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“Okay.” Rhiannon nodded. “God, I’m so nervous.”
“Hey, we got this, okay?”
“But what if we don’t got this?” She looked at me, worried.
I pivoted in my seat to face her. “I’ll make a bet with you,” I said. “If we don’t steal Christmas, I have to show you the Ben Stiller picture.”
She smiled weakly.
“I don’t think you understand how badly I don’t want to show you this photo,” I said. “We’re getting that cat.”
I got a small nervous laugh out of her. She took a deep breath.
“This is either going to be the best day of my year or the worst,” she said.
“It started out the worst for me.”
“And then?”
I shrugged. “And then I met you.”
Her face went soft and we gazed at each other across the center console.
“We ready?” I asked.
She nodded. “Ready.”
I got out, grabbed my saxophone from the trunk, and made my way inside. There was a middle-aged woman working the welcome desk. I set my instrument case down and smiled at her. “Hey, I’m Matthew Todd. I’m here for the five o’clock performance.”
The woman blinked at me. “I’m sorry, the… the what?”
“The Christmas saxophone compilation?”
“We don’t have a—”
“This is Mayflower Senior Living, right?” I pretended to look around.
“Yessss.”
“Yeah, I’m playing here in”—I looked at my watch—“ten minutes.”
She looked extremely confused. “I don’t have anything on my calendar…” She started riffling through papers on the desk. “You sure it’s tonight?”
“I’m sure.”
“I… Our events coordinator doesn’t work today. She usually adds this stuff to the newsletter—”
“Should I just go set up?” I asked, putting a thumb over my shoulder. “I’ve got another gig after this, so I really can’t get started late.”
“Now, just wait a minute,” she said, looking in a folder. “We might need to reschedule. I don’t know about—”
“Look. Somebody paid me five hundred dollars to be here. I’ve already cashed the check. It was a gift for someone’s grandma or something, I don’t know. I don’t need you to do anything, but just let everyone know I’m here and I’m starting in”—I checked my watch again—“nine minutes. They’re gonna love it. I’m very in demand.” I gave her my best showman smile.
She studied me for a moment. For a second I thought for sure I was getting sent home. Then she let out a puff of resigned air.
“Okay. I don’t know what the heck is going on or who dropped the ball, but let’s get you going I guess.” She picked up a walkie-talkie. “You can set up in that room over there.” She nodded to some double doors. Then she started giving instructions to someone on the other end of the walkie-talkie to knock on rooms and let the residents know we had a surprise holiday performance. I breathed an internal sigh of relief.
Step one, done.
