Page 63 of Best Friend Burden

The soft voice sent goosebumps to the back of my neck, just the same way it used to do whenever he would growl in my ear. Though it was cool outside and the grill was off, I began to sweat.

“Oh,” Kalle said, “it's you.” She must have recognized him from the party. He's not an easy guy to forget.

“I'm here to see Melody.”

I turned around and saw him there. In my head, I had a mental image of him, tall, broad, and powerful, but it was a completely different thing to see him in person and experience that strength.

To say he looked good was an understatement. He was so handsome that it was hard to believe he was real. Part of that was the backlighting from the streetlamps, and some of it was how I built him up in my mind, but most of it was purely him.

“Can we talk?” he asked.

Kalle looked over at me, seemingly as curious about his answer as he was.

“Yeah,” I said. “You got everything under control here?”

Kalle nodded. “Yes, ma'am.”

“Let's go for a walk,” I told Kiefer.

* * *

Parts of Los Angeles were surprisingly quiet at night. It wasn't a big, bustling, noisy city the way that New York or Chicago were. There was serenity on the side streets as everyone else remained either stuck at home or in heavy traffic on the 101.

You could sometimes even hear the crickets, and that’s exactly what was happening as we walked in awkward silence.

Then Kiefer broke the silence. “I'm going on tour,” he told me. “I've been working on an album with Natasha, and we just released our first single on streaming.”

“Congratulations.” I said.

The light turned green, and we began to cross the street.

“Thank you,” he said. “It's doing pretty well here, in the indie circuit, anyway, but it's actually picked up a lot of traction in Japan, and Ernie wants the two of us to go on tour to capitalize on the success and build up some hype.”

I was starting to connect the dots. He wasn’t here to get back together. He was here to say goodbye.

“I'm really excited for you.” My voice betrayed no emotion. He could take me at my word or he couldn't. In truth, it sounded exciting, but I was more concerned about the subtext. “And also for Natasha. When would you be leaving?”

“Four a.m.,” he said. “Tonight. Or, I guess tomorrow morning. Burbank to Tokyo.”

I refused to respond to this information with the true emotions I was feeling inside, so instead I tried to remain as cool as possible.

“Burbank?”

He laughed. “You live in Los Angeles long enough, you know to never take a flight into or out of LAX if you can help it.”

“How long are you going to be in Tokyo?”

He sighed. “We're thinking a minimum of six months. We're opening for another band, which is going on a European tour afterwards, and if things go well, we’ll join them. Maybe we’ll come back to the States and tour here after that. It just depends on the record pre-sales and the success of the singles. But that all depends. I came here because I saw you on the news…”

Inside, I was a little disappointed, but ultimately happy for him. He was living his dream. This is exactly what I told him to do. But for some reason, it had been nice to know he was out there in the same city as I was this whole time. But this was what was best for him, and I’d hate for Olivia and me to take that away from him. The last thing I needed was for him to feel like he needed to stay out of some misplaced obligation because I was pregnant.

So, the lies began.

“Well, it's not yours,” I said.

Lie number one.

“It's not?”

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