Follow Your Bliss

I sighed when I shut the door behind me and smiled and the happy puppy sliding across the floor as he came to greet me.

"Hey Logan, you ready to go out?" I asked.

It was the truth I had to take Logan out. I didnt mind too much what Bob and Ray did and probably would do the same in their position, but no being likes to be cornered. I can deal with blood and guts, but I'll panic or fight when being backed against the wall.

I clicked the leash on Logan and we headed out to find a patch of grass for him.

While, I waited I scanned around me looking at all the beautiful lights. You couldn't see the stars like in Connecticut, but they make up for it. The sidewalks weren't as crowed like during the day. It was just nice.

The next morning, my alarm went off at a quarter to six as usual. I groaned and rolled over, ending up on the floor.

I looked around the living room where I set up the air mattress, starting to get ideas on how to decorate this place.

The furniture I had ordered earlier last week from Ikea and Pottery Barn should be here any day now. And until then, I got to look around at tattered cardboard boxes that held my clothes and some possessions.

I couldn't help but smile and feel overwhelmed with excitement.

This is my first home.

I took this week off from work so I could get settled into the apartment without having to worry about even more things hanging over my head.

I threw on my sneakers and put the leash on Logan, taking him to the patch of grass I had found last night.

I tied Logan to a meter while I stepped in a corner coffee shop.

Yawning, I sipped my coffee and looked at my watch. Sighing I untied Logan and made our way back home.

The refrigerator and dishwasher should be delivered within the half hour, something I really did not want to deal with.

I greeted the new doorman and took the elevator up to my apartment.

Just like I figured, the doorbell rang not too long after I got in the door. I looked through the peephole to see an unhappy looking guy in their middle ages with my two boxes.

Joy, I thought opening the door.

"Yeah, I've got two packages for a Miss C. Haack, you her?" He asked looking at his clipboard.

I resisted rolling my eyes and resisted giving the same attitude back, "Yeah, I'm her."

He wheeled them in and was ready to just leave them in the living room.

"Aren't you going to set everything up?" I asked stopping from enjoying the rest of his crappy day.

"Listen lady, I just deliver the boxes."

I started losing my patience. "Do I look like an engineer? Costco said that everything would be installed when delivered."

"Not my problem. Just be glad these things are usually on wheels." He said leaving.

My jaw dropped. How dare he! I let out a frustrated scream shutting my door roughly, not caring if I annoyed my neighbors.

Logan looked at me like I was crazy, ha, I don't blame him, it's how I feel at the moment.

"Men these days, what happened to chivalry?" I sighed. Things are not going to be easy for me are they?

I threw my hair in a ponytail and started taking the box off the refrigerator.

That was easy enough to put together. The thing was on wheels and all I had to do was plug it in. I didn't worry about hooking up the water; I figured that I could do that at the same time as the dishwasher.

Hey, I can actually to this stuff. My confidence was building. It's not like I havent worked on houses before, repairing the floors and roofs cant be as hard as hooking up this stuff. And I don't even need the directions.

So much for that confidence I had just a moment ago.

Did you know that there is a valve that if fooled around with released the water?

Well for future reference, there is.

So now Im even more frustrated as fuck, even more so than with the delivery guy, soaking wet, and the doorbell just rang.

I stood in the huge puddle I was trying to clean up with my only towel at the moment before the water leaked through the floors.

My socks went squish squash every step I took.

"Yes?" I sighed opening the door. "Oh, hi Christa, come on in."

"Uh, thanks." She said slowly looking me over. "Sorry to say this but you look like you've just been drowned."

"It's how I feel at the moment," I sighed and walked back to my puddle with Christa following me carefully.

There was a spot I missed completely that I just stepped on. With my socks soaking wet as it is, I slipped and landed on my back.

"You okay?" Christa asked kneeling next to me.

"I can't do it. I thought I could, but I can't." I closed my eyes trying not to cry. "I always said I was more of a country girl, will not country, but suburbia-ish. I just can't do it, I dont even know why I tried."

Christa started laughing at me. "What so youre just going to give up cause you got wet?"

I sighed, "No, but everyone didn't expect me to last this long so they wouldn't care if I went back."

"So, don't listen to them." Christa shrugged as if it were just that simple.

I looked up at her, "It's kinda hard when it's family."

"Yeah, but it just shows them more youre not a kid anymore."

"That's true." I smiled sitting up, "Thanks."

"No problem. So, uh, want some help?" She laughed at my mess.

"Yeah," I wrung out the towel and threw it over the puddle once again.

"That's not going to work you know." She smirked at me.

"Yeah, well, I have no clue where my other one is cause the dressers and stuff isn't here yet so I cant unpack. And I don't even want to think about those other deliveries."

"Well here lies the problem." She picked up the clear bag with the instructions. "These things really do help."

"Yeah, well-"

"Yeah, well tough shit, you need them." Christa smirked and threw them to me, taking her place on the floor next to me. "Jeeze you're stubborn."

"Yeah I've been told." I laughed.

"Oh, and I'm three months pregnant." She smiled at me.

"Congrats." I smiled back with the dent in my confidence slowly smoothing out.

Still getting wet, we managed to hook up the dishwasher and the refrigerator.

"See these things were sorta helpful." Holding the soaking directions, she tried to say convincingly, but just ended up laughing with me.

Yeah the directions were basically proven worthless.

"Would you like some water?" I laughed.

"I think I've had enough water to last me a while." She giggled.

My phone went off, interrupting our conversation. I looked at the caller ID before answering.

"Caitlin Hack, Princess of the World, how can you serve me?" I smiled over a Christa. But, I gave her a weird look at the one she was giving me.

"Real cute Princess." Harvey, my brother's manager said on the other end.

"What, it's the truth, so Josh is home?" I asked excited. Whenever Harvey called me it meant that Josh was coming home.

"Sorry Princess, not for a while. But, Josh did call me from Chicago for a favor."

"Chicago? That means he is coming meanie don't lie to me. Wait, what favor?" I let out a sigh, what is Josh doing to me this time.

"Well, first, they're not coming straight from Chicago. They're going to go to Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and a few others before they come home. And as for the favor, Josh showed me all the contacts you made and a few paintings. So those better be developed and finished soon, cause you have a show to do soon."

"Wait when's this 'art show' supposed to be?" You'd think being a manager he'd know to let me in on this detail to begin with.

"Um, I think I set the date to be in around three weeks? Don't worry it's on the invitations and stuff; that's been taken care of already."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. You sent the invitations out already before you asked me?"

"We decided to that way you can't back out."

"We?" Who is exactly we, is what I want to know.

"Josh and I of course." He said coolly.

I looked up a Christa for a sec, "You are so lucky that I have a guest right now."

"Don't worry your pretty little head over it. Think of it like what you had to do for that charity bash for the hospital. Well, since you have a guest, I'll talk to you later Princess." He laughed and hung up on me.

"You could have yelled at them, I could have cared less." Christa laughed at my agitated face.

"Thanks." I mumbled. "Ugh, managers. And he's not even mine."

"Yeah, so last night you never mentioned you were Caitlin Hack, related to a music protge, as Kerrang calls him."

"Ease dropping much?" I teased her.

See my younger brother started a band with his friends Cornucopia in high school.

*[No stealing the name or other things about Cornucopia. It is my brother's band all rights are reserved to them.]*

Ever since birth, he was sensitive to noise and then later on he could learn any instrument he picked up. At that time this included: sax, flute, trumpet, some drums, a bunch of other concert/symphonic band instruments he fooled around with. He self-taught the electric guitar and piano, before our parents finally gave in a let him take lessons.

So he was nicknamed the music protge of his era when the success of Cornucopia came along.

I even get to put my opinion into where things needed to be fixed. Yet, since I don't know how to read music or any of those terms with it, they never give me any credit. But, in their thanks on the CD, they mentioned it there.

"Well no one asked me, and it's not really important." I shrugged and smiled. "It's not like I'm anything special, I'm just the sister. I love their music, but I'm not going to use my family name for anything, that's just superficial."

"So is he older than you?" She asked me.

"Nope, I'm the oldest. He's three years apart from me and the Devin, the youngest, is five years apart with me." I threw the phone on the air mattress. "And he's up at Uconn for some business major doubled with music."

"Jeeze you guys are like the Partridge family almost, everyone does music." Christa laughed.

"Uh, no thanks. Besides, I only know how to listen to music." I threw the wet towel at her.

She yelped when it hit her. "Thanks, okay another nosy question before I go. What's this 'art show'?" She quoted it like I did on the phone.

"Well, the 'art show'," I quoted it again, like Christa, "will be my own show I guess. Apparently, Josh had his manager Harvey pull some strings. Yet, it must have somehow slipped their minds that I work at least four days a week."

She laughed and threw the rag back at me, "You so are the Partridge family, except you do a different form of art. But, that's real sweet of him do that for you."

"Yeah, it is. He's real good to me; he didn't want me to give up my art like I planned on when I took up nursing." I smiled; I really did have great brothers. "Jeeze only to find a guy that good seems to be my problem."

"So you're single?" Christa tried to fight a smile.

I could tell there was something more to that question, but I didn't think much on it. "Yeah. I'm around a bunch of women during the day and then when I go out the guys I hang with think they are so 'hard core' and macho it's entertaining really. And now," I rolled my eyes and sighed, "my mother has this image fixed in her head that I am destined to be with a musician, an artist, or a doctor."

"How the hell did she come up with that conclusion? Not like I know your mom, but that is a pretty small list." She raised her eyebrows.

"Because of Josh and all the people I've met through him. But, mostly because I've basically narrowed out almost every other type of guy." I bit my lip in embarrassment. "It's horrible when you think about it. And I couldn't see myself with a doctor so there goes that one."

"Well, there are a bunch of artists out there. . ." She tried to cheer me up.

"Right." I said not buying it. "Oh, I'm going to Homedepot and Costco since it's in the same outlet, do you want me to pick anything up for you?"

"You sure?"

I nodded my head, "Seriously, I'll be there, just name it that way you don't have to go out."

"Well milk and bagels if you don't mind." Christa said still unsure that she was being a burden.

"Really it's no big deal." I laughed as we walked to the door. "Besides, you helped me out today. I would still be fiddling with the valve thingy if you hadn't shown up."

She laughed, "Yeah, because you were to stubborn to look at the directions."

"Hey, look were that got, we're still both soaking wet." We both looked down at out clothes and then back at each other and broke out into hysterics.

"I see you later Caitlin." She went to her apartment across the hall, while I went threw my box for a set of dry clothes.

"Ray, you will not believe what I thought of!" Christa shouted once she shut the door, not expecting all the guys in the living room. "Hey?"

"Oh sure, sound thrilled to see us." Frank pouted.

"So what's you great idea?" Ray asked giving her a kiss.

"Um, never mind. But, it'll make you and Bob feel so much worse for yesterday. It should teach you not be an ass someone without knowing all the facts." Christa sang liking this sense of power she held over them.

Both Bob and Ray had a faint rose tint added to their cheeks at the mention of yesterday.

"She wasn't mad was she?" Asked Bob.

"No, and you're lucky too." Christa smiled.

"Wait, Bob mean to someone?" Frank raised an eyebrow. "What did the person do to fuck up?"

"Hey Ray was part of it too." Bob pointed at Ray dragging his friend down with him.

"Wait, I'm confused." Mikey looked from Bob and Ray to Christa.

"Normally I'd say, 'don't worry your head over it Mikey,' but I'm confused." Frank messed up his hair. Mikey swat at his hands and tried messing up his hair in retaliation.

"Well, our new neighbor, Caitlin Hack," Christa smirked to herself, but continued the story. "Was over for dinner and she asked how along I was. So automatically they assumed that she was a 'spy' and practically attacked the poor kid. And it so happens that she's a nurse."

They cracked up, while Ray blushed and Bob rubbed his face.

Bob looked up, "Wait, what was her name?"

"You met her last night you idiot it's Caitlin." Christa shook her head.

"No, no. You said something else." Ray grabbed her so she couldn't get away.

Christa mumbled something in his shoulder, before lifting her head cheerfully. "And then the water was everywhere, but we hooked up the dishwasher successfully!"

"Well that explains why you're wet." Ray laughed. Christa rolled her eyes at him.

"Who cares about that, I still want to know Caitlin's last name." Bob asked again.

"Oh you mean Hack?" Christa smiled innocently.

"So what that can be a common name." Frank shrugged

"Nope it's Josh's sister. And she's an artist. Do you guys see where I'm getting at?" Christa grinned.

"Other than into trouble, nope?" Mikey looked lazily over at Christa. "He won't like the idea of being set up."

"Well who said I was setting them up? All they would do is have to meet." Christa tried to look innocent. "By the way, where is Gerard?"

"Doctors appointment to check on the foot." Frank said.

The guys just relaxed and ate dinner together. Christa went to bed early. The pregnancy was always leaving her tired.

Around 9:30, the doorbell went off. Ray got off the couch and trudged to answer the door. He looked through the peephole and was surprised to see me.

He unbolted the door and opened it. "Hey Caitlin, uh, what can I do for you?"

As soon as the guys heard the name, they casually walked over to the kitchen area so they could get a good look, especially Mikey and Frank, who haven't seen me yet.

"Sorry if I'm interrupting anything." I bit my lip, a nasty habit of mine. "Christa asked if I could pick up some stuff." I handed him the milk and bagels.

"Oh, thanks." He was surprised, but grateful nonetheless.

"Invite her in you retard." Frank whispered loudly.

I laughed and Ray rolled his eyes, "Well, how about it?"

"I can't." His smile fell slightly. "I actually want to get a head start on painted before all the crap comes. And I only have this week off so maybe another time."

"Yeah, sure. I'll see you later." Ray waved.

I smiled and waved to everyone else in the kitchen and headed in my own apartment.

"She's cute." Frank commented when Ray shut the door.

"What did she want?" Mikey asked.

"She picked up some groceries for us; I guess Christa asked her to." Ray shrugged and put the milk away.

Frank laughed, "She seems harmless and you two were ass' to her?"

"Honest mistake." Bob tried to save himself.

"I think I kind of like Christa's idea." Frank brought the topic up again. "She is having that art show."

"It's not like a blind date, we're just introducing them." Mikey agreed as well, yet frowned at a sudden thought. "It's bad timing though, that might be a problem. Once the new record comes out, you know?"

"Little obstacles." Frank waved the idea off.

"I don't know." Ray said still unsure.