Jude picked up her cell phone and punched in the number. She had called Tommy's phone every day since he had left. He never picked up and she had stopped leaving messages long ago but some how having this nonexistent contact with him comforted her. She held her breath as the phone rang twice. She always let the phone ring 15 times before she hung up, she let herself think that this insured that Tommy would not pick up the phone, but in reality she hung up on the 15th ring because after the 16th ring the phone took her automatically to his voice mail and hearing his voice was getting harder everyday he was gone. While she waited for the phone to continue ringing Jude hummed a little of the new song she was working on. She was dealing with some major writers block but she thought maybe if she continued to push the beginning of the song through her head an ending might just follow. 13, 14 …. Jude sighed and began to move the phone away from her ear, just as the line clicked open.
"Jude? Jude are you there?" It was him. His voice sounded different, tired, but there was no way she would mistake it. She felt herself shudder as her brain processed what was happening. She stared at the phone in her hand wishing it would ring again proving this was all in her head.
"Jude? Please Jude, please….." She took a deep breath and lifted the phone to her ear.
"Quincy? I'm here, I…… I don't know what to say to you. I have called you for two months wanting you to pick up the phone and when you finally do, I don't know what to say to you." She could hear him give a nervous laugh on the other end of the line. She waited, waited for him to explain what was going on, why he had left, even to tell her how much he missed her but instead all she heard was silence.
"Tommy?" She asked quietly, secretly afraid that he had hung up on her.
"Jude, oh Jude. I…. I don't know what to say either, I… there isn't much I can say. I saw your name on my phone and I, well here we are having an awkward conversation and I really should go but… I just wanted to tell you…"
"No" Jude broke into his rambling. "No, Tommy! You are not going to leave me again not without telling me where you are, and what is going on, and why you left me! I am not letting you do this to me again."
"Call back Jude, please." She held back tears and anger as she heard the phone go dead. She starred at her phone in shock wondering what had just happened. She heaved her phone across the studio space and exhaled and she heard it collide with the concrete wall. She chaotically grabbed her bag and stalked out of the building. She had never expected for Tommy to actually answer his phone. Her mind was racing with everything that had happened in the last ten seconds. But today was a big day for her. No matter what had just happened she had a schedule she had to follow and she was going to get through it, at least, she thought warily, she was going to try.
Jude arrived at G Major in time to see the set for her video going up in the back lot. Darius was standing near the director and she choose not to bother him as she headed into Studio 2 which was acting as her make shift dressing room. The wardrobe mistress came in a few seconds later carrying the first outfit of the day. As she was changing Jude mentally scolded herself for picking Liar Liar as the first single for the album. It had seemed like a good idea at the time. Things had been going to good with Tommy and Darius had thought the song would make a perfect single. Jude had even decided she was going to ask Tommy to be in the video with her. She knew he would protest but with a little Jude charm he would probably come around. Of course then he disappeared to who knows where and now Jude was stuck filming a video to a song that reminded her of everything she wanted to forget. She looked at herself in the mirror. She was wearing a faded, torn up pair of jeans and a snug blue t-shirt. Her hair was pulled up in a pony tail with a few strands hanging loose around her face. She took a deep breath, put all thoughts of Tommy out of her head and walked out to the set.
Jude listened intently as the director went over the story board for the video with the whole crew. The premise of her video revolved around a young couple that were moving into their first house. Jude and a male model were acting as the couple, painting the walls of their bare apartment. The couple starts off painting and goofing around with each other, then they begin to argue and things get heated. Jude throws the cans of paint up against the wall and paint goes everywhere. The boy leaves after the paint has been thrown and Jude breaks down. Throughout the whole video shots of Jude sitting in the splattered paint, singing would break up the story line. The last shot would show Jude alone painting the wall a new color. As the crew began to disperse after the meeting the director motioned for Jude to join him on the set. Jude tried to hide her excitement as a gorgeous man walked over to join them.
" Jude this is Tom Dean, the actor you are going to be working with. I have worked with him before and know that he is going to really make you and your video come to life. Tom I assume you and Jude are going to want a little time alone to work through some of the things that are going to happen in the video. We're working on getting the lights set up so I will come get you two when we are ready." The director walked away and started shouting at the lighting crew. Jude took a second to mentally curse fate for providing her with a reminder of Tommy. Of all the names in the world this guy had to be named Tom. She put that behind her and smiled warmly as she shook Tom's hand.
"You look amazing" He said shyly. "Thanks so much for letting me be in the video with you."
"Of course. It's really nice to meet you. Well I guess we should go talk about couple stuff before we play one on TV." She laughed nervously and was glad to she that he was chuckling too.
" Sure Honey" He said jokingly, as he put his arm around her and escorted her towards the lobby.
