Page 93 of Hittin' the Right Note
Normally in a situation like this he would’ve just gone back to California and come back periodically for rehearsals, but something kept Mikey in West Virginia. He just couldn’t bear to leave, not when things were still so uncertain with Luke. He supposed he was afraid if he left Luke might just throw in the towel altogether.
The true reason he stayed, though, was simpler: Mikey still had it bad for Luke Carter. Every time they were together he’d feel the energy pulsing between them, and the more he tried to ignore it or tried to explain to himself why it could never work, the more insistent it became.
Finally, he knew what he had to do.
He had to talk to Mindy.
Mikey knewhe needed a FaceTime with Mindy rather than just a phone call and, to his relief, she proved to be up for it when he sent her a text. When he saw her face pop up on his phone he couldn’t help but smile, because she always had that effect on him.
“Hey, sugar plum,” she said, flashing her pearly whites. “What’s up?”
“Do you have a minute?” he asked.
“Sure,” she said. “But just a couple of ‘em, sugar. I have a concert comin’ up.”
“Well, remember how I told you I was going to see Luke and try to reconnect with him?”
“Yeah,” she said, raising one perfectly-contoured eyebrow.
“Well, it got complicated.”
Mikey proceeded to tell her the whole story, and except for a few clarifying questions here and there, she let him talk. When he was done, she had just one question.
“Do you love him?”
“Of course I do,” he said. “It’s what makes this whole thing so hard.”
He distantly heard someone telling Mindy it was almost showtime.
“Look, sugar,” she said. “I’m gonna tell you something. Most of us aren’t lucky enough to find a love like what the two of you have. If you want Luke back, I think you know what you have to do. You gotta tell him how you feel.”
“I want to,” he said. “But I don’t know…I wanna make it really special.”
“Then write him a love song,” she said. “It’s what I’d do.”
“Oh, wow,” he said. “You’re absolutely right.”
“I know I am, babe,” she said. “But sugar, I gotta go. It’s almost showtime.”
“Okay,” he said. “Thank you, Mindy. Really. You’re a true life saver.”
“I know that, too,” she said. “Love you. Bye!”
“Love you, too. Bye, babe,” he said, and the call ended.
He knew Mindy was right. As he’d discovered during his little sojourn with Luke, he really was a musician at heart, and he’d always be better at expressing his thoughts in music than in just words alone.
And so, in the privacy of his hotel room, he put pen to paper and started to write the song he’d always wanted to write but never had the courage. It borrowed some of the country vibeshe’d learned from Luke, but it was essentially a Mikey Smiles song, the kind of song he should’ve been writing all along.
Never, in all of his career, had Mikey written anything like this. It was raw but fun, filled with heartbreak but also with joy. Unlike Luke’s song, which was about two men and their unexpected love, this was definitely an apology song. It was about Luke, yes, but it was about something much bigger. It was about all the gay boys who’d parted ways and still somehow sought, and found, a path back together.
Damn, this is good,Mikey thought when he had it all down.Now, what to do with it?
But, of course, the answer was obvious. If Luke Carter wouldn’t talk to him before the concert, maybe once he heard the songduringit and knew it was Mikey’s love note to him, then maybe he’d open up just enough to listen to him. It wasn’t much of a hope, but it was all Mikey could do.
Besides, Mikey was a born showman, and he could charm the pants off anyone. Including Luke, as he’d shown several times.
He smiled.
