︵‿︵‿୨ 1972 ୧‿︵‿︵
TIME WITH JIMMY didn't move in regular ways. It rushed and slowed constantly; some seconds stretching into eternities and other hours passing in the blink of an eye, leaving the blonde's head spinning in a way she'd never expected from the self-assured rock'n'roll artist. It seemed as if the previous week of radio-silence hadn't happened at all and they picked up smoothly from the moment they'd last spoken five nights ago. Only this time they were the only two there, and the looming competition they'd had before was gone.
She didn't know how long she spent in his Holland Park house, sitting on his long sofas, sipping on whiskey while they wrote the lyrics to marry his epic tunes. Neither of them even noticed when the sunlight died down and was replaced by the artificial blue of the ceiling lamps, one lonely clock on the wall reminding them of the hours drifting by. By the time they finally called a break Sadie's muscles were aching from sitting for so long and her eyes were weighed down with exhaustion.
"You think that'll be enough to appease your band tomorrow?" She asked, stifling a yawn with the back of her hand as she moved aside piles of papers and stood up to stretch her arms over her head.
Jimmy chuckled, sinking back into the leather as he looked up at the blonde from the couch. "I certainly hope so, it feels like we just wrote half an album."
"The power of team work," Sadie told him with a tired laugh as she collected their half-drunk glasses of bourbon and coke from the side table, which had long since grown warm from abandonment. "It's pretty cool what you can do when you're huge ego isn't in the way, isn't it?"
"You could be six feet under water and still find some way to insult me on my pride, Sadie," Jimmy rolled his eyes with mock amusement, finally setting his guitar next to him and getting up to join her as she carried the glasses over to the bar.
The lead-singer shrugged as she poured the cups out turned the tap on, "Someone's gotta knock you down a peg."
Jimmy leant on the counter next to her, shaking his head at her as if he couldn't decide between being miffed or amused by the woman in his home. There weren't many people in his line of work who could not only tolerate his sharpness but return it back to him twice as much. If he weren't so busy trying to keep up with her he might admire it.
He watched her pour some suds into the running water and dunk the cups in after them — a platinum-blonde rock n' roller cut and pasted onto a domestic scene. If baffled him, and intrigued him, and he didn't quite know what to make of it. She was one of the biggest rock artists in the world, she could've paid any number of people to clean up after her, but she still chose to keep her small inner city apartment and wash her own dishes.
The blonde finished washing the cups up and set them aside to dry, turning around to catch the dark-haired guitarist staring back at her. "Stare any longer and I'll start charging you for it." She teased with a small rise of her brow.
"I thought exhaustion would mellow you out, Scottie," he leant back on his hands as a small grin appeared on her face, "but honestly I think it's making you worse."
"I don't get sleepy I just get meaner," Sadie retorted with a sarcastic bite, her smile widening some when she saw him laugh at her remark.
"I can see," he replied with a shrug, "but it's past three a.m. and even mean-Sadie might not make it home on her own." Her eyes narrowed at his commentary, partially because she knew he had a point. She'd driven herself to his house in perfect light and still nearly gotten lost. Making her way home in the darkness on four bourbons and minimal sleep was another issue entirely. And yet, she somehow knew that staying at his house could possibly be an even bigger mistake.
"I should probably call a taxi then," she sighed, her eyes on her feet as she contemplated the long drive back to her apartment before she could sleep again.
She pretended not to see Jimmy's shoulders deflate a little at her words. "Let me at least make you a tea to warm you up before you go," he offered, moving to a kettle that was hidden behind bottles and blenders and filling it up so he could set it on to boil. She could've made any number of snide remarks at him, a huge bad-boy guitarist in a mansion filled with money and booze making a simple tea, but she chose to bite her tongue and watch. A small part of her wished he'd even take a little longer getting the mugs from the cupboard and the teabags from the jar, not wanting to leave so soon.
But far too soon the kettle was done and they were back on his leather sofa, a knitted blanket on her knees and the hot mug in her hands as she blew steam off the milky surface. Jimmy had his acoustic guitar on his knee, his tea cooling next to him while he picked a few lazy chords to string together a tune. The tea already felt like a mistake, the warmth in her palms tempting her heavy eyes as she nursed the drink between sips. Neither of them were talking, and she didn't feel the need to change that, both of them simply enjoying another presence before she had to return to the normality of her empty house.
Jimmy picked a small, lulling tune that they'd both heard a hundred times that night, his own mug lying forgotten on the table in front of them as he played. Her own mind wandered and drifted with fragments of still half-written lyrics, her body warm and content as her eyes grew heavier, and even if she didn't mean to she felt herself begin to drift away farther and farther until she finally gave in and let her eyes closed and the soft tune lull her out of consciousness.
【☆】
SADE WOKE UP with the warmth of the sun beating down on her face, her cheek pressed up against something soft and warm that made her curl a little bit closer in her semi-conscious state. Her foggy mind didn't quite grasp the feeling of leather against her bare skin, giving away the fact that this was definitely not her own bed, as she blinked her eyes open groggily to see sunlight streaming in through drawn-open curtains and spilling over a messy, paper-strewn living room — Jimmy's living room. And there... sleeping underneath her, was the man himself, snoring ever so softly with each rise and fall of his chest.
Within a second the blonde girl ripped herself off of him as if he was searing, startling the black-haired man into bleary consciousness. "Sadie?" His voice was soft and full of sleep as he rubbed his eyes and sat up on his elbows. She felt a little bad that she'd woken him up so abruptly, her cheeks flushing red when she thought back to the position they'd been in a minute ago — although he didn't quite seem to grasp that. "What time is it?"
"I don't know," Sadie raked her hands through her messy hair as if that could somehow tame her wild bedhead as she shrugged in answer to his question. "I didn't even realise I'd fallen asleep last night. You should've woken me."
"I must have fallen asleep too," Jimmy shrugged, although they both knew better than to believe him as he averted his eyes from her scrutinising stare. In fact, Sadie has been about a second from pressing the issue further when the phone on the bar started to ring off the hook, and Jimmy had to thank his lucky stars that he didn't have to explain to Sadie that he simply liked the sight of her asleep on his couch too much to bear the thought of moving her. Instead, he sprung off the leather and walked to the phone, pulling it off the hook and to his ear with a simple: "Hello?"
Sadie raised at eyebrow at Jimmy's back when she heard a shouting voice pick up on the other end of the line, but she couldn't quite make out the words. Jimmy winced at the volume and pulled the phone away from his ear slightly until the shouts finally started to die down for him to speak. "Fuckin' hell Jonesy could you yell a little louder? I don't think the neighbours heard you," Jimmy deadpanned, causing Jonesy to start up again with his yelling. "Yes I know how late I am... A drumstick up my— Christ, well I won't be able to write any music that way either... Fuck, yes, okay, I'm on my way now."
The phone let out a loud 'clack!' as Jimmy slammed it down on the receiver and turned back to face Sadie, who's lips had formed into a slight grin from watching the exchange over the phone. "Well apparently it's half-ten," Jimmy told her, "and I am an hour and a half late to my meeting."
Sadie sighed slightly and rubbed her hand over her face, "Fuck so am I. And I don't even have a change of clothes — the girls'll never let me live this down." The blonde stood up from the plush leather seat, frowning down at her crumpled clothes.
"I can lend you something if you want," Jimmy awkwardly offered after a second of watching her, "But I can't promise I'll have anything in your size."
Sadie bit down on her bottom lip as she considered his offer. On one hand, it would feel incredibly weird to be wearing clothes from a man who she'd just spent the night literally on top of. But it just took one sniff of her slept-in shirt and her mind was already made up for her as she swallowed the last shreds of her pride and let him lead her up the staircase to his bedroom. She could only pray that none of her band-mates found out where her change of clothes had come from, or then she'd really have some explaining to do — not to mention if Catalina found out about her overnight writing session with the Led Zeppelin artist. She had to shake her head to clear her thoughts away as they reached his room after an eternity of silent walking.
"Take anything you can fit," he told her as he led her into the walk-in closet. "Consider it partial payment for me ruining your boots months ago."
"It'll take more than a t-shirt to make up for my favourite boots, but it's a start," Sadie joked, causing him to chuckle and shake his head as he shut the door and left her in there alone. If she wanted to, she really could've gotten herself lost in there for hours trying to find something she could actually pull off — but in a rush she just pulled off her wrinkled shirt and replaced it with a maroon button-up which she knotted to make it fit her better. She then simply snagged one of his belts off the rack and looped it through her jeans, tightening it while checking herself over once in the mirror and deciding she was satisfied.
When she emerged she saw that he'd changed out into a new green shirt and jeans as well, giving the woman a small nod as he looked at her new clothes. "Damn. I really liked that shirt."
"Be nice and maybe I'll give it back then," she teased, fixing her newly acquired belt and waving at the man to get moving. "Now let's go before my bassist actually chokes me for being so late."
"Choking might be an easy way out," he said as he led her down the stairs again, stopping for a few moments to gather up the papers they'd written on the night before and stacking them inside of his arms while he talked. "I'm pretty sure my band will do far worse methods of torture to me."
"Let's not make this a competition, Jimmy, that hasn't worked out so well for you in the past," Sadie rolled her eyes as she helped him gather his things, handing him his keys as well from the bar counter before the two of them finally got to the garage and into his 1966 Ferrari — which Sadie had to pretend she wasn't impressed by when really she jumped a little on the inside — and then onto the road to the studio they were both working from.
Although she knew she should've been leaping to get away from Jimmy after spending that awkward night at his house, she couldn't help but want the drive to last a little longer as she looked over and watched him. He didn't seemed too stressed at all by the time, one hand propped on the window with the wind blowing back his dark hair as they twisted and turned through the London streets towards the studio. By the time they finally did arrive, the drive was almost disappointingly fast for them both, and she wished he could've taken a few more minutes to find a park when he finally pulled them into the back lot behind the building.
"Guess this is where we part ways again then, Scottie," he told her as he switched off the car, making the blonde nod as well in agreement.
"I guess so," she chewed slightly on her bottom lip, and when neither of them said anything for another second she turned around and opened up the door to go inside, only to have him grab her arm and startle her into turning back around.
"I— I really am grateful for you helping me," he told her, making a slight smile tweak her lips that somehow seemed to stimulate him to continue on talking. "If you're up to it, I'd like to write more with you — this time without waiting a week before talking again."
"I'd like that," she answered immediately with a growing smile, "but first you're gonna have to let me go so I can get into this meeting. Because I can't help you write music if my band murders me."
Jimmy looked relieved as he let go of her arm and sat back. "Right. Sure," he nodded, as if he was a little surprised she agreed to meet with him again so easily, "good luck."
"You too, Paige," she told him, and before either of them even realised it she leant back in and for the briefest of seconds kissed the young mans cheek before she slipped out of his car and walked inside without waiting a moment for him to register what had happened.
｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆
word count : 2535
this update took forever, and i swear i'm going to try and be faster in the future