Page 13 of The Girl with No Name

“My buddy Charlie Dunn is coming in from out of town.”

“Charlie? I think you’ve mentioned him before. The West Point grad?”

“Yeah. And when he’s here, we usually get a little rowdy. I really don’t want to have to come in tomorrow.”

“Ah, a little drinking time with your high school buddies, eh? So you guys getting shithammered or what?”

“When he’s in town? Always. And he’s the one trying to get me to go to Railfest in Lexington. He says he’s really into this one artist.”

“Which one?”

“Ahh, hang on.”

I pull up my phone and check Dunn’s message. “Guy’s name is Zach Bryan.”

Jay starts choking on his coffee. “Zach Bryan? Holy shit, he’s playing there? You should go. You should fucking go! He’s a legend in the making.”

I shrug. “Eh, I don’t like country. Not a big country guy.”

Jay frowns. “Look, I get it. In the north we don’t relate the same way to the jubilation of sweet tea and every song being about Nashville. But you need to go to that show.”

“Why?”

“American Heartbreakwas the best album of the year.”

I’m looking at Zach Bryan’s discography, and I correct him. “That wasn’t this year.”

“Look, it’s the best album forever. I like his new stuff, but there’s nothing like the classics.” Jay scans something on his phone. “Okay, I’m looking at the list of musicians for that festival, and looks like the Red Lemons playing, too. They’re from Chicago. They’re more punk or whatever the fuck you probably like.”

“They’re punk folk. Like an American version of Flogging Molly or something. And I do want to go, in a way. But you heard Hal. We have to come to the office tomorrow.”

I look down at a new message from Dunn.

Dunn: Railfest Railfest Railfest les go tomorrow les go bitch

Reed: Wish I could

Dunn: You can and you will

Reed: Can’t

Dunn: I believe the Bears will win a Super Bowl some time again in our lifetimes, and I believe in you, Walker

I put my phone away and try not to check it while I put my head down and work.

Quote requests to customers.

Variance checks.

Put out fires.

Excel sheet nonsense.

Close the deals.

We have a company-wide Zoom call that afternoon, and Jay pings me on the company chat even though we’re sitting back to back.

Jay: Holy shit dude, nice revenue numbers, just looked them up. Did you close all those deals?

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