On Tour

Chapter 12 - Potato Salad

GABRIELLA

Daan leads me to a door and invites me inside after opening it. I hope his civil way of behaving is a sign of a possible friendship after this conversation. He sits on the long bench in the middle of the locker room and pats it next to him to invite me to sit.

"What can I help you with?" I say after sitting at a prudent distance.

"I want to begin by apologizing to you for my recent behavior. It was uncalled for and unprofessional."

I was prepared to apologize first so his words surprise me. "Oh... Apology accepted. Did you talk to Joel?"

"No, I haven't, but as the stress of the last tour preparations subsided I realized that what he said had to be a lie. He had been a dick to you at the meeting, argued with you right before storming out. There was no way on earth that you were having any kind of intimate conversation about your romantic interests or sex life. I'm so sorry it took me so long to figure it out. I'll make it up to you somehow."

I sigh in deep relief that we will be able to have a friendly work relationship for the duration of the tour. "It's okay. We are okay. He was being difficult and I think he saw you coming and said those horrible things when you were within earshot. It all happened so quickly, and I was, I guess, so shocked by his dislike for me that I couldn't react quickly enough to contradict him."

"I don't know what's gotten in his head lately, but you surely don't deserve any of this. I've seen how careful and caring you are with the band already. He should get his head out of his ass and behave normally."

Daan's colorful choice of words make me laugh and he grins.

"So you don't date colleagues?" He asks.

"I did once. Things didn't go well," I admit. "I rarely got much attention from male colleagues to begin with and my responsibilities kept me from engaging with them for longer than necessary."

"Not even attention from the band members?" He teases.

"Why would they want to date me when they have so many women throwing themselves at them without any efforts? I'm high maintenance in comparison."

"I see your point. But do you date at all? You don't have to answer if I'm overstepping boundaries."

"I have nothing to hide. Once upon a time I did date, but it's been years since I went out with anyone."

"How are you even alive?" He looks shocked and it makes me laugh. It feels good to laugh right now. "I hope you are open to the idea, because I would like to take you out on a date sometime. It's been also a while for me too, not years though. Would you like that? It might take months before we even get a break to do so."

My mouth has gone dry. How did we go from frowns and exasperated noises in the past weeks to him asking me out right now?

"It's okay if you don't want. I know that if things don't work out it might be awkward to work together. No hard feelings for saying no. In fact, forget I asked."

"Just give me a moment to process this," I hold his arm as he tries to stand up. "Why are you asking me out now?"

"I'm not a player if that's what this seems. In fact, I've been unlucky when it comes to relationships, kind of vowed to stay out of anything serious for a while. Then I met you and I don't know... It's almost as if something switched inside of me. That's why it sucked to hear what Joel said. Gabriella, I admire you. And yes, even when I was pissed, I couldn't keep from observing what an incredible woman you are."

"Thank you, Daan. I'm not against going out with you. My head is just not on anything like that at the moment. Give me some time to get used to all of this first. I started in this job a while ago and I still feel as if things have not sunk in yet."