Page 21 of After Effect

Chapter 6

Lilly Cisneros

We finished the ride back to Cisneros con Gandules, and I parked in my spot behind the tool shed. My room was in the guest house connected to the restaurant, a small single bedroom structure with the bare minimum of creature comforts. I used the restaurant kitchen for any cooking, and the garage bathroom for showers. My parents stayed in the main house in the back of the property, on the other side of the alfalfa fields. It was a five minute scooter ride when I needed to visit.

I dismounted, and unlocked the back door to my room. “It’s probably not as fancy as you’re used to.”

Finch followed behind, glancing around the dark fields, illuminated only by the feint light of a half moon. We only had a couple hours left until sunrise. His walk was still a little unsteady, though that could have at least partially been from sitting on the scooter for so long.

“I’m not so stuck up that I can’t handle a normal home.” He laughed as he entered. I relocked the door behind us and fumbled for the lamp. The lighting wasn’t the strongest in my room. One of these days, I was going to take the time to install ceiling lights. But not this day.

“The kitchen is that way if you’re hungry. The bathroom is over there. I’ve got an air mattress in the closet. And if you want to take a shower, I’ll show you that in the morning.” I paused long enough to picture Finch showering in my home- Not now, hormones. “I mean, n-not in a weird way.”

“I figured that much.” Finch took a seat on my desk chair and gave it a spin. His eyes combed over the hand scrawled lyrics propped open in my notebook. “You said you had a song for me?”

“Right! I knew I brought you all the way out here for a reason” that didn’t involve getting you into my bedroom. I had completely forgotten about the song.“I wanted to run this new song by you and see what you thought.” I took a seat at the foot of my bed, just a few feet away, while his eyes poured over the page.

“It’s rubbish.” He shook his head, barely giving my notes a second glance. Rubbish?! He reached for a pen and started crossing out lines and scribbling some alternates. Instantly, he was no longer ‘Finch, the cute and flirty lush,’ but ‘Finch, the serious music industry professional.’ He spoke while he wrote. “It lacks any subtlety. You sound more like a stalker than a seductress. Try this instead.”

Finch tossed me my notebook, and I looked over his changes.

How long are you going to sit outside?

Are you hoping I might notice?

Because you’re all I’ve seen for months now.

Why do we keep pretending there’s all this space between us?

“I was guessing on your beat.” Finch was studying my expression as I read. His confidence never wavered. I was actually a touch jealous of the kind of arrogance that could sit down, scrawl off the first words that came to mind, and unapologetically own them. He just knew that anything he came up with would be worthwhile.

And what made it so enviable was that his confidence wasn’t undeserved. As I sang the words to the tune in my head, they were perfect. He literally stared at a page, half drunk, half asleep, and for half a second, deduced the cadence, and fixed every issue in the prose with a single stroke. I slaved for a week on that draft. I kind of wanted to hate him for making it look so easy.

“What do you think?” His eyes and that cocky upturn to his lips said he already knew the answer. My face had surely given it away already.

“How did you get so good at this?” I asked flatly.

“Sing it for me.”

“I’m pretty tired. Maybe in the morning.” The thought of performing on the spot was enough to get my nerves flaring again.

“I won’t be able to sleep until I’ve heard it.” He shook his head in protest. “I’m going to be tossing and turning and thinking about it all night.”

Knowing Finch will be sleeping so close to me, I wish something that simple was what was going to have me tossing and turning all night. “I haven’t even gotten to rehearse it yet.”

Finch let out a sigh, got up, and sat beside me on the bed. He leaned into me just slightly as he ran a finger over the page. “I’ll walk you through it. Give me the beat.”

It’s similar to my heart right now. I leaned into him, too.“I used this line when I was imagining it. Like:

~Hold me

Close

To

You.~

I couldn’t help it anymore. Is it okay if I take just a little? My hand brushed his lower back, following his spine through his suit. His muscles tensed at my touch initially, but then he relaxed into it. My heart beat faster. My voice steadied. The melody was more clear than ever. I could feel the words in my chest.

---