HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SODA!

[Lisa]

Happy Birthday! Thanks for all of the time and overwork you've given to all of us by creating your wonderful Eagles fan websites and forum! I hope you have a fun birthday!

[Super Frey]

Happy Birthday All The Best, and yes I agree your website is great!


SF

[sodascouts]

Thanks again! I had a wonderful birthday and this thread was a part of that. Thanks for the wishes FFL, timfan, Freypower, Brooke, Lisa, SuperFrey, UKTImFan, and the Long Run. You guys are the best and make running this board and the EOC sites a joy!

[Maleah]

I said it on your facebook but I'm sayin' it again here.....HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!

I'm SOOOO glad that I found this board and met you, both here and in person. lol! Its been such a priviledge to know you and call you friend! Thanks for all you do!

[SweetHolly]

Happy birthday Nancy!

[ticky]

WHEW!! Okay, Im so sorry this is late,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NANCY!!!!
I've been working on it for a while, before I knew Lisa was writing one too! (BTW, I love it so far Lisa!! cant wait to read the rest!)
Anyway, this is just a cute fun read. Hope you like it!!

************************************************** ****
Traffic was slow and seemed to run at a hurry up and wait pace zooming a half a block and then sitting for 5 minutes. Nancy sighed and looked at her watch. She could not believe she was going to be late for this particular interview. This was a dream job, no, not even a dream job, more like a bolt out of the blue. Something she’d never even considered before and yet here it was being presented to her on a silver platter and now she wanted it more then anything! How does one go from teaching lit and computers to editor and feature writer at E! She was half baked when she’d sent the resume. She and Kay had been drinking screw drivers all night and she’d come across the classified add in E! magazine. The rest was history. One phone interview and the plane tickets and request for a face to face was in her mail three days later. Now she was sitting in the back of a really smelly cab chugging down Broadway with 15 minutes to go till her interview and the gridlock had frozen all of Manhattan solid. She bit her lip and looked at the cross street . She wasn’t overly familiar with Manhattan but she thought she was about 4 blocks from Rockefeller Center. If she ran she could still make it. She tossed a twenty at the driver and dove out of the cab. She hit the sidewalk at a run, dodging sterile, oncoming faces. New York was not anything like Indiana. The people here were, well, scary. Everyone was angry about something and Nancy felt guilty just for taking up space. She’d decided that if she got the job, she’d definitely have to develop a thicker skin. Two blocks down and two to go, she passed Macy’s and saw a really cute pair of boots, she’d have to come back and get a better look after the interview. Hey, as long as she was here, she might as well do a little shopping on their dime, but after the interview. One more block, okay so her hair would be a mess and she’s be sweaty. A nice healthy Midwestern glow was a bonus and some women paid a lot of money around here for that wind blown look. That’s right, play to your strengths! That was the way to survive this.
Rockefeller Center loomed in front of her and she ran past the skating rink, was that Matt Lauer?, and up the front step and into the building. The front info desk directed her to the 10th floor and pointed to a bank of elevators. Nancy ran towards one that was just closing.
“HOLD IT PLEASE!” she shouted
A man’s hand grasped the closing doors and pulled them open. Finally a nice person! Nancy sighed with relief as she dove into the elevator. She had the time it would take that elevator to reach the 10th floor to repair the damage she’d done on her run. She opened her bag and pulled out a compact and a comb.
“Thanks so much for that, I don’t know what I would have done if I’d missed this elevator I'm already so late.” She was talking to the kind man as she dug through her bag. Suddenly she’d remembered something her mother had told her. ‘never get into an elevator alone with a strange man.’ A cold flush ran down her spine and she froze in her shoes. Slowly Nancy raised her head to peer into the face of this man she was confined with. He had nice shoes. Something Italian she thought and a kind of mossy green. His pants looked expensive and were just part of his nice dark wool suit, white shirt, red conservative tie and… she stopped at his face and swallowed hard. There was no way. She had to be mistaken. It couldn’t be who she was seeing. She closed her eyes and opened them again. The same grinning, handsome face was looking at her.
“Hi Nancy.”
Glenn Frey was smiling down at her. She dropped her bag and her mouth hung open. Glenn bent down to help her with her spilled bag before she even registered she’d dropped it. Of all days, of all the elevators in Manhattan she had to walk into his.
She bent down to help him retrieve the spilled items in her bag. The elevator lurched suddenly and her head cracked into Glenn’s. She dropped her bag again and threw her hands up over her head when the elevator jerked and stopped. She and Glenn looked at each other shocked and waited but the elevator wasn’t moving.
Nancy wasn’t sure where to go mentally with all this. First the job interview that she would officially be terribly late for, then Glenn, randomly on this elevator, of all the people who could be and of all the places he could be, and now this. Stuck in an elevator between… she glanced at the digital numbers that had been counting down floors… the 6th and 7th floors. Her head hurt, her life was splayed out on the elevator floor, She hadn’t been sure what she would need before the interview so she’d thrown a little of everything in her bag including a half eaten bagel from breakfast and some used tissue she hadn’t wanted to just leave in the back seat of the cab. Glenn was still rubbing his head, too.
“You okay?”
He put a hand on her shoulder and tilted his head down to catch her eye.
“Yeah, I think so. You?”
That was all she needed. She’d severely damaged the one man on earth she wanted least to harm. She’d been happy for years just worshipping him from afar. Then it hit her.
“Wait. You know me? “
Glenn laughed. “Of course I do. You’re Nancy, my number one fan.” His smile made her weak in the knees.
She couldn’t help but smile, but she felt her face begin to flush. Great, that’s all she needed now, Harpo Marx hair and now a red face. Lovely!
“I… I'm just surprised that out of all your fans.. I mean you have so many…”
Glenn nodded and shrugged.
“Maybe, but not many who’d come see me play golf, track me down at a benefit concert or come to every concert I played in a 500 mile radius.”
Nancy thought about it. It had never seemed like too much to do for Glenn before. Any of his die hard fans would do the same, some would push it even farther, infringing on his privacy or disturbing his home and family. Nancy had always been very careful about that.
“Oh, I don’t know. I think there are a lot of your fans out there who’d do about anything for you.”
Glenn grinned widely.
“and the web site?”
Nancy blushed deeply. Glenn laughed. “All right, I think we need to concentrate on getting out of here.” He reached forward and pressed a few buttons . Nothing happened. There was an emergency button and he pressed it once, twice and one more time. No alarms rang but after a few quiet and tense moments a voice came over a speaker.
“Is there a problem?” It was a deep, authoritative voice that sounded a little pissed at being disturbed.
Glenn flashed a eye roll at Nancy and shook his head.
“Yes, there is a problem.” Glenn’s voice was stronger and more authoritative. “The elevator is stuck. “
There was a pause and the speaker above the wall panel crackled.
“Yes sir, we’re on it. Are you alone?”
Glenn grinned and winked at Nancy.
“No, there’s a young woman with me.”
There was another pause. This one slightly longer and Nancy was beginning to wonder if they’d hung up on them.
“Yes sir. We’ll have you out as soon as possible.”
“Please hurry! I have an inter…” Nancy’s voice was urgent but the speaker crackled and hissed then went dead before Nancy finished speaking.
Glenn gave her an apologetic look. Nancy leaned hard against the back of the elevator and sighed. She dropped her face in her hands and groaned.
Glenn moved to stand beside her and draped an arm over her shoulders.
“Hey, it’ll be all right. You said you have an interview? Tell me about it.”
Nancy sighed and looked up. She wasn’t crying, yet. Glenn was warm and kind and smelled great. She couldn’t help but feel better with his arm around her and his voice so soft. She smiled up at him.
“It’s an editor and feature writer for E! I know it’s not exactly my area of study, but it’s the chance of a life time for me. It combines everything I love to do.” Nancy sagged a little leaning a little heavier on Glenn’s side. “…but now I guess I’m officially screwed, since I’m…” she glanced at her watch and winced. “ more then fifteen minutes late.” She blew out a long held breath.
Glenn smiled and pulled her tighter against him.
“Nancy, you are one of the smartest, most talented people I know. Whatever it is you choose to do, you will do well and succeed.” He exhaled and furrowed his brow in thought. “Now, E!... well I don’t suppose it’s any secret that they’re not at the top of my best friends list, but if they had more people like you working there, they might actually become something worth while. “
Nancy grinned. She had to admit that most of what E! put out there was drivel but there was so much potential there. Glenn chuckled and hugged her again “If those morons in charge there cant see past a stuck elevator and appreciate your talents, well then, they don’t deserve you… but don’t give up on yourself. If that is what you want, you go in there today, tomorrow, next week if you want and you TELL them they need you.”
Nancy chuckled at the thought of bursting into the E! offices like Superman and demanding to save the day.
Glenn chuckled too. “Okay, so maybe that’s a bit much, but you are a valuable asset and if they cant see that, they aren’t worth your time.
Nancy sighed and sat quietly leaning against the elevator wall. Then she thought of something and her brow furrowed.
“How do you know I’m so talented? “ She shook her head. That sounded pretty presumptuous. “I mean I'm just a groupie, a fan.”
Glenn turned to look at her and raised his eye brows. “I’ve seen your website and I’ve read your writings.”
Nancy’s eyes grew wide and she turned a little green. She swallowed hard.
“you have?”
Glenn laughed. “Relax. I love it! Of course I have. I try and keep pretty close tabs on public opinion and your web site is the most active and current gage of the bands popularity.” Glenn paused and looked at her. His face softened and his eyes warmed. He bent his head down close to hers and his lips gently grazed her cheek and he whispered against her skin. “Thank you for that.” His voice was deep and soft and his breath warmed her skin. She felt her knees weaken and her breath catch in the throat.
Just them the elevator caught and jerked. Nancy let out a small squeak and grabbed Glenn. He held on to her with both arms tight as the elevator began to move again. For a moment he clutched her tight against him and looked into her face then he let her go.
“Well, there we go. Looks like you may just make that interview after all.” Glenn straightened out his jacket and smiled back at her. His face was flushed and small beads of sweat on his upper lip gave away his sense on uneasiness. Some how she’d unnerved him and he’d definitely had an altering effect on her as well. Still, she would go to her interview and she would put her best self forward. If Glenn believed in her so much, she could believe in herself. The elevator finally stopped at the 10th floor and Nancy stepped out. Glenn was right behind her. She turned to him to say goodbye and he picked up her hand and held it.
“Thank you, Glenn. I don’t think I could have faced the rest of this day with out your kind words.” She exhaled and stood a little taller. “As it is, I'm going in there for this interview and I am going to tell them I am the best person for this job.”
Glenn smiled that warm smile and ran his hands down her shoulders and over her arms. “That’s my girl.” He kissed her on the forehead, letting his lips linger there as he said, “Go get ‘em, tiger.” She smiled back at him and waved a tentative goodbye as she turned to the door of E!’s office suite and Glenn walked down the hallway and around the corner. Nancy looked after him before opening the door. She bit her lip. Her mind was swirling with questions, thoughts and feelings she didn’t have time to examine right now. She pushed the door open and faced a bleached blond teenager sitting behind the reception desk. The young woman looked up at her in utter disdain.
“Can I help you?” Nancy wondered how much training it had taken to teach her that phrase.
“I have an interview with Mr. Torvold. I’m a little late.”
The girl looked at her computer screen “I’d say.”
Nancy smiled sheepishly. “The elevator got stuck.”
The girl glanced at her.
“Whatever. Just a minute.”
She touched a button on the phone in front of her and pushed an ear piece closer to her head. She turned in her chair away from Nancy. Obviously the young woman thought this made her inaudible to Nancy.
“Your 10:00 finally showed. You still want to see her?”
There was a pause and the girl turned back to Nancy.
“Yeah, go on back. He’ll see you. Third door on the left.”
After that, Nancy became a nonentity to the young women. She turned and headed back down the hall. The third door on the left was a set of double doors, large, dark and wooden. Nancy knocked softly on the door, barely touching it. Then she straightened up, took a deep breath and knocked firmly on the door.
“KOME!” was the response from inside.
Nancy assumed that meant come in so she gingerly opened the door. The room was big and sparse in furnishings. There were large windows flanking the far wall, tinted and dark giving the illusion to the room of dusk. A big desk empty of all but a phone console was at the far end of the room. The wall behind the desk was rock and gave the room a cold hardness that was accented by the lack of furnishings. A small orange cafeteria style chair stood in front of the bare desk and a man paced behind the desk. He seemed to be talking to himself, till he turned to pace the other direction and Nancy saw he was wearing one of those blue tooth ear buds and talking in a language she didn’t understand. German? Swiss? Something like that. He gestured to the plastic chair when his eyes caught Nancy’s and she sat as she watched him size her up. His eyes moved up and down her full length and his lip sneered. She still didn’t understand a thing he said, but the tone in his voice was unmistakable. More disdain. It seemed to be the state’s signature attitude. She assumed this was Mr. Torvold. His long blond hair was obviously straightened and hung down over one eye. He had a habit of flipping it back. Every move, look, sound he made, his clothes, hair and shoes all screamed “I'm too hip to exist.” Nancy started to doubt her “professional” look. She probably would have been better of if she’d worn rubber pants and an ace bandage to make a statement. Then she remembered what Glenn had said to her. They would, in deed, be lucky to have her. E! needed some integrity and validity. She had that in spades. They needed her. She did NOT need them. Suddenly her hear rate slowed, she stopped sweating and she was able to lean back in the ugly uncomfortable chair. She crossed her legs and relaxed. Mr. Torvold hung up the phone and sat with behind his desk. He turned his back to her and steepled his finger holding them to his lips. He sat quietly for a few moments. Nancy began to wonder if he’d fallen asleep. He turned his chair suddenly to her without moving his upper body.
He spoke into his hands without looking at her. “I am Gui Torvold. You may call me Gui. You are Nancy Kerns. I will call you Nancy.”
Nancy thought about protesting, but then realized she really didn’t care what this man called her. She didn’t speak. She just continued to sit, relaxed and watching Gui.
He smiled a very plastic and insincere smile.
“Now, really Nancy. Why Should I want you to work for me?”
His cold blue eyes and lack of enthusiasm towards her left her cold.
“You have my resume? “ She knew he did. It was more of a statement and an answer then a question.
Gui shot his eyes to her. “Yes. I have read it.” He paused. “You do have a few skills that make you … desirable.” The corner of his mouth twitched. “But you lack the style that we here want to promote.”
Nancy studied this man. All he was was style.
“I have two things that you here at E! lack and are in dire need of.”
Gui raised his eye brows at her. “And that would be?”
Nancy looked him directly in the eye. She reminded herself that they needed her much more then she needed them.
“Integrity and substance.”
Gui’s eyes narrowed and his mouth became a thin sharp line.
“Why would you say we have no substance?”
Now it was Nancy’s turn. The corner of her mouth twitched and she held his gaze.
“You are all flash, glamour and glitz. You have no substance. That makes for great headlines but not so much for stories. Headlines may sell your magazine, but unless there’s something to back it up, you’ll loose your readers as fast as it takes them to flip through the magazine while waiting in line at the check out.”
Nancy let that settle in for a moment.
“In television the headlines and the flash take about 5 minutes then you’re done. Even E! cant sell enough adds to fill that space and no viewers are going to watch 45 minutes of adds and 15 minutes of flash, glitz and headlines.”
Gui smiled and this time, it actually reached his eyes and Nancy could see there a flash of who this man might truly be behind the chronic hipness.
“You are right. We have no problem bring people to us, but we can not hold them. You think you can do this?”
Nancy smiled. “I know I can.”
Gui sighed and leaned back in his chair.
“You know, just before you came into my office I received a phone call. Not the one I was on when you came in. before that. It was a man, a personal friend of mine. He told me I would be crazy if I did not hire you. That you were a very talented and beautiful woman.”
Nancy looked at him confused.
“Yes! He said this and this very thing! He said if E! had any chance to survive, you would be it.” Gui turned and looked at her leaning on his desk. “Do you know the man I am talking about?”
Nancy sat stunned, staring blankly at him. She shook her head.
“A Mr. Glenn Frey? Do you know him?”
A slow smile crept over Nancy’s face and she flushed a little. Gui smiled and his voice went up high.
“Ahhhh.. I think you do!”
“No, not well, not really. We are acquaintances.”
Gui’s eye smiled knowingly.
“But I think he would like more! Yes?”
Nancy stammered
“I…I…I don’t… “
“Yes well, it is not important now but I think you are. Yes. I want you. I want you here working for me.”
Nancy’s eyes flew open and her jaw dropped.
“I will give you a week. You go home and make your arrangements. Call me when you have and I will send the jet for you.”
Gui continued to talk telling about an apartment in the city she could use till she found her own place and salaries and benefits etc.. but Nancy wasn’t listening any more. She was gathering her things. Some how she found herself out in front of Rockefeller plaza at a cab stand. She wasn’t sure she’d take the job, but she was sure she’d be seeing Glenn again. She had a lot to thank him for.

[Glennsallnighter]

Thanks for the comps Rhonda. Part 2 will follow over the weekend now that I have internet back again. And yours is absolutely FANTASTIC!! (I wish....... )

[sodascouts]

Thanks ticky! Love it! All I can say is "I WISH" lol.

So, in this thread so far, I've gotten to go to the Olympics with Glenn, see Stevie and Don in a restaurant, and get trapped with Glenn in an elevator. I think this is my most exciting birthday ever.

[TimothyBFan]

Great stories guys!!

[Prettymaid]

I'm DYING to read both of these stories! I haven't had time!