Something's gotta give

2 - Coming home

When Charlie returned home from her 3 weeks shooting contract which had taken place in several South African National Parks it was almost midnight. The taxi driver unloaded her backpack and the small suitcase from the trunk and she paid him. The tip was more than generous and so he thanked her delighted: "I can help you with you baggage..." Charlie answered with a shaking of her head. She was even too tired to give him an answer. "Ok... good night, then!" "Good night."

She took the backpack just by one strap on her left shoulder, took the metal case containing her camera equipment and dragged the trolley to her door and opened it. When she entered the dark and silent flat she immediately let go off her load and sighed. 'Maybe I should buy a cat at least', she thought. Returning to a deserted place wasn't exactly fun... Then she cracked a little smile. 'Stupid me... would it really be funnier to return to a furious animal which will probably shred the furniture and curtains out of boredom and loneliness while I'm gone? And my parents would be absolutely delighted to take care of a cat in my absence!'

She turned on the kitchen lights and went to the fridge. It was almost empty, some cans of Coke, two water bottles and some canned fish - she checked the content, it was just herring with different sauces. No, thanks. She felt not really hungry anyway. There's a McDonald's at every airport and Charlie was a junkie for fast food. So as soon as she'd picked up her baggage her first way had led her to the restaurant to have some unhealthy food.

So... what? Water or Coke? 'Oh, wait...' She had forgotten about the white wine! Perfect. She took the bottle and a glass, heading for the living room. She fell onto the couch and switched on the TV, checking the news channels. While she was zapping her eyes casually fell on the display of her landline. There was a red "4" flashing. She sighed again. 'Bet, at least it's two times my mother...' She pressed the button to listen to her messages, sipping on her wine.

The automatic voice announced a call from 8 days ago. "Hello daughter. This is your mother. I'm only calling to remind you not to forget about your grandmother's birthday on the 23rd. September, of course. Hope, you've had a great time in Africa. Bye-bye." Charlie asked herself if it was the right time to roll her eyes yet. She retrieved the next message from 6 days ago. "Charlotte, it's your mother again." 'Now', Charlie thought. 'This is the right moment to roll my eyes!', and she did. Her mother was well aware how much she hated to be called by her given name. "Don't forget to give us a call as soon as you're back. Bye-bye." Charlie took another sip of her wine. For a second the thought of doing what her mother demanded struck her mind. Wouldn't it be fun to wake up her parents in the middle of the night? No... it wouldn't, for sure! She shook her head in disbelief. As if she'd ever returned from a journey not giving them a call as soon as she was home!

The third message was from her agent, Sebastian. It was from yesterday. "Hey Charles! Hope, you didn't end up in a lion's jaw or got trampled by an elephant herd. Don't pull a face now, I know you! You're not best known for being extremely careful." She heard him laughing. "Anyway... I've got some interesting offers. We can talk about it as soon as you've had enough sleep. Good to have you back!" New offers, good. But not exactly unexpected. She recalled the last message, already yawning. Sebastian called just two hours ago. "Sorry, Charles - it's Seb again. You need to check your mails - now! This is huge! Really, really important! We might need to cancel all your contracts for the next year." 'Hmmm...' He really sounded excited - what actually happened before only once. "There's a request from... arghhh... I can't tell you. See for yourself! Call me back! Tomorrow, at the latest!"

Charlie rubbed her tired eyes. What was that all about? She remembered Seb's call when they'd got an inquiry by the manager of U2. He'd sounded just as excited back then. However - it was late, very late and she felt all exhausted. Couldn't be such a big deal, could it? She switched off the telly. Time to take a shower and pay a visit to her long-missed own bed.

She took a quick hot shower, slipped into her PJ's and jumped into her bed. And - got up again instantly. 'OK, Seb. You win. I'm gonna check my mails. This is disgusting. You made me curious. I need to see what you are talking about.' She stumbled back to the corridor where she had left her backpack with the laptop in it. She took it, made a quick detour to the living room to fetch the wine and the glass and went back to her bed.

After she had made herself comfortable she switched on the computer to check on her mails and Seb's was the only one unread for she'd been checking her mails regularly during her stay in Africa.

Seb had made a secret of his mail's content by choosing a cryptic subject: "If you don't take this chance - it'll be too late to apologize later!" Charlie heard a distant bell ringing in her head by reading it. She shook her head for she was unable to tell of what she felt reminded.

She opened the mail, sipping on her wine. And she read: "Charles! Fuck you for not being able to tell you in person! Fuck the airlines you took forbid phone calls on the flight! Fuck, fuck, fuck! Sorry, honey. I will stop cursing, sorry. But I sooooo would've loved you to get this right out of my mouth. Guess what?!? No-no, don't even try. You won't. Gotta a call from Ryan Tedder today." 'Ryan who?' Charlie thought and kept on reading. "He's from the band OneRepublic. They're on a World Tour right now. Aaaaaaaaaand... (add a dramatic drumming here!)... they want you to join them on their European leg of the tour! Well... at least for the European countries. Maybe even for other gigs, hell knows where else. Interested? Ryan's sent me a link to a video he made. Watch it - now! Call me when you've seen it. We need to sign this contract!" He in fact had added a link on the bottom of his mail. Charlie hesitated a few seconds. 'Ryan Tedder? OneRepublic? Should I know him? Or them?' she asked herself.

Before she decided to click on the link Seb gave her she started the browser to search for "OneRepublic Ryan Tedder". The results counted 644.000 matches. Charlie moaned and shut down the computer. 'No... not now. Whoever they are... or he is - this can wait. I'm far too tired', she thought. 'I'm gonna check them out tomorrow.'

But as soon as she'd shut down the lights and cuddled her pillow... she couldn't prevent to think of the pictures she'd just seen by looking at the search results. 'Ryan Tedder... hmmm... pretty face. Who is he, then?' was the last thought before she fell asleep.