Inspiration comes - Bladee ff.

day 1 - intro

8:24 am.

   Sitting with a croissant in my mouth and a cup of coffee in front of me, all in the middle of a studio full of people. This would sound like a typical experience, if my body didn't feel (and look) like it was 4 am after two whole days of no sleep due to all the travelling across time zones. I would be able to kill for even two hours of bedtime in this moment.

   As our meeting is supposed to start soon I am desperately looking for my manager, Jo, with my eyes, since during the hectic schedule I've had these past weeks, I didn't have the opportunity to review what this whole project is about besides the basics. This means I have literally no idea whom I'm even going to be working with, and as my brain is already running on energy saver mode, I wouldn't want to run into a situation, where I end up in a conversation with someone I should know, but I actually don't, yet. I always come prepared and memorize names with faces, so I am quite on the edge right now.

"Is this seat taken?" asks a deep voice from behind me.

   I suddenly snap out of my deep concentration on nothing, and turn back to the individual towering over me. He points at the chair to my right as I wonder, why on earth would anyone pick this exact seat, when literally all of the other ones are empty as well around the long meeting table.

"Yes, of course" I say as a reflex, but immediately realize how big of an idiot I am. "I mean no, it's not taken, of course you can sit on it..."

"Thank you" says the stranger, slightly smiling at my dumb slip of tounge while sitting down.

   I try to examine him in a lowkey, not-so-creepy way, since he looks rather eyecatching. He's wearing an oversized navy sweater, with a white polo collar peaking out at his neck, baggy grey jeans and something pink, which I suppose are meant to be handwarmers. On his feet, a pair of neon yellow slippers, and some plastic clips randomly placed in his long curly hair.

   He suddenly turns my way, so I quickly shift my gaze to the very interesting cup of coffee, acting like I have been staring at it this whole time. As a conclusion, I decide based on his looks that he must be a rather important person whom I should probably be nice with, if I don't want to get myself into trouble right away. I clear my throat to catch his attention.

"Nice hair clips" I say, gesturing at my own head to help convey my message.

"Thanks," he nods, briefly scanning me with his green eyes "Nice hair as well."

   I look back at him dumbfounded, as my hair has been in the same messy bun for the past 20 hours and I still didn't have the chance to put my hand on a hairbrush.

"Are you being sarcastic right now?"

   My slipped out question catches him off-guard, and he immediately tries to hide a smile.

"Hmm, maybe a little bit."

   I just smirk awkwardly at his half-insult-half-compliment, and after the officially driest interaction of my life, we both go back to minding our own business. As Jo is still not around, I happen to listen in on the conversation two younger girls are having by the corner of the table. They seem to be interns, but they caught my attention after mentioning one of my favourite artists recently.

"... and when my friend told me she got on the same set as Lisa, I knew I would intern on the photoshoot with Bladee" tells the blonde girl in a toned down, but excited way. "I'm telling you, it was meant to be!"

   Honestly, I have no idea what kind of Lisa she is talking about, but Bladee is definitely one of my top listens these days, so I could understand her.

   The weird-looking guy chuckles next to me. Although I'm not sure what he found so funny suddenly, as I turned to him I finally saw Jo walking into the room.

"Jo!" I jump up as she approaches me. I see her first scanning me, then the person sitting between us and her eyes meet mine again with a bright smile I didn't expect.

"Anja, it's so nice to see you two already made acquaintances!" says Jo upon reaching us, immadiately turning to the sitting stranger.

"I- we did what?"

"It's a pleasure meeting you," Jo reaches to shake his hand. "I'm Jo, Anja's manager."

"Bladee" says apparently... Bladee.

   The moment it all clicks feels like a millisecond, but the long moment of suffering afterwards has made me five years older on the spot.

   I hear the interns gasp behind me. At least I'm not the only one gobsmacked by the fact that Bladee himself is in the same room as me - and I just made a complete fool of myself by not recognizing him. Exactly what I was trying to avoid today.

   After their introduction with Jo, Bladee turns back to me, and I immadiately collapse with my head on the table facing the other way. I would bet he's holding back his laugh like he did hearing that intern fangirl about him.

   Jo takes the seat to my left. I look her in the eyes and mouth "I will kill you" silently. She was aware of it and she didn't tell me!

   Ugh, how am I supposed to know what this man's face looks like, when he is so good at practically hiding it?

   During the meeting I tried my best to not look at him, hide my face from his sight and absolutely dodge every opportunity of another conversation happening between Bladee and I. My plan almost succeeded, if I only managed to leave as soon as the meeting was officially over. Of course, I couldn't be that lucky.

"Anja..." I heard my name in a deep voice, forcing me to wait for whatever scribble Bladee was putting onto paper for me.

"Yeah?"

"Here" he ripped off the part of his paper with a sequence of numbers on it and slid it in front of me, "my number, if you're free today to have a meeting about the project."

   I have no time to react anything, as he picks his stuff up and walk off right away, without glancing at me once.

   What a cold guy... or was I that mean, not recognizing him right away? Is it possible that I made him hate me already?

"Anja, you're hotel room is ready, we should go and take our bagadges there." informs me Jo, which quickly makes me forget about all my worries for now.

"I don't care about the bagadges, I'm going to sleep 10 hours right now."

   What I said earlier wasn't so far from the truth. Upon arriving at the hotel, I fell straight into bed, and didn't get out until 6 pm. I almost felt a bit guilty for sleeping the whole day, but after all those schedules I really needed it. Besides, I didn't miss anything official, and it isn't even a must that I meet up with Bladee today.

   Right, my meeting with Bladee.

   I would love to avoid having a one-on-one with him not just today, any time in the future, but I know that's not an option for me right now. After some serious thinking, I realized it would only make me look worse if I ignored seeing him today at all, and that I have to get over it sooner or later. With this in mind, I picked up my phone and sent my 100-times-rephrased text message to the number he gave me.

hi, this is Anja! i'm sorry for the late message,

is it still possible for us to have the meeting today?

   The reply came faster than expected.

Ye sure, come to the 8th floor balcony when you can

   I would be lying if I said I knew what place he's talking about, but I'm sure I can find it somehow.

   I took a deep breath and exhaled for a good 10 seconds, before starting to get ready.