PART SEVEN

About 8 hours later, I stood in front of the park that was situated just outside of town and stretched every bodypart imaginable. If I was gonna run, I had to be prepared for the worst.

I thought back on the day with a smile on my face. To my obvious joy, Lilith had quickly found recording was too boring when AJ could no longer focus all his attention on her, and had left after about a half an hour.

And let me tell you, AJ was much more pleasant company without Lilith around. I finally saw the person that had bothered to sit down and talk to me a few days ago. The person I had begun to fall for.

I quickly discovered that we shared the same opinions. The same kind of humor and sarcasm and, what surprised me the most, the same kind of forwardness that most people were not bold enough to show they possessed.

"I think you should switch the line to the second verse."

"Is that so? How come?"

"'Cause it sounds better, AJ."

"I beg to differ."

"Oh, you do? Tell me, which one of us has the most experience in this area?"

"Umm, let me think. Could that be ... no ... me?"

"Well ... all right. But I still think you should switch it."

"Who asked for your opinion anyway?"

"Last time I checked, you did. Does the words, 'Melody, can you help me?' ring a bell?"

"Absolutely not. Couldn't have been me."

"No, of course not. I must've been hearing things. Your mouth was moving as I heard your voice speak at the same time, but no, I'm hearing things."

"It could've been someone else. How about Brian?"

"Impossible. Brian's better than you, he doesn't need help."

And he'd laughed. That sweet, heartfelt laughter that sent shivers down my spine and made my knees grow weak within an instant. I smiled to myself as I leaned down to touch my toes with my fingertips. I remembered every word he'd said to me today, every smile he'd sent me and each time our eyes had met. Feelings like these were so new to me, but I welcomed them with open arms. Even if it would require hard work to get AJ to fully notice me, I was prepared to face it. I knew he was worth it.

I turned on the discman I had placed in the inside pocket of my jogging top. Now I was good to go. Giving myself a small peptalk, I began jogging into the park. It was a beautiful day in the beginning of July and everything had reached its full bloom. Trees were green, and everywhere flowers bloomed in every shape and color. I had never seen the park from this view before and I took in everything with the eyes of a curious child, constantly wanting to see more.

After a while my steady jogging turned into a slow pace as my breath grew quicker. Jogging definitely wasn't an easy task. Keep going, I told myself several times. Think about AJ. Just keep going.

With beams of sweat falling into my eyes, I pictured AJ's face in front of me, smiling and encouraging me to keep going. To my surprise, my pace quickened again and I was able to continue like before. I could barely breathe and my hair soaked with sweat, but the feeling of overcoming my physical limits was worth more than words could ever say.

When I reached my car, I fell into the back seat, panting and inhaling air like my lungs had decided to stop functioning on me. After a while of struggling to breathe normally, I sat back up and looked at myself in the rear mirror. My face was wet and red like a fresh tomato. But that had been expected.

I reached for the bottle of water I knew I had placed in the glove compartment, and drank the entire bottle in one gulp. Then I wiped my mouth clean of the remaining droplets and finally climbed back up to the driver's seat. I'd measured my route before I'd been out running and knew that I had made it a little over a mile, almost without pausing.

"Next week you're going for 2 miles," I told myself as I backed out into the road again and headed back to my apartment. "Just keep going."

*Fletcher*

Where the hell was she?

I groaned and ran a hand through my hair as I tried Melody's doorbell again. Still no answer. I mumbled a series of swear words under my breath and sat down on the top of the stairs. Was she working late at the studio again and had forgotten I would be coming? It was very likely. That girl worried too much about work when she should be home taking care of me.

"But all women are like this these days," I mumbled. "They all wanna make something of themselves."

My wife was like that too. She had even gone as far as opening up a catering business a few years ago, which kept her away at all hours of the day. She'd told me that she had other needs in life than wait on me hand and foot all day long. Quite frankly, I hadn't seen a problem with it, but there had been nothing I could do to stop her. I needed the money she provided me with every month, so I had to stay on her good side.

That had been my main reason for dating Melody. Lord knows I sometimes wondered why I even bothered. I did nothing but give her everything she needed, and she never gave anything in return. We hadn't even slept together once in all the time we'd been seeing each other. But that was something I was working on changing.

Seconds later, I heard the front door being unlocked and someone jogged up the stairs. I stood up and brushed my jeans with a few swift movements. If that was Melody, she sure as hell had some explaining to do.

And sure enough, a few minutes later I saw Melody jog up the last set of stairs with a tired expression on her face. Under her arm she carried her briefcase with all her precious songs and notesheets. Sometimes I doubted whether she ever put that damn thing down. Her hair was pushed away from her face with two clips, but it wasn't till she had almost reached me that I noticed she'd chopped off most of her hair. And she didn't wear glasses either.

She looked up and sent me a tired smile. "Hey, honey," she said when she finally reached my side.

"Where have you been?" I groaned without bothering to respond her greeting. "I've been waiting. And why do you look like that?"

"What do you mean?"

"That," I said and gestured to her hair. "Why did you cut it? And why are you wearing clothes like that?"

"I needed a change," she shrugged as she found her keys and opened the door. "And I went to the park to run for a while after work."

"Run?" I questioned and pushed past her inside the apartment. "You never exercise."

"I've gotta start sometime," I heard her say from the door. "I don't wanna stay like this forever, Fletcher. I wanna change myself."

I chuckled to myself and said, "Yeah right, like that'll ever happen. You'll always be fat, Melody, you might as well accept it and be thankful that someone actually wants to spend time with you."

She looked down to the floor, but I didn't bother to stay and listen to her sappy whining. I headed for the kitchen since my stomach had been growling for nearly 10 minutes. I opened the cabinet where she usually kept all the good candy, but found it was filled with vegetables and bottles of water. "Melody," I called. "Where's all your food?"

"There's food," she said quietly as she stepped into the kitchen. I didn't look at her, but kept my gaze at the cabinet.

"I mean the real food," I groaned. "Do you think I'm a rabbit? Where are your beers and chocolate?"

"I don't keep that stuff here anymore," she said firmly, which caused me to turn around immediately. "It's bad for you, Fletcher. You really should watch what you eat as well."

I let a throaty, sarcastic laughter escape my throat. "Don't tell me what to do," I then hissed. "I do whatever the fuck I please. And next time I'll bring you some decent food and you'll store it here for when I come back. Get it?"

Her eyes widened slightly and she nodded. "Sure, Fletcher," she whispered.

"Good," I said and pushed past her again. "I'll go watch the game in the living room. See if you can dig up some food that doesn't contain water or vitamins and bring it to me."

Finally, I was able to plop into the comfortable couch and turn on the TV for one of the greatest games in history. The Knicks vs. The Bulls. It was gonna be one hell of a game.

I glared towards the kitchen with a groan and turned up the volume when I heard muffled sniffles coming from the other room. She had already spoiled my good mood; there was no way she was gonna spoil the game as well.

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