“And if they still don’t see it?”
Deion leaned back slightly, not breaking eye contact.
“Then we keep working anyway,” he said. “You don’t wait on somebody else to decide what you’re capable of.”
I watched the two of them for a second, then looked around the space again. What he was building wasn’t just something people walked into. It was something they carried out.
I picked up a record from the stack beside me and slid it into a new section, adjusting the flow without thinking about it.
“All right,” I said, more to myself than to them. “We’re going to need a better system than this.”
Deion glanced over, a quiet acknowledgment in it.
“Do what you do,” he said.
So I did
Chapter 12
DEION
Nova’s series oftexts about the pop-up concert came through like most things from her. It was a decision masquerading as an option that I was being folded into.
This artist is doing something with live instrumentation I need to witness firsthand… I need someone who just gets it and that someone is you… If you say no, I will come to your house and play all of his links on YouTube loud enough to violate city ordinances until you change your mind.
Not one question mark was identified during the entire exchange. Nova didn’t use those unless the outcome was uncertain, and this apparently wasn’t.
I texted back okay before I finished reading the second sentence. That was because I never said no to Nova over anything related to music. Her taste had introduced me to things I wouldn’t have found on my own. Things I now know I wouldn’t want to live without. And partly for another reason I had stopped avoiding.
The venue sat inside a converted warehouse in Fishtown known for its exposed brick, industrial lighting, and sound that settled in your chest before your ears caught up. It was definitely a room that rewarded attention.
We got there early because Nova had rules about concerts. You showed up for the beginning or you missed part of the story.
I watched her as she pulled her phone out long enough to capture the room, then slipped it away after noting the moment then making a conscious decision like she always did to immerse herself in it without any outside distractions.
“Tonight,” she said, glancing at me, “I also need you to not think about the Archive.”
“Nov…”
“D.” Her stern expression that drew both of her brows closer together was so cute, yet so sexy at the same time that I restrained the response I wanted to give.
Instead I grazed my bottom lip with my teeth and kept my gaze fixed on hers. “You know me. I don’t know how to turn it off until the thing is done.”
“You do,” she said. “You just don’t practice it.”
She wore a leather jacket and green-and-cream sneakers, her hair pulled back but already loosening around her face. A piece fell forward and she tucked it behind her ear without thinking. I watched it like I always did, but this time watching her stirred even more inside me. On instinct, I moved to touch a loosened coil, rubbing it between my fingers. Her eyes grew in size quickly before softeninginto beautiful, dark orbs. I released it and she looked away, suddenly seeking a spot for us to catch the show.
“You can feel the sub from here,” she said, already leaning into the room. “Somebody set this up right.”
I sensed she felt the moment we’d just shared but wasn’t ready to own it. So I pushed the emotions that were swelling up inside me and called on Deion the bestie to step up instead. “How can you tell?” I asked.
She started talking about bass not pooling and acoustics. I let her go on because animated Nova is the rush my own adrenaline yearns for. Periodically she looked up at me like she was expecting me to challenge her some kind of way, but instead I stood beside her and let her be right.
The set opened quiet with the piano first then voice. There was no rush, just a beginning that expected you to meet it where it was, and that’s what the room did.
Around us, conversations fell off and bodies settled. Then Nova went still beside me, everything in her being pulled toward the sound. Her hands rested at her sides. I watched how her mouth parted slightly when the piano moved somewhere unexpected. How her head tilted just enough to catch it from a different angle. Just like I had watched her do this for years. At some point, watching stopped being neutral.
Standing beside her in that room, feeling her attention gather, I stopped pretending I didn’t know what it meant. I knew at that moment I was still and forever would be in love with her.
