We’d rather be going toe to toe,
Game on for the tenth time in a row,
No holding back, let’s see what you’ve got,
Come on, hit me with your best shot
After more refining, we get the sheet music and the lyrics written how we like, and I look at the clock to see we’ve been at this for two hours.
“I think we’re in a good place to stop for today,” Harmony tells me. “We can sleep on this verse and come back fresh with some ideas for the chorus next time.”
I stack the sheet music. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but maybe we should exchange numbers. Or emails. That way we can shoot ideas back and forth outside of this room—which means we’ll have to spend less time together in it later.”
She flashes me a hesitant look, but eventually sighs and comes over to me with her pencil, holding out her hand for the sheet music. I give it to her and she writes a number along the margin of the top page. “There. I’ll get yours when you text me.”
“Great,” I deadpan. “Nice doing business with you.”
Harmony rolls her eyes, then heads for the door. She rests her fingers on the handle as she glances over her shoulder at me. “You write really beautiful melodies, by the way.” It looks like it pains her to say it.
And yet, she said it anyway. What game is she playing? I feel like deep down she has to know I’m not the Riff she’s seen in music videos, or on magazine covers. But why does she keep resisting that intuition?
More importantly, why do I care?
“Thanks,” I say, almost in a whisper.
Then she’s gone.
RIFF:It’s me. Hi.
HARMONY:Hi. Just added you to my contacts.
HARMONY:word ladder
RIFF…
RIFF:Ladder? I hardly know her.
HARMONY:I mean when you take a word and change one letter at a time to make a new word, and keep doing it until you have the word you want. For hate —> love.
RIFF:Oh, okay. Like “hate, late, lame,” etc.
HARMONY:Yes, and then, just a rough example (not actually this) it would go lime, live, love.
RIFF:I think you mean “live lime love.” Like those signs people use in their home decor.
HARMONY…
HARMONY:Anyway, I thought it could be good for the song. Maybe for the chorus, we start each line with one of the word-ladder words.
HARMONY:So far I have: (I) hate you to the moon and back, fate won’t make these opposites attract. So, hate, fate, then maybe … fame?
RIFF:Hmm. That’s pretty good. Not “fake” next, though?
HARMONY:No.
RIFF…
HARMONY:Besides, it would have to be “fake, lake, lane, lone, love” and I don’t know how we’d make “lake” fit in naturally.
