Page 64 of The Prodigal Son

Elevator indiscretion and late-night calls

Your hard-pressed, soft kiss

My lips were waiting for you all along

This song is aboutus.

Freezing on the couch, I stare at him as tears begin to brim in my eyes. And just like that, it’s the most beautiful song I’ve ever heard.

You told me this was terrifying

But I was never one for heights

Now, I think I’m fallin’

Fallin’ like flyin’

Flyin’ home to you

The chorus plays again and I realize in that serene moment that I’m falling in love with him. It’s still so early, but I’ve never felt this way before.

What started as an indulgence turned into an addiction, but now feels like it was love all along. I never intended for it to happen like this, but it has.

And it scares me. It scares me not only for the sake of my own heart but for Isaac’s, too.

What if I can’t be the man he needs? Coming out was never in the cards for me, and he deserves more than a lover in secret. He deserves vows. He deserves everything.

When the song ends, he waits for my reaction, but I can hardly move. What could I possibly say to properly convey how amazing that was?

“Isaac,” I whisper.

He turns his head to face me, so I sit up on the couch to be closer to him.

“It needs work,” he mumbles quietly.

“No, it doesn’t. It’s perfect.”

“You think so?” he asks. “To be totally honest with you, I’ve been struggling with a bit of writer’s block lately. I haven’t written a single lyric in months until…I met you.”

I can’t bear another second without his touch, so I grab him by the back of the neck and drag him toward me for a kiss. The guitar falls loudly to the floor as I climb onto his lap. Straddling his hips, I fuse my mouth to his. Our tongues glide against one another’s as he groans against my lips.

With my ass in his hands, I grind against him. We are only in our boxer briefs, and I feel him getting hard against me.

Before it can get too heated, I pull away and hold him by the back of the head.

“I wrote that about you,” he mumbles, making me smile.

“I love it.”

“I want to record it and put it on the EP.”

“Isaac,” I whisper. The idea that some part of me will be forever ingrained in his music feels too daunting and intense to wrap my head around. What if I fail him? What if I can’t be what he wants me to be? I don’t want to be some ex-lover hidden within the tracks of his music.

I will never let him down.

That voice suddenly echoes louder than all the rest. Louder than my subconscious, louder than the mantras and the brainwashing. It screams with confidence.

No matter what happens, I will never, ever let him down.

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