Page 112 of The Music of Us
Iwatched Jake’s car pull away through the window. For some reason, I kept watching as he got farther and farther from me, until the car turned into a little black dot in the distance I could no longer follow. I stayed there for a beat longer anyway.
Then I banged my head against the wall and let out a muffled scream.
Things werenotsupposed to go like that.
After all this time, Ifinallyrealized Jake’s the one. Ittook me so long to understand that this new Jake was just as wonderful as the old Jake, and that he’d be there for me. All for him to basically tell me he’s not interested and friend zone me before I could even get the words out.
All to the beginning notes of “Lovely, Aren’t Ya.”
Had I imagined everything going on between Jake and me this week? I could’veswornhe felt our connection too, the pull between us that’s persisted, like a song stuck in the back of our minds.
I couldn’t have been wrong.
I replayed today in my mind. Somethinghadto have happened to make Jake back off so quickly.
But what?
“Hey, Lucy,” Aspen said, entering the café area. “Did—”
He paused, staring at me.
Oh. Right. My head was still pressed against the wall where I’d been banging it.
He eyed me weirdly. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Totally,” I lied, slowly leaning away from the wall and wiping my palms on my apron, before pulling out a stick of gum. “I just figured we had the money to expand now, so I was trying to knock down this wall over here.”
“With your skull?”
“I’ve always been hardheaded.”
He let out a laugh. “You know, you really are like the song.”
“What do you mean?” I shook my head in confusion. “What song?”
“‘Lovely, Aren’t Ya,’” Aspen said, in the same tone one might sayduhin. “The one all about you, obviously.”
My lips parted.What?
“Come on, don’t be embarrassed,” Aspen admonished, misinterpreting the reason I was frozen in place. “That particular cat’s been out of the bag for a while. Weallknow it’s about you. Jake wrote it, and the original title was ‘Luciana,’ before the label made him change it since they said it was better for marketing or whatever. It didn’t take long to put two and two together.”
Lovely, Aren’t Ya.Luciana. Four syllables. Same rhyme.
“The song,” I began, my voice sounding like a windup doll’s, with sentences that came out in short, mechanical spurts. “Is about... me?”
“Well, yeah. The entire thing’s describing you. That’s the whole point of it.”
I went speechless and dazed in the best way.
It was an entire declaration of love set to a melody. The moonstruck, lyrical praise Jake sang was written withmein mind.
I’d heard the song nearly every week of my life since it debuted. I could never shake the idea it followed me around. The lyrics were always somewhere in the background or in the corner of my mind—meant for me all along.
“Everyoneknew the original title of Jake’s song,” Aspen continued, wiggling his fingers at Bubbles on the other side of the glass, not noticing how I was going through twelve stages of shock three feet away from him. “That’s why me and the guys had to meet you.”
It all made sense now. Aspen lighting up as soon as he heard my full name. Leon telling me I was musically inspirational. Phillip nosily asking if Lucy was a nickname before smiling deviously.
Jake had always said my name would fit a melody.
