October 11th, 1981
6:52 pm
A cabin in the woods
Jackie looked at the fire in silence for a little while. She had thought a lot about it, but she wasn't sure it was the best idea. Life shouldn't be so complicated, was the first thing she'd thought when she got that call back at the beginning of the month.
"I have, but Madison is still so far away" replied Jackie taking a s'more from him
"Far from where? Point Place?" he asked in return, stabbing another marshmallow in the stick
"Well… yes, far from home" she said, waiting for the chocolate to melt and the marshmallow to cool a little bit. She had already burned her tongue with the first one.
"Ok, then what if Madison was home?" he asked. Jackie looked at him dumbfounded. What? "Forget about Point Place for a moment, Doll" he said, reading her confused face "This is about what you want, Jackie" he said fixing his eyes on hers "Do you want the job?" he asked matter-of-factly, before chewing into his own s'more
"But… what about you? What about this?" she asked pointing to the ring in her left hand
"We're not talking about me or us, Jackie" he said placidly, tilting his head slightly.
She was starting to lose her patience now. Not about you? Not about us?! This is not something I can decide by myself! she wanted to yell at him. After a few moments she understood the look on his face. It was filled with love and understanding and determination.
"I do…" she said softly "But…"
"No buts, Doll" he interrupted "I don't want you to miss another chance because of me"
She opened her mouth to speak again, beginning to feel annoyed.
"Stop thinking about Chicago, Jackie" he warned her, shutting down anything she could have said. She stared at him, eyes slightly widened. Did he just read my mind? "What I mean is that you should go where your career takes you… I can take mine with me"
Speechless, Jackie stared at him for long minutes. Did he really mean what she thought he was saying?
"Say something…" he said, starting to feel awkward.
"Just like that?" she asked, snapping out of the daze.
"Yeah…" he shrugged. "I mean, I would have to settle all with WB and Angie" he explained. He had thought long and hard about this since she'd told him about the job offer the week before. He had a pretty good plan, but he didn't want to pressure her in any direction. If she wanted the job, he'd go with her. It was that simple. "And maybe I won't be able to go with you right away… but it's just a couple of hours away anyway"
"You've already talked about this with your father and your sister?" she asked, incredulous. He scratched his nape, slightly self-conscious.
"Well I already had a meeting with him on Monday and when he asked about you, I told him about Madison and… yeah" he shrugged, picking another marshmallow so he would have something to do with his hands instead of fidgeting
"You have it all figured out already, don't you?" she asked, amused.
"It's not as different as the plan I had for Chicago" he said, dismissively, not really wanting to get into that. She just looked at him questioningly. After a moment he just sighed and went on "back then WB offered me to take over the store in Chicago" he explained.
"But Madison isn't Chicago" she said carefully. And then she remembered something else "And didn't he sell all the other stores?"
"Back then, he hadn't sold all yet" he said, and started explaining how he would have still been in charge of Groove's. Back then, his idea had been to hire somebody full time, and him going one or two days each week to oversee the books and orders. Now he had Ryan, and he was an excellent worker.
"So, you'd trade Point Place for Madison?"
"Not quite, because Point Palce's Groove's is the only one left" he said "But we realized a while back that Madison is like a breeding ground for great bands, considering all the college students there… so WB wants to branch the studio there"
