“Brand new lies, brand new tries, I can’t live without you in this life,” I sang, my voice ringing out throughout the room. I closed my eyes and held the right headphone to my head. “Each day better than before, but each time we stumble it’s worse than the first.” I paused. “Cut tape,” I said, taking the headphones down from my head and hanging them
around my neck.
“Taylor?” Jim asked, his voice coming into the sound studio.
“It’s noon” I said pointing to my new watch face with a exaggerated smile.
I could see Jim laughing and pretending to roll his eyes, “whoever gave him a watch is in trouble,” he joked.
I took the headphones from my neck and hung them on the microphone stand. I walked back into the control room and met up with my brothers and my label employees. “Lunch time,” I concluded, pointing towards the pizza and soda that was set up on the table in the control room. I noticed that there were a few pieces missing along with a few plates. “Well, thanks for waiting,” I said, grabbing two pieces of extra cheese and flopping down in one of the leather chairs next to the table.
“Look at this guy,” Isaac commented taking another chair. “You’d think he’d steer clear of the cholesterol.”
“Of course not,” Jim said, standing next to him, holding half a slice on a napkin. “He’s a bottomless pit anyway.”
“We have plates, you know,” I kidded, shoving the stack towards him.
Zac grabbed a pepperoni slice and sat down across from me at the table. “So, you guys, what are you doing for Valentine’s Day?”
“You mean besides sitting in a studio all day and all night long?” Jim questioned, pulling up a chair and situating himself in it right in front of the plain pie.
“I sent some flowers and chocolates to my wife back in Tulsa,” Isaac stated.
“She’s picking up the gifts for the kids, probably just the usual chocolates and some sort of chicken toy for Amanda. The boys get an action figure or matchbox car. When they come in next week we’ll, uh, celebrate. What about you, Zac?”
Zac swallowed before speaking, “well, actually, Nicole’s going to be working tonight.”
“Zachary, it’s your first Valentine’s Day as a married couple, it’s supposed to be special.”
My little brother nodded, “I’m going to fly in at eleven tonight and surprise her.” Zac blushed as we patted him on the back and told him how that was a great idea. My brother didn’t seem to be that much of a romantic, but over his wife he was head over heels in love and would do anything for her, including exerting all the qualities that he
never showed to anyone else before. His real personality was that of a gentle, timid person, totally not what anyone would expect him to be in real life.
“I’m sending my daughter some flowers,” Jim spoke up.
I sat up straighter in my seat. “In Washington?” I questioned.
My friend nodded. “She emailed me around Christmas, telling me that she missed me.”
My eyes grew wide with the news. He hadn’t told me about this before and I couldn’t even begin to guess why. “Will you be seeing her?”
“I can’t,” Jim said.
“Your ex still has non-visitation rights over you?”
Jim nodded and brushed back his hair. “Ann Marie wants to visit me during the summer. I can’t stand telling her that she can’t.”
I put my hand on his shoulder. “Do you want to see her?”
“Of course.”
“I’ll help you,” I told him. “We’ll fight it.”
“I don’t want her involved in a custody battle,” Jim told me sharply. “She’s too young to have to go through that head on. Last time the courts tried hard to keep her out of it, which is probably one of the reasons I lost her. But if we tried now... I’m pretty sure since she’s the one that wants to see me she’d be involved heavily. I don’t want to disrupt her life.”
I nodded, but didn’t necessarily agree, however, he had a point. A child should not have to go through that crisis at such an early age, or any age for that matter. “If you ever want help, I’ll be here.”
Jim nodded, “thanks man.” He cleared his throat. “Since you’re the only one with a wife here,” he said, trying to change the subject, “what are you up to tonight?”
“I’m scared to hear about this one,” Isaac joked. He pointed at me, “you should have seen this guy before he met Clare. I mean, he would never really do half of the things he does now. He’d die for this woman, he really would.”
“You mean he never held open doors as a kid?” Jim joked.
“Actually, he did that. He also would open doors for girls and pull out their chairs for them.”
“So what are you doing tonight, Taylor?” Zac went on. “And, even more, what’s in that huge plastic bag on a clothing hanger that you brought in today and hung up right over there?” He pointed towards the bag that was hanging up on the door frame of a closet door.
I cleared my throat. “Well, to answer the first question, around noon my wife received a bouquet of a dozen red roses from the florist with a card attached to it asking her to be ready and waiting on the front porch by seven tonight.”
“Why?”
“I’m taking her out tonight to an inn about an hour upstate in the mountains.”
“And what’s in the bag?”
“What I’m wearing tonight.”
“Ohhhh,” came a chorus from the room.
“So it’s empty?” Zac joked.
I raised my hand to pretend to smack him. Everyone in the room cracked up, even me.
There was a knock on the door, and then it opened. “Excuse me, Mr. Hanson?” A timid looking intern asked me. “You have a phone call on line one.”
“Thanks,” I told him, calming my hysterical voice. I wiped my hands on my pants as I stood, making a face when I realized what I had done, and walked towards the phone in the studio. I clicked the button, “Taylor Hanson, owner of New Generation Records,” I said, “how may I help you?”
I could barely hear the person on the end of the phone over the sobs, all I could make out was my wife’s voice saying “Taylor, I love you!”