Chapter thirty-three

The next day Sarah spent most of her time on the internet looking for a job. Her search was pretty much pointless, every job she found at least remotely interesting, required experience or diplomas, she had neither?

After a few hours she gave up again, she was probably better off getting a job at the grocery store in town, that way she had something but not enough.

How had Caleb done this, he found a job in a week. Then again, he was a lot more confident and being a teenage, he didn’t need any experience.

Sarah turned off Caleb’s laptop and decided to wait for Richie’s phone call. It had only been a few days since she started her search, of course she wouldn’t be successful immediately. If she was that lucky with her search, she would have found work a month ago. She’d try again tomorrow and the day after that until she found something. She’d find it.

She didn’t have to wait long before Richie phoned her; she had talking to him a few hours ago before he went on stage in Bucharest, now he just got back to the hotel.

The time difference between them was a little annoying but it was nice to hear his voice.

“How was the show?” Sarah asked after a few minutes of ‘how are you’.
“It was good, still missed you on the side though, I keep seeing guitars instead of you.” He answered, trying to avoid telling her he missed her.
“I’m sorry.” Sarah apologized for not being there, in fact, she wished she could have been, she would have loved to but she needed to do this too.
“Don’t worry about it.” He waved it off. “How was your day?”
“Good, did some more job hunting.” She told him.
“How’d that go?”
“Not so good.” She confessed, a little disappointed.
“Don’t give up, something will come around and then it’ll be worth it.” He tried to encourage her, he knew it wasn’t easy even though it was ages ago since he had to look for a job.
“Like waiting for you?” She asked.
Richie smiled into his phone. “I guess so, yeah.”
“That’ll be a very good job then.”

They talked a while longer about their days before Sarah noticed the clock going to the next hour.

“Happy birthday!” She said excited, interrupting what he was saying.
A little confused Richie looked around for a clock, reading it was midnight. “Thank you honey.” He smiled again.
“Are you doing anything today to celebrate?” Sarah asked, still disappointed she couldn’t be there.
“Probably dinner and everyone will want to go to a bar.”
“That’s nice.” She said a little unsure.
“Sure, we’ll still talk, right?”
“Of course we will. I’m really sorry I can’t be there, I really didn’t mean to.” She apologized again for missing his birthday.
“I know, we can do something when we go to Hawaii or something.” He suggested.
“Yeah, we could go out, us two.” Sarah agreed.

“Well I’m old now, so I should go to bed.” Richie joked after a while.
Sarah chuckled. “You’re not old.”
“I just turned fifty-two.” He pointed out.
“If you’re old that means I’m old too.”
“No, you’re much younger than me.” Of that he was convinced.
“Six years isn’t that much, but if you’re tired you should go sleep and I can phone you later.” Sarah said.

They said their goodnights and hung up the phone.

Richie hooked his phone to the charger and placed it on his night stand before getting undressed and getting into his bed, still thinking about Sarah when he fell asleep.



It was only afternoon for Sarah so she watched a little tv, trying to forget about her job hunting worries for a little while before going to the kitchen to prepare dinner.

Her mother was about to start it but Sarah sent her off to the living room; she wanted to do it alone and give her mother some rest. In fact she liked cooking but didn’t often enough get the chance to since she got her love from cooking from her mother.



At night Sarah stayed up, while everyone was already asleep, she was waiting by the phone, watching the tv and looking up at the clock every few minutes waiting for it to turn to midnight.

Waiting for time to pass always made it seem to take even longer.

Five more minutes and she could phone him. Hear his voice again. That’s what she looked forward to most, just to hear him; it was enough to get that tingly feeling inside her.



Finally the clock turned to midnight and Sarah picked up the phone, dialing the number she had memorized by now, entirely forgetting about the time difference between them with the need to hear his voice again.

“Hello?” Came his gruff voice, mumbling through the phone, he hadn’t bothered to check the screen to see who was phoning him.
With that she realized she had woke him up, still she asked. “Did I wake you up?”
She already sounded apologetic and he couldn’t mind her. “You did but its okay is everything alright?” He asked, wondering why she was phoning so late or early, whatever it was.
“Everything’s fine, just phoning to wish you a happy birthday again.” Sarah explained.
“Is it past midnight at home now too?”
“It is, so I thought I’d whish a happy birthday again, so happy birthday.”
“Aw honey, you’re so sweet, thanks.” He smiled into his phone again, wishing she could be there with him to celebrate.



“I should let you go back to sleep then.” Sarah said a little reluctant after a while of talking and getting more tired.
“And maybe you should go to sleep.” He suggested for her.”
Sarah chuckled a little, “yeah, I guess so,” she agreed, starting to feel ready for bed now.
“Phone me back in the morning?” He asked hopeful.
“I definitely will. Goodnight.”
“Good night, love you.” He told her.
“I love you too.” She said; glad to hear the reassuring words that she could never tire of hearing from him.

She hung up her phone and switched off the tv, turning off the lights in the house as she went upstairs to her bedroom with Richie on her mind as she got into her bed.