The Lion’s Forbidden Mate

“What was he sick with?” Lucy asked him nervously.

“I don’t even know,” Justin shrugged. “I just heard that he got sick and that he was going to have to go get some kind of surgery and that being on the road for months wasn’t going to be good for him.”

“It’s not contagious, is it?” Lucy asked nervously.

“No, I’m certain it isn’t,” Justin said, trying to assure her, but it was a little too late for that. He looked at her nervously and helped her up to the fifth floor where Ben’s old room was lurking. “Everyone on this floor is part of the tour. I’m in charge of reservations and making sure that everything is set for us when we get to our destinations. Right now, everything is falling apart around us at a catastrophic level, but that’s normal, or so they say. Chin up. Things are going terribly for us all, so we’re all on the same page right now.”

“Thanks, Justin.”

He nodded gratefully to her before turning and heading down the hallway, no doubt going back to the headquarters to keep working on making those reservations.

They were touring all over the country, hitting every major city and she could only imagine how nerve racking that must be for someone who is supposed to make sure that everyone has a place to sleep at night. She watched him go and slipped her keycard into the lock and listened for the beep before the lock clicked.

Inside, the room looked exactly like one would expect a hotel room to look like. There was nothing fancy or exciting about it and it was probably the most depressing thing that she’d ever seen. There were boxes full of lists and paperwork that Ben had amassed for her that she was probably going to have to pour over. She took a step forward and looked at all of it, dragging her luggage into the room and closing the door behind her. The desk was covered in binders and boxes, but there was a tablet sitting right in the center of all of it, like the eye in the hurricane of her business. Taking off her jacket and scarf, she tossed them on the bed and took a step forward.

“Dear Lucy,” she read the letter that was waiting for her when she turned on the tablet. “Sorry that you’re the one that they’re throwing into this meat grinder right now, but I’m trying to help you out the best that I can in my condition. I’m extremely organized, which should be a bonus for you and I have everything broken down to each container that you and the band will be taking with you on tour. There is nothing that should be out of place and each member of the set up crew is in charge of certain boxes. Remember, if there’s something that isn’t packed away and they can’t find it at another venue, that’s not your problem, it’s Becca’s. Becca will rip apart whoever is specifically in charge of that crate. Your job is simply to make sure that it’s all loaded and that the trucks arrive with all of it at the venues. It’s a simple job now that I’ve got it all acquired. The boxes in front of you are the sources where I found all of the materials inside of the set pieces and who to talk to if something goes missing. It’s real easy and it’s real simple for you now. Take care of my babies and have fun. Sincerely, Ben Calivan.”

Lucy set down the tablet and looked at all of the boxes and wondered if she was going to have to bring all of this with her when she got onto the bus in three days. She looked at all of the boxes, trying her hardest to figure out what she was supposed to do. There were files on everything and she didn’t know where one began and where the other ended. She took a deep breath and started to go through the boxes and figured that there would be something here to tell her what it was exactly that was expected of her, but it was just a bunch of endless notes.

There was everything that was ever acquired to help make this tour a success. From everything she knew about the band, they were a huge, exciting performance that made people flock from all over the country like it was some kind of holy experience to be a part of each concert and when she started to look at what went into the whole operation, she began to feel stunned and shocked by the amount of effort and money being funneled into all of this to make the tour possible. This wasn’t even factoring in the cost of touring itself. She could only think about how much money was going into lodging, food, gas, and all the other necessities that were going to make all of this possible. She felt baffled and shocked by the amount of money they were going to spend.

Turning on the tablet again and swiping past the information that Ben had left her in his kind letter, she looked at all the work that he was in the middle of doing. Right now, he had the information, the receipts, the emails, and the reports from a thousand different places among hundreds of people who all came together to build the sets and the structures they were going to be working with. This was the madness behind the art. That was when she realized that her job was to compile the last of the information into the tablet so that she had it with her when she was on the road. She looked at the seven boxes of information that was here for her to sift through.

There was a spreadsheet waiting for her and she realized that she needed to get to work right away. This was the last final push he had been a part of and it was her job to make sure the last of his information was logged away. She had three days to take down all the information she needed for them to take off and start their tour all ready and set to go. That was the horrifying reality of her job right now. She was in charge of all of this and this was her dominion. She took a deep breath and grabbed the nearest box that was marked with one of the songs they were going to sing while on tour. It was clear to her now that everything had its purpose and that everything was going to be broken down according to the concert’s playlist. She looked at the nearest box and shook her head. She was going to have to go through it piece by piece.

She felt like she was in college again, cramming to get everything done in time for the deadline that was crawling closer and closer to her with a merciless hunger in its eyes. She took a deep breath and she knew that there was nothing to it but burning some midnight oil. She grabbed the nearest box, stuffed the tablet in the box and started to make her way toward the lounge.