Reading the Room

I'm going to start this off with a tag, so it doesn't get lost 'way down at the bottom. JBaz, you're up, buddy! (Kinda late, I know, but there's no rush.) Now, on to the story at hand!

***

“Honey, come check this out!”

I was pretty disappointed in my wife's response as she looked over my shoulder, “Ooo, get a picture! Let's call the media!”

“Well, I think it's pretty interesting. I mean, what are the odds?”

“Of what? A grown man having alphabet soup for lunch?”

“Hey, it was the first thing I found in the pantry. Besides, it's vegetable soup. It only sounds juvenile when you call it that other name.”

“Okay, dear. I'm gonna go finish my sandwich.”

The conversation was obviously over, so I turned back to my bowl of soup, shrugging off her comments and chuckling to myself at the word floating there, in capital letters stamped from pasta:

“HEAR”.

To be fair, I could understand her disinterest. It was just a stupid coincidence, and to be honest, probably not all that unique. Still – and maybe it was the would-be writer in me that fixated on those letters, they could have aligned several other ways. “ARE.” “EAR.” “HARE.” “RAH.” Okay, maybe that last one was a stretch, but I couldn't shake the feeling that just dismissing the moment would be a mistake.

If it was, indeed, a cosmic message, it wasn't without its share of dry humor. Thanks to seven-plus years in an industrial environment, my ears weren't the sharpest on the planet. My wife, my family, and my close friends were all aware of the problem and graciously added a few decibels to their side of any conversation with me. In other words, “hear”ing would take more than a message conveyed by the spirit of Campbell to accomplish.

Online meetings were another matter, though, and I had less than ten minutes to finish lunch and login for mine. I scooped up and ingested the “message”, picked up my bowl and chugged down the remaining contents (since my wife had left the room) and headed back to my office space. I did take a few seconds to drop my bowl and spoon in the dishwasher, of course. I'm not one to poke the tiger that sleeps next to me at night. On a whim, I made a half-serious mental note to “listen”.

I made my way through the Zoom login process, verifying that the meeting was set to private and had only two attendees registered. I've never been a fan of these “face to face” sessions, and I like keeping track of multiple screens even less.

After a short wait, the message, “Rudy has joined the chat” popped up on the screen and a few seconds later, the publisher's agent's face appeared. He seemed not to notice that I was already “in the room”, while he mumbled something at his cell phone screen. I couldn't hear the entire conversation, but I did pick up on a few key phrases on Rudy's end:

“Kinda' high, I guess, yeah.”

“...sells well for us....”

“...his sixth, title, yes.”

“No sir, I won't tell him you're listening.”

I decided to get the ball rolling rather than drag things out,“Hi, Rudy,” I said calmly, maintaining my cool,“What's up?”

Clearly flustered, Rudy set the phone down, after nearly dropping it, and tried to regain some semblance of calm in his forced smile. It didn't work.

“Hi, Doc! Uh, sorry, just checking in with my wife.”

“Oh, hi, Mrs. Lopez! Nice to meet you!”

“Oh, she had to go to back work, but I'll say hi for you! Say, listen, Mr Fielding asked me earlier to open a discussion about your retainer. It's – well, a little higher than our norm.”

“Oh, okay, thanks! You know speaking of wives, hang on just a second,” I asked politely, then louder and directed toward the dining room, “Hey, Babe, can you come in here for a sec?”

“Sure,” came the response, and in a few seconds, she appeared behind me, covertly flashing me a knowing smile and then leaning into the picture from behind me, hands perched on my shoulders and her sweet smile alongside mine.”

“Rudy, oh, and Mr. Fielding, I'd like you to meet my wife, who also happens to be my attorney. She prepares all of my contracts, including the one you signed before depositing my retainer. Just thought you might want to meet the other half of my team! Now, what's on your mind? Can't wait to hear it!”

A subtle, but firm squeeze to my shoulders and an almost imperceptible smirk confirmed that she'd got the message. It was a good day to read the soup!

The meeting was wrapped up very shortly after, and the rest of my day, along with dinner and a movie for two that evening was dedicated to our never-ending romance. I do love that woman!

***

I was thrilled to be tagged by Oneg on social media for this challenge and although it's taken some time, I'm happy to finally oblige with my take on "Alphabet Soup", one of a series of fun prompts for the summer. She and James always come up with fun ideas, and this one is no different! I'll post a link to the list, below. Here's a great entry in the same category from Kelli, too:

And here's the awesome challenge page: