Eri sat in her office the next morning, working on her client’s design. Once she’d been able to speak with them, she understood what they wanted and realized it wouldn’t be too difficult to create. She expected to be done that day with the design approved by the client. She had three designs she needed to work on for Koa for the Christmas merch drop she was planning. Eri was tweaking two designs the other woman had already purchased to make them fit the holiday and creating one specifically for it. She wanted to get those to Koa soon, so she would have ample time to order what she needed.
She’d decided to send the client two different options and was finishing up the second one when her phone vibrated with a text from Avian.
Avian:What about Aspen?
Eri thought about it for a moment before looking up whether or not it would be snowing when they went. The thought of skiing sounded fun even though she’d never done it before.
Eri:Aspen works. It’s a six-and-half-hour drive. So no further than where we went last time.
With Nesiah’s fear of flying, they would drive again, and going anywhere that couldn’t be driven in a day wasn’t ideal. Avian had proposed a four-day trip, but if they were going to spend thirteen hours round trip, driving, they might have to extend it or go somewhere closer. The latter would be easier for most of them, considering that four worked together.
Eri:Let me finish this design, and I’ll see if I can also find some other options just in case.
Avian:Okay.
Eri finished the design, watermarked it and sent it to the client, then started looking for places they could go that would be a shorter drive. She looked for almost an hour, but couldn’t find anything she liked more than Avian’s suggestion that was closer. She picked up her phone to call her friend.
“Hey,” Avian greeted.
“Hey, so I found nothing that sounded better than Aspen, but with it being a total of thirteen hours, I’m not sure if people will feel rushed, and then we have to think about our favorite tattoo artists. The shop will be closed when they aren’t there. I don’t know if they want to be away for more than a few days.”
“That’s true. How long is a flight from here to Aspen?” Avian asked.
Eri quickly looked it up. “About three hours. An hour and twenty minutes from here to Denver, then an hour from Denver to Aspen, but flying with Nesiah is out of the question.”
“What if we give her a valium?”
Eri thought about it. “I don’t want to make her uncomfortable, but I guess we could ask her.”
“Hang on a second and let me add her to the call.”
Eri waited, and when the other women returned to the line, Avian wasted no time getting down to business.
“Okay, so we were thinking of going to Aspen, but it’s a six-and-half-hour drive. It would be faster to fly, and we’d be able to spend more time there. I know you have a fear of flying, but we could get you some valium, and make sure we’re all seated around you.”
“How long is the flight?” Nesiah asked.
“Two hours in the air,” Eri responded.
“Okay. We…we can fly.”
“Are you sure?” Eri asked.
“We can drive if we absolutely have to,” Avian added.
“It’s fine. I should try to deal with this at some point, and a short flight seems like the best way, but I’m definitely getting a prescription.”
“Okay, do you want to get together this coming weekend and decide on where to stay and what to do?” Avian asked.
“Sure,” Eri replied.
“That works for me,” Nesiah responded.
“Oh, we should ask Romi if she wants to come,” Avian suggested.
“Didn’t she start a new job last week? You think she’ll have the time to take off?” Nesiah asked.
“I mean, she works from home. So she might be able to come if she wants,” Avian responded.
