Page 73 of Movers and Shakers

“Ruth and Tom got away from our parents. They seem . . . happy these days.”

“Really? God, I want to knoweverything.”

“How much time do you have?”

She paused and her face fell. “Not a lot, and the album is long, but—‍”

“Let’s play the album,” I said.

“But—‍”

“My family isn’t as interesting as the pop star in my living room who has an album for me. I’d rather listen to that. Maybe we’ll have time to talk about Ruth and Tom later.”

“Okay,” she said softly. “Then let’s get this listening party started.”

She turned to start the record she’d brought and I felt a jolt of excitement like I always did when she released something new.

But nothing could have prepared me for the first song. It was a completely different point of view from our first meeting. While I had been worried about screwing something up, she sang that she didn’t want to leave and she hated the idea of going back to her old life.

As the first song ended, I had to pause to catch my breath. I’d often thought over our first meeting. I told myself it wasn’t as important to her as it was to me.

And I’d been wrong.

“Do you like it?” she asked.

“This is thefirstsong?”

“It is. I figured I’d tell the story as it happened.”

“This is about when we met. I remember some of these lyrics.”

“Yeah,” she said. “I mean, coming here was the falling domino that started it all, so I owe you a thank you for that. What do you think?”

I didn’t know how I was going to listen to the rest of the album when the first song had nearly destroyed me.

“It’s good.”

“Do you want to keep going?”

“I think I need a moment.”

“Why?”

“It’s not every day a man’s dream woman writes a song mentioning him.”

She blinked as if she didn’t know exactly who she was to me, but then her lips pressed into a slow smile. “You’re hyping me up.”

“I’m not. I don’t know why you don’t see how amazing you are.”

“Maybe it’s because you haven’t seen all of me.”

“I’d love to see every part of you, Lila.”

She froze but then looked down at her feet, breaking our eye connection.

“Hey,” I moved closer to her. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, this is just . . . It’s different now that I’m not with Blaze.”

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