My Winding Wheel

“Esmy. Really? Must you do that now? You know it gives me the shivers!” Margret complained over the video chat she was having with Esmy, watching as Esmy did her morning yoga. Going into a relaxed cobra, she gave Margret a pointed look, “You’re the one that just had to have this conversation now. I warned you.”

“Just don’t do scorpion.”

“Oh I am, just as soon as we’re off chat.”

“Hell, you’re crazy woman,” Margret shook her head, watching as Esmy sat up again, “I know, I’ll finish later. Now what is so important?”

“How was last night?” Margret raised an eyebrow at Esmy, laughing as she saw the blush form. Esmy rolled her eyes, crossing her arms as she looked down to the yoga mat beneath her, “It was alright.”

“You just won’t admit you had fun without me!”

“It’s not that,” Esmy stopped as her phone vibrated next to her laptop. She reached over, picking it up quickly to check it. At the sight of Josh’s name on the screen, she smiled to herself and pulled the long text open. Good morning love. Tell me your life is more interesting than what is happening for us right now. I’m sitting at a gas station in Pennsylvania and Rhiannon has called me four bloody times already. She’s piss drunk and I need to clear my head. Esmy laughed, reading it over again before typing back a quick response of Yoga time! Call you in an hour. Once she set her phone down and looked to Margret again, Margret was giving her a knowing look. Esmy rolled her eyes again, scoffing, “I have friends other than you, you know. That could be one of them.”

“Or it could be a boy because I don’t even make you smile like that.”

“You make my heart stop in the best way possible, dear,” Esmy uttered sarcastically, smirking at Margret, “And you’ll never know who unless you get your butt to New York.”

“I know. Actually, that’s what I wanted to talk about!” Margret clicked away for a moment before she disappeared and her screen appeared in the Skype window Esmy had open, “So, that works to pick me up right?”

“What? Margret of course! That’s in two days!”

“Well someone needs to make you decorate that good awful plain apartment!
Margret laughed, returning to the screen, “Look, go finish your yoga. I’ll email the details and I’ll see you in two days okay?”

“I love you, so so much. So so much right now.”

“Love you too. Ciao darling!”

“Bye!” Esmy exited Skype, shaking her head as she shut her laptop. Returning to her yoga, Esmy began her deep breathing to go into the finishing stretch with her scorpion pose. She held the pose, deep breathing and closing her eyes as she slowly rose her head and lowered her toes to her scalp. Holding her scorpion for a minute or so, Esmy slowly lowered herself into downward dog, followed by child’s pose to relax her body and allow herself to breathe deeply.

Once she finished her breathing meditations, Esmy stood up and stretched her body out until she felt the small pop in her spine. Smiling in a completely content state, she reached down to grab her phone. Quickly scrolling through the contacts, she dialed Josh and waited for him to answer. He answered second ring with a “thank god” muttered under his breath. Laughing, Esmy sat down on her couch with a smile, “That bad?”

“She won’t stop bloody calling me!” Josh groaned out, and Esmy could just hear the pain in his voice, “Hard enough, yeah? Doesn’t have to rub it in.”

“Don’t let her get the best of you,” Esmy tsked at him, shaking her head as she grabbed for an apple out of the fruit bowl her aunt set up, “You said it yourself, she’s just some dumb slag right?”

“Yeah, yeah that’s all. Look I need to go. Phone’s going to die, yeah? Thanks.”

Before she could say a goodbye, Josh hung his phone up. Esmy stared down at hers, frowning to herself as she set it down. “Okay then…”

Shaking her head at the phone in front of her, she stood to make her way into the restroom and get ready for job hunting. Discarding the apple she was going to eat, Esmy sighed and began to plan out her day. Stupid boys.



“Esmy!” Two days later, Esmeralda found herself at Grand Central, confused as ever and waiting on Margret. She heard her name multiple times before she saw Margret, finally spying her on the escalator leading down from the trains she had taken into the city from JFK. Waving and standing on her toes so Margret could see her, Esmy began to weave through the crowd to her. Meeting almost directly in the middle of the station, Esmeralda hugged Margret tightly to her, sighing into her red hair and smiling, “I’ve needed you here so badly Margret.”

“Well, I’m here now. Show me to your place and lets tear up New York!”

Esmy led her to the waiting cab, directing him to take them back to the starting address. She caught up with Margret on the way home, listening to all the little tales of Kelly messing up at her old position and smiling wider with each tale. Once they finally arrived at Esmy’s apartment and paid the cab driver off, Margret let Esmy take the lead on conversations. She explained her move and job hunt, her distress with her aunt leaving for the UK again, and her surprise visit of her cousin. As she explained meeting Josh and Max by pure chance, her phone began to go off in her purse playing Ryan Adams softly. She scrambled to grab it as they rode the elevator up, answering with a slightly breathless greeting. The person on the other end laughed, making Esmy smile, “Yoga again?”

“For your information, elevator to my apartment and telling my friend how I met you, actually.”

“Oi, telling her you ran into my mate and me multiple times quite literally you mean?” Josh laughed on the other end of the phone, making Esmy blush, “Yeah yeah, that. What’s up though? You sound chipper.”

“Chipper as you can be in my situation. Thousands of miles from the bloke I want to throttle, but I’m not bad.”

“No throttling. No no no. Lets not get arrested over a dumb girl.” Esmy shook her head, making Margret giggle a little under her breath. Smiling over at her, she unlocked the door before turning her attention to her phone again, “Look, I just got home. Let me call you later?”

“Got a show. Just wanted to vent. I’ll call ya some other time.”

“Sorry! Good luck!”

“Thanks!” Without a goodbye again, as Esmy as learned not to expect, Josh hung up. Esmy tossed her phone into her bag, groaning, “I think I pissed him off. Whatever, anyways, welcome to my home!”

“You have a fireplace! Esmeralda Guadalupe Corteze you did not inform me that it was this nice! Ugh, I hate you right now. So much. Forget tearing up the town, lets stay here and soak in the beauty that is your apartment.”

“Whatever you say Margret,” Esmy laughed at her friend, shoving her shoulder lightly, “Come on, I pulled the couch out into a bed for me since it’s only a one bedroom. So let me show you my room you’ll be sleeping in.”

“Esmy, you’re amazing.”

“I know,” Esmeralda laughed at Margret, throwing her arm around her shoulders as she led her into her bedroom and let her take in the sights. “Only because I have this amazing friend helping me. Let me get some coffee going, we can grab a bite to eat at this cute little Italian place down the street tonight.”

“I love you, oh my god this is why we are friends.”

“I know I know. Relax, take it in, and sleep off that flight. I’ll wake you later okay?”

Margret nodded, already kicking off her shoes to climb into the large and comfortable bed. Esmy shut the door behind her quietly, smiling to herself as she went to prepare a cup of coffee for herself. She definitely needed this visit, more than anything at the time.



Two days into the visit all she and Margret had really done was shop and decorate her home. Esmy wasn’t exactly keen on the job market in New York, finding most of it too competitive for her taste. She liked the laid back feel her San Francisco office held. Coming from the Bay Area to anywhere else when it came to modern business was quite the change. Being a creativity based city, the offices there cultivated innovation more than anything. Her old job had a room with walls made of purely chalkboards everywhere so that employees could brainstorm on a larger scale before transforming it into an accessible format. Going from chalkboard rooms and people skateboarding around the building to stuffy suits and plain white walls everywhere was not Esmeralda’s idea of a good transition.

Margret tried retail therapy with her, but that was hurting her more knowing that what she was saving was going to clothes and nick-knacks so they gave up on that. Esmeralda knew her life was changing, and that she needed to change with it, but she wasn’t exactly ready for it. On the third and final day Margret was there, she took them both to dinner and rode in a cab with her all the way to the airport to say goodbye. As she watched Margret walk away, Esmeralda felt as though she was losing her more than she actually was. Margret was her rock at times, and without her sometimes life felt more chaotic than it actually was. Esmy wasn’t ready to transition into her new life without Margret there, that was for sure.



"She's called me twice Max. Twice! I would have only been up maybe an hour if we were in Surrey and two calls?" Josh glared at his phone as it rang again, Rhiannon's name flashing across the screen. "Hell, there it goes again."

"Here," Dan picked up the phone for Josh, smiling as Josh stood to stop him, "'Ello Rhiannon...No, Josh isn't properly available...Nope, not with some slag, just dumped one actually from what I hear...Look, lassy, I don't care much what you've got to say but you're causing Joshua James over here some proper hell...You want to make it up to your Joshy? Stop bloody calling him...Yeah, you go ahead and try again he won't answer...Alright, pleasure's mine love."

Dan hung the phone up, tossing it over to Josh as he looked back to the television on their bus, "There. Slag indeed, said she wasn't leaving that bloke but wanted to apologize. Said she's gonna keep trying and that she doesn't doubt you've cheated, which you haven't and I informed her. So she's all in all angry and a complete bitch. Took care of that mess, I did."

"Made it worse if anything," Josh rolled his eyes at his friend, glancing down at the now silent phone. Chris scoffed from next to Dan, shouting to Josh's retreating form as Josh headed to the back of the bus, "Show some appreciation mate!"

"Whatever." Josh muttered under his breath, heading into his bunk. He shot a quick text to Esmy, asking what she was up to, but when he got no response within the hour he gave up and went to sleep. For the first time in a long time, Josh wished he wasn't on tour and was able to just go down the hall from his room to chat with his sister about this. But Elissa was busy with work and Josh was really missing her at that point.