Promise (JM)

10

Ryder's Pov

8 am comes too soon and my alarm goes off.

I sit up and rub the sleep from my eyes.

To my surprise, the call is still going.

If I'm not careful this is gonna become a habit.

When I'm able to function enough I climb out of bed and shuffle to my bathroom to get ready.

Once I'm finished getting ready I emerge from my bathroom as quietly as I can.

It's only 5 am there and I can't bug him to wake up. 

"What the-" He fusses as he moves a bit

"Shhhh. It's okay." 

He groans again and this time rolls back so his face is towards the camera rubbing his face a bit.

Shit.

"Shit. I'm sorry Jo I didn't realize we were still on call. I didn't mean to wake you. I'm so sorry." 

His eyes are still closed.

"It's okay. What time is it?" He mumbles sleepily

"8 am my time, 5 am yours." 

"Ouch." 

"I know. I'm so sorry. I'm gonna let you try and go back to sleep."

"Okay." 

"I'm gonna hang up. I'll talk to you later when you're ready to be up."

"Mhm." He mumbles as he rolls back over

I end the call and pull my phone from the charger.

I then grab my bag and I'm headed out to my car.

When I arrive at the studio I'm informed there are doughnuts for everyone. 

This is great for me, cause I rushed out of the house this morning.

I grab a couple of doughnuts and a cup of coffee before returning to my desk. 

Just as I finish my doughnuts and coffee I'm called into Liz's office for our morning check-in.

These have been a thing we're trying instead of long meetings with the whole team.

I step into her office and push the door behind me.

"This is perfect because I have some things I really need to talk to you about," I say

"What's up?" 

I begin to explain my situation to her. 

"I see you've made connections," Liz says

"Yeah, but you've also been a really big part of that. I heard you helped pull some strings and I can't thank you enough for that." 

"I wish you would've talked to me about wanting to go this direction earlier. We could've set something up sooner." 

"So you're cool with me going?" 

"Ryder if I wasn't cool with you going I wouldn't have helped at all. I think you'd be a great asset to an artist team. Especially Eben's. And if you try it out and decide that it's not for you, you've still got your spot here." She smiles

"That's so nice of you to say. Like seriously I can never thank you enough for everything. Encouraging me and helping me out." 

"That's what I'm here for kid. We're gonna change this industry together remember?" 

"You're damn right we are!" 

"Obviously, this could go either way but I still feel like you'll really like working with Eben and the rest of his team. I saw the two of you during the summer show. I think you two are going to work well together. I do want to say be careful. This industry can be messy and you know it's not always fair. I know you've made connections with the Why Don't We guys. If it weren't for that one thing, I'd say you'd be a perfect fit for their team as well."