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Ella and Will exchanged glances.
“Guilty as charged!” Ella laughed.
“Well, I knew I was in for an intense week,” Audrey said. “Don, you might have to find other people to play board games with. Ella and Will are demanding long days of practice. And I’m ready for it!”
Not long after that, a sharp red car parked beside the minivan. This contained Henry, the bassist, and his girlfriend, Phoebe, along with Nate, their second guitarist. They leaped from the car to hug everyone, commenting on how long it had been and how excited they were for the gig next week. For a moment, Ella allowed herself to think she was twenty years old, that they were on the brink of their incredible careers. She couldn’t wait to tell them about this autumn’s tour.
Ella and Will had helped their bandmates secure a gorgeous cabin along the water, a four-bedroom with space for Audrey and Don, Henry and Phoebe, Nate by himself, and Ella and Will on the nights they didn’t feel like heading back to The Copperfield House. A large room with a view of the ocean had been cleared of all furniture to allow them to set up their band equipment. It was here they would practice, their music pouring through the open doors and out across the water. Ella couldn’t wait to dig into the material.
That evening, Ella and Will cooked fresh haddock, rosemary potatoes, and garlic green beans from Greta’s garden as their bandmates sipped various wines, beers, or lemonades, standing out on the veranda overlooking the water, in the kitchen, or in the immaculate living room, calling the cabin heaven on earth. Frequently as they cooked, Ella and Will glanced at one another, unable to suppress their joy.
Henry and Nate heaved the dining room table from the back of the cabin to the veranda so that they could enjoy dinner as the sun dripped into the horizon, casting the island in orange and pink pastels. Audrey opened a bottle of white wine and poured everyone a glass, then dropped into the chair beside Don, kissing him gently.
“Don, did you ever see us perform back in the day?” Henry asked as he sat across from them. “I mean, before you met Audrey.”
Don laughed. “I was too much of a nerd back then for anything as cool as rock and roll. I think I had one or two of your CDs, though.”
“But only because the girl he was seeing made him listen to them!” Audrey chimed in.
“Guilty,” Don said. “When I first met Audrey, I was terrified she wouldn’t be into me because I’m not a musician.”
“On the contrary, I was so done with musicians,” Audrey said. “These guys can tell you about all the garbage musicians I dated over the years.”
“Do you want us to tell the stories?” Henry joked.
Audrey rolled her eyes, saying, “I’ve told Don almost everything. Almost.”
“Uh oh,” Ella said, serving the big platter of fish in the center of the table— haddock sizzling with oil and lemon. “I guess you haven’t told him about the member of the Blue Man Group?”
Audrey’s jaw dropped as everyone at the table seized with laughter. Henry and Nate clapped one another on the back, overwhelmed with memories.
“Ella! I had blocked that one out!” Audrey cried, dropping her head onto Don’s shoulder to remind him she loved him the most.
“It was hilarious,” Nate said, speaking to Don. “We’d just had this killer show in Cleveland. We were sweating and exhilarated and ready to party all night long, if I remember right. And then, our band manager came into the back room and told us, ‘Um, there’s a Blue Man here to see Audrey?’ And we couldn’t stop laughing for most of the night.”
“He came straight from his show to see ours!” Audrey remembered. “In his defense, he looked a lot better with the blue than without it.”
Will cackled. “You and Ella left the Blue Man with Nate, Henry, and I so you could change clothes. Nate and Henry couldn’t stop laughing, obviously, which meant that I had to make conversation with him.”
“Oh, yeah. He wasn’t very chatty, either,” Audrey said, blushing.
Beside her, Don shook his head, his face echoing his love for Audrey alongside the hilarity of it all.
“All right, Don. You used to date a woman who worked in a laboratory at Harvard. I used to date a member of the Blue Man Group. I think you win,” Audrey said.
Will and Ella exchanged glances, both thinking the same thing. That they’d gotten together before they’d ever had the chance to have exes and that they were each other’s every story, every reason, and only love.
“If you want, I can paint myself blue,” Don joked. “I really don’t mind.”
Together, the bandmates and their partners feasted, swapping stories of long-ago days on tour alongside stories of their present-day lives. It was remarkable how much everything had changed— and yet, they still knew exactly what made each other laugh, which was a language that transcended time.
After everyone finished, Ella collected the plates and hurried inside, promising she would bring another bottle of wine back with her. As she headed to the cabinet, her phone buzzed with a text from her mother— a woman who ordinarily didn’t text. Ella was intrigued.
GRETA: Hey, honey. I hope your first night with your bandmates is going well! I’m sure you have a lot of catching up to do.
GRETA: I wanted to send you a photograph of the painting Aurora has been working on this week.
Here, Greta attached a photograph of a massive canvas upon which Aurora had painted something dark, layered, and sinister, black shapes that seemed, at first, amorphous and jagged, until, after a blink or two, they merged together into a very dark and alienating beach. It looked almost like the beach outside The Copperfield House, but in another haunted realm. It was just as exquisite as it was terrifying.
