Page 42 of Movers and Shakers

“What if it’s about you?”

Her cheeks turned a beautiful shade of pink. “I mean, wecan.”

“I know this won’t ever be anything,” I said slowly. “But just for a moment, I’d like to pretend it could.”

“So, a love song?”

“One love song.”

She bit her lip and I was certain she’d say no. I wouldn’t blame her if she did.

“Okay,” she agreed. “One song. But if it’s about us, I might have a hard time changing it.”

“Then don’t.”

“It might not make it on the album, then.”

“It doesn’t have to. For once, we can write without reason.”

A slow smile spread on her face. “I haven’t done that in years.”

“How about we start now?”

She slowly nodded and took a notebook out of her bag. “Do you want to do the honors?”

I gingerly took it from her, hands shaking. I wrote down a few thoughts and passed it back to her. “Is it any good?”

“It’s great,” she replied. “This could really be the beginning of a good song. Here, let’s try this.”

We passed the notebook back and forth, adding to it line by line.

“What kind of chords do you want this to have?” she asked once we had about half of a working song. “Maybe a . . .‍” She played a slow and smooth progression.

It was perfect.

We lost the night together. We worked on the song. Lila started it out and I had a heavy hand in the second verse. By the time we were done, she was rubbing at her face again.

“I should go, but this was good. Now to do the other million things on my list.”

“Are you behind?”

“A little.” She shrugged. “But I’ll be okay.”

Guilt settled over me. I’d taken her from her songwriting, which was far more significant than just me.

“I want to help with the rest of it. Tomorrow? We can work as long as we want to.”

“I think I’d like that. Maybe we could even give it a name. I like this theme of everything being for this one night.”

“We could use that. Something like ‘On This Night.’”

Her eyes lit up. “That’s perfect.”

Chapter Eight

Lila

Two months later, I was still in Nashville. We’d traded out the hotel for an Airbnb in Juno’s name, which gave me a little more breathing room. Juno proved to be incredible with wigs, helping me put one on every time I went out as Lila. I gave her a raise during the first month she was here.

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