Louder Than Love || Chris Cornell

Time For A Little P.A

Seattle Washington,
January 13, 1992

"What have you got to be nervous about?" Chris looks over at me from the drivers side of his pick up. I look down at myself and smooth out my high waisted flowy knee length skull patterned skirt, making sure my plain black longsleeve shirt was still tucked in.
"I don't know... I can't help it" I say.

"You'll be fine... You didn't have to bring your resume you know..." He says as he looks back out the windshield as we make our way to Susan Silver's office.
"Well... I just want to make a good impression and I want her to take me seriously. I don't want it to look like I asked you to get me the job..." I say as I flip through the black folder I held in my hand.
"Babe it won't look like that... don't worry," He turns and looks at me with the cutest smile on his face and I smirk back at him as he takes my hand and places his soft lips to my skin.

We pull up to the curb just outside her office and Chris hops out of his side of the truck. I can't help but watch him as he walks around to my side, his curls flowing in the cool breeze as he zips up his leather jacket. It may have still been January but it was oddly warmer than normal and we still didn't even have snow yet. Oh the joys of living on the west coast.

He reaches my side and opens the passenger door to help me out of the truck. He chuckles a little as I gracefully hop down, my lacy black open toed heel wedges making that clicking sound as I touch the concrete below.

I quickly grab the black folder off of the seat and he closes the passenger door for me and just as I move to head up to the door, he takes my hand and stops me.
"Wait," He says and I turn to look at him.
"What?" I ask as I look up at him. He pulls me back to him and leans down to me.
"You look so beautiful baby," He says quietly in my ear and places a soft kiss against my earlobe. I smile and close my eyes to inhale his cologne mixed with smoke and his leather jacket, giving me chills all up and down my spine.
"Thank you," I say quietly as I place my hand on his chest. He gives me another quick kiss on my temple as we turn and walk up to the front door of the building and head inside.

"Hi, Chris how are you?" A young blonde receptionist smiles as we walk up to her desk.
"Hi, Nina... is Susan in her office?" Chris asks and I suddenly feel a little weird.
"She sure is... you can head back there if you like," The blonde smiles sweetly at him.
"Sweet... thanks," Chris smiles back and leads me down the hall to Sunsan's office. As we approach the slightly open door of her office, Chris taps on the door to get her attention.

"Hi Chris... come on in," She smiles at him and I instantly feel out of place. But I need to be confident here so I take in a deep breath and follow Chris inside.
"Oh, hi... Andi... it's Andi right?" she asks as she sees me come out from behind Chris.
"Uh, yes," I smile back mustering as much confidence as I can.

"So what brings you here?" Susan asks as she shuffles some papers around on her desk.
"Well about that idea of hiring a personal Assistant for us ... I think we might want to take you up on that offer," Chris says getting right to the point which caught me off guard a little.

"Well... of course, I knew you would come around to the idea of it eventually... I had a few people in mind for you actually, I uh-"
"What about Andi?" Chris cuts her off.

"What?" Susan looks up at him a little in disbelief. Chris turns glances at me and flashes me a smile though I suddenly felt 2 feet tall. Susan looks back and forth between Chris and I and I could tell she wasn't convinced that I could do a job like this, but I was determined to set a good impression.
"Uh... Chris, I think I got it from here..." I say as I look up at him and tap him sweetly on his chest.

"Chris mentioned you were looking for a P.A for the band and so I would like to apply for the job," I say to Susan with as much confidence as I had.
"Alright uh... well, Chris... if you could step outside there and I'll just go over some stuff with her?" Susan says a little apprehensively.
"Sure," Chris smiles and give me a quick kiss on my temple and then turns to head out of the office, closing the door and leaving me alone with Susan.

"Alright Andi... have a seat," She says as she gestures to the chair in front of her desk. I grin nervously and sit down in the chair while she shifts some more papers on her desk.

" I uh, brought my resume, if you wanted to take a look at it," I say as I pull out the black folder from under my arm. She looks at me and holds her hand out for me to hand it to her. She opens up the folder and glances over my resume as I sit and wait for her response.

"I see you did attend the University of Seattle for... Business Administration,"
"Uh, yes," I confirm as I look at the folder on her desk.
"You didn't graduate though," She says as she turns the page.

"Uh... no but I did take 2 semesters," I say nervously suddenly regretting dropping out.
"And what happend with Lost Loves?" She says as she continues to read over my resume.

"I uh... quit that too... but in order to take care of my mother, I had to," I say with a lump forming in my throat. It felt like an eternity of sitting there watching her read over my working career over the last few years of my life. She then places my resume back in the black folder and hands it back to me.

"So what makes you want to work as a Personal Assistant?"

I didn't know what to say at first because it wasn't something I initially wanted to do, but I can't say that.

"Well... I have customer service experience , obviously from working at Lost loves and I know the guys pretty well. I pretty much help them when I can anyways so I figured, why not make it a permanant thing?" I say hoping that that was enough to sway her.
"Are you sure you can handle basically being at the beck and call of Chris and the guys? I mean they are pretty chill anyways but..." Susan looks at me.

" I am positive," I say desperately attempting to convince her. She gives me a little smile and then turns and reaches into her desk drawer and pulls out a folder full of paper.

"Ok... so... you will sign a contract which basically outlines what your job duties are, setting up accomodations for them, making sure they are on time for meetings and interviews, though Chris was always pretty anal about being on time, so I'm sure you wont have a tough time there..." She smirks as she opens the folder and slides it over for me to read.

"You'll obviously have to stay with them in case they need anything, like drinks, food, clothes... but you wont have to worry about that really... you probably do that anyways...with Chris I mean... and uh... under no circumstances do you let anyone know where they are staying... it's highlighted in the contract, just for security," She says and she quickly looks down at her desk as I read through the contract. I look up at Susan for a moment and realize that it must be weird for her too. I mean she used to be with Chris and here I am the one married to him. She then grabs a pen and slides it over for me to sign as I turn to the last page. I quickly scribble my name out and slide the contract back over to her.

"Alright, well... welcome to the team..." She exhales as she stands up from her chair and holds her hand out for me to shake. I stand up slowly and shake her hand as she gives me a half smile.
"Thank you," I half smile back at her. As I put my copy of the contract back in my folder I turn to head towards her door.

"Oh, and uh.... Congratulations on... your marriage... I don't know if I told Chris that either but..." She says with a smile.
"Thank you... I'll uh.. I'll let him know," I smile back at her. And with that I head out of her office and exhale the longest breath ever, not even realizing that I was holding it in the first place. I walk down the hallway and out to the reception area to see Chris sitting in one of the waiting chairs, His hair fallen in his face, his leg resting across his knee, flipping through a magazine as he waits for me. He is so damn adorable in his army green shorts wearing his long dark navy blue underwear underneath them. He flips his curls out of his face and looks up to see me walking towards him.

"How'd it go? You get it?" He asks me as he sets the magazine down on the table.
"Yep," I smile at him.

"Sweet babe... when do you start?" He smiles back at me and places a quick kiss on my lips.
"When the tour starts... at least that what the contract states. Signing a contract was different but at least she took me seriously," I say as he takes my hand and we walk back out to his truck.

"What makes you think she wouldn't?" Chris asks as he helps me into the passenger side.
"Well... I just didn't want her to pick me just because I'm married to you," I say as I smooth down my skirt.

"I doubt that would've swayed her decision but... I'm so happy though... now you are my slave..." Chris jokes menacingly as he closes the driver side door.

"Very funny," I laugh as he turns the ignition and we pull away from the curb.