By Sarah
“Hey so…I just had this brilliant, amazing idea!” Sarah said as she walked into the shop around 10ish that morning. Ever since Anna had joined them full time in the mornings, Sarah and Grace had started to adjust their schedules, and take advantage of the later hours at the coffee shop they hardly got to see. Sarah had just spent a couple hours running errands before she’d strolled into work, her arms loaded down with random and sundry supplies, like fresh fruit and nuts for the counter, unburned candles, and some new-used books from a used bookstore at the other end of town. Grace said she wasn’t planning on coming in ‘till noon, but Sarah had seen her (insert cool car here) sitting outside the shop and figured she’d found something other than sleeping to occupy her time.
“Have you? And what might that be?” Grace was sitting at one of the low coffee tables across from the counter, a gigantic calendar spread out before her.
“Yes-wait, what are you doing?”
“I got a call this morning from a band who wanted to come play a Christmas concert, so I said I’d come in and check the schedule.”
“Oh yeah?” Sarah put the bags down and sat on the opposite couch. “Who’s the band?”
“Some new guys- they’re called “Event Horizon” they actually sound pretty funny-kinda like…I dunno Relient K meets the Beatles…only not.”
“Really? Cool-so are we going to book them?”
“I don’t see why not-their lead singer’s going to send over a Demo just in case-since it would be a headliner-whole concert thing. And then I got to thinking…”
“Yes?”
“Wait-you said you were thinking-what were you thinking?”
“Oh-well I was thinking that since we’ve got this swell place and two lovely apartments of our own-that we could…I dunno…have the Logan Girls to Colorado for Christmas-New Years this year?”
“NO WAY!”
“Yes…way?”
“Shut-up!”
“Okay?”
“No, I mean-that’s exactly what I was thinking!”
“Shut-up, really?”
“YES!” Behind them, Anna shook her head, it was certifiable-she worked for crazy people.
“So-what, how, what were you thinking?” Sarah asked.
“Well I was thinking that since, well aforementioned things-and we’ve got this great place, and all the extra space in the bunkhouse upstairs that we haven’t done anything with-well, wouldn’t it be fun to have the girls over and all bunk in here for the weekend?”
“Oh, oh OH! That’s brilliant! I TOTALLY didn’t think of that!” Sarah jumped up and started pacing. “We could So totally do that! We could all bunk down on the floor and hang out here all night and it’d be great-although how are going to convince everyone to come out here-you know it’s kinda late notice-plus everyone’s everywhere!”
“Well, I considered that. You know Tamra will be the shoo-in though?”
“All this snow…someone’s going to want to go skiing.”
“Which is fine by me…as long as she’s not getting me in a parka, we’re good.” Sarah replied with a grin. “But me thinks you’ve got something else up your sleeve. What is it?”
“Well…it’s this concert.”
“Yes?”
“And well, I was thinking, with the guys returning from their trip with the team just around Christmas…”
“Oh my, I think I see where you’re going with this-you realize we’d be pretty much nuts, right?”
“Well of course-but it’s never much fun if we aren’t.”
“Well…I did recall Sam mentioning that Jack was coming back into town right before Christmas-and I know we’ve been looking for a good excuse to get him to visit-short of bribing him with MEAT.”
“Very true. And you know the girls have been collective on our cases about meeting these new “mystery guys”.
“Which would solve the problem.”
“Plus-a big concert-open mike night at Christmas would be great promotion for the shop-“
“Not to mention very festive.”
“Exactly!”
“So…who are we calling first?”
~*~
Several hours and several shots of espresso later, Sarah and Grace were holed up in opposite corners of the coffee shop, glued to their cell phones. Anna had not only been graciously accepting in their massive-almost-liked-to-kill-ya holiday idea, but totally “pumped” as well. (Anna had discovered the joy of 80’s-90’s slang at a recent viewing of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at Grace’s digs with Sarah and “Mr. T”.) They’d have to find some more help, but Anna already had a list of fellow undergrad and grad students who’d asked for an “in” after hearing Anna go on about her amazing play of employ. So apparently-that particular hurdle was going be rather small to jump. At this, Grace and Sarah had split their call list down the middle-Grace, taking her trim black leather date book had sat back at the coffee table with the calendar to call Tamra, Becca, Stacey-Ann, the guys in the band, and leave a message on Cameron’s phone. Sarah scribbled down some pertinent dates and left for her favorite overly squashed chair in bright electric blue and lime green flowers to get a hold of Beth, Erin, Lavonna, Sam (to leave a message asking when “the hubby” was coming back from Washington) and leave a message on Daniel’s phone.
“Tamra, how’s it going?” Grace smiled as the upbeat tones of her red-headed friend floated over the line. “Really? That’s great!” Grace listened a few minutes more while Tamra caught her up on life in Chicago and her new solo album that was due out-conveniently at Christmas. “So listen, Sarah and I were talking this morning and we had this…idea…”
“Yes Beth, it really is me…no I’m not going to pass you off this time-at least not yet…”
“Yes, I believe it is planning to snow.” Sarah and Grace grinned at each other’s conversations as they passed ways across the shop.
“Stacey-Ann! It’s wonderful to hear your voice…what was that? The line’s gone all fuzzy…”
“Yo, E! So we’re doing Christmas in Colorado-you need to buy a plane ticket...”
“No I haven’t asked him the ten fundamental questions of a relationship yet, I didn’t take marriage and family class, Becca…and I highly doubt Cameron has either, although you never know with the Air force...”
“You’re WHAT???” Grace stopped and about-faced as Sarah squealed and bounced up from her perch on her chair.
“Whoa, whoa, hold on a second, Becca.” Grace put her hand over the phone and hurried over to Sarah “WHAT?” She hissed in stage whisper, “Is that who I think it is, with the news I think it is!?” Sarah put her phone down,
“YES!” She hissed back in an equally bad stage whisper. “Hold on a sec-who are you on the phone with?”
“Becca.”
“Hold on a sec.-Lovie, it’s Sarah again-Grace has Becca on the phone-can she tell her?” Lovie’s sweet, yet muffled voice came back affirmative and Sarah nodded vigorously at Grace.
“BECCA. You will never guess what I just found out.” Grace could barely contain herself.
“What?” Becca had been trying in vain to decipher the conversation on the other end.
“Lavonna-is-PREGNANT!”
“NO WAY!”
“Yes!”
“Oh my gosh! That’s fantastic! Let me talk to her…oh wait, she’s not there? Oh, Oh…I see..” Sarah grinned and walked away so the four of them could finish their conversations with some semblance of coherency. Sometime later they finally got their “business calls down and then it was just down to the guys. Grace and Sarah paused, phones at the ready and gave each other a mutual look of anticipation and terror.
“It’s just a call, right?” Sarah looked hopeful.
“Of course. Wait, what are you worried about? This is the guy who you conned into playing reverse strip-poker because he was so eager too…ahem…!”
“Me? You’re the one who was making out in a hospital bed!” Sarah whispered the last bit as a customer walked by on his way towards the counter.
“Right! You’re right…this is nothing to be worried about.”
“They’re not even going to be home.”
“Right…they said they’d be…where ever it was that they were going to be-which they never can tell us…for quite a while, right?”
“It’s not like they’re going to come back just to answer the phone.”
“Right.”
“Right.” They about-faced like two duelers and simultaneously hit the “call” button.
“Er-Hi you’ve reached Dr. Daniel Jackson-I’m probably out of town so, er if this is an emergency please try the following number 260-555-7623.”
“He-ey, This is Cam-I’m busy taking down the bad guys, so leave me a message!”
“Hey Daniel, This is Sarah…”
“Cam-nice message,” Grace snickered, “So…this is Grace,”
“I know you’re not here, but I thought-well Grace and I were talking and we had this great idea…”
“Yeah-so I know you’re not here-there, but I thought your voicemail might get lonely while you’re gone-“fighting the bad guys.”
“We were thinking of having a little-erm thingy here at the coffeehouse this Christmas…
“We’ve got this rockin’ party planned-you should come…”
“We’re even having some of our friends we keep talking about in town --”
“We’ve got this band-”
“I just thought it might be a nice change, do something fun around the holidays, I dunno-“
“Basically we’re roping you guys into being our gophers-just think of all the fun you can have decorating!”
“Well’s it’s just an idea-it’s over New Years”
“I’ll call later with more details.”
“Well, see you later!” A pause and then, “I really…ah, miss you-“
“Please come home safe…”
“Bye.” They hung up with a click and collapsed with twin sighs of relief into opposite chairs.
“Wow-if you guys keep this up, I’m going to need IV drips they next time these guys come in for coffee just to keep you upright.” Anna stood arms akimbo, shaking her head. “You guys need coffee?”
“Yes!”
“Here.” Anna walked back over with their over-sized steaming mugs. “You guys really got it bad, don’t you?”
“What?” Sarah asked, as Grace sputtered over her swallow of coffee.
“Oh come on-like I haven’t been a fly on the wall for every flirtatious slap, every longing look across the crowded room-not to mention the drinking contests, the needless “car check-ups” and the very heated games of catch phrase?”
“Okay-true-fine.” The girls chorused.
“I gotta admit, neither one are really my type…okay not even remotely my type, but I can see the appeal-Bogart, James Dean, and the dual sides of Indiana Jones.”
“Ah…” Both girls nodded in agreement, their last memories of their respective guys coming to their mind’s eye.
“So, what’ the deal-is it serious? And if so, have they told what they do in that mountain all day long?”
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