AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The evening is filled with stories and laughter and music. When Dave asks me to play my guitar, I’m just tipsy enough that I find thecourage to play my own song. Between the praise from Dave and the look on Jack’s face, I’m too embarrassed and emotional to strum another chord once I finish it.
It’s late when I say my tearful goodbyes, and then it’s just me, Jack, and Sebastian in the pub. Jack disappears into his office and returns with three small gifts that he sets on the bar.
“What’s this?” I ask.
“Something small,” he says. “A going-away present.” He sinks onto the stool beside me and slides one of the gifts toward me. “Here. Open this one first.”
I’m not sure what to say, so I don’t say anything. I tear open the paper to the first gift and laugh at the sight of brand-new bright red boot laces.
“You need them,” he says. “Can’t go gallivanting about with those dingy laces.”
I stare down at my boots. “I thought you liked my dingy boots with their dingy laces,” I say.
Jack grabs one of my feet and, setting it in his lap, begins undoing the laces. “I do, but your safety is my top priority, andtheseare just not up to code.”
“You’re ridiculous,” I say. “Thank you.”
Sebastian leaps into my lap, purring gently as Jack replaces the laces of one boot, then the other. He sets the old laces out of sight on the empty stool beside him, then passes the second gift my way. I try not to disturb Sebastian when I reach for it, but it’s no use, and after one giant stretch, the cat makes the short jump from my lap to Jack’s.
The second gift is a tiny red spiral-bound notebook the size of my palm. I pass my hand over the cover, then glance at Jack, confused.
“It’s for the ugly stuff,” he says.
I don’t say anything because I still don’t understand.
“Open the other,” he says, and nods to the last gift.
When I unwrap it, I’m surprised to find another notebook. It’s nicer than the first. The cover is a soft leather in a rich brown. I run my finger over the words etched right in the center—Songs, and beneath it,Raine Hart.My name.
“When did you get this?”
If Jack answers, I don’t hear. I open the notebook and read the note in Jack’s handwriting on the first page.For your future top-40 hits, ciaróg.I flip to the next page and realize that this is no ordinary notebook. The paper inside isn’t regular paper at all.
“I thought it would save you time,” he says. “If you didn’t have to write out all the lines for the... music paper? I don’t know what it’s called.”
“Staff paper,” I mutter. I eye the plain red notebook. “Why two?”
“You said you used to have a notebook where you wrote out your song ideas, but you didn’t like it to be messy. That’s why you write on the receipts and scrap paper first right?”
“Right.”
“But you’re always losing your scrap paper with your ideas, so I thought having one notebook for the ugly stuff would help keep it all in one place. And then you could transfer it over to the other one when you’re ready.”
I look up at him. “Jack, this is...”
“Too much?”
“No.” I run my hand along the smooth leather of the notebook. “It’s perfect.”
“Don’t you have to get up early?” Jack says when I drag him upstairs and into bed.
“I can sleep on the plane,” I say. “Now that I don’t have a boss, I have all the time in the world for sleeping.”
Eventually, Jack does fall asleep, but I lie awake in bed beside him and think about my sister crying at the airport. Ifshecries saying goodbye to me, her sister, someone she will most definitely see again,then how am I, champion crybaby, supposed to say goodbye to Jack in a few hours without it being a mess? I’ll probably cry the whole way through security. Everyone will be so alarmed, they’ll send me for a secondary screening. It’ll be embarrassing. For me, and probably for Jack too.
I’d rather that not be the memory I leave him with.
It’s five in the morning when I slip out of bed. Sebastian yowls when I reach the door, and I shush him, not wanting to wake Jack. He follows me out into the living room, where my travel case and guitar and backpack are waiting for me by the door. I unzip the pocket of the backpack and pull out the ugly notebook Jack gave me last night. Sebastian is at my heels when I walk to the kitchen and take a seat at the table.
