Every raw and reckless hope
Tonight I’m standing here because you spoke?—
You’re the reason I can
You’re my naked note
Cameron
The final words echoed away.
I didn’t realise I was crying until Julian shoved a tissue at me. My chest felt full, as if my ribs couldn’t possibly hold everything inside.
Theo just sang a love song to me. In public. In front of my art. In front of my brother.
Then I caught sight of the phones held aloft, and realised Theo might be about to gain a much larger audience.
Theo walked toward me. The crowd applauded, but I barely heard it. When he stopped in front of me, shaking a little, I cupped his face.
“Did you mean all that?” I whispered.
Theo nodded. “Every last word,” he croaked.
I forgot about the guests, the students, and kissed him as the gallery erupted into applause. Gary clapped the longest.
“You’re my naked note too,” I murmured against Theo’s lips.
Theo closed his eyes and smiled.
Close by, I heard Gary, his voice tinged with awe.
“Damn. You guys are amazing. When you do your first gig, I want a ticket. Front row seat.”
“You can have the seat next to mine.” I kissed Theo again. “Because I’ll be there too.”
“What time is it?” I asked as Theo opened the door to the flat. I’d lost all track of time. The after party had gone on longer than I’d anticipated. All the group seemed reluctant to leave. Gary divided his time between throwing his arm around my shoulders and hugging the life out of me, and patting Theo on the back, telling him he had a bright future.
I was exhausted, but in a way that felt earned. Theo’s song looped through my head, the way his voice had cracked just enough to give him away, the tenderness threaded through every note. The ache. The honesty.
He wrote that for me.
“About two o’clock.” Theo closed the door behind us and turned, really looked at me, as though he was seeing past my skin, past the noise in his own head. The look hit me low and hard.
“When did you write that?” I asked.
“The morning after you showed me the portrait.”
I swallowed. “You wrote that—yousangthat—for me.”
Theo nodded once. “It was always yours.”
He was too far away.
I crossed the space between us and grabbed him, pulling him in, our mouths colliding with all the things we hadn’t said burning between us. His hands slid into my hair as if he needed to anchor himself.
“I keep thinking I should wait,” Theo murmured against my lips. “For the moment where it’s safer to say things.”
I smiled, breathless. “That moment doesn’t exist.”