“Girl, I wanna roll you up and smoke ya, so addicted every time I get to hold ya. You’re my dealer and I’m your love junkie…”


Charlotte watched from the bed as Darcy moved around, picking out suits and placing them in garment bags. They’d been like that since six that morning, when Darcy got up and like most guys, started packing just hours before he’d have to board the plane. Charlotte had beat him to his place the night before. But when he finally did get home, they both were happy to spend the night talking. Not about anything important or life changing. Mostly just about hockey and the route Darcy had taken that got him here in LA. Secretly, the fear he had in Minnesota had carried over to California. In Minnesota, he knew he’d never be the starter; at least not while Devan was still on the team. And so when he got traded, he thought he was stepping into a brand new world. Only that brand new world had Jonathan Quick in it. Darcy knew his life as a backup would continue here too. As much as he loved Los Angeles, as much as he loved Charlotte, the dream… the goal of being a team’s go-to guy was still just out of reach.

“I think this is rude,” Charlotte murmured, dragging her fingertips over the sheets. She didn’t even want to look at Darcy, fearing that that would make it too real that he was actually leaving.

Darcy laughed, “what’s rude?”

“That the NHL is taking you away from me and putting you in China,” she looked up and found Darcy in the bathroom now, packing up a small bag of toiletries.

Even though she knew there was nothing she could say that would get him to stay, she still figured she’d give it a try. Why the hell not? Charlotte gathered the thin white sheet and tugged it from the bed as she stood. With it wrapped around her, she walked to the bathroom and pressed her chest against his back. The feeling of her made him pause for the time being, which only served to validate Charlotte.

“It’s only a week,” he went back to packing his things. “We’ve been apart longer than that,”

“If you consider the months we were casually hooking up when I couldn’t get you to call me to save my life,” she retorted. “That’s the longest since we’ve been together,”

As her voice trailed off, Darcy turned around and enveloped her in his arms. “It’s only a week,” he persisted. “It’s really not going to be detrimental to our relationship. Honest,”

Charlotte looked up at him innocently, “what if you run into someone and she’s your soulmate?”

“Who am I going to run into in Shanghai?” He giggled boyishly and cupped both of his hands over her cheeks. “Charlotte, I am not your father…”

“Thank God,” she tried to make light of this, feeling like he was about to take it to a pretty deep level.

“Char,” he groaned, wanting her to stay focused right now. It was important to him that she heard what he had to say. “I am not your father. I’m not going to walk out on you. I don’t tell you I love you to trick you into anything. I tell you I love you because I mean it and because you, my dear, deserve to hear it.”

It wasn’t an easy task to admit that she was utterly frightened of him leaving. Even though she knew this was a part of his job, she had been able to push the thought away during the summer. With months between them and hockey road trips, Charlotte didn’t truly have to acknowledge that there would come a day when he was going to pack up and leave for his job. Now it was becoming a little too real, and having spent the summer avoiding it, she felt completely unprepared to handle this.

“You promise to call?” She whispered, almost embarrassed to be behaving this way. He was going on a hockey road trip, not to war.

“I told you I would,”

“You promise not to fuck around with a beautiful woman over there?”

“I promise that a thousand times over,” he grinned and lowered his hands from her cheeks to the sides of her neck.

“You promise to come home to me, Darcy Kuemper?”

He tilted his head to the side, smiling a little wider, “I’ll be counting the minutes.” Darcy leaned in and kissed her lips when she let out a frustrated huff.

She was almost disappointed that he turned back around and finished up packing his toiletries and went back into his bedroom. He had to get going if he wanted to be on time. And with this being his first trip with the team, he wanted to start off punctual. So Charlotte followed him back into his bedroom and watched as he gathered up his suitcase, duffle bag, and garment bags.

“The flight’s fourteen hours so I’ll text you when I land. Shanghai is sixteen hours ahead so it’ll be afternoon Tuesday by the time I get there.” He nodded his head to the side, inviting her to follow him out into the living room, “you’re more than welcome to stay here, just no wild parties and the bedroom door has to stay open if you have a boy over,” he winked and stuck his tongue out.

Charlotte pouted, unamused by his joke, and lunged towards him. She wrapped her arms around him as tightly as possible. She pressed her face against his chest and groaned.

Darcy pressed his lips to the top of Charlotte’s head, “it’s gonna fly by.” When she looked up at him, he tried to smile more, “okay?” He waited for her to nod even though when she did, it wasn’t very convincing. “I love you, baby,”

“Love you,” she whispered back, kissing his lips one more time before he actually went for the front door and left his place.

Charlotte looked around, hoping that she’d see something that would spark some sort of inspiration to actually begin a new activity while he was gone. Unfortunately, within the film business of someone unknown, there was a lot of waiting for a phone call or the mail. Even though the film had been a success in Toronto, that momentum could only take them so far. Soon, everyone would be talking about someone else’s moving.

That’s when Charlotte looked at her phone. Today was the last chance she was going to have to keep the film relevant unless they got into another big festival. At some point, past Charlotte had been looking our for future Charlotte, because she had managed to schedule an interview with a podcast to talk about the film. She was going to get to rant and rave about it for as long as the host would let her… the perfect captive audience. And in spreading the word to the podcast’s listeners, she hoped their would be enough chatter to land her another interview somewhere.

There wasn’t much time to dwell on Darcy’s absence. For that day at least. Only a half hour or so after he left, Charlotte gathered her things and went home to ready up for today’s plans. Showered and all set up with ideas of what she was going to say, she drove back towards the valley and ended up in front of a sound studio in Studio City.

She waited an absurd amount of time in the lobby until an intern, who couldn’t have been much older than her, asked her to follow him back to the studio. Charlotte was led into a room and placed behind a microphone, where across from her, the show’s host went down a checklist of some sort before he actually made eye contact with her. Way to start things off.

“Hey Charlotte,” he finally smiled. John Royce. He’d been at this podcast business for a couple years now, and this new show boasted a few more people than Charlotte would’ve been able to reach on her own. “I’ll cue you in and we’ll get going. It’ll be a half hour or so,”

Charlotte smiled and nodded, knowing the drill here. Even though she’d never been a guest on a podcast before, she’d listened to her share of them and knew how it worked.

“I’ve got Charlotte Mickelson here, producer of the live action short, Asylum. She attended Toronto International Film Festival and had an amazing showing. How are ya, Charlotte?”

She looked at him, and in the split second she had before responding, she noted how he was now talking to her like they were long lost buddies, when just a moment ago, he couldn’t even be bothered to look up from his paper.

“I’m doing fantastic. Thanks for having me on,”

“I wanna jump right in because your story is something else. You gather your college friends, you put together one hell of a film, and you get to TIFF right out the gate on a budget of forty thousand. You know short films are still in the budget range of a million, right?” He chuckled, and Charlotte tried to reciprocate. What was so funny about that?

“Yeah, I know shorts are in the million dollar range,” she fake giggled. “But I have no way of getting a million dollars right out of college. I have no backers who are going to throw money at me and hope I do things right. I haven’t paid my dues in that respect yet. So we made a million dollar movie on a forty thousand dollar budget.”

John looked back down at his paper of notes, questions, whatever. “Why choose college friends when surely you’ve since met people with more experience and more pull?”

“Salt of the earth,” she said plainly.

“What do you mean?”

“Someone with more experience and more pull is just someone with a bigger ego that I have to manage. I don’t buy into experience; it’s horse shit… Can I say horse shit?” Charlotte wondered aloud, to find John nodding. “Everyone started as someone with no experience. And the only way you get experience is to have people take chances on you and give you a shot. My friends might not have the big time Hollywood experience, but I know how to work with my friends. I know the best ways to communicate with them. I know how to lead them. And if I had replaced any of my friends for someone with more pull, the movie we made wouldn’t be as good. Hands down. Asylum is the product of a group of people who love each other so much that we couldn’t bear to let each other down.”

Charlotte made sure that she was selling her movie and her friends to the highest degree. If they said they didn’t hope this movie led them to the next job, they’d be lying. As important as it was to be able to be an artist and be creating their own content, it was equally, if not more, important to be able to pay their bills. If they had to make someone else’s vision come to life for the sake of a paycheck, it was something they’d willfully do. So the fact that the movie was actually being received well, meant the chances of them finding jobs in the near future were incredibly high.

And that was when John asked her what was next to come for her. Well, John… The movement of my belongings from my apartment to my car as I fail once again to make the rent on time. As she bullshitted an answer, her brain actually began the harrowing voyage of what was actually to come next. There were no project in the works, not even talks of new projects. And even if there had been, Charlotte no longer had the savings to dip into. She’d been there, withdrawn from that. As much as she hated to admit it, being someone’s glorified bitch paid well and it kept her more than comfortable in her simple lifestyle. And from that point on, Charlotte answered the questions as though she were on autopilot. She was so prepared for any question he could’ve asked, that answering the questions with enthusiasm almost took no effort at all. Her brain was on fire watch now. With fear of the coming future raging through her brain, it took everything in her to keep her mental state in check.

So when the interview ended and Charlotte said her thank you’s and goodbyes, she bolted for her car with newfound speed. Apparently she needed a new plan for the future because it was approaching faster than she thought it would. And back at her place, when she realized she couldn’t call or text Darcy, a new level of fear set in. Sure she could call up Jules, but Jules wasn’t the best when it came to crisis. For Charlotte, this was becoming a crisis of sorts.

In an anxiety ridden haze, she must’ve fallen asleep, because she wasn’t completely sure how the day had passed. She missed a few hours there in the afternoon. So by the time she woke up, she padded into the kitchen and made a late dinner. Judging by Darcy’s information this morning, he'd land in Shanghai at eleven LA time, which would make it three in the afternoon the next day for him. And from there, he’d probably spend the day out being a tourist in the city. With such a massive time difference, Charlotte wondered if she’d actually get to talk to Darcy at all.

---

Her phone chirped, and Charlotte turned over in bed and squinted at the screen. She typed in her lock code and tapped a few buttons until the text message came up.

Landed, dear.

She typed out a response and tried to send it back as quickly as possible in order to have the greatest chance of him actually getting back to her. Charlotte waited up for an hour, but to no avail as her text went unanswered. From there, she figured she’d just get some sleep, and tried to find solace in the fact that this was the greatest time difference she’d have to deal with for the entire year. After this, a three hour difference wouldn’t be so bad.

An hour later, her phone rang and rang and rang. Well she thought it was an hour. In the frantic action of picking up her phone and sliding her finger across the screen, she saw that it had actually been eight hours, and that the sun was back up in the sky. At that point, her brain finally processed to look at the caller ID as the FaceTime line was already being connected.

“Babe,” she smiled, rubbing her fist against her eye. By the tiny frame of herself she could see, it was clear this wasn’t the best she had ever looked; with bed head and all.

“Did I wake you up?” Darcy sounded concerned as he laid on his side in bed and held his phone up in front of him.

“I’m glad you did,” she turned over onto her side too. “What time is it there?”

“Midnight,”

“How is it so far?” Charlotte pulled the blankets up over her shoulders.

“It’s fun. We walked around the city and outdoor market today. Tomorrow we’re going to Yu Garden and the Buddhist Temple. And then it’s back to hockey.”

“Seems like a full day. You should get some rest,”

“I can’t,” Darcy mumbled. He paused and turned over on his back, tucking one hand beneath the sheets.

Charlotte turned onto her back too. She knew that voice. “Aren’t you sharing a room?”

He giggled and chewed on his bottom lip. “Yeah but Kempe’s out of the room. Curfew’s one, so we’ve got an hour before he’ll back in.”

“Darc,” she moaned, but not in the way he’d hoped. The idea of her first interaction with any of his new teammates being them walking in on them during phone sex, was less than desirable.

“Babe,” he mimicked. “I miss you already,” he paused and smirked, “and thinking about you’s already got me horny.” He smiled wider as she grew silent and stared, her stubbornness growing. “I know you’ve got your vibrator by you,”

Charlotte took a deep breath in. She noticed that Darcy’s eyebrows furrowed slightly and he bit his lower lip softly. “Darcy,” she sounded more surprised than she probably should’ve.

“What?” He smiled, his shoulder flexing as his hand moved beneath the sheets. “You’re so beautiful,”

Charlotte pushed up from the bed and held her phone up as she navigated into the kitchen. “You’re insane,”

“Why,” he moaned, “come on, babe.”

“I’ve got to start my day. The world waits for no woman,” she pulled open the fridge trying to distract herself, and Darcy. Maybe at some point she’d gain the nerve to do that with him. Maybe after she met the team and somewhat knew the guy he was sharing a room with. That way if he did walk in, at least she knew she could laugh it off. She watched as Darcy pulled his hand back up and rested it on top of the blankets. “You’ll have to use your imagination tonight,”

“I was never much of a creative person,” he giggled and turned onto his side.

Charlotte rolled her eyes, “I think you’ll do just fine.” She leaned over the counter and held her phone out in front of her, “get some sleep. Play good hockey.”

He smiled, “I’ll be home in a few days… I love you,”

She smiled too, “I love you.”

They lingered, despite both knowing that hanging up was swiftly approaching. When they finally did, Charlotte stared at her phone as it went black. Just a few more days, that’s all they had to get through. If she could just keep herself busy through all of that, the time would pass in no time.

Notes

"All Time High" by Jon Pardi.

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I now find myself in between jobs and wildly uncertain with the direction of my life. You can expect many more updates because of it.