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Yes. Yes, I do.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Cal

The lyrics are flowing out of me now like they have for days. I feel like I’m seventeen again, sitting in Eli’s basement with Miles and Jonny, all of us so fucking excited to be making music. We would sit there for hours in summer, writing all day and night, getting into arguments over whose idea for a bridge was better, celebrating together when we thought we’d written a hit.

Dancing around my apartment, I don’t know what sort of moves I’m doing, but I’m glad nobody is here to watch.

The girl in the white coat fixed me up, she’s so hot

Didn’t ask why I came here and I liked that a lot

She taught me ‘bout my body and damn I feel free

First true thing in a year that anybody told me.

Two fingers on my wrist like she caught me in a lie

Said this heartbeat isn’t resting, yeah, neither am I

‘cause I’ve been taking notes of attraction and studying you

You marked me up in red and it’s bleeding through

I’m a fool of a man, yeah, I’ve been slow to learn

But I’d fail it all again just to feel that burn

Turns out you were right, I wrote another song

About a woman’s eyes before I knew I was gone

Funny thing is, I wrote it that night

Before I knew I’d love the woman behind

Fuck.

It’s good.

Shamelessly catchy. Built for open car windows and girls screaming the chorus at festivals.

I play it again, trying the first line clean and poppy, then rougher, dragging the guitar into it. The second version is better. The chorus needs both—the bright hook first, then the band crashing in behind it. I try to whistle the hook and get nothing but a pathetic rush of air. Fucking useless. Twenty-three years old, professional musician, and I still can’t whistle. I hum it instead.

I can already hear Luca’s bass.

Eli will want to change the pre-chorus. Harrison will pretend he hates the title before humming it for three days.

They’re going to love it.

More importantly, Apex might.

They asked for proof we still have something worth buying.

This could be it.

I record forty-five seconds on the equipment I have, listen twice, and send it to Danny before I can start picking it apart.