“Did I wake you up?”
I shook my head. “I am surprised, though. Usually, I’m the one who sneaks out of bed.”
He kept his voice low as he clutched his headphones. “Sorry, I had some ideas I didn’t want to lose.”
“Is it the song we recorded yesterday?”
“Uh, no.” He blushed. “I might’ve written another one already.”
“Another one?”
“Or two?” He smiled shyly. “Last night was… inspiring. I swear, I meant to work on ours first, but then I had so many other ideas that I didn’t want to forget…”
“There’s no need to be so flustered about it.” I nodded toward his monitor. “Can I hear that one, too?”
His gaze dropped to his laptop. “It’s very rough.”
“I thought we were in a band now. Come on.” To get a better view of what he was doing, I lifted the blanket, threw it over my shoulders, and climbed toward him.
Alex sat cross-legged on the carpet, wearing only his red sleeping shorts. His skin was smooth and glowed in the morning light, in contrast to his brown hair tucked behind his headphones. He quickly adjusted a few tracks in his recording program and tweaked a few settings.
“It’s just some chords and premade drums. Nothing like the stuff I showed you yesterday. I haven’t written any lyrics yet, but there is a guitar track that I’d turn into vocals.” He held out hisheadphones toward me. “I hope this old pair is okay? They’re worn down, but they have the best sound out of all of the ones I own.”
“Of course.”
I took the headphones and put them over my ears. Once they were in position, he pressed the spacebar on his laptop. Instantly, a beat kicked in, accompanied by chords, synthetic strings, and an electric guitar“singing”the melody, just like in the other songs he had shown me.
This wasn’t even close to being rough. If he could do this in less than an hour, what could he accomplish with a proper studio and more time?
Alex buried his hands in his lap, watching the track move on the screen. His right shoulder twitched in my direction, but if that was a sign that he wanted to look at me, he definitely didn’t give in to it.
I focused on the song. After thirty seconds, a catchy chorus kicked in. The track was as danceable as the one I listened to yesterday, but it felt more… lively? Like the first warmth of the year, making one want to be outside for hours, exploring nature and the city, forming new bonds.
Throughout the second verse, he still didn’t look at me. Only when I hummed along to the second chorus did he dare to glance my way.
“The song is good. It makes me want to dance and sing along,” I said.
It also made me want to kiss him and wrap my arms around his chest. This humble guy drove me so wild that I would have even considered blowing my friends off to stay a few more days, if it wouldn’t raise questions with my family.
The tunes ended a little too abruptly—a friendly reminder that this was still only a demo.
I took off the headphones and held them out to him. “Damn, Alex. You make me want to stay longer in Seastone so I can hear each new song firsthand.”
I wasn’t going to, for many reasons, but that was the truth. If he had been around when I still lived here, who knows how different my life would be right now? He was someone I would’ve hopelessly fallen for back then—and would now if I didn’t have to be realistic.
He took the headphones back and stored them next to his laptop. “If you want, I can send you the files whenever something’s ready. You’d only have to give me your number.”
“Smooth,” I said and motioned toward his phone resting on the right corner of his piano keyboard. “If you want me to record some vocals, we’d have to exchange numbers anyway.”
He glanced at his phone, then at his laptop. He moved more hesitantly than I would have liked.
“Unless you think it’s weird now, after what we did last night?” I asked.
“Last night was fun.” He blinked heavily, keeping his gaze on his screen. “And it’s okay that it was only that.”
“Yeah?”
He nodded as he turned to me. “I’d still love it if you could record some vocals for me.”
