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He took the record from its sleeve and put it on the player. “I wanted to play this song for the two of you. Reminds me of you a little.”
When the song began to play, I knew it immediately. The brushes on the drums instead of sticks gave it away.
Roberto bobbed his head to the beat, mouthing the words to “Miss You.” It was a pretty fucking sad song about a guy who was in love with a girl, but his internal darkness was making him tell her not to waste her time on him. The hell of it was, itdidremind me of us. At least the first incarnation of us.
Tali turned to me. “I love you,” she said in a hushed voice.
“Love you too, Stripes.”
“Good song, right?” Roberto asked, taking a seat in his chair across from us.
“Depressing,” Tali said.
“I love the drums in it,” I said.
Roberto nodded. “Yeah, that’s my favorite part. Never noticed it before, but I read they were inspired by The Cure’s “Love Cats.” Guess which album I downloaded after that?”
My eyebrows raised of their own accord. “Downloaded? You’ve moved into digital?”
He huffed at me. “Yes, young man. I have my own iPhone and a dock in the kitchen and my bedroom. Gotta have my music wherever I go in the house. But nothing beats the sound of analog and the pureness of a record player in my garage.”
He had a point. I’d never enjoyed music as much as I did on the days I sat in his garage with him and Tali.
A couple more of the songs on the album could’ve been about Tali and I, and that could’ve brought me down, but I chose to focus on the woman beside me, the man across from me, the pureness of the sound, and the warmth of the moment.
Roberto got up to change the record, putting on the White Stripes album we listened to the first time I came out here. When he sat back down in his chair, he leaned forward, and I did the same.
“You look good, Jude.”
I tipped my chin. “You do too, Roberto.”
“I know you’re probably too old for me to ask this, but I’m asking anyway. What are your intentions for Natalia?”
Tali groaned, which only made me smile. I’d expected this. As old-fashioned as it might’ve been, Roberto saw Tali as his responsibility, and if he was passing that on to me, he wanted to make sure I was ready for it. That Tali was thirty-four and had been taking care of herself for a very long time didn’t matter. I’d be taking care of her heart. I’d be responsible for keeping her feeling secure.
“My intentions are pretty simple: complete honesty and openness. The rest, we’ll figure out as we go.”
Tali squeezed my knee. “We’re going to buy a place in Baltimore together. We decided that last night.”
To my surprise, Roberto didn’t have a big reaction to that. He didn’t tell us we were dumbasses or moving too fast. Instead, he nodded and relaxed back in his chair.
“So, this is it then?” he asked.
Tali straightened her spine and squared her shoulders, all while her hand remained on my knee. “Yes, Dad. This is it.”
“No more rock star?” he asked.
“I still plan to make music and release it. Can’t give that up. But no, I have no desire to be any kind of star. I already danced that dance,” I answered.
“You’ll send me your latest music?”
I chuckled. “Yes, sir. Tali will be the first to hear it, then I’ll send it your way.”
“You should look into getting a record made so I could play it out here.”
“I could probably help with that,” Tali offered.
I looked at her, then back at her dad. “That sounds like the best idea I’ve heard in a while. I guess I better get crackin’ on writing and recording.”
