Page 115 of My Rock Star Neighbor
Me:Craic and Laughs was playing your songs tonight on repeat.A local celebrity.They want your autograph on a poster when you return so they can frame it.
Nick:Are you hanging out at Craic and Laughs without me?No one better be hitting on you.
Me:Says the man who is mobbed by women every time he leaves a concert.
Nick:There’s a gift for you on the fire escape.
He had to tell me on a night when I’m tipsy.I put Sherlock in the bathroom, which he doesn’t appreciate, put on my sneakers, and open the window.
It’s Nick!
“Nick!”I clamber out over my windowsill onto the fire escape.He pulls me into his arms.I melt against him.Nick.I’ve missed him so much.I hug him tightly.His body, so tense when I first embraced him, relaxes.
“It’s too public out here.Should we go back into your apartment?”he asks.
“Yes, plus Sherlock was not happy to be in the bathroom.”
We climb back through the window.Nick hands me his guitar before he climbs in behind me.
I let Sherlock out of the bathroom; he looks all huffy until he sees Nick, and then he hurries over to him and winds around his legs.Nick reaches for me and holds both my hands.
“You smell of champagne,” he says.“Here I thought you missed me.”
“I did miss you—so much.But you’re now speaking to aCarrier Pigeoncity desk senior reporter!I resigned fromThe Intelligencertoday and accepted an offer to be a senior reporter.”
“What?Tristan’s paper?Congratulations!”
“That’s why we were drinking champagne.”I nod very seriously.“I do miss you.”
Nick kisses me quickly on the lips.It’s so natural that I don’t register it for a moment.But then I stare at him.
“I love you, Maddie, and I want to get back together.I was going to fly you out to California and sing my latest song about how much I love you, but I wanted to tell you privately in person.So much of our lives will be public that I want this moment to be for the two of us.”
“I thought ‘Breaking My Heart’ was your public declaration.”
“It is.I’m still in trouble for playing that without clearing it first, but since the YouTube clips are going viral, they’ll forgive me.I’ve basically written an album about our breakup.And I’ve renegotiated some parts of our contract.But this, this is ‘My Woman: The Only One,’” he says.“You’re the only one for me, Maddie.”
He slips his guitar on and sits on my bed, patting the spot next to him.I sit there as Nick sings to me, his graceful hands sure as they pluck the chords.My heart is beating so fast.
The lyrics are raw.
I found the one,
but for so many reasons (all of which I regret),
I didn’t blurt out how I feel.And now I sit here alone,
thinking of her smile and how it lights up my soul.
But there’s no Band-Aid that’s going to cure my broken heart.
There’s only one for me.
Maybe someday I’ll be whole again.
She’s my woman.
Thinking of how she nibbles her lips when she’s thinking hard
