Page 104 of Never Sleep with the Enemy

Katrina doesn’t respond. She just sits up, one foot dropping to the floor as she gets comfortable, waiting.

I glance over my yellow notes one last time before closing my eyes.

And I play.

A simple melody. Not quite like The Electrics. Not even Criminal Records. It’s something new, bold—a raw, untamed thing that poured out of me in the middle of the night and should never be shared.

“You move like a song, I’ve always known,

A melody stitched deep in my bones.

Every word of you hums in my veins,

Here I am, lost in your name.”

I open my eyes slowly, glimpsing Katrina sitting beside me. Her face is blank, her breath slowing as she listens.

I stare into her and keep playing.

“You laugh, but you guard the door,

Like you’re scared to want something more.

I swore I’d never again lose my way,

But here I am, lost in your name.”

Katrina doesn’t blink, doesn’t move, as if she’s absorbed into every note.

I close my eyes again.

“I don’t need to write you down,

You’re carved into my skin somehow.

Every line, every note, every breath I take

Leads me back to your name.”

I strum a few more notes before stopping; the sound lingering briefly in the silence that follows.

I take a moment to calm myself before I open my eyes again. “A work-in-progress,” I say. “Maybe a little too high school, honestly, but...”

Katrina shakes her head. “It’s beautiful, Logan.”

“Beautiful?”

“Stunning,”she corrects, her smile like sunlight.

“So are you.”

Katrina reaches for the stack of sticky notes on the table, picking up a pen.

“You have a note?” I ask.

“Just one,” she says, scribbling something down.

“Okay.” I brace myself, my heart picking up pace. “Lay it on me, kitty.”

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