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Due Notice
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2024-10-29 19:42:56On the last days of March, Jim’s tweet made Silvia’s knees buckle.
“U ready Latin America?”
Her hand was shaking as she opened his DM.
“Got the breaking news? C u soon! :D”
She dropped the tablet and smoked until her head felt a little clearer. Okay, Mexico was Latin America and Jim had a thing for grandstanding, so this might be nothing to have a heart attack over. Just in case, she followed the link on Jim’s tweet to the band’s official website, where she found the confirmed dates of this unexpected fifth leg of their world tour.
Her lips trembled as her eyes moved down the list of countries. Mexico, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Peru, Brazil—Oh God!
Argentina.
Two concerts in Buenos Aires, at the GEBA stadium, the weekend before Revolution Day on May 25. And considering the national holiday was a Monday that year, those concerts could very well turn into three if the first two sold out.
Her heart was hamme
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No Return In the Way
When Jim knew Silvia would go to Buenos Aires with a friend, he told their road manager Tim Costa he needed two full-access passes for Argentina. He didn’t want anything to come in her way to get to him in any situation.“Okay, I’ll email the local producer,” said Tim. He noticed Jim’s look and smiled. “Give me the full names and some ID number, so they can go pick up the passes before we get there. I’ll warn the locals to wait for them.”Jim knew a thousand ways that could go wrong, so he turned to Deborah, dead serious. “I ain’t playing unless she’s at the stageside, Deb.”“Okay, but who is she? Someone from the local Squad?”“She’s a friend.”“Don’t worry, Jim. We’ve got this,” she replied, just as serious.“You better.”Tim hardly waited for Jim to leave to turn to Deborah. “A friend?&
No Return On the Way
It took Silvia four days to realize what Jim’s call had been really about. And the son of a bitch had hit his mark alright, for a change. He’d made her talk about things she loved, and let the conversation turn into an easy small talk, resourcing to every joke and tease they’d ever shared. Until she’d let go of her absolute terror to being face to face with him again. And now she wasn’t afraid anymore. She was anxious, and her guts twitched as days pushed her closer to May, but the fear was gone. Both of them had made a deal with the devil, opening their phones to have the option of texting and making video calls online in case they needed, but the Hey, Jay! remained the virtual place to share their stuff. Being on tour, Jim returned to his habit of posting mostly pictures of the places he was visiting. And the titles soon looked like a countdown of sorts. Mexico was Still Cold, Puerto Rico was Warm, Colombia was Warmer
No Return Sold Out
“Hurry up.” Jim chuckled when he saw the picture of Silvia’s tablet on a bed, the screen showing his own last post on the Hey, Jay! “Leave a light on 4 me,” he typed on the comments. He glanced up and found Sean’s frown across the bus aisle, where he was sitting with Jo. Jim winked at him and went back to his Twitter feed, while their bus cruised through Rio to their hotel. Sean grunted under his breath, because he already suspected who was the only person in the whole world that could make his brother chuckle and smile like that. He launched his fist across the aisle to punch Jim’s arm. “Fuck you,” Jim grumbled, rubbing his arm. “News from Argentina?” asked Sean in his best casual tone. Tom heard him and turned around in his seat. “Sold out, both shows. Deborah is opening a third show on Sunday.” “Busy weekend,” said Jo. “Don’t say,” said Jim. Sean scowled at them and turned t
No Return One that Looks Like Her
Against all odds, obstacles grew fewer and easier on the way up the fancy building downtown, as Silvia and Claudia reached more important desks. However, first they had to actually reach them. The front desk of Vector Productions was like a machine-gun nest from World War II, disguised as a nice counter with an even nicer girl in a pretty uniform suit. True to her training, she first tried to send Silvia away, telling her she should call or email the person she wanted to see. Then she turned to take about a dozen calls. When Silvia was able to make her understand that first step had already been taken by No Return’s road manager, and she’d been directed to come get the passes in person, the girl was as kind as to make a call, and then another, and then another. Silvia and Claudia waited by the desk, mustering all their patience while the girl asked and held on the line and spoke in whispers. “Why don’t you text Jim?” Claudia said. Silvia shook her hea
No Return Good Night
The picture showed Silvia and Claudia outside the Vector building, holding their green passes. The foot read, “Four frigging hours to get them!”Jim showed the picture to Tim, who frowned when he read the foot.“Four hours? Damn!”“You should have emailed them like I told you.”“I did!”“Then good thing she’s nothing like me and had the patience to wait, huh?”Deborah saw the way Jim glanced at her, his eyes full of reproach, and decided to pretend she hadn’t noticed it. But she took careful note of how much Jim seemed to care about this woman coming to see him in Buenos Aires.Silvia’s post to the Hey, Jay! included a link to a photo album on Facebook, but Jim kept it for later.The dead time on the trailer, waiting to play, felt shorter that night, following her on pictures all over Buenos Aires. He recognized Silvia’s little
No Return Drops in Glasses
Just like any highly-expected and carefully-planned moment, Thursday didn’t think so. Silvia couldn’t believe the thousand ways things got complicated, in a geometric progression that seemed determined to push absurd into plain surrealistic before her gaping eyes, taking any control out of her hands until she could only hope she’d made it through alive. Claudia’s parents lived forty minutes away from Jim’s hotel by car. The other way to get there was by train and bus, and it took almost two hours on a good day, like a Saturday afternoon. So the Commodore had promised he’d take them there. Keeping traffic and other odds in mind, they would be leaving about four to get there by five. Until the Commodore’s phone rang and he was asked to cover for a colleague that had just called in sick. He was assigned a flight scheduled to take off at four, so he hardly had a chance to grab a bite before leaving for the airport. On the family car, of course. C
No Return The Thirteenth Hour
The musicians were just chilling out, having a beer before the presser, when they heard the first thunder. All of them looked up, surprised. “What the fuck?” Tom cried. “It was sunny not five minutes ago!” Jim went up to the nearest window, looking out to hide a smile. A sudden storm when they were about to meet again. What were the odds? He shook his head slightly. She was on the way. “She’s a fucking force of nature,” he muttered to himself. Deborah and her assistant Ron came to take them to the conference hall where the press waited for them. She nodded at Jim to let the others take the lead to the elevators and walk with her. “No green passes so far, Jim,” she said, keeping her voice down. He took his phone, searched for something and handed it to her. “Here’s a picture of her,” he said. “Go wait for her at the lobby, Deb. Keep my phone, in case she texts me while I’m busy in there. And bring her to me the minute she gets h
No Return The Usual Suspect
Sean saw Jo’s nod to the hall behind him and turned around. Deborah came into the bar, looking around as she approached him.“Where’s Jim?” she asked, still scanning the faces in the room.“Busy. What’s up?”“Busy?” Deborah repeated. “But he asked me to wait for—”“She here? Bring her in.”Sean and Jo watched Deborah go back to the hallway and invite the two women in.“Which one?” whispered Jo, excited.“You tell me,” Sean replied with a little smirk.Jo studied them both, and was about to pick the hot younger one when the other woman met Sean’s eyes and flashed a tight smile.“Oh, my God,” Jo muttered when the woman headed straight toward them, tugging at her friend’s sleeve to make her follow.“Hey, Sean,” the woman said with a quick nod.“Hey.”
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No Return True Freedom
Silvia woke up to Depeche Mode’s Personal Jesus.The sun was setting and she was alone in bed, tucked in soft sheets that smelled of lemon and the fat white comforter. Jim had left a few hours ago to let her rest, because after those weeks apart, it was plain to see she wouldn’t get any rest with him around.She’d fallen sound asleep, exhausted, and now she had the persistent feeling of being still lost in a dream. But she wasn’t. This was not the Black Rock. It was the Ashtray, her new home, and that music had to be a phone ringing.But not hers. She’d never used that song as a ringtone.She followed the music to the other nightstand, where she found a new phone still inside its open box with a red ribbon. And she laughed out loud when she grabbed it and saw the caller was My Personal J.“Hey, you awake?” Jim asked when she picked up, still chuckling.“Hey, you just woke me u
No Return Yours
They staggered into the bedroom and fell on the bed as they kissed, their hands struggling to get rid of their clothes.Silvia pulled Jim to bring him on top of her, yearning to feel his weight. There was no other body to hers, no other hands to touch her, no other lips to drive her crazy, no other skin to stroke hers. She wrapped a leg around his waist, pushing him down, and moaned when she felt him inside of her, his fire sweeping it all away, and she gave in to his need and his exasperated anxiety.Because that was exactly how he was feeling. He’d never missed her body, he’d never needed her like this. Yet there he was, fighting himself back to keep from going off like a frigging teen, growing crazier with every moan he pushed out of her mouth, every move of her hips, every touch of her fingers, every brush of her lips. Like he would never have enough of her.Why was he feeling this way? Why nothing seemed enough? When had all bodies lost their ap
No Return The Ashtray
Silvia exited the Customs Office feeling stunned and a little dizzy. After such an emotional last week in Bariloche, she’d had to go through the long flight that had taken her to another time zone, another season, another country, another culture, another language. She looked around, feeling she was running on fumes and she was about to pass out any moment now.Jim threw the sign she hadn’t seen into a bin to come stand before her, hands in his pockets and a smile under his black cap.“Looking for somebody?”Silvia just dropped everything to fall into his arms. He held her tight, kissing her hair, and felt her shiver nonstop. She needed a whole minute to fight back her tears and get a little grip on herself. When he assessed she would be able to walk, he took her hand, grabbed the luggage cart with his other hand, and took both to the parking lot without a word.Silvia just let him lead the way. She was there, with him, finally. Sh
No Return Storm Alert
Silvia left before her friends and siblings even registered what she was doing. One minute they were all toasting to her for the hundredth time in the bar, and the next minute she was hugging every one of them, telling them how much she loved them. And then she was gone, all alone.She walked down the street, gazing up at the sky, admiring the colors in those minutes before the early sunrise. Her feet didn’t need to consult with her brain to head straight to the downtown beach, walk down the stone steps and take her right up to the lake shore.She sat down on the cold pebbles and lit a cigarette, face to the east. It was her last sunrise of the only life she’d ever known. The last sunrise with her lake and her mountains. Like so many times before, she wished she could capture every little detail as far as her eyes could see, carve it all in her memory and keep it inside of her, true and unchanged, forever unfading.She watched the sun come up behind
No Return December
Tobias and Leandro had done their best to clean up the Black Rock before Silvia came back home. And the outcome made her smile, because the house was squeaky-clean and smelling of flowers. They were surprised to see Mika there too, but Silvia’s look kept them from asking any questions.Knowing the siblings needed time alone for their reunion, Leandro left for Beltane, to have dinner with Claudia. At the Black Rock, Mika went to the supermarket, to restock the fridge with something that wasn’t trash food and make dinner for the three of them.The moment she walked out, Tobias asked Silvia what had happened to their sister to make her lower that proud head of hers, admit her fail and come back home. It was just natural he would take mortal offense when he learned why Mika was actually back. But Silvia would have none of it.“I’m telling you the same I told your sister,” she said. “You don’t want me to keep treating you guy
No Return Lil' Sister
It’d been six months since Silvia had last seen Mika, and one look was enough to tell her all her little sister had been keeping from her.Rob and Juan had planned a Saturday night out after dinner, but Silvia resorted to the such-a-long-flight excuse to stay behind.“Would you lend me a hand with the dishes?” she asked Mika.The others understood and took off, leaving the sisters alone.“I thought Lorena was coming too,” Silvia said as they picked up everything from the table.Mika hesitated, found her sister’s eyes and shrugged. “We broke up.”“Oh. You never mentioned it.”“It happened three days ago. I didn’t wanna write to you about it. It was your last days with Jim, and I knew we were meeting today.”They took everything to the kitchen and Silvia asked Mika to make mate while she did the dishes. The girl knew better than trying to beat
No Return The Thing
Silvia almost missed her flight, too absorbed staring at the tiny thing on the table before her.What on God’s green earth was that thing doing there, and in her keep?That white-gold band with a little, discreet diamond.An engagement ring.That frigging coward! Throwing it at her from ten feet away!But no matter the delivery method, Jim had given it to her.His mother’s, he’d said.Bring it back, he’d said.She felt lucky her brain was able to register the last boarding call. She looked up, startled, and jumped to her feet. She was about to hurry away when she remembered the ring. Actually, it was more like feeling a leash tugging at her neck, stopping her from walking away from the table.She spun around on her heels and scowled down at the damned thing.“You…” she growled.The moment she had it in her hand again, she realized how small and light it wa
No Return Catch
It was sort of weird. Being with Jim usually involved having people around, but now they were all alone, making their way through the usual crowd in LAX. Come to think about it, both of them loved having an active social life. Maybe that was why she hadn’t needed any major adjusting over the last ten days in LA.…?Silvia would’ve punched herself best Fight Club style. She had only minutes left with him and she was pondering about their social habits? Really?She checked in for her flight and they headed to the boarding area in no hurry.“So you think you can be back by January ten.”“Yup. I gotta report to work with Jo on the fifteenth, but I want a couple of free days before that.”They walked a whole minute in silence.Silvia wondered why all of a sudden they didn’t seem to have anything left to say. Why were they avoiding eye contact? Why did she feel like getting into the boarding
No Return Jam
“Hurry up or I’m calling a cab!”“Bet you’re dying to do it, you chicken.”“Please, Jay!”Silvia finished raiding the master bedroom one last time, to make sure she wasn’t forgetting anything.“Jay!”“Coming.”She snorted and went to canvass the ground floor. She was just done when Jim came down the stairs in no hurry.“Can we go before I have a heart attack, milord?”“Cool down, woman, we have plenty of time,” he said, grabbing her duffel bag on his way to the front door, where she waited with her rucksack. He paused at the doorway to poke her nose. “Really, such a rush to leave me.”Silvia wasn’t about to explain she was always that upset whenever she had a bus or a plane to catch, so she just scowled at him and followed him out.“Got everything? Tickets, passport?”Silvia ch
