25. Chapter 25
Chapter 25
Jake
Our weekend together in my condo didn't start on the best note. When Vi finally made it to my place on Friday after work, a frown marred her pretty face.
I greeted her with a kiss, excitement for our weekend together shimmering in my chest. Neither of us had changed; I still wore my trousers and my shirt— sans tie, at least— and she wore a beautiful teal wrap dress with an organic, leaf-like pattern on it. Dinner waited in the oven, but I wasn't opposed to eating something different first. In fact, I looked forward to it.
But first, we had to deal with the frown. I took her bag and dropped it on my bed; behind me, she gazed my way with her worried expression in place. I didn't ask, I knew she would share soon, from the way she stared at me.
"Okay," she said. "I'm going to get this out of the way."
I nodded and put my hands on my hips, fingers splayed on my trousers.
"Please don't make a big deal out of it," she added.
I squinted and nodded again.
"I got an email from Andrew. From a different account than the one I blocked."
My jaw clenched— instantly. My fingers twitched on my hips, in an effort to curl into automatic fists.
"What did he want?" The voice that came out of me was uncommon; deep and dry and short.
Vi's frown remained in her brow, and her eyes narrowed. She had heard my tone, and was suspicious of it.
"Same as usual," she said. "He seems bent on getting a chance to explain himself. I'm pretty sure he thinks it's a romantic gesture."
"Don't give him a chance."
She jarred her arms, fists on the rounds of her hips. "I won't, but not because you're telling me not to. I won't give him another chance because I don't want to."
I took slow steps to her, determined. I stopped when I was close enough to have to look down at her.
"Why don't you want to?"
Her eyes didn't waver. She gazed at me, her stubborn chin up. "I decided against him a while ago, Jake. No need to be jealous."
"It's not about being jealous, but the guy was an asshole. Just because he sent you flowers he thinks he can ask for another chance?"
"He also lied to Stephanie to try to get a private meeting with Max, which is the number one thing that ruined his chances with me."
"That further proves he's an undeserving jerk. Should we get a restraining order?"
She scoffed, but her eyes glinted. She thought it was funny. "No. He's not a dangerous guy. Just a sore loser."
"How do you know?"
"Jake." Her voice was firm, my name strict for the first time on her lips. "I don't need you to fight my battles for me. I just need you to be by my side and cheer for me."
I pursed my lips and tapped my fingers on my hips. "And you asked me not to make a big deal of this."
"Exactly." A slow smile appeared on her mouth. She took a deep breath, and put her hands on my chest. "Though jealousy makes you look cute."
I smirked. "Jealousy is the least of my worries. If the guy can't take a no, then I don't want him anywhere near you."
She sighed, but the small smile continued to soften her gesture. "It's going to be okay. I'm confident. He doesn't realize that only the heroes get to make grand gestures. That those are important because it's the hero— the person we're cheering for. Andrew is making himself into the villain, and I'm not going to forget that."
"Yeah, he's the villain, but I hope you're right that he's not a dangerous one."
"Be by my side. That's all I need."
"I am."
She stepped closer to me. "Admit you're jealous"
It was my mouth's turn to slant upwards at the corners. "I never denied it. I am a little jealous. I just said that's not the point."
At that, she laughed. I snorted, and the tension I'd been harboring released.
"Was this our first fight?" I put my hands on her hips and brought us front to front.
"If that's what it was, then it was a really good one. As long as you chill a little, mister papa bear."
I chuckled. "Did I look like a ginger bear?"
"You totally did. You grew several inches, even, I believe. You looked like this huge ginger wall in a royal oxford shirt."
I laughed and dropped a kiss on her lips. "Good. A big wall of a bear sounds like the right thing to have on your side for battle. Now, should we have dinner?"
A meal seemed like the best way to distract her from the row.
For the rest of the evening, we avoided any topics related to Andrew, or anything else contentious. Instead, we chatted and laughed, then had wine on the balcony overlooking the city.
It was a lovely few hours after work. I liked to believe this was what our evenings would look like, if we were out in the open.
I couldn't wait for that to be our life.
Her audiobook played through the speakers as we cleaned up after the meal. There wasn't much left to do, but I prolonged it for a few minutes— the book was getting good, building to what Vi called the third-act break up.
My intentions must have been clear, because Vi smirked in my direction. "Should we snuggle up on the couch and listen to the rest of it?"
"That's an option. Or, we could continue tomorrow while we make breakfast." I wiped the counters, wrapping up the cleaning.
She paused the audiobook, and the silence in the space seemed loud, without the narrator talking to us through the air.
"I thought you were going to ask me to put audiobook apps on your phone."
"You know what?" After washing my hands, I dried them on the kitchen towel. "That's a great idea."
She leaned on the kitchen island, elbows on the stone, eyes on me.
Her head did a small startled jerk. "As in, you're going to finish my book on your own sometime?"
"I might even get my own books. You could send me a rec list."
I usually kept a bottle of hand moisturizer by the soap, and applied some of it.
"I don't know what I find more shocking. That you just used moisturizer, or that you want to read romance by yourself as well."
I shrugged, and rounded the island until I stood next to her. She straightened and watched me with curiosity.
"I would have hoped you noticed my hands are always soft. Nothing less to touch you with, you know?"
She wrinkled her nose, a smile on her lips. "You're so… poetic when you talk to me."
"I mean it. All I'm doing is sharing unfiltered thoughts, for once."
"You're unreal. I can't wait to hear your lyrics."
"Then you might like the plan I have for the rest of the evening." I took her hand and led her to my music room.
Despite how entwined our lives had been for more than twenty years, and how often Vi visited Gabe's place across the hall, she had never spent any real time in my condo. I had given her a simple tour earlier, relying on the fact my and Gabe's apartments were mirrors of each other. Vi hadn't asked what was in the guest room, and I hadn't offered.
Opening the door for her now, I didn't judge my heart for its hastened pace. Her reaction to the room, to my music; it held power over me. However she responded to this part of me would reflect on how she saw me as a whole.
My music was one of the biggest, most tender pieces to shape who I was. Creators with a passion for their art would always feel raw and vulnerable showing these parts of themselves to other people. Rejecting one's art was rejecting us.
That's why I had never done this before… and why I had to do it with Vi. It took a lot of courage to open up myself to be liked or disliked in this profound manner. It took a lot of trust that I could weather the storm if this went wrong. But to risk it all for our future, I needed to know if she could hold all of me.
I guided her into the room with a hand on her lower back. She didn't make a sound, but stopped in the middle of the space, turning in a circle and studying my working desk, with its screens and mixers, and the sofa at the opposite wall from it. She took it all in— the textured wall to maximize sound isolation. The string instruments hanging over the couch. The off-white sheer curtains drawn over the window, with thick sun-blocking fabric pulled to the side for the moment. The two framed photos on the wall beside the sofa.
She approached the pictures. The top one was the Sotomayors and I in their old home, after dinner, their hair still black. Gabe, Vi, and I were around ten years old, and all five of us smiled at the camera with silly faces and a few missing teeth.
The bottom photo was at the lake house a few years before, now all of us grown up. Tío Raúl and Tía Sonia's hair had gray in it now, but we all still smiled at the camera.
"I have one with Max and Javier as well." I pointed to a smaller frame on my desk.
Vi ran a finger over the glass covering our young faces.
She sighed and turned to me. "You're a sentimental guy."
I frowned. "Does that surprise you?"
"No." She met me in the middle of the room. "I love it, actually. It takes a big heart to make room for another big heart. Mine is big, too."
"It is." I gave her a soft kiss. "It's lovely."
"Now show me how you make music, Jake."
Electricity sparked on my fingertips, and nerves took hold from my stomach. I took a few deep breaths while I gestured for her to sit on the office chair, and I brought a stool for myself.
I woke up the computer, and opened the software on a new project. "There's a lot of technology involved, but any note you play on the keyboard will show on that page. Go ahead, try."
She played a few random notes, and the signs for it appeared on the screen.
I gazed in the direction of my favorite guitar. "The same happens when I connect the guitar or bass, or I sing into the microphones. After many tries, editing, adding beats, etcetera, I can write the lyrics onto the music sheet too. Then there's more editing but, eventually, a song is finished."
I opened a file I had worked on a few months earlier, to show her the final version. A set of colored bars in different lengths and over multiple layers filled the page.
She leaned forward, her eyes darting over the screen. Her lips opened, and an awed tilt took over her mouth.
"You wrote this," she said.
It wasn't a question.
"Do you want to hear it?"
Mine was, and it brought a hum into my veins.
She gasped. "Yes!"
I clicked a few buttons and passed the headphones to her. "This way you can hear it properly."
I set the sound to come out of the speakers as well, and pressed play.
The song I chose was primarily instrumental for the first couple of minutes, mostly piano, with a few passages of bass and guitar to accentuate certain passages. It was music that echoed emotions more than thoughts; from waiting to moving forward but coming to a stop, to long passages that talked about time and going with the flow. Until nearing the end, when a quiet stretch gave way to lyrics that floated above the piano notes.
Set the tone Set the pace Set my heart, my light Set my love in stone Set me straight, tonight But know I will fall, and fall In love, so in love With you I know
A soft buzz hummed under my skin. Lost in the memories my body kept of writing this song, I closed my eyes without realizing. I opened them with my gaze already set on Vi, to study her face for hints of her reaction to the song.
Her face, always so expressive, didn't make me work to find the signs of her feelings. Her brow slanted upwards at the center, and the corner of her lips curled upwards; like she could cry, but her tears wouldn't come from pain.
I smiled. The hum in my limbs infused my veins, swimming in my blood all the way to my heart. This was a moment my body would remember, too, from the way my feelings swayed me in place.
The song ended. A second later, Vi took a deep breath that she released slowly.
She opened her eyes and blinked a few times. "That was beautiful. Thank you for sharing it with me."
She put the headphones on the desk, before turning to me with a shining gaze.
I put a strand of her long, loose hair behind her ear. "I can imagine you reading about love on the sofa behind me, while I write songs about it at my desk."
"Then we go to bed together, in love."
My smile grew wider. "Exactly."
"I can see that future, too."
I kissed her. "I think I want to sign up for the next open mic night at the karaoke place. It's not the best time, as it's right before your luncheon and the party, but the pub is taking a break afterwards. I don't want to lose momentum. Would you go with me?"
Her grin, bright with joy, was the best answer she could have given me.