Never Let Them Define You

DOING SOMETHING RIGHT

She pushes the button for the elevator, then stands back and waits for a moment before two suits exit the elevator. They speak in hushed voices, wear worried faces, and walk quickly out of the room. She can't make out what they said, but she watches them for a moment as they pace down the hall, and then hears the door closing. She rushes over and goes to stick her hand in between the doors, but pulls it back, and lets the doors close. I really don't feel like ending up in the news today...even if they are getting safer and safer, it still just doesn't feel right.

She presses the button again and waits. Someone must have called it on a higher floor, but luckily I'm not super in a rush, so that's fine. She stares at the door for a little while, then as they open, she sees a familiar face. "Brian? How did you, what the-"

"I found you!" He runs up and hugs her tightly, then steps back after a second, and combs his hair rapidly. "So, how you been? Sorry, I know this is probably awkward, I just had to, uh, I don't know!" He grins widely and constantly shifts poses.

"How did you find me?" Her brow furrows and her face generally contorts out of confusion.

"Well, I knew you lived in Detroit and are a performer, so I thought, 'what theater companies are there?' and it turns out there are only a few." He chuckles, then his smile fades, and he stammers, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have just showed up out of the blue, and I didn't even know if you wanted me to-"

She puts her finger on his lips to shut him up, then smiles tenderly. "Don't worry...it's okay."

He laughs awkwardly. "Okay, okay, it's just that you have a man, so I thought, 'what the hell am I doing, are you crazy? You must be crazy, 'cause-'"

"Please shut up."

His lips zip closed tight and his hands shoot into his pockets.

"Things have...well, they've changed. I don't have a man anymore, that whole thing..." She chuckles and smiles a little wider, then rolls her eyes. "Well, it ended up being a mess."

"How so?"

"Well, he-" A clock above the elevator catches her eyes. "I'm sorry, I really have to go, but do you wanna talk over dinner?"

"Oh, yes, sorry, you're a busy woman; dinner, of course!"

"Okay, I'll be done here at five."

He claps and nods his head. "Five, okay, got it, wonderful!"

"Alright, Brian, well, it was a pleasant surprise seeing you here."

"You as well, I mean, you have no idea."

"Gotta go." She presses the elevator button again, then steps on as the doors open, and looks back to see him jump up and pump his fist as he walks away. Wow, I just...wow. She grins the whole way up the shaft, then as she enters the hall, and when she walks into the rehearsal space.

"Woah, what's up with you?" asks Josephine.

Her grinning face instantly drops for a mundane look "What?"

"The way you were just smiling like you were actually happy; what's the secret?"

"Oh, nothing." She grins again for a second, but stifles it when she realizes she's doing it.

"Doesn't seem like nothing." She chuckles.

"It doesn't matter, what matters is work, and that's what I'm here to do."

"Alrighty, well, I love the can-do attitude!"

She walks over to the folding table at the end of the room and grabs one of her songs. It looks weird seeing it in print, makes it so official, but I can't lie...it feels like it belongs. Like, if I was a girl, I wouldn't mind having these lyrics on a poster; I'm...proud of myself? Jesus, I'm getting so ahead of myself. She laughs and grabs one called, "Let's do Something Great."

"Something funny?"

She scans the words quickly, then looks up. "I'm just like, weirdly proud of the work I've done; I know I'm supposed to be happy with it, I'm just usually so self-critical."

"No, I mean, it is weird." She laughs. "Sorry, that sounded so rude, I'm just saying that, as someone who's worked with you for so long now, you're almost never proud of what you do. It makes me happy to see you happy with it; that's what we've done all this work for."

"Yeah, you're right...you haven't been a bad producer, I loved the posters you did for it."

She glances at a bunch of sample posters hung up on the wall. "Wow, that might actually be the nicest thing you've ever said to me, or the only nice thing you've ever said to me. I didn't really do them, though, I just picked out the team to work on them, closely monitored their work, and made pertinent suggestions along the way."

She chuckles. "Yeah, you didn't help at all."

"I never said that, I just-" She looks at them again. "You know what? You're right, I should take a bit more credit for them."

"You did produce them after all."

"Huh, that's a very literal title when you think about it. You're not the one making it, but you're making sure it gets made the way it needs to be."

"Yeah...well, let's make sure these songs are the way they need to be."