Gil was really struggling here. He did not get music writing at all. Toni and Francis were supposed to come over and help him, but they were already late. Later than musician late.

He heard the scream of his phone, telling him he got a text message. He expected it to be from Francis, but he was pleasantly surprised to see it was Maddie.

"How are your hands?"

Gil really hadn't given much thought to them. They looked ugly, but they had scabbed over nicely.

"Much better. I told you it was no big deal!"

"Are you not coming to the coffee shop? I was hoping to see you."

Gil couldn't stand the bittersweet ache in his heart.

"One of the band members quit, so I've been trying to work some things out band-wise. It's been keeping me pretty busy. I'll try to make time to stop by!"

"I don't want to inconvenience you. Could I bring you coffee?"

She was perfect. She was just too perfect.

"You'd never be an inconvenience. And I'll warn you, if you bring me coffee, that would literally be the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. You'll be an angel in my mind."

"Where are you?"

He sent her his address. It was only after he sent it that he realized he may need to clean up a bit. The cleaning was a nervous habit. He had quite literally nothing in his apartment. He'd been sitting on a milk crate for hours, so it was good to find an excuse to stretch his legs. It couldn't have been more than 15 minutes when he heard a knock at his door. Gil smoothed his hair, thought better of himself, and ruffled it up again.

He opened the door to find Maddie nervously waiting for him. She held a cup of coffee in each hand.

Gil couldn't stop his heart from skipping. He wanted to all manner of impolite things to her at the threshold of his apartment. But he couldn't. She just looked too cute.

He waved instead. "Do you want to come in?" he signed.

She nodded. He led her into the mostly empty apartment. He took another milk carton off the stack and set it on the ground.

Maddie looked around and judged his living space. If she had anything to say, she certainly wasn't signing with two mugs of coffee in her hand. Gil took one and placed it in front of his amp on the floor. He sat down on the milk carton by his bass.

Maddie took the other one and gingerly put her coffee on the floor.

"I forgot how you take your coffee."

Gil took a sip. It was way too sweet but he didn't let it show on his face. "This is fine, " he signed back.

Maddie fidgeted.

"Are you uncomfortable?" Gil was embarrassed. "Do you want me to get you a pillow?"

"No. It's just surprising. There's nothing in your apartment."

Gil shrugged. "I don't need much."

"What are you working on?"

"A song. It's not going very well, " Gil admitted.

"Can I feel it?"

"No, it's not finished."

She looked disappointed and sighed, taking a sip of her coffee.

Gil held up a finger.

He turned the amp up a little higher. He played through a bass line, one he thought sounded cool. He gauged her reaction.

Maddie closed her eyes and slid to the floor. She spread her hands on the surface just in front of the amp. Gil continued to play, watching every bit of her start to relax.

He was just mindlessly playing when she opened her eyes and started to sign. "Gil, you're so cool."

Gil could feel himself blush and continued to play.

"I like you a lot."

Gil nodded and continued to blush more.

Maddie sighed again. "Too much, I think. Everything you do or don't do is driving me crazy."

Gil hit a sour note, simply astounded by what he was seeing. "Why?" he signed over the strings

"I keep trying to think of a reason why you didn't kiss me when you left. Sometimes I think it's because you don't like me like that. Sometimes I think I'm just getting obsessive. I spend so much of my time thinking up over the top romantic gestures for novels, and I just don't know what to do in real life. I just get so nervous not knowing."

Gil set aside his bass. He knelt down in front of Maddie. He really was incapable of saying anything at the moment. He hesitated, then cupped her face with his hands. Her breath caught, anticipation sweetening her skin and burning through her eyes. As soon as Gil pressed his lips against hers, the words finally came to him. How he felt like he was taking advantage of her because this was better than he deserved. That he hadn't wanted to kiss her again thinking she had only allowed it out of gratitude. But he wanted to kiss her each moment he saw her face. He craved her warm, sweet coffee taste.

His blood raced as she wrapped her arms around him. She in no way was passive in the kiss. She enticed him nearer, drawing his body onto hers.

Their lips parted a moment as he fell onto her. Gil's head was still swimming from pleasure and embarrassment. Maddie smiled in the same loopy way.

"I get it now, " she signed right in front of his face. "You're shy."

No one in the entirety of Gil's existence would dare to call him shy. His lips crashed to hers again, causing a breathy, delightful laugh to escape from Maddie. He kissed her lips, her face, her neck, as if he was wordlessly trying to disprove her point about him being shy. He was just debating whether he should go ahead with sliding his hand up her shirt when he heard the door open.

He looked up to find Francis and Toni in the frame. Maddie still unaware, tried to draw Gil down to his previous business.

"I would offer to come back later, but we're sort of in a crisis here, " Francis said.

Toni pursed his lips together, but it couldn't hide his shit-eating grin.

It pretty much killed Gil to stave off Maddie's advances, but she quickly withdrew when she saw they were no longer alone.

"I'll leave. Talk to me soon?"

Gil nodded. Prompted by Maddie's last disappointment, he gave her a last kiss goodbye, and she scurried past his bandmates and out of his apartment.

Francis' eyes followed her a bit too long. Toni pushed past him and let himself in.

Gil pulled himself up. "You're late."

"No, no, you're the late one, my friend. But it looks like you make up for it by moving fast, " Toni teased.

Gil rolled his eyes. "You know, you talk shit game about me moving slow, but you never talk about your sexual conquests."

"You're right." Toni sat down, got his guitar out and started tuning it.

Gil was waiting for some sort of follow up, but it never came. He made an exasperated gesture for Francis.

"Don't look at me. You always tell me to shut up when I talk about my love life."

"Because you brag, " Gil said. "I know way too much about yours."

"Would it satisfy you to know that it is wonderfully uneventful?" Toni offered.

Gil could tell he was lying. He saw the way girls flocked to him after the shows.

"Absolutely not. But that aside, we need to figure out what we're going to do. I don't know about you guys, but I cannot afford to give up these gigs, " Francis said.

"Well, we've got Gil's song. Plus, we got the band's originals. I can modify my guitar part a bit to make it more cohesive with just the three of us. We just need someone to sing."

"I volunteer as..." Gil started.

"What are the lyrics to our most popular song, Gil?" Francis challenged.

"Uh..." Gil's mind blanked. Usually, he was way too focused on his own part to try to figure what angsty shit Arthur had been singing.

"Can you sing, Toni?"

Toni proceeded to sing in a tone entirely different than Arthur. His voice was clear, smooth, with a bit of a breathy rasp that would all too accurately be described as sexy.

"That'll do."

"Shit..." Gil said under his breath in admiration.

Practice was slow, but as soon as things were figured out as far as old songs went, they worked pretty much flawlessly.

"Alright. Feel a lot less panicked now. Pretty sure the bar manager won't strangle us at the gig. Got anything new on your song, Gil?" Francis visibly relaxed.

"Do you think it's too early to start running some lyrics by you?"