Something's gotta give

3 - A shy guy?!

Charlie woke up after a refreshing 8 hours sleep. At first she couldn't really recall where she was. It only slowly dawned on her she was back home again. She stretched herself with delight and yawned extensively. Then she heard her stomach growling. 'That's the problem with junk food', she thought to herself. 'Just doesn't last for long. You're always feeling blown up like a balloon after a few bits, burping and farting afterwards... what's very attractive to men, in my experience!' She had to giggle. 'That... and the fact the calories get deposited right down on your hips and ass. I feel a hard workout coming up right away - I'm such a weak, dumb idiot! Well... there's no-one else to blame, then.'

All of a sudden her cell phone went off by playing a tune which she'd recently heard and liked it that much so she'd chosen it to be her ringtone. "My lover's got humour... she's the giggle at a funeral... knows everybody's disapproval... should've worshipped her sooner..." She smiled when she looked at her display, showing "Seb calling" and interrupted the song (regretfully) by taking the call. "Heeeeeey... how's it hanging, MacFile?", she said, as always referring to one of their both favorite movies "Back to the future" and Seb's passion for filing literally EVERYTHING on his MacBook.

Usually, his answer would be: "Still standing, dumbo!", but not this time. "Got my messages, Charles? Read my mail already?", he asked, still in the same excitement like yesterday, sounding impatient. "Yeah, I'm fine, good to be back and it all went well. Thanks for NOT asking.", Charlie answered sternly. "Good", Sebastian answered not showing any participation. "You're always fine, I'm aware you're back and I wouldn't be your agent anymore if it hadn't gone well - again. So?!?" Charlie knew perfectly well what Seb wanted to know but decided to pretend she wouldn't. "So - what?" She could hear how he lit a cigarette, inhaling nervously. "Charlie, please! Tell me you've checked your mailbox already. This cannot wait!"

Charlie sat up in her bed and grabbed her laptop. "Yes, I heard your important message last night. And I also read your mail. But that's it. I was too tired to..." She opened the laptop and saw that little light blinking. "Shit... I've forgotten to charge. So... I can't do it right now, Seb. But I promise... I'll do it within the next hour, OK? Oh... and I already checked on OneRepublic. And the guy... what's his name?" Sebastian began to cough. "Told you to stop stop smoking!" Charlie said taunting. "Shut up, Charles. You can be so ignorant sometimes. The guy's name's Ryan Tedder and he's one of the biggest shots in the music business, for goodness' sake! Listen, this can only wait until this afternoon, 5 o'clock - 5.30, tops! The band is in New York today which means there's a time difference of 6 hours. They need your decision before noon, Ryan told me or he must go looking for another photographer. But he wants you because... you need to watch the video. Get the lappy charged and just do what I've told you. Call me back later, I'm in a hurry. Bye!" "Bye, I'm gonna call you."

'Dear God', Charlie thought enervated. 'If my future life's obviously depending on watching that dammit video... fine. I'll do it. But coffee first.' She left her bed, taking the computer with her and went for the charger in her backpack. In her kitchen she plugged in the laptop first and prepared the coffee maker afterwards. While the black liquid elixir was in process she began to unpack her baggage, taking care of her camera equipment first. For it were all high-class expensive devices she'd gotten herself a safe for storing. She checked on the battery packs and found them fully loaded so she put everything into the safe and shut the door.

The smell of coffee called her back into the kitchen again she poured herself a mug and added plenty of sweetener for that's how she liked it. After taking some sips she switched on the laptop for recalling Seb's super-important mail und getting the video link. She retrieved it and was connected to her browser. After a few seconds a small cell phone video of low resolution and poor quality started. Charlie had to take a close look to recognize a man's head on the screen. He had a burgundy base cap on and its shield overshadowed the man's face down to his nose. The other half of his face was covered by a three-day stubble. The man seemed to hold the phone himself and Charlie couldn't tell if he was just an idiot, making this video with the lights in his back... or if he was just a shy type of guy, unwilling to show his face. At least he held the phone pretty steady. Then she heard him saying:

"Hi! My name is Ryan Tedder and I'm in the band OneRepublic. You might know or not know some of our songs. One or two of them haven been in the top ten charts, maybe even more, you know - I'm not good at counting, except for rhythm, you know." He chuckled low-voiced and shortly. "So... uhmmm... we're on the East Coast leg of our US tour currently but this is coming to an end within a couple of days. We'll be having a short break afterwards and then our time table is set for Europe. Uh... anyway, you know..."

By that time Charlie thought: 'Definitely a shy guy. And a nervous one! Only a few sentences and he'd already filled in "you know" three times.' At least he had an appealing voice, he sounded cheerful and was pronouncing every word very clearly. His American accent was even less annoying, slurring or absorbing vowels than others she'd had to listen too many times before.

"So... yeah. Why I'm doing this video: We're all suckers for U2, you know? And we totally love the illustrated book about their 'No line on the Horizon' tour - or more precisely: The amazing pictures taken by you. You know, there's already a camera team with us for we'll be releasing a concert DVD and Bluray afterwards. But, uh... we've decided we'd want to publish an illustrated book of our tour and donate the revenues to a special organization we're supporting. It's called 'Save the children'. Uh.... to make a long story short: We'd be absolutely excited and grateful, man, if you would consider to honor us with your accompany - and your camera, of course! So... yeah. Let me know as soon as possible. Your agent's got my number and mail address. Oh, and by the way: The tour's called Native. I'm pretty sure you can find a few clips of our concerts on youtube, just in case you'll be needing references. Hope to hear from you soon, dude!"

Before he switched off his phone he moved it a bit, the light changed and she was able to see his face more clearly for a second. And was struck by a pair of quite big blueish eyes and a flashing smile with a set of perfect white teeth.

For no particular reason she blushed. And she knew: She'd been totally wrong. He was no shy guy. Not at all...