Stranger Things Have Happened, I Know

Ch 38

“I called her today, finally. Waiting so long was just a waste. I still feel the same way about her. Just hearing her voice does something to me. I never thought I would feel like this again. Maybe I have never felt like this before. She seems to be everything I would ever need, but how can I really know this after just a few short days with her? It was almost as if its meant to be. Why would we both be in Manchester a day early? Her conference didn’t start to the next day and our concert wasn’t until the next evening. And the winter hours? The whole town is shut down, leaving only one place for us all to go: the hotel bar…”

I had almost forgotten about Manchester’s stupid winter hours! I closed my eyes and I could picture the hotel, the bar, the suites. I let the memories crash over me.

I set my bags down by the bed and ran my hands through my hair. Our show wasn’t until tomorrow night, yet our itinerary had us booked into this hotel a night early and I was not happy about it. It was cold and as our bus drove through the streets everything looked pretty dead. I cracked open the mini-bar and gazed inside. A few nips, not enough to do any real damage. Suddenly, Taylor was in my doorway.

                “Dude, I cannot fucking sit here all night,” he said, shaking his head, eyes wide and serious. “Let’s go ask the desk if there are any good bars around.”

                “I know there were a few cases of beer on one of the trucks from last night’s show,” I reminded him.

                “But who the fuck knows when they are going to get here, and we will have to share with the rest of the crew. Let’s see if we can go out first,” he said as he turned and exited my suite. I followed him into the hallway, where we ran into Nate.

                “I think there is a bar in the lobby,” Nate said as we headed to the elevator.

                “I don’t want to fucking hang out in the hotel bar with sexually frustrated business men,” Taylor whined, pushing the button for the Lobby. “I want to go OUT!”

                “Alright, alright,” I said, smirking at him. “Let’s just see what the concierge has to say!” We approached the desk and the young girl behind it noticed us right away and started to get all worked up.

                “Is everything ok with your suites?” she asked nervously.

                “Yeah, sure, everything’s great,” Nate said. “Can you give us the name of a few bars that might be worth checking out?”

                “Oh… um… well…” she stammered, “The town has winter hours and during the week, everything shuts down early. I’m afraid everything’s pretty much closed…”

                 “I hate New England,” Taylor said, growing irritated.

                “The hotel bar is opened until 1am…” the girl said, gesturing to the large room to our left. “And we serve appetizers until 10PM.”

                “That will have to do,” I said, thanking her. I turned and headed into the bar, the guys following behind me.

                The place was basically deserted. There was an older businessman across the room sitting alone in the corner. I looked around the rest of the bar and locked eyes with a pretty young girl, dressed in a business suit, reading a book and drinking a beer. I smiled at her and she smiled back, blushed and returned to her reading. We sat at the bar and each ordered a drink. The bartender was cool; he recognized us and had us sign some cocktail napkins. Taylor was still pissing and moaning about how lame this town was and Nate was trying to stay positive, saying we could craft a nice buzz right here and the vans with the rest of the stuff would show up shortly.