Love Of My Life

Chapter 3 - Christmas in LA

Over the next three weeks, Joe was gone. I was left at home with Deacon to do pretty much whatever I wanted. I recorded a bunch of new covers. Even did a video with Deacon to show him off to everyone. And cleaned up the house for Christmas. Putting up decorations and the tree. Joe and I didn't have time to put it up while he was still here, so I texted him and told him that I was about to put it up.

Wait facetime me

I was a bit confused, but I obliged. He was in his hotel room, already in his pajamas and ready to go to bed. It was nighttime there but late afternoon here. I smiled when I saw he wasn't busy.

"Hi," I started. "Is there any particular reason I'm calling you?"

"Wanted to watch you put up the tree. I'm feeling a little homesick to be honest." He gave me a shy smile as he laid down on the bed, making himself more comfortable.

"Okay," I laughed. I set down my phone. Propping it up against my open laptop so I wouldn't have to hold it the whole time. I made sure it would stay in place before I walked over to the record player that Joe had in his living room and put on some music. It was one of Bing Crosby's Christmas albums where he covered all of the classic songs. I rummaged through all of the boxes I had brought to set up the tree from. Boxes filled with ornaments, tree toppers, and lights. I had managed to buy a new tree and put it in the living room. Making the house smell wonderfully of pine.

I sat on the ground, making sure I was still in frame of my phone, and popping the lid off the light box. I grabbed a wad of rainbow colored lights and placed them in my lap with a loud thunk. They were just as tangled as Christmas lights could be. I began searching through the knots, trying to find somewhere to start.

"So, how has the press tour been?" I asked.

"Great! We're doing lots of interviews every day and it's exhausting, but fun." He replied.

"Sounds like it. Wish I could see you in your element like that," I replied. Keeping my focus down at my lap, but still being extremely involved in the conversation.

"Oh no, I'm not in my element here. Maybe in a country where they speak English, but not here," he objected.

"And why is that?" I asked. Actually stopping my work to look up at him as I asked. It was quite the shock to hear Joe talk about his interview skills like this.

"Well, two reasons. Number one, they have translators for all the interviews and I think their language is longer than ours, like more syllables, so it takes longer for the translator to say what we said. So there's like this bit of awkward time that we have to sit there and wait for everything we say to be heard. Plus, we don't want our answers to be too long so that the translators don't have such a hard time. And number two, because it takes a while to translate, we have no idea how our jokes land until they say it. Which is really nerve racking for me," He explained. Joe always made jokes, it's just who he was. And to be somewhere where the jokes might not land because of cultural differences or just because of time from his mouth to their ears through a translator must really be throwing him off.

"I'm sorry about that, babe," I wasn't exactly sure how to answer that, but I was sorry that was happening to him.

"That's okay I still love it though. Just being with the guys all day is enough. And talking about the movie is fun. Almost let some spoilers slip yesterday. I caught myself right before they came out." Joe continued to tell me about his interview experiences while I kept working on the lights. Eventually, they untangled and I began stringing them around the tree.

Walking around it clumsily, trying to make sure that they were strung perfectly even though Joe and I would be the only ones to see it. The lights twinkled against the tinsel that I had thrown about on the branches the night before. I snapped open the next box full of ornaments and began placing them randomly on the tree. The box was now a conglomeration of his ornaments with mine that I had brought with me from Chicago. Random ornaments from places all around the globe from Joe and a couple cute, quirky ornaments from me. I made sure to equally spread them out on the tree.