I’m sorry I didn’t call you sooner.
It’s not because I didn’t want to.
“Make it stop, Jade,” I whined.
“I think you should hear him out. Maybe something did happen. The whole thing is just really weird. And honestly…unlike him.”
“No, he doesn’t get to do this. Why is it that he is suddenly ready to talkafterI sent him my moving on message? No. This is how it always is. I reach out first. If he wanted to talk to me, he should have initiated it. It’s too late now.”
We sat there for a few minutes, the buzzing from my phone as more messages and calls came in, echoed throughout the room.
“So… wanna watch a movie?”
“Omigod, yes please.”
“Okay. But turn your damn phone off.”
“Easy peasy.”
It was too late, Damien.
It was my turn to close at the music store tonight, and it was dead. No one had come through that door since just before dinner.
I checked the clock. There was still an hour before closing time, so I pulled out my guitar, sat on the stool in front of the check-out counter, and started singing the song I’d finished the night before. The onenotabout a certain someone.
“Surrounded by night, trapped in my memories,
The sound of your voice, stuck in my mind.
All the moments shared, the dreams set free,
You’re a lost melody I can’t seem to find.”
“I knew it. You wrote that song for me.”
I nearly jumped out of my skin as Elijah stepped through the door. “Jesus, you scared me.” I watched as he wordlesslymoved toward me, his movements oddly fluid.“What are you doing here?”
“You’re playing my guitar. That proves it. You want me back.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You wrote me a song on my guitar.”
“I did not. I wrote a song for me onmyguitar.”
“Cadence, you can’t tell me that’s not my guitar from college.”
“Okay, fine, it is. But it’s mine now.”
Elijah was in front of me, his knees touching mine. “That’s not how it works.”
I tried to rise, but he wouldn’t let me. “Elijah, move. You’re too close.”
“I don’t want to. I miss being near you.”
I laughed nervously, “Stop messing around.” I swung my legs to the side to stand. Finally, out of his bubble, I set the guitar on the counter and placed my hands on my hips. “What is it you need, Elijah?”
“The answer is simple. You.”
