Joel Cappadocia (cappadontcha) wrote in hotelcali, @ 2016-05-25 23:22:00 |
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Entry tags: | brand gartner, clare macmillan, joel cappadocia |
Who: Clare & Joel (plus Brand by phone)
What: Snowed in
Where: Denver Airport
When: SuperBackdated to Wednesday 3/23
Rating: Burrrrrrrr - Let’s get drunk
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Joel normally wouldn’t have minded having a delay at an airport, for the most part. He didn’t find it that difficult to sleep in not so comfortable chairs. He lived on a couch for many months after all. What was a few hours napping in a chair? His napping while listening to some music had been cut short when Clare had smacked his shoulder. Joel jolted and blinked as he snapped his head up from where it was hanging onto his shoulder. His arms were crossed in the chilly airport since he didn’t have a jacket with him - since he wouldn’t have needed it when they landed...at home...in Los Angeles. But no, they were stuck in the airport waiting for their flight to be rescheduled. “Hm? Wha?” He reached up and rubbed his eyes behind his glasses before he tugged his earphones from his ears in time to hear the announcement from the airport about cancelling flights.
Joel threw his head back and let out a groan. He slung his earphone wire around his neck as he dragged himself to his feet. He grabbed the strap for his bag and looked at Clare. “Hotel?” He grumbled since he knew the entire airport was about to make stampede-like mad dashes for ticket counters to set up hotels. Right? That’s the way this worked in movies right? Joel had never actually been stranded at an airport before. He’d definitely prefer a hotel bed over the floor or chairs of the airport, though.
Clare was not pleased. She hated waiting around in airports on a good day, and now after two weeks traveling she just wanted to be rid of them entirely. She was exhausted and missed her bed. She missed Remy. She missed warm weather. She missed having full days where she didn't have to see or interact with Joel. She also missed her coat, not having counted on spending so much time hanging around in a drafty terminal. Her cardigan wasn't cutting it, but at least she wasn't wearing a t-shirt like some people.
"Already on the line," she said to Joel, tapping the phone she held up to her ear as they started for the terminal's exit. She had done some research while they waited and saw there was a Hyatt close by. She had considered trying to book some rooms about thirty minutes ago but instead decided to wait it out. That was likely a poor decision.
Joel nodded and gave Clare a small salute. He pulled his phone from his pocket to text Brand to let him know. “Any other ones I should try calling while you’re waiting?” He asked her. He stopped at a kiosk on their way and reluctantly paid for a way overpriced hoodie since he was going to need it. He shoved his ipod and earphones into his bag and stuffed his phone in his pocket for a second so he could shift his bag around and tug the hoodie on while the walked. He threw his bag across his shoulders again afterward and pulled his phone back out.
So nice of him to offer. Clare lifted her shoulder to hold the phone up at her ear and free her hand to pull a piece of paper from her pocket. "Call the Courtyard," she said, holding the paper out for him. "I'm on hold and it doesn't look good."
Joel grabbed his headphones from his bag and slipped one of them into his left ear. He plugged it into his phone and took the paper Clare held out. After dialing the number, he went through the prompts until he reached the hold music and then he went back to his texts to reply to Brand. “Sitting on hold,” he said without surprise. He spotted a liquor store up ahead and nodded towards it. “Pit stop for supplies?” He arched his eyebrows at Clare and smirked. It had been a long two weeks - booze would help them be stuck for another day with each other, right? Especially so if they didn’t find a hotel to stay in.
“Absolutely,” Clare nodded, gesturing with her elbow for him to lead the way. She needed something to take her mind off her irritation. As they entered the store, Clare came off hold and started talking to the hotel staff in a brisk tone.
Joel heard the tone Clare was using and turned to find the scotch section of the store as he hummed along to the elevator music playing in his ear while he was on hold. He wasn’t paying attention to what Clare was saying but he was pretty sure by her tone there was no room at the Inn. He had picked out two different bottles for her to choose from by the time she appeared next to him. “Any luck?” He asked before he held up the bottles for her to choose from since he wasn’t enough of a fan to know all the little intricacies between bottles other than looking at prices and years.
When he found her again, Clare was scowling down at her phone. She lifted her head and promptly nodded toward the bottle in his right hand. "All booked up," she said with a sigh. "I knew I should have called earlier. I was overly optimistic." She held out her hand to take the paper with the phone numbers back. "Still on hold?"
“How very unlike you,” Joel smirked. He held out the paper, along with the bottle in his left hand since he was holding both, to hand over the numbers, then he set the unwanted left hand bottle down randomly on the shelf next to them. “Affirmative,” He said about being on hold. He grabbed a bottle of tequila off one of the shelves as they passed and then set both bottles down on the counter in front of a very tired looking clerk. He gave the woman a grin a smile as he reached for his wallet and asked her a joking question about whether or not they would let the poor woman go home any time soon. He paid for both bottles and once they were in a bag, she carefully loaded them into his messenger bag at readjusted the strap across his shoulders. “Next stop food while we’re waiting on hold?” Joel didn’t ask for permission about that one, he just led the way out in search of somewhere selling snack things or a restaurant that wasn’t currently closed down. He found the small convenience store snack shop first and turned into it, but there was a burger place across the way too. Joel planned on stopping at both. For now he started grabbing snackage to go with their alcohol for later. “I never realized how similar all Muzak versions of songs sound until now,” He said, humming along loudly to the hold music.
Clare had already dialed up the third-closest hotel and as Joel paid for the alcohol, she got placed on hold again. So very lovely. She barely resisted rolling her eyes as he chatted with the clerk and then had no choice but to follow him to whatever food he was heading for. She knew him well enough at this point to know that there was no way to keep him from food if he wanted it...and he always wanted it.
“Stop that,” she muttered, elbowing him in the arm when he continued that incessant humming. She was on edge and in no mood at the moment. So food and alcohol were a great idea.
“What’ve you got against The Girl From Ipanema?” Joel smirked. This situation was a bummer but being grumpy wasn’t going to get them a hotel room any faster. He loaded an arm up with some snack things he liked and some things he had witnessed Clare consume in the past and then grabbed a couple bottles of water and soda. That was also a way overpriced bill but Joel paid for it because...well if they were getting stuck in a hotel, he wasn’t going to do it without food. He hooked the doubled bag of snacks in his hand and motioned for Clare on their next pit stop, for the burger place, where he sweet talked them into stealth-grabbing the next table from the hostess even though people were waiting before them.
Just as they were getting settled after ordering their food, Joel finally got an operator on the line. “David, my good man!” He cheered after the representative introduced himself. Joel was sure the guy had heard enough cranky people for the day. “Nice to hear a friendly voice after a musical interlude,” He said. “I don’t mean to take up too much of your time, but, like I’m sure all the calls you’ve had before me, I’m stranded in your city by this blizzard and I’m looking to book a couple of rooms with you if you’ve got them available?” He asked cheerfully. It didn’t hurt to butter people up sometimes if the situation was right. He squinted behind his glasses as he listened to David’s reply on the other end.
Clare had been rejected by hotel number four, which was the end of the list she’d written down. She started looking up other possible hotels close by, but paused and looked up to wait for Joel’s reaction to the hotel staff’s answer. She wasn’t feeling particularly hopeful at this point.
It took Joel a few more minutes of talking David into giving him anything he still had available before Joel gave Clare a thumb’s up. He gave over his credit card info and told David they would be there as quickly as possible before he thanked the guy and hung up. First he managed to grab their waitress to ask her to pack their food to go and then he finally looked at Clare. “Good news - we’ve got a room. As in singular. Their last room, in case of emergency. Bad news - we have to figure out how to get there in the blizzard and we’re sharing a bed.” He said.
Once Joel gave her the thumbs up, Clare's shoulders sagged in relief for just a few moments before she fired off a text to Remy. She texted back and forth for a couple of minutes and then finally put her phone down once Joel got off his.
“That's--” As Joel spoke she was about to say it was fantastic, but then he continued and she fixed him with an unamused stare. “You have got to be joking.”
“Nope, that’s your niece’s job.” Joel shook his head. “It was that or airport floor,” He said with a nonchalant shrug. “Now we need to get our food and figure out a way to get there.” He picked his phone up to tap out a text to Brand.
Clare dropped her head back and let out an undignified groan before pulling herself together enough to get out of her seat. "You wait for the food. I'll find out if the shuttles are still running. Meet me at ground transportation."
“Ay, Cap’n Mac!” He gave her a salute and reached for his wallet again. Good thing he didn’t need to worry too much about his bank account lately. He shook his head as he watched her go and finished his glass of water while he waited for the waitress to return with a plastic bag holding a few styrofoam containers takeout containers. Joel paid and left a tip then gathered his messenger bag, the burger place bag and the snack bag. He made his way through the varying throngs of disgruntled travelers toward the ground transportation area to look for Clare.
Around the time he arrived, Clare sent him a text to tell him where she was, which was in line for the airport shuttles. Thankfully they were still running, but they were going very slowly. The two of them were able to start eating their food in the amount of time it took them to get on board, and it was about an hour later that they finally ended up at the hotel. Once they were there, Clare tried to get a cot for their room, but the hotel's supply was already in use. She was however, able to get some toothbrushes and toothpaste, since all her essentials were in her checked baggage. Clare was very grumbly the whole way upstairs, and once they got to their room (with a double bed, because they didn't even have a queen), she immediately went for the alcohol stash. She planned to call the airline for updates and to get drunk, but not necessarily in that order.
“Someone’s thirsty,” Joel smirked as Clare went for the alcohol. He settled in to finish the rest of his bacon cheeseburger, fries and his onion rings. He was well prepared to wash them down with alcohol as well. “I think we’ll survive a single night,” He said as he kicked off his shoes and sat back against the headboard on one side of the bed and crossed his ankles one over the other, lifting his container to catch his crumbs as he ate.
Clare went into the bathroom to grab the two glasses there, rinsed them out, and returned to hand one to Joel. "I am just...so exhausted. I've been looking forward to sleeping in my own bed for days and days."
“Yeah, me too,” Joel let out a small sigh as he shrugged after he took the glass. He set it on the nightstand next to him and “But it’s, hopefully, just one more day. No big deal,” He shrugged again. He was completely bummed, but grumping about wouldn’t get them home any faster. At least they had food.
"God, I haven't even considered that we may be here more than one day," Clare sighed with a glance toward the window. She didn't even have anything to sleep in, let alone anything to wear the following day. She poured herself some scotch and then walked over to look outside. "It's technically spring now. Can't believe we're getting stopped by a blizzard."
Joel smirked and finished off his food. He closed the container and hopped out of the bed to ‘toss it into the trashcan. “Global warming,” He smirked. “Or El Nino - take your pick,” He said as he grabbed his glass and went for the table to pour some scotch for himself. “They’re used to lots of snow here. So long as it actually stops, they’ll get us out of here,” If it stopped. It didn’t look like it was going to stop any time soon though. He headed back for the bed, taking a drink from his glass and then digging into his messenger back to grab his laptop.
Clare glanced at him as she took a sip, one which was on the larger side. “I say I miss the weather back at home, compared to Los Angeles, but I suppose that’s not actually true. The occasional rainstorm, yes, but I certainly don’t miss this.”
“Did you get that much snow when you were back there?” Joel asked. “It was mostly rain while I was there. And flooding, depending on the area,” He set his laptop on the bed and settled back against the headboard again. He took a sip from his glass and looked over at her at the window. “I definitely don’t miss the Mid-Atlantic snowy winters,” He shook his head. Well, sometimes he did, but he tended to get stuck in one of them every now and then over the winter holidays when he went home to visit.
“It didn’t snow so much in my area, but we would travel farther north sometimes in the winter.” She’d had family up there. Up north was also where her parents died. Clare took another drink from her glass and finally stepped away from the window to sit down in the narrow chair next to it. “Don’t you experience the Mid-Atlantic snowy winters every time you go home for Christmas?”
“Ah,” Joel nodded. “Visiting people, or just because?” He asked. He was somewhat amused at her attempts to stick to a distance, sitting in the chair instead of on the bed. He slouched in his spot and moved to prop some pillows behind him. “It doesn’t snow every time I go there. It’s much different spending the entire winter there rather than just two weeks or so. Whole winters mean the snow started in November or December and just as it’s almost melted away, provided it’s been warm enough for that, it gets piled on by another storm and then another and another and so on.” He scrunched up his nose. “Shoveling never stops sometimes for those winters. Two weeks with a snowstorm or two? Okay, no problem. Whole winter? Don’t think I could go back to that on a permanent basis.” He shook his head.
Clare arched an eyebrow. “Visiting family,” she answered his question before pointing out, “And you could probably pay someone to shovel on your behalf now.”
Joel chuckled. “I could,” he conceded with a shrug, not asking any further on the family visit to avoid upsetting Clare when it wasn’t about unimportant things. “But you have not met my mother and her opinions on how hard work every now and then does the body slash soul good,” He smirked.
“Is that why you spend most of your free time at the gym?” Clare replied, her eyebrow arcing higher. “Shame you didn't introduce me to your mother while we were in New York.”
Joel chuckled. He shook his head and took another drink from his glass. “No, that’s just for me,” He shrugged. “Helps me concentrate,” and he didn’t care how weird most people thought that sounded. “I would have, but she wasn’t in town. Step Dad’s ma took a fall and was in the hospital so they went upstate to get her settled back into her house while she’s recovering,” He said. It had almost been a relief since Joel had thought that maybe that would be flaunting a parent in her face like a week or so after the anniversary of her parents’ death, so…he supposed that sort of worked out a little?
She wouldn't have thought of it that way, at least. “Oh, is she all right?” Clare asked, out of politeness, since clearly Joel would have mentioned if his grandmother wasn't. Well, step-grandmother. Clare always forgot Joel had a step-father since he didn't mention him much. But it wasn't as though there was really any reason to do so. She lifted her glass for another drink.
Joel nodded. “It’s minor. She lives alone, they wanted to make sure she could handle herself at home,” He answered. There wasn’t much to mention. Joel liked his Step-Dad well enough. He was a decent dude and his mom was happy. It worked out. “Nice lady. Has an ancient Basset Hound that trips over its own ears - she takes pictures with him for her Christmas cards every year,” He smirked. He moved his laptop from the bed to the nightstand and leaned over to the floor to dig into his bag again. He pulled out a deck of cards he’d grabbed from the stop in the small convenience store in the airport. “How’s your poker face, Mac?” He arched his eyebrows.
Clare eyed the cards in his hand as she sipped again. "Better than yours once you've been drinking," she said with a small smirk.
Joel set his glass on the nightstand next to his computer and sat up straighter against the headboard, drawing his legs up to cross them as he pulled the cards from their box, sorted out the unnecessary ones and began to shuffle them against his leg. “Prove it,” He challenged with a grin.
Clare rolled her eyes, but pushed herself up out of her chair anyway. She walked over to her bag and texted Remy as she kicked off her shoes. Then she refreshed her glass and took that and her phone over to the bed, where she sat across from Joel, mirroring his position.
“What rules do you want to play by?” Joel asked as he shuffled the deck a few more times to loosen the cards from their stiff never-used states. He wasn’t sure if there were any weird rules the English used for their run of the mill five card draw or not. “Jokers or no jokers?” He added the question as he nodded to the info cards and jokers he’d pulled from the deck before their first set of shuffles.
“No jokers,” Clare replied. She sipped from her glass and carefully set it down on the bedspread beside her. “We don't have much to bet at the moment.” She squinted at him in thought.
Joel nodded. “No jokers, check.” He reached out and grabbed the rule and joker cards and tossed them to the nightstand. He grabbed his glass and took a drink then set it back down. He shuffled the cards once more. He eyed the pile of snacks on the small table in the room and considered going to grab the ginormous bag of skittles he’d bought just to use them in place of chips. He smirked at her betting comment as he started dealing five cards to each of them. “I’m sure we’ll be able to come up with something once we’ve had some more to drink,” He said as he looked down at the cards in his hands after setting the rest of the deck face down on the bed.
“Hm.” Clare’s eyes squinted further for a moment and then widened as s grin slowly spread across her face. “All right. How about we wager information? When you lose you have to tell me about your plans for the next book.”
Joel snickered. He moved his cards into one hand and held up a finger for each question. “Two questions: And what if I win?” He asked. “And...how do you know I won’t just bullshit you if I do lose?” He smirked.
“Then I'm still forcing you to brainstorm, so it's a win for me,” Clare shrugged. “Better than Skittles.” She didn't know what to offer him in exchange, but then again she wasn't planning on losing.
Joel snickered again and shook his head. He spread his cards out in his hand of cards but kept smirking about Clare’s proposal. “This still doesn’t answer the question about what I get out of the deal when I kick your ass repeatedly,” He grinned and shuffled cards around in his hand, trying to decide which he wanted to swap out.
Clare lifted her shoulder again as she took another sip from her glass. "Not exactly my job to figure it out, is it?" She smirked a bit before finally picking up her cards to look through them.
Joel’s smirk never left his face as he looked over the top of his cards at her. “Every hand you lose translates into one day you’re forbidden from questioning me about plot plans, starting when we touchdown in LA.” He grinned across at her, sure that would bother the hell out of her. Even if she did have a deadly poker face, it would be statistically impossible for her not to lose at least a few hands and he knew it would annoy her to be forced not to ask him about such things.
That was unexpected, so Clare frowned slightly for just a moment before she pushed the look off her face. “Fine,” she sighed, dropping her eyes back down to her cards. “It's a deal.” It would bother her, but again, she wasn't planning on letting him win. And also she should just be relieved he didn't suggest strip poker.
It wasn’t like the thought hadn’t crossed his mind once or twice before he banished it for a couple of reasons of course. The right corner of Joel’s smirk arched higher. “Good. Now how many cards do you want to discard so we can earn my first day of freedom?” He teased as he reached for his glass again.
Clare narrowed her eyes at him and they started to play. The game went slowly since they were taking a lot of time to drink and trash talk. Clare had been off to a good start, but the more she drank the worse her poker face got. She was happy to blame it on a string of bad hands, but either way Joel started taking the lead. About and hour and a half later Joel had successfully won himself a whopping eleven days of peace from Clare. Clare was getting increasingly concerned because, God, what if something urgent came up and he held to this wager like a complete arse? She couldn't let this go on much longer.
At this point she had already made her way through multiple glasses of scotch, so in her drunkenness she didn't even try to hide her frown as she looked down at the cards in her hand. As she rearranged them, her hand slipped and she ended up having to scramble to keep them from spilling onto the bedspread. She shot Joel a nasty look at for his laughter and then finally got her shit together enough to lay down her hand. It wasn't great. Just a two pair, sixes and tens.
Joel snickered (read: giggled….because he was somewhat drunk) as Clare dropped her cards and then scrambled for them. He hadn’t even had a chance to sneak a peak because he was snickering (giggling) hard enough that his eyes had squinted shut. He exhaled a long suffering sigh after composing himself and looking down at her cards, as if he had just realized her lost. “Damn,” he sighed and then laid his cards down on the bed between them in front of hers. His hand was a full house: two kings and three queens. “...This is gonna be one sweet vacation,” He said before he beamed a big toothy smile at her. He took a breath and started whistling God Save The Queen.
What was this now, twelve days? She wasn't allowed to bother him for almost two weeks? At least he gave her some info during the few hands she did win, but it still wasn’t much. "This is bollocks," Clare muttered, pushing her cards aside with a lazy sweep of her hand. Then she lifted both hands in surrender. "Enough. I'm finished. I concede. My luck today continues to to be utter shite."
Joel laughed again. He gathered the cards do he could slide the pile back into its box. "You're the one who instituted actual stakes instead of skittles," he gave her a 'whattaya gonna do?' shrug and grinned again. Then he climbed from the bed to go and grab the aforementioned skittles bag.
"Clearly I'm a glutton for punishment," Clare sighed, moving so she could unfold her legs and stretch them over the side of the bed. “But we already knew that.” She finished off her glass with one last sip and pulled the bottle over to refill. As she took another sip, she held out her hand in a wordless request for Skittles.
Joel tugged the bag open and dumped some into his hand. He tossed them into his mouth as he walked over and tipped the bag a bit to dump some into Clare’s hand and, in the process, spilling some on the bed too. He stepped back over to the table to grab one of the bottles of water instead of refilling his glass with more alcohol. “Indeed we did,” He nodded as he dropped back into his spot, shaking the bed. “You’re so good at it, too,” He smirked.
"Oh, belt up," Clare muttered, picking up one of the Skittles he dropped and pelting it at his head.
“I’m good, don’t need to in these pants,” Joel said even though he knew full well what she meant. He grabbed his phone when it beeped and set the skittles bag down on the nightstand. He grabbed another handful as he looked at the message that came through. As he tossed another mixed handful of skittles into his mouth, he headed for the window to take a picture. Instead, he took a crappy little video of the snow outside and then sent it to Brand. On the way back toward the bed, he kicked off his shoes and pulled the hoodie off over his head. When he flopped back down onto the bed, he considered going to one of the multitude of social media platforms and start replying to random people’s questions/comments while he was somewhat drunk.
Clare watched him as he walked around, not really sure what he was doing. Once he sat again, she tossed another Skittle at him. “Entertain me,” she demanded, before popping a few Skittles in her mouth. After chewing and swallowing them down, she took a sip of scotch and made a face. “Skittles and scotch don't mix, despite the alliteration.”
Their usual method of drunk entertainment wasn’t exactly a viable option currently. “It’s all in your mind,” He dug into the skittle bag again, tossing some into his mouth and launching a few back at Clare. “I don’t know how you expect me to entertain you,” He said as he lifted his phone up again to scroll through more of the messages. “Would you like to hear all about how sexy all the soccer moms think I am?” He said as he smirked at various comments in his notifications.
Clare unsuccessfully batted away the Skittles and let out a groan. She'd heard plenty of soccer mom opinions during the book signings. “Are you searching for your name on Twitter?”
Joel grinned. “That’s the beauty of the internet, Mac - I don’t have to search,” He chucked a skittle her way. “I can just click through my notification tab and there they are - like magic,” he snickered.
Clare took another drink and then slowly laid back to look at the ceiling, trying her best not to spill the rest out of her glass in the process. "How convenient for your ever-growing ego," she commented. "What are the soccer moms—" said in her American cowboy voice, of course "—saying today, now that you've abandoned them to return home?"
Joel looked over from holding his phone up over his face where he’d laid down and laughed (giggled) at Clare’s western accent. He exhaled an amused sigh and picked his phone back up to look at it. “They appear to be rallying together under a group chat to discuss the merits of petitioning for a calendar of me but only if I’m, quote, ‘at the very least, half naked.’” He chuckled.
Clare let out an undignified snort. "Which half, I wonder?" she wondered mostly to herself. She craned her neck to look at him. "How do you feel about all of this. Strangers of all ages, ogling you. They're not even talking about your writing." She knew he was vain, but she also knew he took his writing seriously.
“Funny you should ask that - there’s quite a lively debate raging about it,” Joel clicked on the conversation and held his phone out to Clare, smirking at the snort she had let out. He grimaced at the question and shrugged. “Sure they are, I’m just currently not looking at those ones because I don’t think you want me answering those drunk,” He answered.
Clare took the phone with her free hand and squinted up at it for a moment before dropping her hand to the bed and turning more to give him a look. "Surely you're not responding to these daft comments," she said before lifting the phone and precariously leaving her glass next to her on the bed so she could scroll through.
Joel laughed. “Fuck, no,” He shook his head. “But you demanded entertainment,” He pointed out with a shrug.
She shot him a glare before bringing her attention back to his phone. "You causing more headaches for me was not the sort of entertainment I had in mind," she said, back to scrolling. These women needed to look into getting just a tiny bit of dignity.
Then his phone vibrated and Clare let out a delighted gasp. "You got just got a text from your boytoy," she teased, moving to sit up at the end of the bed and therefore out of Joel's reach. She clicked to the homescreen to find his texting app. "I wonder how entertaining that will be."
Normally, theft of his phone to mess with him for incoming texts wouldn’t have bothered Joel. He had rather purposefully avoided telling Brand about the fact that he and Clare were (platonically in this case) sharing a bed for a reason. Shit. “Don’t tell him we’re sharing a bed,” He blurted as he moved to sit up to reach for the phone.
That made Clare gasp again and when she slid off the bed and turned to face him, she looked scandalized. As well as highly amused. "You haven't told him?" She backed up to lean against the dresser as she opened Joel's texts. "You know, honestly is a very important part of a healthy relationship."
“He knows we’re sharing a room, not the bed,” Joel sighed, "Seriously, don't," he frowned rather than playing around with the joke like he normally would. "I don't feel like going home to fight with him after being away for a couple weeks and then grounded by a blizzard." he moved again and tried to snatch the phone back.
Clare moved to the side, farther out of his reach, and gave him a look. “I'm not honestly going to text him. I'm not a child.” She looked down at the phone again and scrolled through. “I'm just snooping.” Which was very mature and not a thing a child would do.
Joel rolled his eyes he leaned over and reached into the bag of skittles before launching an entire handful at Clare in the hopes of surprising/distracting her enough to get his phone back.
“You better clean that up,” Clare warned, glancing up from the phone. She looked at it for a few more moments before giving up and tossing it back onto the bed with a sigh. “I was hoping for nude selfies, but you've disappointed. He misses you, by the way,” she said with a simpering face.
Joel grinned a bit stupidly as he picked his phone up to read the message. "Later," He said of skittle cleaning. "So you're saying my new neighbor Zac's not keeping you supplied in nude selfies, hm?" Joel was vain, sure, but he wasn't vain enough to text nude pictures...to a photographer...who could just take them with his own camera and whatever artistic angles were relevant or...whatever? “Interesting.”
Clare tried (and failed) not to step on any Skittles as she walked over to the bed to pick up her abandoned glass. She let out a groan and bent down at the foot of the bed to pick up the bottle of scotch. Zac being Joel’s extremely close neighbor was a wrinkle in the whole Zac thing. She didn't want Joel to be around in her personal life as well as her professional life. And it was just weird considering her separate histories with both of them. “One can never see too many nude selfies,” she shrugged before topping off her glass.
“This is painting a terribly lonely picture of your social life,” Joel said as he replied to Brand. He moved the skittles bag to the nightstand and shoved a pillow under his head as he laid down and stretched out along the bed. “Zac seems to be getting along well enough with Ali so far, well, and the dogs too, from the pictures Keegan’s been sending. I think he’s in one of her training classes.”
Clare rolled her eyes as she sipped from her glass and sat down on the foot of the bed. “Please don't make life updates on Zac a routine thing,” she grimaced, setting the bottle back down on the floor. “It's too bizarre. My worlds...melding.”
Joel smirked and tapped his way to the pictures Keegan (and then Brand) had sent of Zac playing around in the yard with the dogs. “You mean you don’t want to know that your ex-boyfriend is slowly being assimilated into the Kraw-Blitz Dog Clan?” He held the phone up playing a video of the dogs chasing Zac around for a toy, but didn’t hold the phone out this time at least.
Clare grimaced again before looking down at the phone in his hand. After a moment, she leaned closer to get a better look. She tried very hard not to smile, but wasn't doing a great job. She also felt a tiny bit jealous that she didn't receive any of these videos herself, but she knew that was silly because why would anyone have thought to send them to her? It wasn't as though Zac was her boyfriend or even a guy she was seeing. She'd told him she didn't want that. So she shouldn't feel jealous. Anyhow, Zac looked happy and that was good.
Joel turned his phone back when the video stopped and started swiping his way back to his text convo with Brand. "Still haven't figured out what to do about that, huh?" he asked nonchalant as he tapped away at the screen. He figured she wouldn't have been trying so hard to hold back a smile if she had.
“I've been a bit busy,” she said, gesturing toward Joel.
“Ahh, blame it on me,” Joel rolled his eyes. “I see how well that’s working out for you,” he smirked.
Clare rolled her eyes in return. “I don't think you realize quite how much work and preparation goes into this behind the scenes. It's all I've have time to focus on for months. And it takes even more time when you purposefully try to make my job harder just for kicks.” She huffed out a sigh and knocked back another sip, thinking of the night recently when she went on a bit of a bender.
“Ohhhh, I’m sorry,” Joel rolled his head to the side and put a hand on his chest. “I forgot about the part where I chose your career path for you?” He arched his eyebrows and eyed her glass, then the bottle since he had forgotten how many glasses she had had so far. “Also I don’t make the important things harder and, even if I stopped, you wouldn’t know what to do – either with me or your marine buddy situation,” he reasoned. “Alsoooooooooo you purposefully make my life irritating as well, so don’t play innocent,” he smirked.
"I'm not complaining about my career path, I'm merely explaining why I've been so busy. You probably think it's easy or don't think about it at all," she shrugged. "And, I should note, many unimportant things tend to turn into important things when you do things like not respond to texts. But, you know," she lifted her shoulders once more, “it’s whatever.” The American cowboy voice made a reappearance.
Joel let out a chuckle. “I didn’t say anything about it being easy, you’re projecting,” He said. He was listening to her but he was replying to Brand still and occasionally grinning like an idiot. He snickered at her accent and shook his head. “Ask yourself honestly now,” He looked over at her, “Would you really have figured it all out magically if I hadn’t been at the gym and then showering and out at dinner so that I could return a single text?” He arched his eyebrows.
Clare didn't bother resisting the urge to roll her eyes when he did one of those silly smiles down at his phone. When he looked back up at her, she arched her eyebrows, waiting. Then she dropped her head back and sighed heavily. "It wasn't a matter of figuring anything out, it was waiting on a piece of information that was holding up a number of other thi—" She stopped herself and shook her head vigorously. "Enough. I don't want to argue about it anymore. I'm exhausted and so close to having a break from you."
“No,” Joel shook his head. “I meant figuring everything out with your army guy,” He said. “Not the thing you texted me. You seemed to be insinuating that my irritating you occasionally is the root cause of you not being able to sort that out,” He reminded her.
"And what I was saying was I've been too busy to go out and have a social life, so what would be the point of attempting to start something when I didn't have the time to focus on it?" She gestured with her glass. "And then I'd have to leave for two weeks on top of that."
“If you say so,” Joel shook his head. “I’ve changed my mind,” he said without looking away from his phone as he typed out a reply to Brand. “My next book is going to be about down-on-his-luck 30-something pizza twirler. That oughta keep you busy enough to avoid giving thought to your personal life for quite some time, yes?” He smirked and absently tapped through his apps to bring his camera up so he could take a picture of whatever face Clare made at him.
Clare furrowed her brow at him and pressed her lips together in a confused and exasperated look. And then she rolled her eyes yet again after he snapped the picture. "I look forward to the fifty thousand words of it you'll eventually give me as a joke," she said, watching him tap away on his phone. After a moment she added, "You're so soppy."
“Don’t even act like you didn’t love every word of that messenger hand delivered present,” Joel grinned. He was still amused by that one. “It was cathartic and it wasn’t like I didn’t have the other book finished by then - sometimes you really need to let yourself relax and do something amusing,” he looked over at her, still smirk-grinning. “You’re so jealous, it’s almost cute.” He smiled.
Maybe she was, a little bit, not that she wanted to admit it. “Someone's feeling much less bashful than he was a few months ago,” she narrowed her eyes at him, the corner of her mouth twisting up. “You don't even have to hide your face anymore.” She lifted her arm and used it to cover her eyes briefly, imitating him from that night in Cabo.
Okay, that made Joel blush a little bit. “I feel much less conflicted and anxious than I did before, so,” he shrugged. He reached over and poked her bicep. “You’ll need to work on those if you want to pull off an impression of me,” He smirked.
Clare grinned a little, having successful embarrassed him. “Pass,” she said, looking down at her arm. She lifted her hand, palm up, and moved it back and forth in front of her chest. “This should be sufficient in the imitation department.”
Joel smirked and let out a snort of laughter. “Perhaps,” He said just to mess with her. “But you lack control over them, young grasshopper” before flexing his pec muscles back and forth beneath his shirt.
Clare snorted. “I think that's for the best,” she said before laughing at the absurd visual her brain was conjuring up.
Well, at least she was laughing, he supposed. “So, anyway. The Pizza Twirler.” He said with a grin.
Clare let out a little grunt, but she was still smiling. "Yes. The pizza twirler. What journey does this pizza twirler embark upon?"
“Obviously it has to involve getting into some kind of international pizza twirling competition,” Joel replied right away. “For the express purpose of ensuring that there’s a sports training montage when it’s turned into a movie. Duh.”
Clare tilted her head and squinted slightly. "Hm...sounds trite."
“Bummer for you since you’ll have to find new and creative ways to sell it to the world,” Joel chuckled.
"I wasn't expecting you to reach the—" cowboy voice "—'I'm just coastin' era of your career quite so soon," Clare sighed and took a sip from her glass. "Such a shame. He was so talented, but the fame went straight to his head."
Joel laughed. “Aw, it’s like you’re looking at me as more than a cash cow,” He pulled his phone down and pressed a hand over his chest. “Bless your heart,” He let out in a southern singsong lilt.
“I do,” she insisted with a laugh. He was never going to let that comment go. “I do! I can think of you as both. I think that's an important mindset, to maximize our profits while ensuring your long term...mental stability. Our mental stability.”
No, he definitely wasn’t going to let that one go, especially not with the reaction it caused whenever he managed to slip it into a conversation. He laughed. “Who said either of us were ever mentally stable?”
Clare snorted again. “I know I, for one, could be a lot worse off than I am,” she shrugged.
“It’s good you know your limits,” Joel chuckled. He reached for a handful of skittles from the bag on the nightstand and tossed them into his mouth, but not without tossing one at Clare first.
Clare picked up the Skittle where it landed next to her on the bedspread. “So,” she said, dragging the word out for a second or two, “now that you're tasting the rainbow, when can we work on getting you on the cover of The Advocate?” She threw the Skittle back at him, aiming at his chin.
Joel ducked his head and shifted to the side to catch the skittle. “No time soon,” He answered as he chewed it.
Clare finished off her drink and set the empty glass next to her so she could lay down again with her legs hanging off the side of the bed. "Mm, yes, perhaps we should time it with the release of the film. Or the announcement of your next book," she mused, even though that wasn't why he was waiting.
“How about you don’t think about or plan it until I give you the go ahead,” Joel smirked.
Clare shot him a half-serious offended look. "We have to at least think about it! And plan. And...offer you suggestions of opportune moments to break the news?" She arched her eyebrows. "Tentpole occasions. Synergistic timing.”
Joel rolled his eyes and sighed. “I feel reluctant to let you exploit this and parade it around.”
Clare huffed out a laugh and furrowed her brow as though he'd just said something absurd. "But why? We're already exploiting all this," she gestured vaguely toward his body, "so why not take advantage of your sexuality as well? As an author it'd probably take years to get you a solo national magazine cover. This is a shortcut. And it'd help establish you as a brand, separate from the series."
“Because it’s not just me you’d be exploiting in this case,” Joel shrugged, trying to sound nonchalant about it. “Brand’s parents aren’t going to take the news well, so I’m not going to submit him to a deadline on telling them just to get on a magazine cover. Not only that, but it’s unlikely to go as well as you think it will. I’m not gay, I’m not straight and while I’m sure there is still some specific label that someone will slap onto it, this is literally, what, weeks old? Won’t that come across as an obvious and probably insulting PR grab to a large community of potential readers?” He arched his eyebrows.
Clare lifted her shoulders in a shrug. “That's why I was talking about timing. We wouldn't be asking you to do it now. Sometime much later in the year would work better. I don't know, I'm sure Brooke has suggestions. She'd know how to craft it so it wouldn't come across as shameless publicity.”
Joel shrugged again. “And I’m sure the three of us will all talk about it once Brand figures out when and how he wants to tell his parents,” He said. “Anyway, I still feel reluctant to exploit it.”
"Well, you shouldn't," Clare said, shrugged again. There were worse things about him she could be exploiting, say around September, but she knew better than that. "I wouldn't, if I were in your shoes."
Yeah, that’d be a good way to get fired if she was really tired of making money off of him, though. “Course ya wouldn’t,” He shook his head. “But you’ve also never met Brand’s parents.” He added. A moment later, he tilted his head. “Your sister-in-law’s parents disowned her, right? Any tips on what that was like?” What? He paid attention to conversations with her niece and some of the interviews/stuff she’d done when he came across them.
It was strange when Joel remembered little things because she automatically assumed he didn't give a shit outside of fodder he could use for future stories. Clare arched her eyebrows, staring up at the ceiling. "My brother didn't speak to me about it much so I don't know a lot, but I'd hear my parents discussing it sometimes." None of it was good, but now of course Clare was reluctant to share that with Joel, considering it didn't work in her favor. She hesitated a moment before continuing, "Remy's mother tried to keep the relationship going and would send letters to her parents, but the letters would be returned, unopened. Even after Remy was born. She—Tao, Remy's mother—grew closer to our family, which I'm sure would have happened regardless since we were physically closer to them, but who knows?"
Joel wasn’t expecting Clare to offer up quite so much information. He considered it for a moment and also considered what he could ask to keep the conversation on this and off of him for a while. “Wow...that’s fucked up.” He said. “Has Remy ever actually met them? Or tried to contact them, I guess?”
"She doesn't know how to," Clare replied, a little annoyed with herself for shooting herself in the foot. But thankfully Joel wasn't the gatekeeper in his situation, Brand was. And surely they wouldn't be able to or want to keep things secret forever.
“I can’t decide if that part’s a bummer or not,” Joel said. He climbed off the bed and grabbed the skittles bag to bring back over to the table so he could grab one of the apples he’d grabbed and a bottle of water.
"I don't think she can either," Clare mused. "She tends to be a bit too curious for her own good, though."
“So she’s said she would want to if she knew how?” Yup, he’d keep this train rolling all day if he had to. “Or are you referring to a specific anecdote?”
“I mean in general,” Clare shrugged. “Do you really think Brand’s parents would disown them? Haven't they known you your whole life?”
“Sure they have,” he shrugged. They also had only known Joel to have girlfriends in that time, though. “But they've known Jesus a whole lot longer than me, so, yeah I definitely think it's got a higher probability than not,” he frowned.
Clare furrowed her brow at the ceiling. “People are so bloody stupid,” she mumbled, mostly to herself.
“Yes they are,” Joel nodded whether it was rhetorical or not. “I don’t know how his sister’s gonna take it, either. For preparation’s sake, I’m assuming she’ll probably have to listen to enough rhetoric and flack about it that she’ll fall on whatever their opinion of it is, so,” he shrugged.
Things like this made Clare think that maybe not having much of a family anymore wasn't all that bad, but then again her family was--had been--much more accepting than Brand’s family sounded. “And your family?”
“Doesn’t bother them at all,” Joel answered. He rolled his eyes and smirked a bit. “My sisters had a betting pool on it amongst themselves and their husbands about it, actually.” He shook his head.
Clare barked out a laugh and turned to look at him. “Did they really? Who won?”
Okay, maybe Joel blushed little bit then. “Yeah they did. I told them over one of those google hangout video chat things so they were both there. Juls won, apparently and there was a lengthy argument over the rules of their bet while multiple ‘Told ya so’s! Flew about. Eventually they realized I was still there, as per usual.” He smirked.
Clare snickered slightly, especially after seeing him turn a bit pinkish. “How adorable,” she smirked at him. “That's so funny though...I can't say I ever noticed. It did cross my mind that perhaps he fancied you, but I didn't think much else of it. I certainly didn't think you'd fancy him in return.” And Clare liked to think of herself as observant.
“I think it’s pretty safe to say I didn’t think about him that way until relatively recently, so,” Joel shrugged again. “I honestly have no idea how either of them came about their bet or if it was mostly because of Brand and my general obliviousness to begin with,” He smirked and looked over at her. “Did you parents know?” He asked. “About you?”
“Yes, well, my mother gave birth to me, so I'm fairly certain she was aware of my existence. Can't be sure about my father though.” She tilted her head back to give him a squinty-eyed sarcastic smirk.
Joel took a bite from his apple and reached out to lightly kick at Clare’s leg with his sock clad foot. “It’s a good thing your niece is funnier than you, or else she’d be on her fallback career by now,” He smirked.
Clare chuckled, a little fond, thinking about Remy. It took her a moment to remember the question Joel had asked her. “I'll never know if they did or didn't,” she shrugged with a small sigh.
“Bummer,” Joel replied with a frown. “Well, potentially, I guess. Did they have a problem with it in regards to other people?” He asked before he took another bite of apple.
“No, they never seemed to.” But of course, people could act differently when their own family was involved. But Clare didn't think they would have minded. She sat up and looked around for the Skittles bag. “What happens if Brand doesn't want to tell his parents? You can't keep something like this secret forever.” Or as long as their thing would last, if it lasted a while.
Joel considered it for a moment. He saw her point and it wasn’t that he thought they could keep it a secret for forever(/however long it lasted), but, “If that’s what he decides, then we’ll do what we can to keep it to ourselves as long as possible or until he changes his mind,” he decided, arching his eyebrow to see what she was looking for.
Clare shot him another amused smirk. “Very soppy,” she accused in a sing-song voice. “Are you inviting me to the wedding?” Then she amended with a laugh, “The secret wedding.”
Joel rolled his eyes. “I would, but you keep calling me soppy like there’s something wrong with it, so,” He smirked. “Nope,” he brought his apple up for another big bite.
Clare let out a loud, “Ha!” She spotted the Skittles bag on the table across from them and pushed herself off the bed. After grabbing the bag and pouring some out into her hand, she turned and looked at Joel. “See, this is why it'd be wonderful to have this out in the open. Your little teen fans would just eat it all up.” To punctuate her sentence, she shoved a bunch of Skittles in her mouth.
“You can point out as many reasons to exploit my love life as you’d like,” Joel said. “It doesn’t matter because it’s off the table currently and I really doubt that’s changing anytime in the near future,” He said. He also wasn’t looking forward to eventually having to explain the reasons behind the whole not discussing it either but Clare didn’t need to know that at the moment.
Clare couldn't answer right away because a mouthful of Skittles was hard to chew. But she smirked around them and rolled her eyes a little before finally swallowing and saying, “I'm only teasing.” But obviously she wasn't, really.
Joel shook his head and went to his go-to annoying retort, “Uh huh,” He said around a mouthful of apple.
Clare narrowed her eyes at him and threw a Skittle in his direction, dropping a few in the process. “It's even more annoying hearing it in person,” she said, which is something she would have known better than to admit if she has been sober.
Joel tried to catch the skittle but missed. He grabbed it from the bed when it landed and tossed it back at Clare. He opened his mouth to speak, but paused for dramatic effect and then, “....Uhhhhhh huhhhh…” He grinned.
The Skittle bounced off of Clare’s leg. She had arched her eyebrows, waiting for him to speak, totally falling for it. Then she muttered, “You complete arse,” and threw the rest of the handful at him.
Joel snickered and didn’t bother blocking the skittles. Instead he grabbed a few to toss in his mouth between bites of apple. “You say shit like that, but you know, deep down in cockles of your heart you love me and would immensely bored without me here to amuse you and light up your life,” He smirked at her and grabbed a few more of the skittles from his lap and the bed to toss into his mouth.
Clare scrunched her face up and arched a skeptical eyebrow. "That's stretching things quite a bit." She tolerated him for more than just cash cow reasons, sure, but she still wanted to murder him on occasion.
Joel just grinned at her. He took the last bite of his apple. “Nah,” he said in place of his usual ‘uh huh.’ He even gave her a wink with it just to a bigger jackass.
Clare rolled her eyes. "Whatever helps you sleep at night," she sighed. She picked up her phone to check on the weather forecast.
“Your denial is adoorrrrrable,” Joel grinned at her and then went back to his own phone. “How long is this supposed to strand us?” He asked. “Will it be long enough for you to think of some kind of Frankenstein-esque short story challenge for me once I get bored of annoying you?” He paused and tilted his head. “Nevermind, don’t think I’ll tire of that,” He plastered a stupid smirk on his face.
Clare shook her head, still looking down at her phone. “I don't understand what Brand sees in you.” Besides the obvious, of course. She looked up again. “I'm going to call the airline.”
Joel smirked at her. “I’m sure you understand at least some of it,” He said. He got up from the bed so he could go toss out his apple core. “Uh huh,” He said just to mess with her when she said she was calling the airport. Her and a few thousand other people, he was sure. He went to look out the window again and tried not to frown. It wasn’t terrible to be stuck in a hotel room because of a random blizzard, but he really just wanted to be home already.
Clare flipped off his ‘uh huh’ with the phone up to her ear. Sure enough, she was on hold for almost ten minutes before she was finally able to talk to someone. She was on the phone for another fifteen minutes before she finally hung up.
“We’re on standby for a 7:15am flight, provided the airport reopens and there's enough space for us,” she announced, tossing her phone to the bed.
Joel blew Clare a kiss across the room when she flipped him off. He was chuckling as he trudged into the bathroom and shut the door behind him to make use of the facilities. When he returned, he moved the table out from the wall a bit so he could move the chair that was situated over there around closer to the window and then grabbed one of his notebooks from his bag. Outlines and ideas were better suited for scribbly shorthand in his notebook rather than typing on a computer, especially when Clare was probably going to try and snoop anyhow. He arched his eyebrows as she gave him the rundown. “Impressive….but damn, that early,” He sighed. That would mean they’d have to make their way over some time around 5am, probably earlier since they would need to arrange for some mode of transportation to ferry them back to the airport too. Not that Joel didn’t want to be home already, but he was sure he was going to be overly booze sleepy by then.
Clare gave him a look and gestured toward her phone. “Would you like me to request a different flight? I'm sure you can stay in Denver a few more days without much of a problem.”
Joel put his hands up in surrender. “Chill, Snippy, I’m just lamenting the time frame,” He said as he looked back down at his notebook to finish scribbling out the note he had been in the middle of writing himself.
Clare huffed out a sigh and walked over to him. “What are you writing?” she asked, arching an eyebrow.
“Notes from the underground,” Joel smirked, ending a notation and smirking over at her. He reached for the scotch bottle and held it up to her. “I think if you want details you’re going to have to have a few more drinks and try to perfect that poker face a little more,” He teased her with a big doofy grin.
Clare almost made a comment about having Keegan doing the snooping for her, but thought better of it before it came tumbling out of her mouth. Instead she shrugged and tried to make it look nonchalant. “You’ll have to tell me eventually.”
“Uh huh,” Joel grinned at her. “eventually,” He even said it with a cheeky little wink at her. “Who knows when that is…?” He shrugged as innocently as he could muster.
Clare scoffed and moved across the room to her bag. “It had better be within the next six months,” she said as she pulled her tablet out.
“Or what?” Joel put the bottle down and went back to scribbling some random notes in his book. He pulled his phone from his pocket between notes to let Brand know about the potential flight time and standby status.
Clare sat down on the end of the bed and looked over at him. “I have methods of making your life miserable as well,” she said after a moment.
Joel arched his right eyebrow and looked over at her. “Was that a challenge?”
Clare gave him a tired look. “Were the cards not enough of a challenge for you?”
Joel tilted his head slightly. “For me? I recall you quitting because I was winning, yes?” He gave her a crooked grin.
“All right, they were enough of a challenge for me,” Clare conceded.
Joel let a smile stretch across his lips. He waited a moment or two and then nodded. “Uh huh.”
“My god, you need to get laid,” Clare muttered, turning her eyes down to her tablet.
Joel conceded that with a nod and another, “Uh huh,” drawn out a bit longer as he replied to one of Brand’s texts and then put his phone on the table and wrote down an unrelated note to the texts or this conversation with Clare.
Clare resisted the urge to fling the tablet at his head and instead tried to focus on reading the book she had pulled up.
Joel used his phone to search through some topics he wanted to make notes on while trading texts with Brand while he drummed out the song stuck in his head on the notebook with his pen. Not purposefully trying to be annoying, nope.
Clare tried so hard to tune him out, but his drumming was the only thing she could think about. He was so much more tolerable back when they were sleeping together. Also when she wasn't irritated out of her mind by airline cancellations.
“You are honestly worse than a toddler,” she suddenly burst out once she couldn't take it anymore.
Joel stopped drumming and grinned. He looked over at her. “It’s just so easy to make you angry, though,” He let out a dreamy little sigh.
“Don't you ever get tired of it?” she asked in exasperation. “Surely it gets old.”
“Occasionally,” Joel shrugged as he played with his phone. “You can’t escape right this moment though,” he grinned. He was pretty sure she would probably think something was wrong with him if he suddenly ever stopped messing with her.
Maybe for a few moments, before the bliss set in. “I can if I physically leave the room,” Clare said, shutting off the tablet screen and moving to stand up.
Surrrre. He looked over at her and considered what he might be able to get done on his research if she left the room weighed against feeling bad he was annoying a drunk Clare enough to make her wander through the hotel drunk. He barely bit his tongue to keep from saying another, ‘uh huh,’ again. “You sure could, if that’s what you want to do,” He nodded.
"It is indeed," Clare confirmed, tucking the tablet under her arm and heading for her bag. She wouldn't be wandering; she'd just go to the lobby. It wouldn't be the first time she would hang out drunk in a hotel lobby.
That was true enough. It would also mean he could call Brand, he supposed. Joel waited a moment since he was reading through a paragraph and jotting down a note. "...Uh huh," he replied.
Clare stuffed her tablet into her bag and rolled her eyes. "I'll text if I hear an update," she said once she reached the door, and then left. Hopefully heading toward some peace and quiet. Even if not, it would still be nice to get away from him for a bit.
Joel looked up and gave Clare a salute. He waited until she was gone and finished reading part of an article he had been reading and then he went to his bag to grab his earbuds for his phone. He settled back at the table and plugged the earbuds into the phone. He popped on in his right ear and set his phone to dial Brand’s number before he picked his pen back up and turned the page in his book.