice guy who was a little in his head at times, but always had a kind word – especially for the support staff, all the people who worked in the shadows, the ones who – without- his job would be ten times harder and almost impossible./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"At my side, my walkie-talkie squawked, Payton, another PA, called my name, breaking me out of my clichéd happily ever after fantasy./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""I'm here," I replied, "Well, I just dropped her off. She asked if I could grab her something to eat, so I'm heading to craft services, where are you?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""Craft services," Payton said with a giggle. "I'll wait for you; I want to hear everything about her."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""Okay, I'll be there in five."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Dropping the walking-talkie to the seat beside me, I turned the golf cart around and headed across the stadium./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"There is a buzz in the air, a nervous energy that is always present on the first night of a show in a new town; everyone rushing around double checking their work so that each performance goes off without a hitch./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"I find Payton leaning against the wall of a large open room where craft services have set up food for the night. She shoves a Styrofoam to go box into my hands as I walk in. "For Ellie," she murmurs so as not to be overheard."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Ellie was the girlfriend of the band's guitarist. They parted ways ten years ago and have since reconnected. Connor went to her wedding but from the rumors going around, she divorced her husband and has been working in secret with Jesse to surprise Connor at tonight's show in what the record label has yet to decide is pure marketing genius or a disaster waiting to happen./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"I work for the band The Last of Us, as a PA and have been with them for almost five years now. There are two other PA's aside from Payton and me, then our boss who works with the band's general manager. It's not a hard job, but not an easy one either. The hours can be long, the time on the road overwhelming, but at the end of every day, I go to bed feeling happy and whole./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"I take the box from Payton and say, "You didn't have to do it for me."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""No worries," she replies, "I'm not busy and figured Jesse has you running in seventy different directions tonight trying to pull all this off."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Laughing, I tell her, "Surprisingly, he's been really chill. I think he's nervous about the performance, but I think he knows her well enough to know that she can do it and not mess up. She's a nervous wreck though. Want to come with me to drop off her food?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Payton nods and we're back on the golf cart zipping across the stadium, dodging crew members and record execs./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""What's she like?" she asks as I turn a corner and almost run over a skinny kid pushing a black case./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""She's nice," I reply. "Nervous as hell though, like I said. Poor thing lost her lunch before I even got her to her dressing room."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""I would be too," Payton sympathizes. "All those people out there, staring at me. I'd probably puke too."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""Yeah," I agree. "I couldn't do it. I'm sure she'll do fine though once she has a chance to eat something and take it all in."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"I did want her to do well. I wanted Ellie to go out there and get her guy finally. I tried to ignore all the rumors that swirled around while we were out on tour, but something about Connor and Ellie's story had me hooked, lurking in the shadows to learn more./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Apparently, the story was ten years ago, Connor and Ellie dated. She got pregnant – the story varies here; some say it was Connor's baby and others say Ellie was sexually assaulted. I don't know the truth, but in my gut, I know Connor would never abandon a pregnant girl, so I lean toward the assault version being the truth, but I digress. Anyway, Connor left her, the band blew up and they didn't speak again until a few months ago. Since then, they'd been locked in a battle of wills, neither willing to forgive the past and move on./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Then Ellie reached out to Jesse, having divorced her husband, and spent some time reflecting on the past, she decided that Connor was always the one for her and asked Jesse to help her reconnect with him and here we are now./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"So yes, I wanted tonight to go well. I wanted them to both find their own little slice of happiness. Over the years, I've come to love the guys like brothers. The whole crew was like one big, loud, overbearing family and now that Ellie had reentered the picture, that sentiment extended to her as well./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Beside me, Payton said, "It was really nice of Jesse to arrange all of this. How he's managed to keep it a secret from Connor I'll never know."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""Me either," I replied, fighting to control the blush flaming across my cheeks, the heat warming my face as the memory of the look Jesse shot me from the backseat of the car as I helped Ellie exit the vehicle./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""What are you daydreaming about over there?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""Hmm?" I shook my head and turned to face her hoping she couldn't see my red face in the shadowy hallway. "Nothing; not a darn thing."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"My lips burned to spill all the details of that night last month, the desire to tell someone was overwhelming. I turned toward Payton about to confess when the door to the dressing room opened and Ryanne poked her head out./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""I thought I heard you two out here," she said with a smile./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""I brought Ellie something to eat; I figured she'd need it after…" I trailed off not wanting to embarrass her further./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""Ooh good. She's a little more settled now, she'll really appreciate this. Also, she changed her mind, she decided to wait backstage until it's time for her to go out."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"I nod completely understanding her change of heart. "Okay, thank you for letting me know. Do either of you need anything else in the meantime?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""No, I think we're all set," Ryanne replied./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"I wave as she re-enters the room and heads back to Payton. "Sorry," I say, "I really was going to introduce you to Ellie."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Payton waves me off. "If everything goes good tonight, I can meet her whenever."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"I glance at my watch, then back to Payton. "Looks like the show's about to start, let's go find ourselves some good seats this time."/span/p