I didn't see Pete for almost two days. On Wednesday, I had to go straight to the Shipyard after school. On my break, I texted Eric to ask how Pete was doing.

Eric: He's still here and still going through ice packs and ibuprofen

Vanessa: Okay, I get that his ribs are still broken, but what about emotionally? Does he seem ok?

Eric: idk he seems the same?  I'm not qualified to give him a full psychological evaluation. Do you want to talk to him yourself?

Vanessa: No, that's ok. I have to get back to work.

On Thursday, I had to stay after school to work on a group project that was due the next day and it dragged on longer than I expected. I went home for dinner and planned to go to open mic night at Lou's that evening. I texted Eric to ask Pete if he'd be willing to come along. He wrote back to say that Pete would meet me there.

But it was Eric who was sitting alone at a table when I arrived at Lou's cafe. Lou's was inviting and cozy all year, but in the winter it was magical. Icicle lights and glittering paper snowflake garlands were strung back and forth across the entire ceiling, the fireplace radiated warmth, and the combined scents of coffee and fresh laundry evoked home.

"I came early to save a table," Eric explained. "Everyone else will be here in a few minutes."

Unlike most open mic nights at Lou's, that night nearly every table was full. There were some people I recognized who were home from college mixed in with the regulars. Kaitlin was going to be performing, and I spotted her across the room with her parents and Emily.

"You seem nervous," Eric observed.

"Pete hasn't met anyone other than your family yet. So yeah, I am pretty nervous."

"Well, you should be. He's totally clueless. We had guacamole at dinner and he'd never seen an avocado before. You've gotta give him a tutorial on life in 2016 before he starts sounding like my grandpa."

I gasped. "Oh no, what did he say?"

"Nothing yet. But I'm holding my breath every second, afraid he's gonna say something that'll make everyone cringe."

"It's overwhelming. If I was going to give him a crash course on everything that's happened in the last sixty years, the wide availability of avocados wouldn't have even crossed my mind."

He laughed. "You gotta start somewhere. You can skip teaching him about the internet. Owen already took care of that."

"Oh no."

"Don't worry, I think they've just been on YouTube watching guitar tutorials. Owen doesn't have classes this week and while we've been at school I guess they've been having jam sessions all day."

Sophie, Laura, Owen and Pete all arrived around the same time and descended on our table. I introduced Pete to Sophie and Laura, and Kaitlin came over to sit with us. Lou's daughters were home from college and they got things started. The chatter in the room quieted as they got situated on two chairs near the front window, which was outlined with big vintage-style colorful bulbs. One of them sang while the other played the ukulele, then our middle school art teacher recited a poem about glaciers. A cute sophomore couple I recognized from school sang a duet of "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)." They were pretty good, and they really elevated the mood after the melting glaciers poem. It would have been a perfect night if I wasn't feeling as tightly wound as one of those guitar strings.

Kaitlin sang one cover and one original song, and collapsed into the chair next to me with a satisfied sigh when she was done. There was a short break and I started to sweat. Pete hadn't said one word to me, or even looked at me, and now he'd probably be expected to talk.

"So you go to Northern?" Sophie immediately asked him. 

"No. I've been staying near Marquette, though."

"Oh, I thought you said he was in college," Sophie said to me as if Pete wasn't sitting right there.

"Excuse me for a minute," Pete said.

"Honestly, he seems super sketch," Sophie said as she watched him walk away.

"Take it easy on him, okay?" I urged her. "His house just burned down. He's a bit out of it."

"Fiiine," she conceded with a dramatic eye roll. "So, this is your boyfriend from the summer then, right? You can't be surprised that I'm already not a fan."

"I'm not surprised at all," I muttered, and then I got up to find him.

I found Pete in the hallway connecting the coffee shop to the laundromat, looking at the flyers posted on the corkboard. I stood next to him to read them. Most of the photocopied papers pinned to the wall were advertising free kittens, furniture and snowmobiles for sale or deer processing services.

"Whatcha looking for?" I asked. "Need to process some meats?"

"I'm looking for a job," he muttered, without looking away from the board.

I was surprised. After the last time I saw him, I wasn't sure if he actually planned to stay.

"This might not be the best place to look. I have one more day of school before break, then I can help you find job postings online. If that's what you want."

"I'd appreciate that."

"I'm sorry about Sophie, she can be a bit much sometimes."

"It's alright," he said dismissively.

"No, it's not."

"I'm getting tired of hearing you say you're sorry," he said. "You're sorry your friend thinks I'm a dummy, you're sorry that the store is too big and too crowded, you're sorry that you didn't try to prevent my dad's death seventy years ago. Enough already."

"You got up and left, so I thought you were offended."

"She's gonna have to try harder if she wants to offend me," he said with a hint of a smirk. "I had to stretch my legs. You didn't need to chase me down to make sure my feelings weren't hurt."

"Okay," I said in a small voice. "Got it."

The sound of a few practice strums carried down the hallway and we went back to our seats. Owen was up next and he sang a couple of current pop songs in a goofy, self-deprecating way. When he was done, Pete stood up and went to the front of the room. Owen handed his guitar over to Pete and my stomach did a flip.

"Fuuuck," I whispered. "What is he doing?"

I already felt embarrassed for Pete, even though I'd never even heard him play before. Was he going to sing, too? I broke into a cold sweat. Kaitlin must have sensed my distress because she grabbed my hand under the table and didn't let go.

While Pete got himself settled, Owen took Pete's seat across from me. He leaned over the table and said quietly, "I knew things were kind of behind the times up north, but I didn't realize it was that bad. Your friend is weird, right?"

"Yeah, he's different," I said as I bit back a grin.

"Don't get me wrong; it's not a bad weird, just..antiquated. It's like he's retro like a hipster, but without trying." Owen narrowed his eyes and rubbed his chin as he considered it further. "So not really a hipster, at all. Anyway, he's interesting. And it's nice having someone else around willing to knock my cocky little brother down a few pegs." He held his hand up waiting for a fist bump. Eric must have overheard because a balled up straw wrapper flew across the table and bounced off Owen's forehead.

I bumped my knuckles into his in unspoken agreement, but I was thinking there seemed to be no shortage of people around that house willing to knock Eric down.

"Here we go," Owen announced.

I held my breath and squeezed Kaitlin's hand like we were at the top of a roller coaster, waiting for the descent.

And just like during the first drop of a roller coaster, when Pete started to sing, my heart shot into my throat and my face went numb.

"Woah, my love, my darling

I've hungered for your touch

A long, lonely time

And time goes by so slowly

And time can do so much

Are you still mine?

I need your love

I need your love

God speed your love to me"

It was a song I recognized from the kind of easy listening radio that played over grocery store speakers. And from a movie I watched once on television when I was home sick in middle school. There was a pottery wheel involved and a lot of slimy clay and a man who looked pretty good without a shirt and it must have made an impression on my twelve year-old mind if I still remembered the song from a movie scene.

I found myself staring at the icicle lights hanging from the ceiling while Pete sang as my thoughts bounced around from how I wanted to scratch the itch underneath my boobs from the wool sweater I was wearing to wondering exactly what illness kept me home that day in middle school. Was it a stomach virus? The flu?

What was I doing? I was trying so hard to escape the moment, it was as if I was at a dentist appointment. But instead of turning my thoughts away from what was going on in my mouth, I was trying to avoid what was threatening to happen in my heart.

I knew I had to let go and live in the moment, so I forced myself to focus my attention on Pete as he continued to sing.

"Lonely rivers flow

To the sea, to the sea

To the open arms of the sea

Lonely rivers sigh

'Wait for me, wait for me'

I'll be coming home, wait for me"

Pete's version of the song was stripped down and even better than the one I was familiar with. His voice was clear, but raw and broken somehow. He was really, really good. Right as I felt something inside me begin to melt, he glanced up from his guitar and into my eyes for a fraction of a second and his face was unreadable.

Then he grabbed a pick from the table next to him and began to repeat the first verse. This time it was intensified, the sound of his guitar was harsher and his voice was raspier. His eyes found mine again and then his voice cracked and his fingers fumbled over the strings and he shook his head. Once he got back on track he flashed an apologetic smile and a wave of good-natured chuckles passed over the room. Everyone took a collective breath as the spell was broken.

When it was over I could sense my friends' eyes on me as I clapped politely. I shivered even though my face and neck were suddenly burning up. I could hear Eric obnoxiously slow-clapping beside me and while I wanted to shoot him a look of disapproval, at the same time I didn't want to look at him at all. As the applause faded, I gripped my ice-filled glass and then pressed my cold hand to my neck.

As my heartbeat pounded in my ears, the voices of my friends sounded as if they came from somewhere far away.

"Whoa, Vee," Laura sighed, "I don't think he could possibly be any hotter."

"I am officially ruined," I heard Kaitlin gush. "If how he feels about you is my new standard- and it is- I'm screwed. We're all screwed."

I grabbed my glass again and gulped some water. "That wasn't," I croaked, "that had nothing to do with me."

Kaitlin snickered and rolled her eyes. "Sure."

Pete wasn't done. He was still up there with a shy grin, talking to the crowd like a pro.

"Please forgive the vocals. The truth is I've got a couple of bruised ribs and it's been hard to-" he paused and his chest rose and fell as he exaggerated a deep breath, "breathe. So that's my excuse."

Then he broke into a rendition of "Rock Around the Clock" that got people clapping and stomping their feet and I wasn't sure if I knew who he was anymore.

Later when we all got up to leave, I caught Pete by the sleeve of his coat. I needed to understand what had just happened. Maybe it was nothing other than Pete singing a song he'd heard in the past few days and liked or maybe it resonated with him somehow. And if it did resonate with him and there was someone waiting for him back home, I needed to know.

"Will you walk me to my car?" I asked.

"Sure thing."

Over his shoulder, I saw Laura and Kaitlin grin at each other while Sophie rolled her eyes.

The walk to my car wasn't much of a walk at all, and I tried to go slowly to make it last as long as possible. I clicked the remote start button so the car would be warmed up by the time I got there. Pete was still quiet, but seemed a little more at ease. Maybe he was on edge earlier because he was more nervous to get up in front of everybody than he appeared.

"So, that wasn't your first time doing that, was it?" I asked.

"Playing the guitar? No."

"I mean in front of an audience."

"I busked a bit at some of the more touristy places I stopped at."

"Busked?"

"Played on the street, or the boardwalk. To make some money."

"Have you learned to play any other eighties songs in the last couple days?" I asked. "Or was that it?"

"You mean from the 1980s? Those weren't eighties songs."

"I know the one fast song wasn't, but the first one-"

"Was really big in fifty-five," he finished. "I had some help to make it sound more modern. From Owen and the in-ter-net." He wiggled his eyebrows and grinned sheepishly and I laughed.

"Proud of yourself, huh?"

He shrugged as he inhaled deeply, a warm sound in the cold silence. When he exhaled, a cloud of his breath obscured his face.

"You should be. You're really good. I had no idea."

He said nothing, but when the cloud dissipated there was a smile on his face.

"You're like a seasoned performer," I continued. "It was really believable."

"Believable?"

"Yeah. Emotional or whatever. It was like you had everyone under a spell. They were mesmerized." My tone suggested that I was not one of them. I was too smart.  Too skeptical for such deceptions.

"Hm. So you think I had everyone convinced that we were gonna rock, rock, rock 'til broad daylight?"

"Yeah, and here it's-" I pulled my phone from my coat pocket and checked the time, "ten-fifteen and it's quiet. You fed us lies."

"Sorry to disappoint you."

"Do you want to go back?" I asked the question I'd been waiting to unload. "To fifty-five? I mean, isn't there anyone there who might be worried about you or waiting for you to come back?"

His smile flattened and after a painfully long moment he answered, "I haven't decided yet."

I knew I shouldn't take it personally, and that living sixty years in the future would possibly be too hard for him, but his answer made me feel like I was failing a test. Even though things with Pete weren't going as I'd hoped and he'd only been around for a few days, I still couldn't imagine going back to a world where he wasn't there.

My little blue Malibu was a thrumming capsule of sound with steam billowing from the exhaust and music pounding inside.

"Sounds like you'll be rocking all night after all," Pete said when he recognized my car. "You'll go deaf listening to music that loud."

We both reached for the door handle at the same time and when his hand rested on mine, I quickly pulled away. He opened the door for me and music and heat poured out of the car and enveloped us.

"Can I give you a ride?" I asked as I ducked my head inside and reached toward the dashboard to turn the volume down. When the dial was just beyond my fingers, I felt a firm grip on my arm and I turned back to find Pete studying my face with an intensity that was startling.

"What?" I asked.

His gaze softened and held mine for a moment before dropping to my mouth as he wrapped his other arm around my shoulders to pull me close.

When he kissed me, my shoulders convulsed and shock waves went all the way down to my feet. I rose up on my toes to meet him and slid my hands through the front of his coat and over his chest and his pounding heart. The soft lining of his coat against the back of my hands was in sharp contrast to the tension in his muscles as I gripped his shoulders. His hands trembled against my skin as they searched the back of my neck, my collarbone and shoulders, and back to my face. 

For once in my life, I thought of nothing. All thoughts that dared cross my mind turned into a series of tiny sparkling explosions.

The tempo of the song picked up and Pete pulled me aside. As we kissed, I shuffled backward until I was pressed against the car and all the bass that the speakers could muster pulsed against my body.

He held my face in his hands and as he tipped my head back and our mouths parted something between a gasp and a whimper escaped my lips and I stiffened. I'd completely lost myself. I squeezed my eyes shut and contorted my face in embarrassment.

When I hesitantly opened my eyes, Pete was frowning and his hands fell away from my face. He turned and strode away without looking back.

I leaned against my car and gasped for air. When I tried to call after him, his name stuck in my throat. I was too stunned to follow him or to even move at all, so I stood there frozen in place until all the buzzing warmth faded away and I was left in the cold.

~~~~~~

Lyrics from "Unchained Melody" by Alex North and Hy Zaret.