Boyfriend for the Summer

So I start to play. Thank fuck that I practiced, because my fingers already know what to do and I can rely on them. I got my fair share of teasing from my friends about the lyrics that I’m about to sing, but the song grew on them, and they were all supportive of me when I told them that I was finally going to play it for her. Which is good.

It was impossible to sleep after I left her that night in the waterfall. I had never been so awake. And it was all because of her. The lyrics for this came pouring out of me like they were already written, and I was just noting them down. The melody came not long after. It’s the easiest time that I’ve ever had writing a song. And my first ever love song.

I start to sing, and my heart is in my throat. The lyrics are about her. And about us. Being vulnerable together and experiencing everything for the first time together. How our connection feels so deep that I don’t think that time and distance could ever truly sever it. About how I love her, and us together.

Halfway through the song, I dare to look up at her. Seph’s lips are parted and her eyes are shining. She looks wrapped up in the music, hanging on every word and note. She looks so fucking beautiful, I’m going to remember the way she looks right now forever.

Eyes so green they match the surrounding woods, hair lit up like a torch by the sun. That burning, vibrant red. Gaze locked on mine, and it says that she loves me, even if neither of us have said the words. It’s what I’m trying to say now.

I love you. I don’t know what is going to happen, but I love you. We’re perfect.

Wrapping up the song, I let the last note linger in the air. I did okay. Not a mind-blowing performance, but at least I didn’t forget the words in the middle. That’s what counts. But that’s not the way that Seph reacts.

She’s silent for a second and then she’s clapping wildly. “Oh my god, Eric, that was amazing!” I barely have time to put my guitar aside before she’s in my lap and kissing me, and I’m kissing her back. “I can’t believe that you wrote that for me. No one’s ever done anything like that for me. Ever.”

Her reaction is like pure adrenaline to the system. I want to make people feel things. If I hadn’t already decided that this is what I wanted to do, this would probably have convinced me. Wrapping my arms around her, I hold her tight and let her straddle my lap.

For the first time I don’t have the urge to turn this into something sexual. It’s pure, and I just want to know that she loved it. I want to hear it from her. “You liked it?”

“I more than liked it, Eric. That was beautiful and perfect and I’m going to need you to record that for me so I can listen to it all the time.”

I’m grinning from ear to ear now. “I’m glad.”

“You’re going to be famous,” she whispers.

“I highly doubt that.”

“Seriously. Eric Elmore is going to be one of those names that people know. Every song on the radio will be yours, and you’ll perform for sold-out stadiums.”

I take a leap. “If that happens, will you be there with me?”

She smiles shyly. “It’s a possibility.”

I kiss her, showing her just how much I want that. Right now in this moment, I wouldn’t mind if the only person that I ever got to perform for was her.

“And what about you?” I ask.

“What about me?”

“Your writing.” I point to the book that she left sitting on the rock when she tackled me. “You don’t talk about what you want to do with it.”

Seph shrugs. “I don’t know that I’ll do anything with it.”

I press my fingers into her a little harder. “I know you well enough now to know when you’re lying, Seph.”

“Ugh.” She looks away. “It’s just hard. Being a writer isn’t an easy way to live, and being published is even harder. To get that far and do what I want…It doesn’t seem possible. I’m not good enough.”

“Bullshit,” I say.

“Eric—”

“No,” I say gently, cutting her off. “You don’t get to sit here and cheer me on and then be down on yourself. Your writing is brilliant, Seph. And everyone should read it. I’m not even a big reader and I always want to know what you have to say. Speaking of, I haven’t even read anything of yours in a couple of weeks.”

Her face immediately turns to a shade of red that I’m familiar with. “That’s okay,” Seph says too fast. “You don’t have to do that.”