“Play ‘Over Your Moon’!” another person shouted.
That last one had the poor bastard wincing. He swallowed, then leaned in toward his mic. “Will you forgive me if I avoid some of those songs tonight?”
“So it’s true! Did he…is there…are you guys really over…!”A cacophony of voices rang out, questions piling on top of other questions.
The guy onstage—what did Hasan say his name was? Ambrose? No…fuck. I took a breath and heard Hasan’s voice in my head.Atlas. It was a hard name to forget once I said it a few times to myself.
Definitely more interesting and unique than Ryan.
Atlas glanced to the side, drawing his fingers down around his mouth, then he shrugged and said, “Shit happens, but we’re not here to talk about that. And this next song is untitled, but I think that might be a good name for it.”
He began to strum his guitar, and the sound rippled up my spine. It was gorgeous. And then he began to sing. His lyricswere about constellations and the endless universe and feeling insignificant when looking up at the stars.
“And when you saw me, I was nothing, in your eyes. And when I saw you, you were everything I could not deny. But it was all an illusion, lost in the arm of the galaxy crossing the mid…night…sky. I was wrong, I was right. Desperate days, darker nights. I wanted you. I needed you. But I was nothing in your eyes.”
My chest ached, and my throat went a little hot.
How was that so fucking powerful? There were no words. His voice was strange, like a man born in the wrong decade trying to make himself heard. I closed my eyes and swayed, lost to the sound until I felt a tap on my arm.
“I got you two.”
Oh. That was Alice with the Diet Coke.
I turned and smiled at her, curling my fingers around the cups. “Thanks. How much?”
“On the house. Just promise me you’ll save some lives, babe,” she said with a wink.
She started to turn away, but I knocked my fingers on the bar and dug into my pocket for the five I had left in there and pushed it toward her. “This guy? You know him?”
Her gaze cut to the stage, and she sighed. “We went to school together.”
“He’s famous?”
“Whatever the fuck fame means these days,” she said quietly. “He started a band with his boyfriend in college. The guy was an absolute fucking narcissist. I’m talking textbook, you know?”
I did know the type. I’d dated a few in college, which was why, at thirty-two, I was still painfully single.
“Raleigh was always getting caught fucking around on Atlas. I don’t know what happened, but a few weeks ago, it all crashed and burned. Atlas left the tour and agreed to play here tonight.Sucks to have all these people being dicks, but the money’s amazing.”
I realized she wasn’t just the bartender. She owned this place. “I hope you make a mint.”
She laughed, pitching her voice just barely over Atlas’s final verse. “Thanks, babe. Come back and see me, yeah?”
I nodded, though that was probably a lie. I had too much of my own shit going on. But Atlas’s voice followed me out the door. It haunted my steps, tormenting and taunting me with this feeling like I was on the wrong path. That I was betraying myself.
My heart was aching by the time I got through the snow and back to the ambulance, and I knew right then something had to give.
Gracie was chomping down on falafel while glaring at me as I slid into my seat. “I thought you died or something. You were gone forever, and I was without caffeine!”
“It wasn’t my fault,” I said, handing her both cups. “Their machine was down.”
“You’re fucking lucky he was hotandthat he asked for my number.”
I stared at her, then rolled my eyes. “Whatever makes you happy.”
“Happy work wife, happy life,” she said with a sniff, then took down half the first Diet Coke in one go. I leaned back, feeling an ache in my chest, wishing I could still hear the music Atlas had been playing. There was something so profoundly touching about it. It was sad, but it was also a revelation.
It had nothing to do with me, and yet for that moment, it felt like he was singing directly to me. Like I was the only man in the bar. I hated that I had to leave, even though a man like that probably wouldn’t give me the time of day. But the fantasy stuck with me.
