I know she’s scared, I know I did her wrong.
Can’t give her flowers, money won’t cure the pain.
So, I’ll sing my heart out in an old country song.
It fades into the chorus again and I think it’s safe to say, both Kate and I are crying softly. The song kicks and the car goes quiet other than the beating of my heart which is loud enough I can hear it in my ears.
“Holy shit, Mandy. He loves you. See?”
“But…” I start to say but she shakes her head and cuts me off.
“No butts. Like I said, Paul sends me jalapeno poppers and pays for HBO when I’m not sick. And Callum…Callum wrote a song for you. Well, he improvised an old song for you. But if that’s not a man chasing the girl he loves, I don’t know what is.”
Chapter 39
Amanda
I’ve never cared for Bob Dylan. But I’ve also never listened to a song on repeat so many times. I knew he could play but he didn’t tell me he could sing. I’m starting to wonder if he didn’t tell me a lot of things. If I don’t know a lot of things.
The endless texts pissed me off. And the endless flowers turned me off.
But he wrote a song.
Callum Hardin wrote and sang a song for me.
He gave it to Noah to give it to me. I was in no way ready to listen to what he had to say. But after that, I headed straight to Hardin Records.
“You’re not going to take me home first?” Kate asks as I went from listening to crying to staring out the window to listening again before finally throwing my car into reverse and heading down the street toward uptown.
“Nope. No time,” I answer, tossing my ice cream cone out the window. “If I am going to do this, I have to do it now.”
“Yes girl! Let’s go get your man!” Kate whoops, clapping her hands. Then she looks over at me. “Okay, but like for real, you’re wearing sweats. And I think you have ice cream on your pants.”
“I don’t care,” I shake my head, signaling to get on the interstate.
“Alrighty then. If he loves you, he loves you. Chocolate chunks and all.”
I’m not even thinking about that. I am thinking about him and how he has been trying to talk to me for weeks. I am thinking about how I’ve been scared but I am even more scared of him walking away for good.
I pull up to the building and get out. Kate follows me in as I march down the hallway, ignoring Alanis at the front desk, passing several onlookers who are no doubt goosenecking behind me. We reach the elevator, and I punch the button.
“There’s a bar in here?!” Kate gasps. “My God. I wouldn’t care if a man cheated on me and paraded the woman in front of me naked. I wouldn’t give up an office here for anything. Do you mind if I…?” She motions towards the bar just as the elevator door opens.
“Go for it. Put it on Callum’s tab.”
“Yes ma’am. And good luck.”
The elevator flies open, and I run to his office. But not only is he not there, it’s locked.
“Fuck,” I blurt out. “Where–”
“Holy shit.” I hear Noah’s voice behind me. “So, I take it you heard the song.”
“Where is he?”
Noah is grinning from ear to ear. Normally it would piss me off. But right now, I just want to talk to Callum.
“He’s in the recording studio.”
