As they walked into the Planet, Tina couldn’t help but notice the intimate atmosphere of the café. The three of them were greeted by a bubbly hostess and told to sit wherever they pleased.  

They chose a secluded booth in the corner near a large pillar but with a good view of where they believed the stage would probably be set up. The dinner crowd seemed to be tapering off, and what appeared to be an electrician, was fixing some wiring on a ladder nearby.

“Why don’t we eat before we start snooping around, shall we boys?”

——-

KDG Offices

Bette was updating a power point presentation so all of the screens Max was setting up had been minimized rendering her unable to notice a fit blonde walk into the Planet with two dark-haired men.

She was startled when her office phone rang. A slender finger with a short but well-manicured nail adorned in clear polish tapped the speakerphone button. “Bette Porter,” she answered.

“We online?” Max asked.

“Let me see,” Bette saved the changes to her document then pulled up the feed. She stared at the four screens and smiled victoriously. “You are a technological God, Max.”

Max was standing near where the stage would be set up and smiled up at one of the cams. “Not really. But I appreciate the compliment. You want me to order you something for take out? I’d come back to your place, but I gotta get that press kit designed for Leonard by tomorrow so it’ll be ready for his Friday meeting in New York.”

“That would be awesome Max. Thanks.” Bette had turned down the volume on her monitor so that when Max’s voice came through the speaker it wasn’t matched up with his moving lips on the screen. She laughed when they hung up and it looked like he was still talking to himself in the middle of the restaurant before she saw him click off his Bluetooth in his ear.

She took the opportunity to indulge in voyeuristic behavior as she surveyed the patrons eating dinner and the servers walking around checking on their tables for a few minutes. “This was such a fucking good idea.” She said out loud.

The vibration of her Blackberry made her tear her eyes away from the computer monitor. She picked up the phone off her desk and saw that it was a text from Alice telling her they had begun practice in her backyard. Smiling, she began to text back.

——-

The Planet

Once the three label employees put in their order, Tina politely asked the waitress where the restroom was located. She excused herself from the table and walked out from behind the pillar and across the floor in view of all four cameras before disappearing towards the back of the café.

——-

KDG Offices

Bette hit send, letting her friend know that she was about to leave the office to head over to the Planet to pick up dinner before heading home. Just as she slipped the phone into her suit jacket pocket that was hanging on the back of her chair, she looked up to the monitor before grabbing the mouse to shut the system down. She noticed the back of a woman’s head with curly blonde hair in one camera heading towards the restroom. Doing a double take, the woman had moved out of the shot and Bette suddenly felt that familiar knot in the pit of her stomach.

No way, she thought as she sighed loudly. Your eyes are playing tricks on you Porter. She shook her head a bit and turned off the computer and got her stuff together before heading out the door to the site of her sister’s first gig in more than 15 years.