The Truth Is...

"Alright, what's this big meeting for?" Claudia looked up and over at Anna, who was sitting across from her in the little coffee shop downtown. Ana clarified, "I know you asked me to grab coffee for a reason, I've known you for three years, I know when something is up."

She sighed and wrapped her hands around the steaming hot to go cup of her coffee. As she stared down at the black lid she said, "I've been thinking of doing something and I wanted to run it by someone else."

"Okay.... what is it? You're not pregnant are you?" Anna asked her, and when Claudia laughed and shook her head she put her hand to her chest, let out a breath of air and said, "Oh good. Not that there would be anything wrong with that but I know that's not in your plans right now."

"I uh... I've been thinking about moving." Claudia told her slowly.

Anna asked her, "Moving where?"

"Back to Vegas." Claudia informed her, and when Anna raised her eyebrow in both surprise and questioning Claudia explained, "James got picked up by their expansion team and he was saying how he really didn't want to be alone again starting over and... I guess I just thought hey, why don't I just go with you?"

"Claudia... you're really considering uprooting your entire life for a guy you have no real ties to?" Anna asked her in surprise. That didn't sound like the Claudia she knew.

Shaking her head she said, "It's not like that. I wouldn't be doing it because of him. I've been thinking about leaving Nashville all year, I just need something else in my life. Plus, you know, my parents are in Phoenix, its way closer to them. There are a lot of pros."

"But there are also a lot of cons, don't you think?" Anna asked her curiously.

Claudia shrugged her shoulders, "Not many that I can think of. Starting over career wise, sure, but it's not that hard to get a job in Vegas and I've got way more than enough saved to get me through if it does take a while."

"What about your friends?" Anna asked her.

"Friends are friends no matter what the zip code is." Claudia pointed out, and Anna nodded her head. Claudia then went on to say, "I know it's this huge deal, I just... I don't know, something about it feels right."

"Because of James." Anna stated.

"No, because of me."

Rolling her eyes Anna told Claudia, "You can lie to yourself all you want but you can't fool me. You're afraid of him leaving and you know it. Claud, when are you just gonna own the way that you feel about him?"

"We're friends." She was really getting sick of having to explain this to people.

“If that’s what you’re going with, okay, you’re friends.” Anna said with a nod of her head.

Claudia sighed, “Why do people keep bringing this up?”

“Because you guys don’t act like just friends. What grown male and female friends are that touchy with each other? You sleep over at his house… in his bed. Claudia, it’s so obvious even without the way you guys look at each other.” Anna explained to her.

Raising her eyebrow Claudia asked her, “What does that mean, the way we look at each other?”

Lucca had said it not that long ago, and now Anna was saying it now. Claudia really didn’t understand it.

“You look at him like he’s the most spectacular guy in the world, and he looks at you like you hung the moon. I just wish you two would realize it and do something about it already.” Anna told her, and then after a second of silence she approached the subject cautiously, “I just think moving to Vegas, no matter what your reason, isn’t going to help you with this situation.”

“It’s not a situation.” Claudia told her.

“You don’t want to be with a guy like that.” Anna reminded her, and when Claudia rolled her eyes and instantly became closed off she sighed and said, “You’ve always said so yourself. I believe your exact words were that you wouldn’t touch him romantically with a ten foot pole.”

It was true, she had indeed said that, but it was like Anna had completely missed the point to that. First off, Claudia had said that almost two years ago, and while she didn’t necessarily change her thoughts on dating James it wasn’t like she hadn’t thought about it on occasion. He was nice to her, he was interested in the things that she did, he supported her in anything and everything that she did in life more than the people she had known for the entire span of it.

Sure, he was a bit of a tramp and his track record for relationships was about as long as the width of two fingers held together whereas his track record for one night stands was longer than the Declaration of Independence. But even with all that there were moments where he would say all the right things, he would hug her in just the right way or he would send her flowers on special days when he was on the road that she thought just maybe he was a different person… at least until she had to watch the parade of girls leaving his house in the morning.

After she thought for a minute or two Claudia said, “It’s just a thought, I haven’t made my decision yet.”

Anna called her out on it, “I think you have.”



Pro’s to Vegas:
1) Closer to family
2) Better work
3) Miss living there
4) James

Con’s to Vegas:
1)

That was where Claudia was at with her decision. Four pros and she couldn’t think of a single con.

Sure, she had friends here in Nashville, but she also had friends in Vegas and Phoenix, as she had said to Anna earlier, your zip code doesn’t determine friendship. She tapped her pen along the lined piece of paper, leaving little pen marks all over it.

Her phone buzzed with a text so in an effort to distract herself she picked it up and opened the message from James.

‘Flight leaves at nine tomorrow morning, I hope that gives you enough time to pack?’

That man sure had great timing.

She didn’t bother to answer, but instead she stuffed her phone into the pocket of her shorts and got up from her spot at the kitchen table. She headed to the front door of her condo, slipped her feet into a pair of sandals, grabbing her bag she headed out to her vehicle. She blasted the A/C the minute she started the vehicle, browsing through her phone for a playlist to listen to before she put her phone in the cup holder, slipped a pair of sunglasses over her eyes and then put the car in reverse.

There was a con to leaving Nashville after all; she wouldn’t have the option to develop pictures old school in a dark room for free anymore. When she had first moved to Nashville the moving company had lost a lot of her things, one of those things was a majority of her photography equipment and when she had arrived at the little photography studio and store she was headed to now with the desire to buy both a digital and a film camera the owner must have taken to her because he offered her the use of his dark room to develop old school.

He had taught her little tips and tricks to add to the knowledge she already had on the subject, and so in return for promising to always, within reason, buy her film and equipment from him she was allowed to slip down to the basement of his building for a few hours whenever she wanted.

She stopped onto to wave at him on her way down, to let him know she was there, before she headed carefully down the stairs and into the basement. She made sure no one was down there before she slipped past the blackout curtain and set her things up before she went to work.

Most of the pictures she was developing were of James, and a few of his teammates, who never seemed to mind when she wanted to test out new techniques on them. They were so used to cameras that they barely even noticed her when she had hers out. She was always trying to grow, trying to learn new things, and find unique ways to capture pictures, it was something James had once told her he loved about her and that was part of the reason that he didn’t care if she constantly had a camera out.

Digital was the way of the world now, but there was something cathartic about developing film, it seemed to calm her, and it seemed to satisfy the art nerd in her.

The only reason she stopped was because she could no longer ignore the growling of her stomach, she was so hungry she thought she was going to make herself sick. So she hung the photographs that still needed to dry and then she carefully tested each photo that was hanging against the back wall, taking the ones that were dry and sliding them into sleeves and into her leather bound portfolio. She would come back for the rest later tonight, just before closing time.

She waved again to Mick, who was sitting at the front counter looking over photographs, he waved back and then she headed outside. She headed just down the street where there was a little sushi place she liked to frequent and she found herself a table far away from the bustle of the front.

She was looking over her photographs when the booth she was sitting in suddenly became full, she glanced up to find James, Lucca and Colin and James told her, “We saw your car, Mick mentioned you left already so we figured you were here.”

“Yeah, figured I should have some food.” Claudia said softly, not paying attention to her company at all as she sifted through pictures.

Lucca reached across Colin and picked up a profile shot of James, with his god awful hat that Claudia hated so much on, a large smile on his face, and she said, “Hey, these are pretty great.”

Claudia smiled gently and held up her favorite thus far, a black and white photo of Shea sitting on the couch in James’ living room, with a glass of some kind of dark liquid in his hand, he was leaning his elbows against his knees and turned just slightly to look intently at something out of the frame of the picture.

Lucca took it from her to look at it closer and she said, “Holy old photo.”

“Yeah, I found an old roll from like… gosh two years ago.” Claudia said, flipping through a few more photographs before she held one out for James of him walking the two dogs down an overgrown grassy path.

He smiled and asked, “Can I get a copy of that one?”

Claudia nodded and Colin asked her, “Why do you develop pictures this way anyway? Isn’t it just easier to use a digital camera? One click and you’re done, you could print it at home.”

Claudia told him, “Because nothing digital turns out quite this good.”

To prove her point she passed him a photograph, one she had been playing around with cross processing with that she took on Broadway at night, it looked almost as if it had been edited with a really unique filter to pull brightness and different colors than the picture had actually taken.

“Yeah that looks pretty cool.” He told her, and as he inspected it closer he told her, “I can respect the process.”

Lucca and Claudia let out a laugh, and Claudia told him, “It’s an art that is not for everyone.”

“Yeah but look at how much better they come out, it’s got to be worth it.” Lucca told her as she sifted through some pictures. She laughed at a black and white one of Roman and Ryan Johansen play fighting at last year’s Christmas get together, and then another of Ryan Ellis, who had caught Claudia taking a picture of him and a string of teammates outside enjoying the heat, and she had chosen to zoom in on him as he gave her a big, wide grin that, had it not been for his teeth, would have disappeared into his beard completely.

“It’s worth it when I have the time to do it.” Claudia said.

Lucca asked her, “Hey, how would you feel about maybe selling some pieces to us for the new house?”

“New house?” James asked, eyebrow raising at Colin.

His cheeks flushed and he said, “Yeah… when the expansion team was named we decided to get our own place here, instead of just renting.”

“Congrats.” James told him, adding in because he felt it was necessary, “Really.”

“I didn’t want to mention it so soon to you… with everything. Figured I’d wait a while.” Colin explained to him, and James nodded his head in understanding.

Lucca told Claudia, “You wouldn’t have to like, take anything new, or anything. You could just show us some stuff you already have and we could pick from that.”

She let out a small chuckle and said, “If you give me an idea of what you’re looking for I can take some new stuff too for you.”

James told him, “You’ll never scare her off of spending a couple of days with that camera in her hand.”

Claudia smiled gently and nodded and Lucca said, “Great, maybe we can set up a date for some time this month.”

At the talk of business James and Colin got up to go and place their orders, opting to wait for them there rather than return to the table to talk about all the types of photographs that Lucca might want in the new house.

That was when Claudia told her, “Absolutely. I’m leaving for about a week and a half tomorrow though, so as long as the time after that works for you then great. Also, if you guys are going anywhere you can always give me a direction and some ideas and I can email you proofs.”

Lucca paid no mind to the business aspect of Claudia’s words, she zoned in on the first part and asked her, “Where are you headed for so long?”

“James and I are going on a little vacation, we’re spending about a week on the beach and then about four days with his family in Ontario.” She told her, and when Lucca shot her a look she dismissed it, “We go on vacations every summer together.”

“When are the two of you just gonna date? Honestly, Claud, who are you trying to fool at this point?” She was the second person to say that to her in a matter of ten hours, and Claudia was getting tired of having to explain this.

So she was grateful when Colin and James came back with their food and the conversation between she and Lucca halted. She knew Lucca would probably bring it up again in the future but at least she had some time to prepare what she was going to say so that she didn’t sound like a broken record. We’re friends.



“You’re all packed?” James asked Claudia as they headed onto the plane that morning, he let her take the window seat and he stood and waited while she tucked her camera bag underneath the seat in front of her. She smiled at the fact that she kept her feet tucked on either side of it to keep it as safe as possible. She nodded over at him and he asked, “You didn’t happen to bring sunscreen, did you?”

“Yes, several bottles. I knew you would forget.” Claudia told him, James was notorious for forgetting at least two things when they went on vacations together. Claudia always packed extra of the basics. She asked him, “What else did you forget?”

“Nothing, I swear! I made a list this time… well… Kelly made it for me.” James told her, his cheeks flushed.

Claudia let out a laugh and asked, “Body wash?”

“Got it.” He told her as he got comfortable in his seat.

“Swim trunks?” She asked as she dug through her bag for a pack of gum, popping out a piece for herself before she held it out for James and then she stuffed it back in her bag. When he nodded as a response to her question about whether or not he had brought swim trunks she went on to ask him, “A hat?”

“Damnit.” He thought he had grabbed it on his way out of the house that morning.

“There are two in my suitcase.” She told him, laughing when he leaned over and kissed her cheek loudly. She then asked him, “Shampoo?”

“Yes, I brought shampoo Claudia. I do wash my hair semi regularly.” He told her with a smile and she rolled her eyes at him.

“Phone charger?” She asked him, and she knew the answer based on the look on his face.

“Fuck.” He muttered, asking her, “You didn’t happen to bring an extra one of those, did you?”

“No, but I think there’s probably a cord in my camera bag that will work if we ever have to charge our phones at the same time.” She told him, and she was unable to add one quick lick in, “I told you, you would forget things. It’s in your nature, it’s practically DNA at this point.”

He rolled his eyes and joked back, “Why would I pack all that stuff when I know you’ll just do it for me?”

“It’s called being an adult, you should try it sometime.” Claudia told him with a grin and he reached out and pinched the side of her wrist.