“Like this.”
Ollie turned the handle at the base of the instrument. A plaintive sound rose up from it, settling into an ethereal bass note. He pressed a few keys, and a simple melody played out, but with the bass notes coming from the turning handle, the finished sound was so complex Shay’s breath caught.
“Wow,” he whispered. “Keep going.”
Ollie chuckled. “I’ll have to go in a loop, this is the only tune I know.”
“I don’t care. Keep going.”
Ollie kept going, and the sound of the instrument filled the living room—delicate, and yet uncompromising. Drifting, and yet so entirely in Shay’s consciousness that he leaned closer and closer to Ollie until their heads bumped.
Finally, Ollie stopped. “You want a go?”
Shay all but snatched the instrument from him. “What were you playing?”
“You didn’t recognise it?”
“No. Was it a traditional song from wherever I come from that you won’t tell me?”
“It was ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.’ That’s pretty much all I can play on the guitar too.”
Shay experimentally turned the handle, nerves stretched to breaking until a sound he recognised as Ollie’s came out. Ollie said more words, but Shay didn’t hear him. Barely noticed when Ollie laughed and rose from the couch, kissing the top of Shay’s head before he left the room.
Closing his eyes, Shay retraced where Ollie’s fingers had been, pressing the keys. The weird Beatles interpretation played out. Shay chased it, finding the rest of the melody with the keys, but he lost the bass line.Fuck.
He went back to the start.This is gonna take a while.
* * *
“I don’twant to go out.” Shay stood mutinously in the shower while Ollie washed his hair. “I want to stay in and finish that song.”
“I know that, but you’re going back to work tomorrow, and you need some vitamin D.”
“It’s getting dark.”
“Okay. You need some fresh air, then.”
“We’re in London.”
“Do as you’re fucking told.”
Ollie spoke with a grin that warmed Shay’s heart, but he was distracted. He’d been obsessively playing the instrument Ollie had given him for endless hours, but the technicalities of the bass line still eluded him. With internet research banned, he was feeling his way in the dark, and only Ollie himself had ever caused Shay so much frustration.
It didn’t help that Ollie seemed to find it hilarious.
It always helped to see Ollie laugh.
Shay glowered at him anyway. “Where do you even want to go? You have the world’s best food in your freezer.”
“Not the world’s best,” Ollie corrected. “It’s an interpretation, and if you’ll stop moaning and put some clothes on, I’ll prove it to you.”
“Fine.”
Shay grumbled all the way through getting dressed and leaving the house but shut up sharply when Ollie led him to a bus stop.Perspective, mate. Perspective.
They stood close together on the crowded bus, close enough that Shay could slide his hand under Ollie’s clothes and stroke his bare hip, but not so close that he could tell if Ollie’s heart was slamming anxiously against his ribcage. If it wasn’t for Ollie’s teeth worrying his bottom lip, and his white knuckles, Shay wouldn’t have known he was struggling at all.
The bus took them to Waltham Forest. Shay searched his “Ollie” memories and recalled it was the borough where Ollie had grown up.
