“So, are you gonna show me your place or what?”
“Our place.”
“Show me our place.”
He led me through the sound studio to the lobby where I met Maryse and Bret. Maryse was the spunky office manager and blogger extraordinaire. Will said she was responsible for getting quite a few of the bookings. Bret was the percussion virtuoso who had been playing with Will at the bars and would certainly become a key player at the studio. Will said that Tyler and Jenny were going to run the website and Sheil and Martha would both be part of the artistic team from time to time when they weren’t busy at Kell’s.
We practically jogged up the stairs to the loft. “There’s one more girl you need to meet. She’s actually a partner, or more like a silent partner.” He opened the door and there sat the sweetest, tiniest yellow lab puppy. Her head cocked to one side as I knelt down in front of her.
Will crouched beside me. “Mia, meet June.” My eyes darted to his, both of us smiled serenely and simultaneously said, “After June Carter Cash.”
I picked her up. “Ahh, I love her.”
“I love you.”
I put June down and cupped Will’s face. “I love you, too,” I said between laying kisses on his lips, nose, and cheeks. “Wilbur, I want to have like a million of your babies.”
He looked happier than I had ever seen him. “Really? Should we start now?”
“Definitely.”
And then he led me to our room where we stayed for hours, maybe days, just tangled in each other.
Something So Sweet
By Mia Kelly
Been looking for a way to get home,
it seems there’s no directions left for me.
I’ll follow the trail on my own,
and hope that something sets me free.
The darkness falls fast without warning,
just left with my soul to captain me.
But there’s someone waiting for me in the morning,
pulling me into the light so I can see.
He knows my face in the darkness,
he knows my hopes, my reverie.
But he’s waiting for me to find him,
so that I can set him free.
So I let go and let him in.
Everything dissipates into feeling,
we allow our souls to meet.
We’re the static in the chaos,
the one thing… the something so sweet.
Epilogue
It was a perfect day in the city. I went to breakfast with my husband and two beautiful boys and then I spent the afternoon browsing the streets of SoHo. I was sitting on a little wooden bench outside the Earth Room when I saw them. He was animatedly telling her a story, his hands flailing about as she gazed at him with a boundless love in her eyes. They walked hand in hand up the opposite side of the street. He was wearing a black hoody and jeans, his wallet chain jingling. She wore a gray baby-doll dress and a purple scarf. As they got closer, I noticed one of her hands was resting on top of a very swollen belly. The vision of the two of them together like that filled me with an unreasonable amount of joy.
They stopped to look into a store window. He stood behind her, wrapping his arms around her plump belly as he nestled his face in her neck. She was a far cry from the feeble, frail girl in the park last spring. She looked healthy, blissful, almost seraphic. He appeared to have the neurotic charm of a person whose feelings get the same clout as their thoughts, which is exactly how I knew it was him.
As they crossed the street toward me, I spotted the look of recognition on her face. She turned and asked him to wait before running up to me, arms open with a huge smile on her face.
“Hey, Lauren, how are you?”
“Great, it’s good to see you. Congratulations,” I said, pulling out of the hug and running my hand across her belly.
“Thank you. We’re so excited. We’re having a boy.”
“That’s wonderful, Mia.”
“Oh, hey, I read your new book. I loved it… absolutely beautiful story.”
“Thank you so much. So you two figured everything out, I see?” I said, glancing at her belly and then in Will’s direction.
She nodded and smiled serenely. “But what about you? Did you figure everything out?”
I paused for a long second. “Yes.”
“Good.” She leaned in, kissed me on the cheek and then whispered, “So what’s next?”
I glanced over at Will, who was looking at me like he knew my face but couldn’t place it.
“Well, I can tell you that things may get all muddled up again, especially after that little guy comes along,” I said, pointing to her belly. “Just remember, you can always hear the answers in the music, just the same way I hear them in the writing. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves to listen.”
“Right,” she said, nodding, “The sound of our souls.”
“Yep.”
We hugged and then she walked over to Will, who was holding a cab door open for her. She whispered something in his ear; he glanced back and studied me as he got into the car. When he closed the door he smiled really big, blew me a kiss, and mouthed the words, “Goodbye, Lauren.” I thought I caught “sweet thing” as he left my view.
-The End-