Page 30 of So This Is Love

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I unlock the delivery door and walk in, letting the door close behind me.

“It’s nothing special,” I say, trying to keep expectations low. “It’s just our warehouse and office space.”

I’m flipping on the lights in the office when I hear the ring of the doorbell announcing the arrival of the delivery. I walk back to the door and open it to the delivery driver.

“Can you sign here?” The man asks, holding the signature pad out to me.

I quickly scribble out an illegible squiggle and pass it back to the man. Bryce stands next to me with his sunglasses and beanie on. I wait for the delivery driver to recognize Bryce and say something but he doesn’t. He just tucks the signature pad in his pocket and goes to get his dolly to start unloading the boxes.

“Which one is your favorite?” Bryce asks.

He’s standing in front of the clear wall mounted shelves that display every product Lovely Day has ever sold. From the very first ones that Cassandra was selling out of her apartment to our last most recent release this past holiday season.

“It used to be this one,” I say pointing to our watermelon lip balm.

It’s been a part of the mainline for years and I have one with me at all times.

“But my new favorite is actually one from the new collection.”

“Really? Which one?”

I walk over to my desk and grab one of the samples of the collection that I kept for myself. I unscrew the lid and take a sniff of the familiar sweet scent.

I walk back over to Bryce and hold it up to Bryce for him to smell too. “This is our vanilla and lemon body butter.”

He inhales deeply, closing his eyes and taking in the scent. When he opens his eyes they lock with mine, his gaze so intense that I feel a chill over my body even though I’m still wearing my coat.

He smiles. “I can see why you like it, it’s really nice.”

I take a step back and screw the top back on to the body butter. “Thank you, you can keep this one if you want.”

“I’d like that.”

I clear my throat, trying to get rid of the dry feeling that has suddenly appeared. “I’m just going to count the boxes and then make sure everything is here and then we can go.”

“Take your time, I’ll be here.”

10

Sonny

How long does ittake to get used to the noises a home makes? The creaks of the floorboards, the sounds of the wind rustling through the trees outside the windows, and the hum of the furnace turning on. The little noises that when you’re lying awake at night make it that much harder to fall asleep. How long does it take?

Clearly more than a couple weeks.

It’s late and I have to be up early in the morning so I should be knocked out already, but here I am laying in my bed, wide awake staring at the ceiling in the dark because my mind refuses to settle and allow me to sleep. I let out a frustrated groan and toss the covers back to stand from the bed. I slide my bare feet into the slides I leave by my bed and walk to the kitchen. There’s enough moonlight shining in from the windows that I don’t bother turning on any lights as I go. I yank open the fridge and examine the contents, even though it’s fully stocked I don’t really want anything from it. I let out another deep sigh as I grab a bottle of water from one of the shelves and close it back.

Instead of going back to my room to fail at my attempts to fall asleep, I go to the living room and take a seat at my piano. Laila made fun of me for caring more about choosing a piano than anything else in my home here, but I already knew I was going to hire an interior designer to figure out all of the other things to make the space look pretty and put together and they did a great job. A piano isn’t a necessity for most, but on nights like these I’m happy that I went out of my way to prioritize it.

My lyric journal rests open on the music shelf of my piano where I left it from the last time I sat here, the page filled with scribbled out words from the song I have been trying to piece together for weeks now. I have written hundreds of songs in my life, all of them haven’t been good, hell most of them will never even see the light of day. But others I am able to contribute to my success as an artist, or have been picked up by other artists to record and release for themselves. In general songwriting is something that has always come easy to me. Usually it only takes a few days from when I get that spark of inspiration for a song to get to a place where I’m happy with it. But not this one. For some reason every direction I try to take this song in just doesn’t feel right yet it’s still stuck in my head. I have listened to a bunch of beats to try to spark inspiration, but nothing has helped the lyrics flow.

I set my phone on the music shelf next to the lyric journal and run my fingers over the keys of the piano. I play a few notes and then fall into a made up melody, without any rhyme or reason or particular end goal, just playing whatever feels right. As time passes I try to work on the song that’s been stuck in my head, but I hate every direction I try and end up in the same place that I started.

My phone buzzes and the screen illuminates with the notification.

laila

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