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jazz and blues when Manny starts singing the first few lines:
    Baby, when I see you
    I want to eat a piece of you
    ‘Cause it’s no fun
    Being on the run
    And falling apart
    The music begins to build and my hands start moving to the song on the smooth, cold keys. I play the low notes along with the drums while softer, lighter ones trail up and down, making intricate progressions that go alongside the xylophone and guitar. I find my place in this, stringing out complicated Jazzy trills and deep bluesy pounds.
    We go through this for the entire song. We each tell our own stories with the instruments as Manny sings his about a zombie boy searching for a girl, eventually eating her heart and then brain.
    When the song is over, I get nods and smiles of approval all around, so we continue through the next few songs.
    Then we’ve suddenly played them all: tales of zombies trying to find love without eating it, mermaids being ashamed of their fins, and aliens losing the keys to their spaceships.
    It’s eight o’clock at night before we come up for air.
    “ Holy shit,” Manny says. “You guys hungry?”
     
    So after a stop at Denny’s and an hour of pancakes, waffles, and chatter, it’s decided that I will be playing with them on their night, two weeks from now. I head home trying to convince myself that yes, this is my life now, and yes, things like this happen. And yes, everything is freaking awesome right now.
    We make plans to practice again later in the week and we part ways, them going back to the apartments, me going back to the club.
    I work the merch of a techno/grunge/mathcore band while they play until about midnight, when one of the members relieves me to work his own booth.
    It’s twelve thirty when I’m back at my apartment and I’m too wired from my awesome music-filled day to go to sleep.
              I twist the keys in my door and before I have it all the way open, I hear Myles saying, “Sorry.”
              It comes from the kitchen and when I face it, he’s standing there.
    “ I know I should have called before coming over, but under the circumstances, I thought you’d forgive me.”
    “ Circumstances?” I kick off my boots and sit on the sofa, scooting over so Myles can join me.
    “ Are we going to pretend that you didn’t wake up screaming this morning?” His voice is quiet and light, but it has an edge to it.
    I’m busy playing with a torn seam in the knee of my jeans, but I smile, trying to make a joke when I know he doesn’t find it funny. “Oh, those circumstances.”
    We’re both quiet.
    “How was practice today?” he asks.
    I smile for real now, remembering just how awesome it was. “Amazing,” I say. “They really want me to play with them.”
    Myles’ hand finds mine. “That’s great.” We lean into each other. “It would be impossible for them to not love you.”
    I snort. “Yeah, okay.”
    Myles moves even closer. Our knees touch. I let them.
    “I missed you today,” he says.
    “ What did you end up doing?” I lean my head on his shoulder. I missed him too.
    “ I took Malakhi to the dog park.” I can see through the corner of my eye that he’s smiling. “He loved it.”
    I haven’t seen much of Myles’ dog lately. I haven’t even ventured into his apartment once yet. It’s really stupid, but I’m just more comfortable with him in mine; a part of the old Sophie clinging on for control.
    “I bet.” I yawn.
    Myles kisses my temple and I feel a gush of warmth pump from that spot and spread across my face. I kiss his cheek back, and the same sensation seems to flood his face.
    Before I can think about it, our mouths are touching.
    That saying, “Time stops”? They’ve got it all wrong. It’s more like time stretches . It’s a beating thing that moves with us. Pulses. Lives.
    His hand scoops my jaw, my hands are somewhere at the back of his head.
    The contest always begins somewhere about now. My lungs and heart and brain