Page 10 of See Her

“Fun,” he says, his face going all soft. “She’s adorable.She made up this cute song and was singing it.” Then his face hardens. “I might ask her to write it down so I can put it to music, since my partner can’t come up with shit lately.”

“Oh, you’ve got jokes. Shut up, asshole. Look.”

I open my notebook toBreakthrough, and drop it on the table in front of Matt.He glances down at it before looking back up at me. “Wow, four lines. Did you hurt yourself?”

I smack his arm. “Read it.”

He picks up the notebook and I see him reading over it a couple of times before he raises his eyebrows and looks back at me, shrugging. “Okay, not bad,” he says, setting it down.

“Can we do something with it?” I ask, sitting down and opening my guitar case.

“Yeah, you know we can, man.There’s not much there, but it’s enough to get us going, and hopefully more words will come once we get a good hook and melody.”I start tuning my guitar.

“What key should we start with?” I ask, setting out my pen and digging through my case for a pick.

“What, now? We have a set list to line up.”

“We will, we will, just give me a half hour with this. Please? Can we do that?”

“Alright, alright. A half hour, since we haven’t written in a while. If that will get your head back in the game…”

5

JACK

“Ican’t let this girl go anywhere,” I voice out loud to my dad.

“You met her, what? A few days ago?” My dad gives an incredulous yet warm smile from his workbench, before picking up his beer to take a pull.

“That’s why I’m kind of messed up over it,” I explain, running a hand through my hair as I look up from his bike engine. “How can I lay claim to someone I just met? But then, how can I get to know her more without her getting snatched up by some other guy?”

“Listen to you,” he chuckles, fondly. “Twenty-eight, and yet I feel like we just got blasted back about thirteen years. You haven’t asked for romantic advice in a long time.”

“It’s been a long time since I’ve cared enough,” I murmur as I go back to checking the fluids.

“Over someone you just met,” he reiterates.

“One conversation with her inspired me to write songs again,” I tell him.

“Wow.” He blows out a breath and looks around his shop. “Okay, that’s really something. Only trouble is, youknow how things can go when you rush them.” He tilts his beer bottle at me and I pick up my own as if he cued me to.

“I know,” I nod, before taking a pull. Throughout this decade of my life, I’ve tended to just lead with what my body feels rather than what I think and feel emotionally, and while it’s good in the moment, it never lasts long.

“Fireworks are powerful and beautiful, but only for a few seconds before they burn out and it’s over,” he reminds me of his slow burn metaphor for the hundredth time in my life.

But I still want those fireworks. And I don’t want to burn so slowly that we burn out and miss out on them.

My dad must see me warring with myself as I stare at the concrete floor, trying to figure out how to hold onto Mayzie without giving it too much, too fast. He sighs, like he doesn’t know what to do with me.

“Do something special for her,” he advises me. “Something that will make you stand out from the rest, something that she’ll remember without having to have any strings attached. It will show her that you’re serious, and that you’re into her without having to call it anything just yet.”

“That’s a good point.” I nod lightly in agreement.

“Trust me, she’ll be thinking of you anytime she’s approached by any othergentleman callers.” He rolls his eyes at his own old fashioned adage as he rises to toss his beer bottle in the can with the other empties.

“I’ll just have to think of something,” I voice out loud as he makes his way to the side door.

“In the meantime, why don’t you take that Harley out and get those juices flowing?” He nods at his beloved motorcycle that he himself hasn’t touched in years.

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