THE SIMPLE NEED

xxx

FOURTEEN

xxx

"You're listening to Live and Local, the best place to hear all about what's happening in the local music scene here in New York City! We've got here with us an up and coming band who have started to make a bit of noise in the local indie music scene – they're called The Simple Need!"

The band members were gathered around a couple of microphones at the college radio station, with the radio host, a college senior majoring in broadcast journalism named Fiona who went by Fifi, sitting across from them. Troy was pulling at his fingers anxiously. It seemed silly that he performed on stage at least four times a week at different venues, but that a radio interview had him feeling nervous.

"Welcome, guys, it's great to have you here!"

"Thanks for having us, it's great to be here," Rhys spoke into the microphone. Unlike Troy, Rhys didn't feel any nerves at all – he was in a comfortable space.

"Some of our listeners might've recognised that voice there – none other than former guest host of this very segment, Rhys Meyers!"

"I've missed you guys, but I've been pretty busy! We've got another NYU radio alum in the band in our lead singer of Troy."

They'd done a casual rehearsal of the chatter that would take place. Troy took a breath and leaned forward, adding into the microphone. "Just barely! I stacked CD's and ran out to get coffee and lunch for people back in an internship in my sophomore year of college. I might've been doing the grunt work but it was great to be part of the family."

"You guys have been making a great early impression in the indie scene, how are you finding the response?" Fifi asked.

"It's been incredible," Jo said. "I've played with a couple of bands over the last few years and never before have I had such an immediately positive response from audiences. Plus working with these guys is pretty fun – like having a bunch of brothers, which I've never had before so that's cool."

"It's been just a few months of playing together now but we just gelled pretty instantly. We think we've got a unique sound, some great tracks and so far we're getting awesome feedback from our small but loyal group of fans," Andy added.

"Troy and Andy, you boys came from a covers band, right?"

"Mostly covers, that's right, the band was called Little Black Book. Our lead singer moved interstate and the opportunity came for Andy and I to start working with these two and things came together pretty quickly," Troy explained.

"It's so fantastic playing our own original music – between the four of us we've all dabbled in some song writing and we've been able to collaborate to strengthen those tracks and really come up with some killer tunes," Andy said.

"So tell us – what is 'the simple need'?"

"It's different for everyone. The simple need is all about those things in life that you don't just want, but that your very inner soul needs," Jo explained.

"For about five days each month, for my girlfriend it's chocolate," Rhys joked, and they all laughed.

"And what about for each of you? What's your 'simple need'?"

"Music," Andy said instantly.

"I'd say music, too," Jo agreed.

"Food," Rhys remarked, again to laughter. "No, really! If I wasn't a musician, I think I'd have gone to culinary school."

"Sex," Troy intoned, raising his eyebrows, and then adding in a more serious tone. "And love."

"Speaking of love, you guys have your first original single out, plus a couple of B sides. Love seems to feature pretty heavily as a theme."

"As it does for most music," Rhys pointed out.

"People get love. Whether you're falling in love, out of love, getting your heart broken, being a heart breaker, or if you're plain unlucky with love – people get it. One of the reasons we work well together is that we all believe in writing about what we know and what we feel, and that's what people like listening to," Jo said.

"The single you have out is called Blue – we're loving it here! We dropped the track for the first time a couple of weeks ago and we've had a number of requests for it and people ringing in to ask who the band is. Where can people grab a copy if they're after it?"

"You can download Blue on iTunes, or you can pick up a hard copy at one of our gigs or at Village Music on Bleecker Street," Andy said.

"Sweet. Thanks for your time today, guys. How about you introduce the track for us?"

"We're The Simple Need," all four spoke in unison, and Troy spoke the final lead in. "And you're listening to our latest track, Blue on NYUFM."

xxx

Troy glanced at his reflection in the glass of a classroom window before heading down the corridor and knocking on an office door that he had become reasonably familiar with. He was pretty sure he had her schedule down pat in his head, and surely enough, he heard her call out, "Come in!" a moment later.

"Sorry to come in without an appointment, but I was wondering if you'd have time for a consultation, Dr. Montez," Troy said cheekily. "I've been having some trouble with the course material."

She giggled, and gestured for him to come in. "Any particular area of concern?"

"Umm… anatomy?"

"I think you have me confused with your biology professor."

"Dang."

She laughed, and gestured to her computer speakers, which were playing soft music. "I was just listening to your segment on the station live stream. You guys sounded great."

"It was pretty awesome. The radio station does this other segment where they get bands in to do an acoustic set, we've been invited to record in a couple of weeks' time for it."

"That's fantastic."

He spotted on her desk a photo frame that he hadn't seen before and picked it up. She had inside a photo of the two of them taken a few months earlier during their getaway to The Hamptons. They were at the beach, he had scooped her up into his arms, bridal style, and Sharpay had been snapping photos. Although they hadn't quite appreciated it at the time, summer had been gloriously easy – her time was flexible and she'd taken advantage of it, both with vacation time, and while she didn't have any teaching hours, moulding her schedule to his. Fall semester had started about a month earlier and it had immediately become harder. She couldn't come to every gig, she didn't always have time to spend evenings or weekends observing at rehearsals.

"I like this photo," Troy said, fingering the frame.

"Me too. I like having you there. Sometimes it's the most I see you in a day," she remarked. She bit her lip, and immediately said apologetically, "That was an observation, not a criticism."

He sighed. "I've sucked this last week, I know." He'd had to cancel a couple of times on her for dinner plans, once for a gig Jo had picked up for them last minute, and once for work, when he had to cover a shift at the store.

"You have, but I do understand." She paused, then asked, "Are you still okay for tonight?"

Troy nodded emphatically. "Yes. I don't have to go back to work today, just have a few things I'll do from home later this afternoon. I'm about to go now to meet Sharpay, she's arranging that photoshoot with her photographer friend for the website that Sara is making and for the new cover for the EP. She wants to go through some details with me. Not sure what details really require the need for a formal appointment, but this is Shar. She's always had a flair for the melodramatic."

Gabriella laughed. "That is true. Let me know if it runs over or anything – just so I know when to have dinner ready for."

He nodded, and rose from his seat. "I will, I promise." He leaned over to kiss her softly on the cheek. "Have a good afternoon."

Half an hour later Troy was wandering along 23rd Street. Sharpay had given Troy an address and asked him to meet her there at 3pm. He'd assumed it was a café, but when he arrived, it was obviously not a café – instead, it was a hair salon. He pulled out his cell phone, quickly navigating to Sharpay's number and dialled.

"Hola!" she answered chirpily.

"I think you gave me the wrong address. I'm at a hair salon. Where am I meant to be again?"

"No, that's the right place. Come inside!"

Troy was somewhat mystified but went inside – and found Sharpay standing by salon chair holding up a smock.

"What is going on?" Troy asked, raising his eyebrows. Sharpay had a penchant for dramatic flair, however the flair in the present situation was more confusion.

"Troy, your hair is out of control right now. As stylist for your band, I'm going to tie you down if I need to in order to make you get the mop cut off."

He held back from questioning her self-given title as band 'stylist', and instead focused on a separate matter.

He glanced around. "Shar, this place looks kinda fancy. I don't disagree with your point, but can't I just go to Supercuts?"

"You're booked in with an apprentice! You get it like, 75% off. Besides, I'm treating you."

"Firstly, are you serious? 75% off?"

She shook her head. "Really, Troy, you've been in New York City living like a pauper for how long and you don't know about this kind of thing?"

He shrugged. "Do I look like I get my hair done regularly?"

"Touché."

"Secondly, I really don't need you treating me. I appreciate the gesture, but…"

"Troy, can you just let me do this for you? Seriously, I promise, early birthday present. Frankly, your hair looks awful. I don't know how Gabriella sleeps with you. Unless... I guess there's a couple of positions where she wouldn't be looking at your face..." she trailed off, a serious pondering on her face.

Troy rolled his eyes. "Thanks, Shar. You know how to flatter a guy."

She smiled widely, flashing her teeth. "Now sit!"

Sharpay hadn't been lying when she'd used the guise of the photo shoot as a reason to meet up. She considered her mini-makeover on Troy to be a part of preparing for the photo shoot. It was important that the right image was being portrayed for each of the band members both individually, and as a collective whole. She had more in store for him, and by the end of her efforts, she knew that her already very attractive friend would be complete sex on legs.

xxx

Troy stood on the door stoop to Gabriella's apartment building for a few extra seconds, taking a breath before pressing the button. When she answered her buzzer, he spoke into the intercom, "Your delivery of real life boyfriend in the flesh has arrived."

He heard her giggle and the door buzzed a moment later. He took the stairs up two at a time, and when he reached her apartment, he knocked and immediately turned the handle, knowing that she would've unlocked it for him.

"Hi," he called out.

"I'm in here," she called back.

He rounded the corner and found her in the kitchen, facing away from him. He propped himself up against the fridge, waiting for her to turn around. When she turned to face him, immediately she did a double take.

"Oh my God!" Gabriella exclaimed, blinking.

In a self-conscious habit, Troy scratched the back of his neck, ducking his head slightly.

"Good oh my God or bad oh my God?" he asked dubiously.

"Amazing oh my God!" She stepped toward him, admiring his new short haircut, reaching up to tug gently at the much shorter lock of hair, and then to stroke at the brown short sleeved jacket he was wearing. "This is so sexy."

"Really? It is?"

"Yes," Gabriella said emphatically.

In so many ways it was like the guy in front of her was no different to the Troy she'd fallen for so many months earlier – a pair of simple blue jeans and a white t-shirt. But it was funny how by adding a stylish jacket, a pair of light brown suede shoes and giving him a badly needed haircut, it was like he was a whole new man. He'd always been a rock star to her – and he'd been undoubtedly attractive – but he'd somehow skyrocketed into a new stratosphere of attractiveness. It was a little more mature, a little more sophisticated, and a whole lot of man.

"I think my hair looks like I just woke up."

She bit her bottom lip. "That's the point, I think."

He laughed, and then scratched the back of his neck, ducking his head in slight embarrassment of what he was about to confess. "I won't lie, I was really nervous about your reaction. Now I understand why it's such a big deal for girls that we notice when you get your hair done."

She shook her head. "No need to be concerned. You have my seal of approval. And I suspect the seal of approval of both current and future female fans."

He grinned. "You know it's only the first seal of approval you mentioned there that I care about," he murmured, leaning forward to kiss her lightly on the lips.

"So Sharpay made you do this?" she asked, remaining close to him, again her hands falling onto his jacket.

"Yeah, she booked some appointment with an apprentice. Did you know you can get serious discounts for letting an apprentice cut your hair? Amazing!"

"And the clothes?"

"Sharpay says they were samples she got from work. You know how sometimes she gives them out to celebrities? Apparently she got away with noting down that they were going to the lead singer of the hottest upcoming band in New York." He wiggled his eyebrows. "She said lots of other stuff about image and brand marketing. I won't lie, I wasn't paying a lot of attention."

He noticed in that moment that Gabriella was very openly staring at him, and that the hands which had been on his jacket were now a little more handsy over his abdomen.

"As I can see you aren't paying much attention now," he smirked.

Troy and Gabriella's relationship had grown a lot over the course of summer. They still had huge amounts of passion, but a little of that immediate 'I need you now' urgency had waned, particularly over the last month while they'd both been so busy. Though there was a tenderness and depth that was coming with the familiarity with one another, they both had missed that feeling – but as Troy looked at Gabriella and the look in her eye as she eyed him up and down, he had no doubt in his mind as to exactly what was across her mind.

"Gabriella…" he murmured, reaching out for her hand.

Her looking at him so openly lustfully was all that it took for his own drive to be piqued. He ran his hand up her arm lightly, her eyes following his fingers and then looking up to meet his gaze.

"I have lasagne in the oven…" she remarked somewhat absentmindedly. "It's nearly ready."

He didn't say anything in return, just advanced, completely narrowing the remaining gap, pulling her close and kissing her softly. Her hands fell to their place at the nape of his neck, fingers running through his hair, fascinated by the shorter cut and the entirely different sensation. He slowly walked in the direction of her kitchen, backing her up to the counter. He didn't even need to pull away from her to reach down and turn the dial of the oven completely off.

The lasagne could wait.

What they were about to do couldn't.

xxx

A couple of weeks later, Troy was feeling the exhaustion creeping up on him. On Saturday morning he was on auto-pilot. Gabriella was asleep in his bed after they'd been up late after getting home from the gig at The Lion's Den, which had been officially taken over by The Simple Need. He needed to get across to Brooklyn, but couldn't bear to wake Gabriella just yet. He blearily went through his routine, getting ready and making coffee and she was still dead to the world – something he'd learned about her was that when she was fast asleep, she wasn't easily awoken. He sipped at his cup of coffee before pouring a second, this one into a traveller mug. He went over to the bed, reluctantly but out of necessity leaning over and kissing her on the cheek, shaking her arm.

"Gabriella," he murmured.

She stirred a little, but it took more shaking for her to respond with any sort of recognition.

"Mmmm?"

"Gabriella, it's still early, but I have to go."

"What time is it?"

"8am."

She groaned. "You're crazy."

"I agree. You stay, go back to sleep. I'm leaving my key on the counter, okay?"

"Kay."

He smiled and pressed a kiss against her lips, she sleepily kissed back softly.

"I'll call you later."

"Kay."

He quietly moved away, and as a matter of precaution given her groggy state, scrawled out a quick note relaying the information and left it on the bench with his spare key.

He took a detour on his way to the subway to stop by the store, just checking in that everything was going okay. He had a casual on who had never opened the store alone before, but everything seemed to be going smoothly so he didn't stay long, instead kept going and headed to get the train across to Brooklyn. They had a full rehearsal planned, before they were heading off for an afternoon gig. Troy found himself dozing on the subway – not something he made a habit of, particularly while he had his beloved acoustic guitar with him.

At lunchtime, Troy and Andy headed up the street to the deli to pick up sandwiches, Andy shouting Troy to a double shot coffee. They walked back down the street heading back to Andy's.

"Dude. You need to perk up. Drink up."

Troy shrugged. "It's an acoustic set this afternoon. No jumping around needed."

"No, but it'd be nice if you weren't napping on stage."

Troy sighed. The accusation was fair, given his current state. "I'm sorry. Just wiped. My schedule is gruelling at the moment."

"It doesn't have to be this gruelling," Andy said, raising his eyebrows.

"It kinda does."

"In the last three weeks, how many times have you spent longer than an hour alone with Gabriella, and not having sex."

"Alone?"

"Yeah. Her coming to a gig or rehearsal doesn't count."

Troy winced. The last time had been the day of his mini-makeover, when she'd cooked dinner – and to be fair, they'd fallen into bed together before emerging to eat dinner and cuddle in front of the television. Every other night they'd spent together, it had either been after a gig or rehearsal, or he'd arrived at her place late at night and they'd fallen into bed not long after.

"Fair point."

"Dude, that isn't healthy in the long run. I know she's super supportive, but I bet she'll start to say you're treating her like a booty call."

"You give me a better solution," Troy asked, eyebrows raised.

Andy hesitated, before speaking. "I do have one. But you're gonna hate it. But… I think I'm going to be able to convince you that it's the right thing to do."

Troy looked warily at Andy. "Uh... okay?"

"You need to not renew your lease and you need to move to Brooklyn and we need to find a place together."

Troy sighed. "You're right, I hate the idea. It makes no sense."

"It makes a lot of sense."

"No, it doesn't."

"Dude, Greenwich Village is an overrated yuppie hipster 'hood."

"I don't agree, but even if I did, it's where I work, it's where my girlfriend lives..."

"You pay way more in rent than you need to. You said they're gonna up your rent next lease, didn't you?"

"Yeah," Troy said glumly. He wasn't too excited that he'd just gotten his promotion, and now it was looking like all the extra cash and then some would be eaten up in rent.

"You're not gonna find a nice cheap rent controlled sublet in your area. Not gonna happen."

"Brooklyn isn't that cheap anymore. You have to live like, two hours away from Manhattan to find something cheap."

"What if I told you that I knew a guy who knew a guy who was looking to sublet where it's less than half an hour from the Village, where you'll be looking at maybe 600 a month each?"

"Impossible."

"I can do it."

Troy narrowed his eyes. "Seriously?"

"Okay, maybe 700 a month. But still! You pay way more than that at the moment!"

"What's the point if it just gets eaten up in Metrocards?"

"You can get an unlimited Metrocard for like, $100 a month. It's worth it."

"My time is valuable."

"Look. If we're serious about this, then you're gonna be out in Brooklyn at least four times a week in the evening. Our rehearsal space is here, recording equipment, Rhys and Jo live out here. Statistically, more of the places we're doing our mic nights at are this way, or up in Queens, which would be easier to get to on the G train."

"The G line is shit, don't try to sell me on the G."

"It's better than getting the 2 and changing to the 7."

"I work in Manhattan. On those other nights, I don't really want to be hauling ass from one borough to another every day."

"Stay at Gabriella's those nights."

"I can't rely on that," Troy said, shaking his head. Despite the fact that he was feeling quite settled with his relationship with Gabriella, he wasn't about to go making a life decision that relied upon her. While he was confident in his own feelings, he had enough doubt in hers to not do that.

"It's no different to now! How many nights do you spend with Gabriella?"

Troy sighed. "I'm not like, going to rely on her, you know? You don't know what's gonna happen."

"Seriously, dude, I know it's going really well. Think about it. If we don't have any gigs or rehearsals for two days, then you just stay with her, keep a couple of things there. Then when we're out here, if we have a gig she comes to, she stays with us. I don't care."

"But the store is important too, what if something happens and I need to get there quickly?"

"It's New York. Get a cab. Whatever. That's a lame excuse."

Troy went quiet, mulling this over. Andy took the opportunity to move onto the bigger card of his debate.

"With all respect - you need to put the band first. I get this is mental, everything we're doing right now. But we decided to do this, together. Your fall back job – it needs to be your fall back. Doesn't mean you don't give it 100%. But mentally, I think this move will work for us. It means that if we just wanna get together for a quick session, we can. More importantly – we need cash, Troy. Rehearsal space is not cheap. Recording is not cheap. And you need time – not to be doing side gigs here and there when money is tight. If you save cash with your living situation, you won't need to DJ at lame ass college parties or pick up random work just to afford the rent."

xxx

Andy's words resonated with Troy, and they stayed with him throughout the rest of the day. They had a late afternoon gig, and a little support crew of regulars had showed up. Gabriella had thought she'd feel uncomfortable since Chad and Taylor couldn't come along, but she was in good company with Candice, Sara, Steve and Chris. They were also developing a somewhat loyal contingent of fans. Troy was used to seeing the same group of people around at The Lion's Den, but what he was now noticing was a core group of maybe fifteen to twenty fans, mostly in the early to mid-twenties bracket, who were present at the majority of their gigs. They followed them on social media – which was being managed mostly by Jo and Sara, shared Facebook posts, retweeted Tweets. It was both flattering and a little scary, like by having fans there was an added pressure to succeed.

It also was a shock for Troy when he'd emerge from the stage after a gig and find a few people around Gabriella and Candice, who looked after the stash of EPs that they had available for sale. It had been an expensive exercise to record the handful of songs and make them available on a shiny disc for sale, but it was well worth it. If nothing more were to emerge from Troy's leap of faith, he could look at the semi-professional photograph of their band on the cover of the rough but real EP and know that he'd been a part of creating something that he felt was genuinely cool. Even better was that other people seemed to feel the same way – with that dream of having people in the crowd singing along to their original music already coming true, admittedly in a small scale form.

It was the kind of reminder that Troy needed – the reminder of why he'd made this decision, in his mind, to put his heart and soul into this.

Troy could barely keep his eyes open in the cab back across to Manhattan, with his last hazy eyed memory before slipping into sleep being crawling into his side of Gabriella's bed and waiting for her to return from the bathroom.

xxx

On Sunday morning, bright and early, Troy came bounding up the stairwell of Gabriella's apartment building with a bag of fresh bagels in his hand. He'd awoken at an unacceptable hour for a Sunday morning and attempts to fall asleep again had been failed, so he had opted to leave her a note, steal her keys, and wake up for an early morning run and stopped by the bakery on the way back.

There was loud music playing inside Gabriella's apartment, so loud that Troy could hear it faintly as he was coming up the stairs. He could hear an interesting beat coming from the song and as he reached her door, he shook his head, recognising the song. He could hear Gabriella singing inside – the one saving grace – and slowly turned the door handle. She was dancing around in the kitchen, cleaning up some dishes that she'd left from the day before, with a mug of coffee on the bench beside the note he'd left for her and the smell of freshly brewed coffee from her machine wafting through the room. He stood by the doorway watching her for a moment. She looked up, sensing the presence in the room – not having heard the door due to the volume of her music – and she grinned, continuing with her singing.

"No there is nothing that can stop us, nothing can ever come between us, so come and dance with me, Jai Ho…".

She let the final beats of the song finish before turning down the sound to a volume that facilitated conversation, a more acceptable track by Florence and the Machine starting to play next.

"The Pussycat Dolls? Really?" he asked mockingly, with a roll of the eyes. "Haven't we already discussed their complete irrelevance?"

"Hey, that song won an Oscar!"

"No, the original song from Slumdog Millionaire won an Oscar. That song did not."

She smiled. She loved that Troy could be a bit of a music snob at times – it was kind of endearing, in a way it represented his passion and pride for his own work, a pride that was emerging more each day.

"What was with the early morning bagel trip?" she asked, changing the track of the conversation. Without even asking, she began preparing him a coffee. "I thought you'd be crashed out for at least a few more hours!"

He winced at her reference to how exhausted he'd been the night before. "I'm so sorry about crashing last night."

She shook her head, waving her hand dismissively. "It's fine. I know when I'm already tired, and then have a couple of drinks, I'm out like a light."

"Yeah. My sleep is messed up. I woke up this morning and I was tossing and turning and couldn't get back to sleep. Thought I'd go get apology bagels."

She raised her eyebrows. "You could've just woke me up, you know. I'm sure you would've found a creative way. There are many ways to apologise."

He grinned and laughed. She handed him a warm coffee mug and which he accepted.

"Come on, let's have breakfast while it's fresh. I also got cream cheese and some lox for you." His nose wrinkled up as he said the word 'lox'.

Gabriella grabbed plates and a couple of knives and within minutes they were sitting at her dining table across from one another, munching happily on some of the best fresh bagels in New York City.

While Troy had been out jogging, he'd had the opportunity to do some thinking – and had decided that he needed to get the conversation over and done with, before he changed his mind.

"So um… I'm wondering if maybe… well… we need to talk," he said, somewhat uncertainly.

Gabriella cocked her head. Those four words were usually synonymous with the kind of conversation that she was not anticipating would be taking place. Despite their rocky start, pretty much everything from the day he'd shown up with her bra in his hand until then had been as close to perfect as the start of a relationship could be. And it did feel like that – the start of a relationship. The start of something bigger. Not a relationship that was leading to a 'we need to talk' moment.

She set down the piece of bagel she was eating and looked at him, a fearful look in her eye.

Troy immediately realised what he'd said.

"Nothing like that!" he insisted, rolling his eyes.

"Okay…" she was still somewhat wary. A serious tone had come over Troy's voice, one that she wasn't particularly intimate with.

"So… my lease is up for renewal in a couple of weeks."

"I think you mentioned that a little while ago."

"Right. Well… I am about 97% sure that I'm not going to renew."

This wasn't particularly revolutionary news and she was feeling somewhat confused as to why this was such a serious topic of conversation for him.

"You're going to find somewhere cheaper?" she asked. It made sense to her. She wasn't about to try to dictate how he managed his finances, but the little that she'd learned about him over the last few months was enough for her to have some ideas.

He nodded. "Yeah… and uh well… in a different area. Sort of, east from here."

"East?"

"Andy and I are going to try to pick up this loft apartment in Brooklyn." He bit his lip, awaiting for her reaction.

Gabriella blinked. "Oh."

On the surface, it wasn't a huge deal. However she had grown somewhat accustomed to him being so close to her – to them having a life which was all centred around her apartment, Chad and Taylor upstairs, Sharpay and Zeke just up in Chelsea, the bar, their favourite restaurants, her work, his work – it was all in that immediate area. Before he could even wait for her real reaction, he moved on to justifying it for her.

"This what I'm doing now – rushing from work to home to get changed, out to Brooklyn, back here… it's not really working for me. I feel like my head is in too many spaces at once. I told myself that these twelve months were about the band; that I needed to put everything in and then assess how I felt about it and where we were at. So… I need to do this. I'll save cash which will be better for me, I'll be near the band, our rehearsal space…"

"Most of your gigs."

"Exactly. I know I'll then be commuting for work but… I think it'll work better that way."

"You sounded really scared to tell me this. I think it makes sense, Troy."

"I wasn't scared to tell you. I knew you'd understand. I think I was scared to tell you because it meant I'd officially decided to do this. Up until about ten minutes ago I think I was still talking myself into it." He didn't think - he knew. As he'd been justifying it to her, he'd really been justifying it to herself.

Gabriella shook her head. "Maybe it's because I haven't lived in New York that long, but I don't understand people here. They make it seem like Brooklyn is another planet. It's not that far away. If we lived in Los Angeles, it would take an hour to get anywhere more than half a mile away."

Troy laughed. "This is true. I'm not a native New Yorker but it seems I've fallen into that thought pattern. I feel like I'm talking like I'm moving overseas."

"East River isn't that big. And it seems like you guys are falling onto a pattern where Monday Tuesday are band off days, right?"

"Yeah, mostly."

"Well… come stay here those nights. Be closer to work. Then we have a couple of night's apart mid-week, and I'll come stay with you on the weekend." She paused, realising that was sounding somewhat presumptive. "If you want."

"Of course I want!" He sighed, and reached over, taking her hand in his. "I feel like this is going to make your life harder."

She shook her head, squeezing his hand. "Troy, if this is what you need to do, then it's what you need to do, and nothing that you need to do is going to make my life harder. I don't mind the subway. I like reading. And… I feel like we're getting into a good… routine. You and me. This between us. I'm hardly going to be so melodramatic as to let a silly river and twenty minutes on a train get in the way."

The crazy idea that Andy had proposed was making more sense – and feeling more right.

"Guess I was being a bit dramatic?" he said, shaking his head, feeling a bit sheepish.

Gabriella stood up from the chair, moving to the chair that was on the end, shuffling it closer to him. He turned a little, facing her directly. She took his hands in hers, leaned forward, and looked straight into his eyes.

"You need to stop trying to find excuses for me to run. I'm in this, with you, for real."

"Lucky me."

"You know it."

And he did.