Twelve Miles (Serendipity series Book 1)

by Robin Edwards

  “Oh geez, why would he do that? Why would he avoid an amazing girl like you? I think you are severely over analyzing the situation.” Lisa laughed. Lisa was the only one out of her friends who tried to be positive and supportive about the situation, even if it was a foolish one.

  “If he was interested enough, wouldn’t he have found a way to call me?" I asked.

  “Oh my god, you are so insane. You didn’t even find a way to call him either so how can you expect him to find a way to call you.” Lisa chuckled. “You are definitely romantic. Didn’t your friends think that it was an insignificant moment that just happens? This job ad is something significant. This is a real chance to get yourself immersed in his life. To have a considerable impact on his day-to-day activities and work things in your favor from the inside out. If anything, you get to work for a non-profit like you have been wanting to do for a long time!”

  “I do not want to take the chance. I would rather settle on the notion of not knowing and move on with my life. Applying for a job that is more than likely filled is just going to get my hopes up again and then become a disappointment. Besides, finding out what the truth is will only leave me humiliated for the rest of my life. I wouldn’t be able to handle it.” I sighed.

  “Since when did Jamie Winters become a quitter? That’s not the woman I know. What if it is not what you think? What if he’s just a stupid and single man that forgot? What if it was something else that prevented him from contacting you? What if he thought he had called you which didn’t happen but in his mind, he did and then didn’t hear from you and decided to give up? That could happen.” Lisa offered.

  “Now that is insane, he wouldn’t think something like that. We never exchanged numbers nor mentioned it. We weren’t even holding our phones so he couldn’t possibly believe that. I just can’t do it.”

  “Jamie, come on. You have been so incredibly mopey these past several weeks. You cannot continue to be this way. It’s absurd and silly. The only way you will ever truly get over it and move on with this insane situation is knowing the truth instead of letting your mind run wild. Just apply and see so you can give yourself the opportunity to heal and move on. If anything, you would have a great job.” Lisa pressed.

  “I guess you’re right.” I gave in.

  “Of course I’m right. Can I be brutally honest, though?”

  “Sure go ahead.”

  “I do agree with your other friends. I think you are over thinking the actions of a man you barely know and are obsessing about it to the point where it has you depressed about it. No man is worth making you feel that way. He is just a man that is it. This isn’t a movie or a love story in a best-selling novel that’s going to end happily ever after. Things like that do not exist but what does exist is the opportunity for you to get level-headed about this and apply for the job, not because of him. Although, that is an added benefit because you want a job that suits what you are looking for and this position is exactly that.” Lisa said.”

  “I know. I get it. I have been crazy about this whole situation, it’s so unlike me, but I can’t help it. I have always been overly emotional and analytical about everything. Everyone is right, Sam is just a guy, and I do need a better job.” I smiled to myself.

  ****

  JAMIE WINTERS. My name in big bold, letters at the top of the resume I submitted online several weeks ago for the Project Coordinator position. It was posted previously, and I told Lisa that I highly doubted the position was still open when I was alerted to it but encouraged to still try. I wanted to still believe in a thing as fate and miracles, but the rest of the world seemed convinced that believing in such a concept wasn’t realistic; her life wasn’t a movie or a book. Serendipity was no longer real for me so I wasn’t surprised I didn’t hear a peep from Sam or anyone from the Foundation about my application. No doubt, they had hired someone already.

  The longer time passed, the more I was at peace with it being an insignificant moment in time and I wasn’t disappointed as I thought I was going to be if they hadn’t responded. I kept busy finding potential job opportunities and celebrating holidays, but there had been a surge in requests for Plus One to perform at various charity events, a country club member’s wedding, and a birthday, and once in a while, it was a celebration that was televised. Things got so busy, there hadn’t been time to think about anything at all.

  We were performing at the club’s Winter Wonderland Celebration and Christmas was only three weeks away. We were so excited, me especially. It was my favorite time of the year, and I loved everything about Christmas. I enjoyed buying and decorating the tree, putting up lights outside, Christmas carolers, wrapping gifts and the overall good cheer. During the holidays, everyone was happier and nicer to each other.

  With the club’s permission, we decided to perform covers of holiday songs, so they had been brushing up on some of the old classics as well as mainstream covers of holiday-themed songs.

  The banquet hall was beautiful; even more so than before. The volunteers who had contributed to the work of decorating the room did a fantastic job. The centerpiece of the hall was a tall Christmas tree in the middle of the room decorated with tinsel, ornaments, and colorful lights and topped with an amazing gold star. It was magnificent, and I was in awe when I had first walked into the building with equipment in tow.

  “Jamie, come on. We do not have much time to set up. We are already running behind, traffic set us back.” Lily reminded me when I took the time to star at the beautiful tree.

  “Sorry, I just had to take the time to appreciate beauty when I see it,” I explained.

  “We all would like to, Jamie, but we have to start on time. Let’s admire it together when we’re done with the gig, alright?”

  “Okay.” I took one last look and followed Lily to the stage lugging the rest of the equipment.

  It took us more time than usual to set up; anything that could happen did happen. Murphy’s Law seemed to be in full effect. Wires were missing at first or so tangled it took a lot of time to free them up. The amps didn’t want to turn on at first, and the mics would screech when they did a check. It didn’t matter. However, we were still in good spirits, and I was ready. We all were.

  We did similar types of events a million times before, but that particular event was different. We couldn’t explain it other than we almost felt like rock stars.

  The committee didn’t want us to begin until after pre-celebration announcements were made, so I took the time to grab a bottled water from the refreshment table. The President of the country club started his speech about the charity toy drive and any upcoming meetings, and I knew it was going to be a long speech. I leaned up against the wall behind me in wait until I felt a presence next to me.

  It was Sam.

  “Oh, you scared me. I didn’t expect to see you here.” I gasped.

  “I’m sorry. Now let me guess, Jamie Winters, right?” Sam asked as he chuckled, revealing his endearing, toothy grin.

  “Yeah, exactly.” I smiled back.

  “How are you doing? Nervous?”

  “Me? No more than usual, I guess.”

  I couldn’t help but notice that while he remembered me, he did not mention his previous invite nor my application, not that I assumed he even saw it. I did not know who was a part of his hiring committee and if he was even the one that looked at the applications. For all I knew, one of his staff members did it. I couldn’t make assumptions, but I was curious to see if he would mention it at all. If he did, it might have turned into an awkward conversation. I hoped not.

  “Ah, confidence. Such a lifesaver.” I joked.

  “Hey, Sam?” The same beautiful, blonde woman called to him. “Chuck Overstreet is here. He might have an excellent candidate for the coordinator position.” She then gave me a suspicious and dirty look before subtly grabbing Sam’s hand.

  “We just hired Tobias, why are we still looking at candidates?” Sam said to the mystery woman.<
br />
  “Because I am still swamped and so are you. I think Tobias should just stick with supporting you and we need to hire another one to support projects I’m working on. They could support the both of us but either way, if we don’t hire a second person, we will never catch up. Partnership volume is increasing, and we cannot continue to maintain a staff of just nine people.”

  “Alright, Amy. Tell Chuck I’ll be right there.”

  “Great,” Amy said as she walked away, eyeing me one last time.

  “You certainly get hounded a lot. I see why you are so busy.”

  “When am I not busy? That was Amy, she’s our Vice President. We’ve been looking into candidates to assist with new projects. We’ve just hired one already but looks like we need another.” Sam nodded in Amy’s direction.

  Just a colleague? What a relief!

  “Sounds like you guys do by the way she described how busy you both were,” I said feeling more enthusiastic.

  “Definitely busy.” Sam chuckled as he walked away. “I’ll see you.”

  “Bye.” I waved goodbye. He didn’t even acknowledge that I had applied, maybe he didn’t see my application after all. It could have gotten lost in the mix, but at least I knew that Amy wasn’t his significant other but his colleague. That lifted my spirits.

  By the time the announcements were made and that Plus One was entertainment for the holiday celebration. Applause could be heard, and all eyes were on us. I gazed around the room and caught Sam glancing in our direction. He raised his champagne glass in cheer and good luck before returning the conversation he was in.

  Throughout the night, we played a mix of classic holiday songs and mainstream music by big name artists. The attendees loved it and got everyone more into the holiday spirit as they sang along. It was then that I decided that no matter what happened I was going to be happy and fun anyway.

  Several hours later, the celebration was over. Despite having a couple of scheduled intermissions, we were too busy to take breaks and relax. Other than the occasional refreshment breaks during intermission, we were regularly approached with questions and compliments. All I wanted to do was approach Sam, but it looked like he was busy as well.

  The entire night whenever I managed to glance his way, Sam seemed to be active in conversation with someone of influence or was networking. He too far into the crowd for me to be able to hear what he talked about, not by a long shot. It did not look like it was anything but a professional conversation and there were no hearty laughs or authentic smiles that I could see. Everything seemed fake and forced.

  That was okay, I didn’t expect much, and it did not even cross my mind that Sam would have been at the event. I was excited about providing quality entertainment more than anything else. I hadn’t even thought about what I would have said or done if I did run into him.

  As the celebration came to a close, we finished tearing down the equipment to pack up and leave. Stragglers continued to ask questions, request our contact information or paid compliments. It was past midnight, and I was still in a good state of mind. I did not feel like I had another missed opportunity because I firmly believed I would see him again. Especially after getting the chance to talk to him tonight.

  Chapter Six

  SAM

  “THIS IS JUST GOING TO BE a ten-minute interview with Music Time Magazine, and the article they are writing is a profile of your father, so they are going to ask you questions about what it was like growing up as his son, okay?” Amy explained to me as she massaged my tense shoulders.

  “Did Mark have a chance to look over the contract?” I inquired. I was very protective of the content that was put out there of my father and always had Mark review any fine print before agreeing to any interviews or PR material. This interview must have slipped by me, I don’t remember agreeing to it.

  We were at headquarters that housed all of Jerry Ellis Enterprises as well as Jerry Ellis Foundation. The magazine crew proceeded to set up the lights and camera in my office for the video interview. My office was simple – wood paneled walls with furniture that screamed minimalist. Next, to my desk, I had a side table that was decorated with a couple of framed pictures of my family as a kid that included my father and a potted fern plant sitting in the corner.

  “Yes, I sent it over to Mark, and it looked solid. Don’t worry, everything’s covered. You seem, not yourself today. Is something going on?” Amy asked.

  “No, nothing’s wrong. I’m just tired I think.”

  “Well, after this I suggest you go home and rest. They did ask me this morning if it was okay to film you in here working for b-roll including using photographs of your father.”

  “Alright.” I cleared my throat. I appreciated any interest the media and the public had, at least in my dad or the organization, but I was just not up to doing it today.

  After the magazine crew set up the shot in my office and set up the mic, the producer asked me what it was like growing up with a famous father. That was a loaded question, I could talk all day about him. I had a lot of memories.

  “When I was a kid, I’d wake up, and we would drive to another state or fly to another country so I never really knew what real normalcy was. We would be in Sutton Hill some of the time and then travel. The rest of the time we would be out on my dad’s boat. If anything, that would be normalcy if I had to describe it. I did not have real roots anywhere because everywhere was home but I felt the happiest on my father’s boat. When you are a kid, you have absolutely no idea if your ad is famous or not. The concept didn’t exist to you. I was very close to my father, and I loved him. My dog, Owen, is always nearby and wherever I got, he goes as well. When I look back at pictures of me as a kid, I totally did the same thing. He would often tell me to give him some space, but I just wanted to be around him all of the time.

  I loved everything about what he did professionally, and it was a lot of fun. Some of the musicians rode motorcycles, and I loved that aspect of it as well. I wanted to be like them too. My father eventually bought me this dirt bike when I was a little older, and I remember riding it a lot, and I would always crash into something and fall. I used to complain to him that no matter what I did or how hard I tried, I would always crash into something and fall. He would say to me to look forward at where I actually wanted to go and not where I didn’t want to go. When I grew up, that’s the approach I took when it came to anything I did.

  When my father passed away, I was in my twenties. I had no direction because my dad was like my rock and my anchor. He was responsible for everything that I knew how to do. My father had a best friend, Wilson, who around the time of my dad’s death worked with him on the development of the Foundation and a scholarship fund for kids with aspirations for the arts. When my father died, Wilson approached my brother Mark and asked if we wanted to continue the pursuit on my dad’s behalf and of course the answer was yes.

  My brother was the first head of the organization, and if it weren’t for Wilson giving us the opportunity, I wouldn’t know what I would be doing now. When my brother, Mark decided to step down he asked me if I wanted to take his place. I took over immediately.

  The business is Jerry Ellis. He’s made a tremendous impact in the music industry. I remember when I was a little boy, one of my chores was to mow the lawn and he’d always correct me and teach me how to do it right. Even now sometimes, it takes me back to those days when I was little. My father was just a regular guy that worked really hard and leveraged opportunities and tried to find ways to help others. He led an extraordinary life.”

  “Okay, we got the shot!” The producer/director shouted. “Thank you, Mr. Ellis.”

  “You don’t have any more questions?”

  “No, that was exactly what we needed. We are going to do some editing and add in some b-roll footage, and we will send it over for final approval.”

  “Sounds great,” I confirmed.

  “Sam, you did great.”

  “Thank y
ou.”

  Interviews and being on camera was a normal occurrence for me and if I wasn’t around them when I was with my dad then I was being interviewed as an adult about being my father’s son, the foundation or something related. I couldn’t expect any less because my dad was a legend, but there were days I just wanted peace and quiet.

  It was one of the main reasons why I left the spotlight a decade ago. I had the opportunity after my father died to continue the legacy in music. The industry professionals that knew my dad urged me to brand myself as the son of a legendary musician. That’s what I did for a short while and traveled all over the world with a lot of women and got my fifteen minutes of fame but when Mark stepped down, I knew it was time for me to stop and settle down, so I jumped at the chance to take over.

  I was tired of the jet-setting all over the world and performing; I was a great musician, but I was nowhere the likes of my father. The only reason I was liked was that I was Jerry Ellis’ son.

  The idea hit me while traveling to Italy one day, if I were a nobody that entered the industry with the skills I currently had, they wouldn’t have had the same admiration for me. I knew then that I had to get out and honor my father a different way.

  I loved being the head of the Foundation, and I made sure they continued doing quality work promoting health, the arts, and my dad’s brand. When I first stepped in as President, I thought I would continue my father’s legacy without having to be in the limelight, but that didn’t stop me from getting approached wherever I went. The groupies gushed over me or the thousands of calls and emails we received weekly from television stations, magazines or the general public. It was too much to handle.

  After my father had died of pneumonia in my arms, members of my family were left with a fortune as outlined in his will. My mother and all children equally split the $20 billion estate including his boat, classic cars, music instrument, and property. My mom Patricia was in agreement with me and my siblings to donate the boat to the Rock n’ Roll museum and agreed to turn it into a historical piece that visitors could take a look at whenever it was open to the public.