Nora pressed her phone to her chest. “You can’t take that from me!”
Her having a recording of me might actually be useful, because whenever she bugs me to sing in the future, I can refer her to the video she already has. And there might be another upside to this.
“Okay, you can keep it under one condition.”
She dug her left hand into Raul’s shoulder as if she feared I would ask her to give up her firstborn child.
“Send it to me, too.”
With a sigh of relief, she pulled her phone out right away. “Yes, sir. It’s been a pleasure doing business with you.”
When I pulled the plug out of my phone, a loud crack ripped through the PA system.
“I really like the song,” I said, rolling up the cord and stowing it away. “We joked the entire evening about now being in a band, but…” I lifted my legs up and crossed them on the bench. “I can’t deny that I’m interested in him inanotherway too, and maybe that’s clouding my judgment. Give it to me straight, guys. Am I just thinking with my dick here?”
“I think it’s quite romantic,” Nora replied. “You can both like the guy and his music.”
“But his concerns are real. I get it,” Raul countered. “They only met once and immediately…clicked?”
“Yes, because they’re made for each other. Why else would Sebastian’s voice fit the song so well? It’s obvious that they’re connected both physicallyandspiritually.”
“How would you know? You haven’t even met the guy.” Raul pulled his arm away from Nora’s shoulder. “We don’t even know his name.”
“It’s Alex,” I threw in, but they were already so engrossed in their conversation that they didn’t seem to hear me.
“Because I can feel it? Anyone with eyes and a soul can see that Seb’s holding on to this because he knows there could be more.”
Raul sighed. “I’m not sure about that.”
“Excuse me?” Nora rocked three inches away from him and twisted her upper body so far to look at him that she resembled a corkscrew. “Who are you, and what have you done with Raul?”
“I just don’t want him to rush into things.”
“Says the guy who slept with me the first night he met me, and basically every night since?”
“That was different,guapa.”
“Please enlighten us.” Nora glanced at me, her mouth agape, as if she wanted me to pick a side.
“We weren’t talking about forming a band after making love once,guapa.”
“It was twice, actually,” I threw in, regretting my words the second they left my mouth. “But I don’t want to get pedantic about it,” I added, leaning back to stay on the sidelines.
“Okay, they spentonenighttogether,” Raul argued. “They don’t even live close to each other. How’s that supposed to work? To form a band, you have to meet and rehearse regularly. Not once or twice a year. Let alone a relationship! How’s that going to work with thousands of kilometers between them?”
“If they truly want it, they’ll find a way,” Nora countered. “We’re not living in the 1990s anymore when the best form of long-distance communication was a lousy landline. But even with that,myparentsmade it work.”
My phone lit up again, this time with the video Nora had taken of me, which had finally finished sending. While Nora and Raul argued as if they were discussing their own future, I clicked on the video.
It started halfway through the first verse. I held my phone close to my ear. The recording quality wasn’t studio-grade, but it was good enough to get a sense of the song. As the chorus set in, my chest felt lighter. Singing it was one thing, but listening to it was something else. Even without proper equipment, it sounded like something I wanted to sing a thousand times. So, no matter how stupid it might be to think about keeping in touch with Alex, I couldn’t lose anything by trying, no matter what direction it might take.
I opened the chat with Alex and sent him the video.
This video couldn’t be any worse.
You might still like it, though.
I also sent him a tongue-out emoji.
