Page 38 of Harrison's Wedding

She turns bright red and rushes off down the hallway, causing me to laugh quietly.

“You know, she didn’t have that reaction when I was with Hayden, Perfect Gabriel,” I tease him.

Gabriel gives me a playful shove and says, “Shut up. It’s harder than you think being as perfect as I am.”

“I’m sure it is. You have my deepest condolences.” I put my hand to my chest and bow my head.

Gabriel’s still laughing when Xavier walks into the room with his receptionist trailing behind him.

“Gentlemen, it’s good to see you. Follow me and I’ll take you to Felicity.”

We follow him down the hallway to the same room as last time, the one with the computers. This time, there are two people working on computers, as well as Felicity. As soon as we enter the room, my jaw drops to the floor.

Sitting in the center of the room on a guitar stand ismyguitar. The guitar that I dreamed up and Felicity took from my head to make it a reality. It’s got an amazing fade from dark blue in the center of the body out to aqua around the edges, exactly as I described, but better than I ever imagined. My signature is inlaid in mother-of-pearl on the fretboard, and there’s a handcrafted Sterling silver Cruise Control logo on the twelfth fret.

I stride up to it and stare at it, taking in every single detail, amazed by the beautiful instrument in front of me. I can’t even begin to believe that this is mine.

I reach out to pick it up, then snatch my hand back and look at Xavier. “Can I hold it?”

He laughs. “Of course. It’s yours. In fact, we’d actually like you to play it and tell us your thoughts.”

Felicity hands me a guitar pick with the Cruise Control logo on it with a massive grin on her face. I forgot for a second that they were doing these to go with the guitar. I flip it over and see my signature on the back in silver to match the logo.

“This is amazing,” I whisper.

I pick the guitar up reverentially. It really is a thing of beauty. I slip the guitar strap over my head and hold it in front of me before I begin to play the bassline of “If I Were You”. It’s not particularly complicated, but it feels right to play Heather’s song for the first time on this guitar. I wish she were here with me right now to see this.

The guitar is tuned to perfection, and it feels blissful to play the instrument that has been made to exactly my specifications. After about thirty seconds, I stop playing and look around the room. Everyone’s looking at me with big smiles on their faces.

I’m overwhelmed by all of this. The fact that I’ve reached a stage in my life where I can have a signature guitar made. The fact that Reid Music wanted to work with me. The fact that I’ve been given an opportunity as amazing as this. A part of me doesn’t feel worthy of any of it.

I look at Felicity with tears in my eyes and say in a croaky voice, “Thank you.”

“Stop. You’re going to makemecry,” she laughs. “You’re welcome, though.”

I play for another thirty seconds or so before I ask Xavier, “So, what happens now?”

“Well, we’d like you to take it away. Try it out however you like. In the studio. Playing live somewhere. Wherever you want to be able to use it. Try switching the pickups and see if it works as well in both settings. Give us any feedback you have, and we’ll put it into production or make any changes you need.”

I gasp and turn to Gabriel. “Oh my god. I can use this when we record.”

“Sure. That’s one way to test it out,” he grins at me. “Can I see it?”

I almost don’t want to hand it over—it’s so beautiful. But I slip the strap over my head and hand it to him. He turns it over and inspects it the way I did, strumming the strings a few times before he hands it back.

“It’s brilliant.” He looks at Felicity. “You’ve done an amazing job.”

“Hey, it’s what I do.” She grins at him.

She walks over to the side of the room and grabs a guitar case I hadn’t noticed until now. Like the guitar, it’s a deep blue in the middle, fading out to aqua at the edges. When she places it on the table, I can see my signature in silver on the top of it.

“These are what the guitars will go out in,” she tells me.

She opens the case, which is lined with a deep blue velvet, and holds out her hand to me. I give her the guitar which she places carefully in the guitar case, where it fits perfectly, before she closes it.

“Here you go. Have fun.” She holds the guitar case out to me.

“Thank you. So,somuch.”

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