That's All She Wrote || James Diamond

Ho Ho Hopefully (2.9)

Eight days.

James had been back in Minnesota for eight days.

192 hours, 11520 minutes, 691,200 seconds since Roxy had dropped him off at the airport... Not that she had been counting. It had been nearly impossible for her to keep track of time thanks to the extra effort Gustavo and Kelly were expecting from her, Logan, Kendall, and Carlos to make up for their bandmate's absence.

None of them had expected their bosses to be okay with the singer's request for a full eight days off of work to celebrate Hanukkah with his mother; Their work schedule was already jam-packed between recording sessions, media training, and dance practices since the native Minnesotans were all planning on heading home for the holiday season on December 24th.

"You can't just say 'No,' to Brooke Diamond," James had told her, getting the phone call from the entrepreneur two weeks ago asking him to come home for her holiday celebration. There was a bit of dismay in his voice as he shared, hinting at how he felt about heading back to Duluth, something his girlfriend was reluctant to comment on.

He had been correct in his statement about his mother, learning she had also called their boss with the same request, and his time off was immediately approved without a second thought. Gustavo even offered to pay for his round-trip flight, as long as James could make it back to record in the four-day gap between the last night of Hanukkah and Christmas Eve.

Roxy had a sneaking suspicion his decision would have been the same even without Brooke's intervention. Even with the band's tough working conditions as the year was coming to a close, she suspected that they were rubbing off on him more than he cared to admit. The other day he had let Carlos collaborate with Mr. X to formulate a new dance routine, Logan had convinced him they needed more than one half-hour break throughout the workday, and it seemed as though he was yelling at Kendall far less than he ever had in the past. Gustavo was even critiquing her songwriting less and less, acting more as a songwriting partner than an authority figure. So, James' approved time off was only supporting her theory, though she knew the man would never admit it.

In between work days, packing for her trip home, and making and shopping for presents for her friends and father, Roxy and James were on the phone constantly. Text messages if they were caught up in something, phone calls on the way home from places, FaceTalk all hours of the night... Carlos had taken her phone away from her when they were playing Biohazard Blast the other day against Kendall and Logan because it was a '"major distraction."

Tonight, Camille and Jo had done the same when they entered 2-H for a dinner get-together they had planned now that Roxy and Camille could stand to be in the same room as each other. Their first time hanging out together in quite a while would also be the last time all three girls would be able to spend time with each other before their respective trips home. While their busy schedules were much appreciated, it made seeing one another almost impossible these days.

"Don't look so sad! We're way more fun to hang out with than your virtual boyfriend," Camille joked over the sound of holiday music drifting from Roxy's tape player, poking around in songwriter's cabinets to find the right cookware for the tacos the three were planning on making.

Taking the ingredients from her fridge and pantry, Roxy chuckled at her friend's comment, "While that may be true, it doesn't change the fact that I miss him so much. My journal is full of sappy, cliche songs to prove it."

Not only had this been the longest James and Roxy had been apart, but the boys had told her this was also the longest they had ever gone without seeing James as well.

"Girl's Night is about forgetting all of that!" Countered Jo, who slid into one of the chairs at the small kitchen table while looking the songwriter up and down. "Can we trust you in that t-shirt or do you need to change?"