Page 31 of Call and Response

“You’re right though,” he continued. “Itislate. Royal actually asked me to come let you know the coffeehouse is closed.”

“Huh?!”

It wasthatlate?

Damn.

I looked around and quickly deduced that he wasn’t playing now. I was the only person in here except for the employees cleaning and straightening up for the night.

“Shit. Sorry y’all!” I called out, already moving to my feet, and knocking all my stuff over in the process. “Ohhell,” I groaned.

“Chill.” Noble chuckled, bending to help me out. “Everything is cool.”

“Is it though?” I quipped back, letting him slide my bag onto my shoulder for me. “This got real awkward, real fast.”

He nodded. “Yeah, it did. Why though? I make you uncomfortable?”

“No,” I admitted. “It’s… the level of comfort I feel, that makes me uncomfortable.”

“Damn, one night and you’re already falling in love.” He sighed. “This is why I keep my dick to myself, too powerful.”

“Ohplease.” I laughed, moving away from him. “I see I’m a little too good for your ego, so let me give you some space.”

“Nah, don’t do that, get closer,” he teased, following right behind me. “In seriousness though… let me walk you home?”

I thought about it for a moment—thought better of it, actually—and nodded anyway. “Yeah. Sure.”

Minutes later, we were outside, strolling down the sidewalk toward my place.

“So… I booked studio time with Dean,” he told me, bringing a smile to my lips.

“You’re feeling good about what we did with the songs?”

“Yuppp.” He nodded. “I wanted to ask you… you think you’d maybe want to be there? For the rewrites and all that… maybe a background vocal here and there? Since there was no traditional demo, you know?”

I smirked. “The real question is, do youwantme there?”

“I do,” he answered, zero hesitation. “Before any of this, I was absolutely a fan of your work. So it would be an honor, actually. And of course we can work out the publishing splits and all that.”

“I know you’ll make sure it’s legit,” I told him. “But I’m willing to come vibe with you for free, just so you know.”

“Yet you scoffed when I was talking about how powerf—”

“You get on my damn nerves.”

“I’m okay with that,” he smirked, stopping at the front door to my building, which it felt like we’d gotten to in record time.

Or maybe I just wasn’t ready to part.

The thing was though… he didn’t seem ready either.

We went back and forth a few minutes, with the cliché parting words and all that, but he still hadn’t made a single move toward actually leaving.

“Are you waiting for me to ask you to come inside?” I finally asked, leaning back against the door.

He shrugged. “I wasn’t necessarilyexpectingthat, but… I will not pretend I would turn it down.”

“Great. So you wanna help me hang my new drapes then?”

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