38. Nick
Chapter thirty-eight
Nick
Maddie and I fly to California the next morning. The California air is balmy as they set up for my concert tonight. My new producer is way more on board with our relationship, so much so that Maddie is part of one of our songs tonight.
I grip the microphone for our final song, a new one I wrote a called “MRSN: Mr. Right Says No.” This is the first time Maddie will hear the full version. I look to the side and acknowledge the thumbs-up that Maddie is in the stage elevator decorated as a fire escape.
The lights come up. I sing about how I’d lost faith in romance.
I’m joined on the stage by a whole troupe of backup dancers dressed as reporters, plumbers, and librarians.
Books are being thrown back and forth in a complicated synchronized performance.
Uncle Tony was responsible for the costumes, but we asked him not to reveal all his tricks because we still want disguises for when we go out.
Behind me, a video plays of various couples holding hands, including our friends.
Maddie is slowly lowered into my view. Very Romeo and Juliet. Bubbles float over the stage and the audience. I can’t take my eyes off her. I sing about how we met. Her knocking on the wall complaining becomes the percussion beat of this new song.
I sing the lyrics:
Romance was not for me.
I was too blind to see
I’d lost faith in love
I said no to all the above
I say no, no risks,
keep it all for the show
A contract was purposefully defined
No emotions allowed, love tightly confined
Until I met my neighbor next door
Who crept into my cold heart ever more
Her knocking on the wall
There was no meeting too small
It became the beating of my heart
And the inspiration for my art
I say no risks,
keep it all for the show
A contract was purposefully defined
No emotions allowed, love tightly confined
But as life with her
became an adventure
creating a love I could envision
beyond the contract’s provisions
I say No risks,
keep it all for the show
A contract was purposefully defined
No emotions allowed, love tightly confined
Until it became a choice between us and our dreams
Because of various schemes
She said no more
I closed the door
Ice filled my heart
It was best to be apart
I can’t see my way through this,
But what I would do for a kiss
So I say yes
A life purposefully defined,
Emotions allowed, a love entwined
I say yes to life, to its risks, and to love
I say yes to all the above.
Kyla and the rest of the band sing, “Say yes,” as the crowd joins in. Maddie’s stage elevator is on the ground, and I step in.
Maddie, her eyes glistening with tears, says yes and embraces me. I hug her back tightly, and then we turn to face the crowd as the stage elevator lifts us back up together.
“I say yes to life, to its risks and to love, I say yes to all the above.” I sing the last lines of the song, holding “above” as the final note.
The lights dim, and the crowd erupts in applause.
Maddie kisses me until we’re recalled to our surroundings once again as the lights come back up for an encore, and the stage elevator is back on the stage.
I sweep Maddie up once more—I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of that—and whisk her out to much cheering but return to perform our encore, “Together Forever.”