Tanya was bustling around the living room area of her almost empty Nashville apartment, her cell phone sitting on a table on speaker. "Yeah, Kat. I'm almost finished packing," she was saying to her friend. "Almost."
She could practically hear the other girl rolling her eyes through the phone. "So are you leaving right after your gig tonight, or tomorrow morning?"
"Tomorrow morning," she answered as she folded some clothes on the table and stuffed them into an overnight bag.
"Good, make sure you both get plenty of rest," Kat said and this time it was Tanya's turn to roll her eyes.
"Plus, Adam says he wants to do Nashville stuff while he's here," she said with a sigh. "I don't even know what that means."
"I'm sure you'll come up with something fun," her friend encouraged.
"Actually, there is one thing I'm worried about…." Tanya said.
"What's that?"
"My set that I have to play at the club tonight."
Kat was silent for a moment. "Well, I know you don't really get nervous before a performance so I wonder if this has anything to do with a certain handsome mutual friend that all your songs are about?"
Tanya picked the phone up off the table and sat down on the couch, holding it up to her face. "I guess I just don't want to embarrass him, or catch him off guard or anything. But I can't not sing songs from the album, right?"
"Honey, I think you'd be really naïve to think that that boy has never heard every single one of those songs already. I'm sure he'll be fine."
"I hope you're right." She was interrupted from her thoughts by a knock at the door. "Hold on, Kat. Someone's here."
She made her way over to the door, opening it cautiously as she peered into the hall. "Adam!" she squealed in surprise, throwing her arms around his neck.
"Hey, Tanya," he said with his charming, boyish smile bright on his face as he hugged her tightly.
"Say hi to Kat," she said, nudging the door closed without letting go of him.
"Hi Adam," Kat's voice said from the phone. "I'll let you two get going. Hope you guys have a nice trip, and drive carefully!"
"Thanks, Kat," he called before Tanya pressed the button to end the call.
"So, what's up, I thought you were going to call me when your plane landed."
He shrugged. "I just took a taxi. Figured you were still busy packing your things."
Tanya's brow furrowed. "Why does everyone just assume I'm not packed yet?"
He raised an eyebrow. "Are you?"
"Mostly," she said defensively.
He laughed, making a move to embrace her again. "Man, I missed you," he said.
"I missed you too," she murmured, closing her eyes as she settled into his arms. "So much."
He took a look around at the empty space. "You had a nice place here," he commented.
She nodded. "I'll give you a tour, but you should've seen it when it was not so sad looking."
"Yeah, I should've," he said idly, following her as she pointed out her bedroom, showed him where the bathroom was and took him around the kitchen area.
She squeezed his hand. "Most of the furniture isn't mine, but I did have my bed and my desk shipped to Angel Grove."
"That's okay. Wait until you see the couch Rocky picked out."
She smiled. "I can't wait."
"Guess we should start loading your car," he said, gesturing to the boxes that were stacked against a wall.
She moved to help him carry the boxes, smiling when she stepped outside and felt the sun on her face. "There isn't too much more," she said. "I basically just have to finish packing my clothes and makeup and stuff. And there's a couple of lamps I'm bringing back."
He took the boxes from her, packing them neatly in her trunk and in the back seat. "Are we going to fit everything?"
"Yeah." She placed a hand on his arm. "Thanks for doing this."
He smiled. "Anytime. Besides, it'll be a fun trip."
She grinned. "I don't know. Thirty hours in a car with me. Think you can handle it?"
"Hey, we've been through way worse than this," he said. "Besides, I think I've been pretty good at handling you all these years. Maybe you just buy me a real Tennessee dinner tonight and we'll call it even," he joked as they walked back inside her apartment.
"Listen, Adam. There's something you should know about my…um…. some of my songs from this album…" She started, staring down at her shoes.
He placed a hand under her chin and picked her head up. "They're about me?" He asked, a little shyly.
She nodded. "How did you know?"
"Um, I mean… I was there…. for all that stuff you sing about," he said awkwardly. "Besides, isn't your album called Knight In Shiny Green Armor? You know that's not very subtle," he added with a kind smile.
She let out a breath. "Are you mad?"
"No! Why would I be mad? There's not any songs about how much you hate me and how horrible of a person I am, right?"
She smiled. "Definitely not."
"Look, I get it. You're an artist. You write about what's real to you. I guess I'm just really glad that after all these years, I'm the thing you want to sing about," he said, blushing slightly.
She wrapped her arms around his waist, her cheeks flushing. "You're really incredible, you know that?"
He hugged her back. "Should we get going?"
"Yeah." She dug her keys out of her pocket and walked back to her jeep with him. "It's not that far," she told him as she started the ignition.
She pointed out some notable places to him as they drove and named some of the bars and clubs that she'd sang in before she pulled up to a trendy looking place with the name "Louie's" scrawled in neon lights.
"Hi, Louie," she said brightly as they entered through the back.
"Hey, Tanya!" a portly man greeted jovially. "Your room's all set if you wanna get all powdered up or somethin."
She smiled. "Louie, this is my friend, Adam. Take good care of him, okay?"
"Pleasure," Louie said, shaking Adam's hand enthusiastically. "Come on, I'll show ya the best seat in the house."
She kissed Adam's cheek before Louie ushered him away and headed to the little space that Louie's used as the green room, checking herself in the mirror and taking a deep breath before heading to the stage.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, a real treat for y'all tonight. Our own Tanya Sloan!"
She walked onto the stage to energetic applause and waved both her hands at the crowd before holding them to her chest in an expression of gratitude. "I want to start with something different tonight," she said into the microphone. "This is a song I wrote for my closest friends when I was in high school. It's called Stick Together."
Tanya nodded to the lead guitarist and he started strumming out the chords.
She belted the words to her first song, swinging her hips to the beat and everyone in the club was clapping and dancing along to her happy tune.
She caught Adam's gaze near the end of the song, finding him sitting alone at a table towards the front, mouthing the words along with her. She winked at him and he grinned, clapping loudly when she finished.
"This next one is off the album. It's called Missing You More." The opening chords to her emotional track started and she found she couldn't take her eyes away from Adam's.
He was sitting at the table with his chin in his hand, gazing up at her with a dreamy and intent expression on his face as he took in her words about longing for a first love. A lock of hair had fallen in his eyes and she wished she could brush it back for him with her hand.
Having Adam here, live at one of her shows and watching her so carefully and attentively was a whole new experience for her. It was an intense feeling, and in some ways Tanya felt more intimate with him in that moment, watching him watch her in front of everyone in the bright stage lights as she bared her feelings about him to total strangers than she had when she'd been naked underneath the covers with him a couple of weeks prior.
Suddenly her set ended and the lights dimmed and the room broke out into thunderous applause.
"Thank you," she said, genuinely touched at the heartfelt reaction as she bowed low.
Adam was waiting for her in the back when she got off the stage, greeting her with a warm hug. "You were amazing," he said sincerely.
"Thanks," she said, feeling a little hot as she leaned into his embrace.
"I mean it," he told her. "Man, I thought you were talented back in high school, but your voice…. your style…. "
She blushed fiercely.
"You've really matured in the past few years," he said quietly. "I can totally see why they love you so much."
"That's sweet," she said, reaching up to finally brush the lock of hair back from his eyes. "Now, come on. Let me buy you your first pulled pork sandwich."
She led him to a seat at the bar near where the band was sitting and the bartender asked for their order.
"Are you drinking tonight?" she asked over her shoulder in a whisper. "I know you don't really like alcohol…"
The bartender handed him a glass of Tennessee whiskey and a plate with the pulled pork and she frowned as she looked at it, knowing that he was very particular about what he put into his body.
Adam shrugged. "Probably just one since we're leaving so early?"
She nodded and he tapped his whiskey to her wine. "Cheers."
A few people came over to chat and Tanya smiled brightly, shaking hands and signing autographs and leaning into Adam instinctively when he wrapped a slightly possessive arm around her waist. She silently hoped that he would hold her all night, and he did, smiling politely at all of her admirers and sipping his drink in between.
After they finished their barbecue, she led him outside and they were still talking and laughing loudly as they adjusted to the change in atmosphere.
"So what else do you do in Nashville?" Adam wondered. "Other than entertain the masses with your angel-like qualities?"
"Stop!" she giggled, swatting his arm playfully. "Let's go for a walk around town, see if there are any street musicians out tonight."
He followed her obediently and they were pleased to see that the musicians were out in abundance tonight, with Adam marveling at how cool it was to find country on one corner and jazz on another.
He pulled her into him, dancing in the middle of the street and her whole face brightened, her eyes sparkling as he twirled and spun her around in the moonlight.
He placed a few bills in the bands' open guitar case before they walked off. "This has been fun."
"It sure has," she agreed, resting her head against him and taking his hand as he slung an arm around her shoulder.
They walked quietly for awhile as they headed back to her car in the back of Louie's.
"You're going to miss this place, aren't you?" Adam asked softly.
She thought for a moment. "I'm going to miss things about this place. But it doesn't compare to the things I was missing the most," she said, squeezing his hand.
He ducked into her car, reaching over and placing a hand on her knee as she drove back to her apartment.
"So, I would've given you the bed, but I've already had it shipped home," she said as they clamored lazily through the door. "You can sleep on the couch, if you want. Or I can get some sleeping bags and blankets and we can camp out on the floor?"
He shrugged. "I guess sleeping bags it is, then."
"Are you sure? Before a thirty hour car drive?"
He nodded. "It's fine."
She smiled. "Okay." She disappeared into her bedroom and returned a moment later, her arms overflowing with blankets and pillows that she neatly arranged on the floor.
He settled down, patting the space next to him. "This is way more comfortable than you think it is," he insisted.
She laid her head down in the pillows, turning to face him. "Should I set an alarm for like 5am or so? You wanted to leave by six, right?"
"Nah, you don't have to. We'll just leave when we wake up."
She smiled. "Okay," she said softly, reaching for his hand.
He took her fingers in his, raising her hand to his mouth and kissing her knuckles softly before she pulled the cord on the lamp on the floor beside them and the room flooded into darkness