Do you play?

"mmmumble...mrrrph....gurratag..."

"What?"

"mmmumble...mrrrph....gurratag..."

Natalie sighed and stopped digging through the boxes in the back of the closet. "I'm sorry, what did you say? I couldn't hear you."

"I didn't know you played guitar." 

"Oh, I don't."

James looked at the guitar sitting in the corner of the living room and back at Natalie, "Does your roommate play?"

"I don't have a roommate. This place is way too small for a roommate don't you think? Give me another quick second to find that book and then we can meet everyone. Thanks again for the ride."

James shook his head. Conversations with Natalie often went this way. Like he was talking about one thing and she was hearing something else entirely. The whole reason why they were here in her apartment was due to one of these conversations.

They had been at the office getting ready to leave for a team building event and Natalie mentioned to Janice that the event they were going to reminded her of this book she had read once. James wasn't paying as much attention as he should have been because part way through the conversation Nat turned to him and said, "Can you give me a ride?" James thought he was agreeing to give Nat a ride to the event and agreed. Turned out he was agreeing to giving her a ride to her apartment to find the book, then they would go on to the event. No big deal, her apartment was just completely out of the way from where they were headed. 

"You know now that I think about it, I think maybe it wasn't a book but a movie. Yeah, I think it was a movie. Do you know the one?"

"I'm sorry, what?"

"The movie that had the scene in it that I was telling Janice about? Back at the office? You know, it had that woman in it who always plays those kind of parts. With the smile that does that thing?"

James looked at Nat. She was staring at him like he should just know exactly what she was talking about so he just tossed out the first name he could think of. "Sandra Bullock?"

"Yes! Her! Now what was the movie?"

James thought for a second, okay, what did he know so far. Nat thought it was a book she had read but it was a movie. A movie starring Sandra Bullock and somehow it was tied in to the glass blowing they were going to do as a team building event. Did Sandra Bullock ever star in a movie about glass? Or teams? "The Blind Side?"

"Yes! That one! See? Doesn't this just remind you of that so much?"

James just started at Nat. He wasn't sure what to do now. Because, in fact, no The Blind Side had nothing in common with going to a little glass studio and making Christmas ornaments to foster, well who the hell knew what these things were supposed to foster. But since he had guessed it all correctly how was he going to get out of this now? "So tell me why you have a guitar if you don't play?" Distraction.

"It came with the apartment."

"I didn't know this building did furnished places."

"No, it was just the guitar. I kept it thinking that the people that lived here before would come back for it, I mean, who leaves a guitar behind? But they never did. Then I decided it was a sign and I would just take lessons and learn to play it myself."

"When do you start?"

"Well, I haven't set them up yet. As soon as I'm settled."

"That makes sense. So how long have you lived here?"

"Five years."

"Five years? And you aren't settled yet?"

"Well, I'm settled in the apartment, but you know work is always changing and then I was dating someone and now I'm not and there is the whole pet issue."

"Pet issue?"

"Yeah, I was thinking about getting a dog, or maybe a cat but then if I do that I will have to make sure I have time to take care of them and what if they don't like to hear me practice? You know they have like super sensitive hearing and so if I mess up that would be really bad for them, right?"

James shook his head, "I'm sure it would be fine. I have a dog and he pretty much sleeps through my playing."

"Oh! I didn't know you played! How long have you played?"

"Since I was in middle school. I thought it would help me get a girlfriend. I would learn how to play guitar, start a band, live the rock and roll lifestyle...typical teenage boy dreams."

"That would be great! You should still do that! You know it's never too late to start! Oh gosh! We could totally start a band!"

"Yeah, we should do that." James laughed, sure that Natalie was joking. 

She wasn't.