hold back and let them take the lead. But I think I have to put both hats back on and see what happens.
“Can you play it again?” I ask.
I listen with my eyes closed, hearing the timing of where the lyrics should go. I then flip through my notebook to see if I have anything that will fit. Crew does the same.
After a while, he says, “I might have something. It’s not a lot, but with some work …”
“Can I see?”
He hesitantly hands me the notebook. These lyrics, located at the back, are relatively recent. He looks over my shoulder as I read them silently.
On that stage is where I find you
Each and every night
On that stage is where I find you
Dancing left and dancing right
“Play it again,” I ask.
I listen to the riff while singing in my head. I turn to Crew. “It’s missing something. The verses should be separate, and we need to add a third line.”
He ponders my suggestion. “That could work.”
I motion to his phone. “Play it on a loop.”
I close my eyes and listen. Then I scribble down some possibilities.
When I look at Crew, I see he’s doing the same.
Sometimes it feels uncomfortable, writing lyrics that are obviously about each other, but ask anyone in any band, and that’s the nature of the beast. We write about what’s important to us. What affects us. What has destroyed us.
“I think the first verse should be mine,” I say, leaning forward to stop the music. “How about this?”
I take a deep breath and sing, “On that stage is where I find you. Each and every night. Doesn’t matter if you’re here or far away from me.”
“Again,” Crew says. On his notepad, he does more scribbling as I sing.
“You got something?”
“How about this for my verse?”
I look at what he wrote:
On that stage is how I see you
Dancing left and dancing right
Looking just as though it’s where you’re always meant to be
“Perfect,” I say. “Now the chorus.”
I look at the words he’d written for the chorus.
On that stage, on that stage, I see you on that stage
I’ll always see you like you were that daaaaaaay
That day I saw you up on that staaaaaage
I walk over to my keyboard and mess around until I find a melody that goes with the riff. I tweak it, changing the key until I find the best one.
“That’s it,” Crew says, jumping off the couch. “Let’s try it.”
We sing the chorus together, doing it a few different ways, both of us making notes.
I don’t fail to notice that he keeps his back to me as we sing.
He turns and smiles. “It’s good.”
I go to the couch and play Liam’s riff again. “We need a third verse.”
We both listen and think.
The riff loops again and he sings, “On that stage is where you slay me. Even when I pick a fight.”
Without missing a beat, I add, “Never saying what it really is you want from me.”
“Yes,” he says, writing down my lyric. “From the top, the whole thing. Acapella.”
We sit on the couch, each of us staring at the wall as we sing our new song.
“Again,” he says.
This time, as the song unfolds, we look at each other as we sing. And somehow, the song gets better. It gets better even though there’s no music. It gets better because we bring more emotion to it. More passion.
At the end, we naturally sing the chorus twice. Then we stop, the apartment dead silent except for the sound of our excited breaths.
His eyes flare with heat and the edges of his mouth turn up in a sexy, roguish grin. We reach for each other simultaneously and our mouths collide. His full, firm lips brush back and forth against mine. Without hesitation, our tongues mingle. He lays me back on the couch, kissing me even harder. He tastes like chocolate and me—cherry. The flavors mix together almost as well as our bodies do.
I can already feel his erection as he presses into me. Every hormone in my body zings to life. I pull him more tightly against me.
He moans into my mouth when I suck on his tongue. His hand works up and under my shirt, and my breasts grow heavy, weighted with need. He grips one, then the other. My bra gets pushed up. He cups my bare skin, then his thumbs lightly graze my rigid nipples.
“Oh, God,” I mumble incoherently.
He sits up, straddling me, and removes his shirt. I see his tattoo up close for