Sign On The Dotted Line

Chapter 31

Claire

"Reservation for Claire Edwards please," I said as I walked up the maitre'd. I followed him to the back of the restaurant where Nathan and I usually sat.

I sat down when he pulled out a chair for me at the empty table. I let out a disappointed sigh, he was late again. I should've known.

"Can I start you off with anything to drink?" he asked.

"A bottle of red wine, please."

He looked at me expectantly to be a little more specific as to which wine and I smiled politely, "whatever you recommend."

He gave me a nod and left me to look at the menu. I looked around the restaurant instead, Nathan and I had been coming to this place ever since we started dating, sitting at this exact table. A waiter came by placing 2 wine glasses on the table and filling mine with red wine.

After taking generous sips from my glass, I just knew that Beth would prefer not to come to a place like this. She loved going to hole in the wall kind of restaurants, where the decor was outdated but the food was amazing.

I almost didn't notice Nathan slip into the seat across me because I was so busy thinking about the reasons Beth would never come to this restaurant.

"Hi, honey."

I jumped in my seat a little, "oh, hi."

He nodded at the half-empty wine glass in my hand, "I see you've already gotten a head start," he chuckled, lifting the wine bottle and pouring some into his glass.

I nodded, looking at the wine in my glass as I twirled it around by the stem, "it's been a long day."

He looked over the rim of his glass when he took a sip, but raised an eyebrow, "are you alright? you seem a little...aloof tonight."

"Yeah, I'm ok," I answered in a bored tone while I still looked at the wine swirling in my glass.

He cleared his throat, "shall we order?"

I didn't have much of an appetite but I hummed a response. I didn't want to be here right now, I wanted to be at home, cuddled on the couch with Beth watching bad reality tv listening to her commentary. I drained the rest of my glass in one gulp and reached the bottle.

Beth

The music stopped and I looked up at the see-through glass of the recording booth expectantly at the team. "How was that?" I asked taking the headphones off my ears and putting them around my neck.

Grant gave me a thumbs up while Seth grinned and nodded his head, but it was Shannon's reaction that I was dreading. We've been working on the song for a couple of hours and I was so nervous because I wanted to make sure Shannon was content with my work. She looked up from the computer and gestured me into the room.

I exhaled loudly and placed the headphones from around my neck onto the stand in front of me.

I sat on the couch behind Shannon, Grant, and Seth as they tapped away on their keyboards. I just finished recording the vocal guide for the song and nervous couldn't even cover what I was feeling inside.

My leg bounced up and down while I tried to slow the beating of my heart. This was the first time I was in a professional recording studio with a big producer, the composer, and the writer so I wanted to make sure I did a good job.

"Can you stop bouncing your leg?" Shannon said not turning around her chair, "I can feel your nervousness from here and it's making me nervous."