Different Work Weeks

April sipped her lemon tea carefully, sitting in the cool break room at the recording studio. The morning session had been a little hectic - there had been a request from some producer at the studio to redo some of her lines from earlier in the week with a tweak to her voice. Apparently, the approved tonality she’d been using hadn’t been quite as approved as the voice director had thought. They’d also needed to record a bunch of the Foley for her characters - the grunts, cries and shouts. Thankfully this wasn’t a war script or anything, but her throat had taken a bit of a beating because one of the characters did a lot of sarcastic sighing, and another one had ‘girlish squeal’ in the script more times than she wanted to count.

None of that was really what had her stewing though.

Tommy Lucas was working on the show and recording at the same time. She hadn’t known that until Tuesday when they’d both shown up for their sessions at the same time. Thankfully they were doing isolated dubbing and not conversational work, so she didn’t have to work directly with him. Still, being in the same building as her ‘ex’ who had taken their relationship more seriously than she had was frustrating.

Especially because she wasn’t even allowed to tell Oliver who she was working with. The NDAs were serious even if the show was probably going to be a stinker. The likelihood of anyone ever finding out if she did tell him was low as hell, but if there was ever some lawsuit or something and it got found out she’d end up paying fees out the ass.

So she was stressed, and not able to talk to anyone about why she was stressed except for ‘I’m not legally able to tell you the reason.’ Ollie had not liked that line but accepted it when she assured him it was only stress and not her being in any danger.

Other than Oliver, she had found a new highlight to her week though. Hannah, Hikaru and Margot were all texting with her and making an obvious effort to try and integrate her into their friend group. She hadn’t had an actual group of gal pals in ages and it was wildly nice to have more ladies reaching out just to see how she was doing. They were even sending her little updates on Oliver. She’d gotten a couple of texts from Hannah, pictures included, of him putting in time at the gym. And then one from Hikaru of Oliver sitting at his desk at home, gesticulating wildly as he spoke into a headset.

He was so damn cute.

April’s face warmed a little, thinking about how cute he was. Phone sex last night had been funny as hell, neither of them was really used to the idea but both willing to try. The fact that he’d wanted to hear her voice and not one of her past characters encouraging him to stroke his mammoth cock was also a major turn-on. She could only imagine what a more degenerate fan would have been begging for.

April sighed, replying to a text from Margot that her day was going OK, but she was dealing with an Ick coworker still. Probably the closest she could get to telling the full truth. Then she asked after how the library was, and Margot told her about a couple of Ick people who made regular appearances that got her chuckling. The woman was funny, with her Southern brashness and colloquialisms.

“You ready to get started, or need another five?” the sound tech asked as he walked through the break room, munching on a burger as it hovered over a paper plate. Some people could eat while working, but she couldn’t.

“Got another… seven on my lunch break, Steve,” April said. “I’ll be in there the second it’s over.”

He flashed her a thumbs-up and moved on.

They wanted to hire Tommy Lucas to play opposite her? Then they weren’t going to get any extra time squeezed out of her.

Your week felt like it had been dragging on forever. Never before had you felt so mired by the passage of time. Usually, you had something you were looking forward to, whether it was an upcoming game night at the store, or new comics coming out, or something else with your friends - IRL or online.

None of those things seemed quite as shiny and special now that you wanted to spend time with April.

A week away should have been nothing. Hell, absence was supposed to make the heart fonder and all that shit, right?

You felt like a hormonal teenager, pining after your girlfriend who had gone away on a family vacation. It wasn’t the end of the goddamn world, but somehow you were left feeling like everything was just a little more gray.

To be fair, the week wasn’t burdensome. Work was work, as usual. Every down had an up, and every irksome thing had a payoff. Outside of work, you attended your regular Game night at the store, and your regular game night online. You also had three more sessions in the gym with Hannah - who kept saying she was really happy with your effort and progress even though you felt like she was punishing you in new and creative ways every time you set foot in the building.

The weird thing was, at the end of the week, you felt like for all that it had taken forever to get to, it had also been really full. Even more so than usual. Every day, around your other activities, you’d had Hikaru, Hannah and Margot spending time at your place. Hanging out, watching movies and shows with you. Hikaru had bought a Gundam to put together and that had taken most of Tuesday night, and Hannah had hung around while you did it.

Now it was Friday night, and April was coming home the next day, and you were sitting on the couch at your place with Margot watching Oklo Academy, one of April’s less popular shows she’d done in the past few years - it was a gritty rehash of the ‘Hunger Games’ trope, which was actually a rehash of the original Battle Royale.

“So… what’s been going on?” you asked Margot.

“What do you mean? With Jinni?” she asked back, referring to the main character on screen at the moment. April actually played one of the villains in the series, and Jinni’s core rival.

“No, I mean this week,” you said. “With you and Hannah and Hikaru. You guys haven’t let me have more than half an hour by myself.”

Margot gave you a look, and then sighed and lifted your arm, placing it around her shoulders and leaning into you a little more. “We’re taking advantage of April being away and getting our Ollie Time in,” she said. “We don’t want to be a drag on your relationship, so… yeah.”

“Oh,” you said. You hadn’t really been considering the impact spending more time with April would have on the girls. “That’s… really considerate of you guys. Thanks. I love spending time with you too, and I don’t want to miss out either.”

“I know, big guy,” Margot said with a soft smile, tugging your arm a little tighter around her. “I know.”

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