Sold Out - Michael Hardy

THREE

People watching helps Cassie out with writing. She likes to pretend she knows the person and come up with a story before putting it all down into a song.

Love songs are the easiest from a guy's perspective.

Right now, on this Thursday night, Cassie is sitting at a high top table toward the back of the bar by the restrooms, a notebook, a drink and her laptop in front of her at a little dive bar way out from Nashville.

She's considered a regular at Hank's now. There's something about a dive bar that has the realness the bars in the city don't have.

Character.

In fact, Cassie wrote Head Over Boots after watching a younger couple dance about an hour or so after she watched an older couple dance.

She just pretended that the older couple was the future of the younger and it just took off.

That same night she also wrote Heartache Medication at last call.

There was a guy hunched over the bar with his head in one hand and a drink in the other. He'd been there for hours, two, maybe three, and just looked so incredibly heartbroken, the song basically wrote itself.

She runs her fingers through her hair and the bartender comes up to her table. "Hey Cassie." He says, setting the drink on an empty spot on the table. "Dude in the Vols shirt bought this for you."

Cassie looks past Danny at the guy he's talking about and smiles when they make eye contact. "Really?"

"Sure did." Danny nods as he takes her empty glasses. "How's the writin' comin' tonight?"

"Oh, y'know..." Cassie shrugs, feeling awkward.

She doesn't like to talk about what she does because she's worried either people are going to judge her or steal her ideas.

College was rough with that. This nasty girl actually stole her notebook and claimed everything in it as her own.

Bitch.

"Hey, lemme know if you need anything else, okay?"

"Okay. Thanks." She smiles up at Danny then turns her attention to the new drink in front of her.

"It's the Salty Pretzel." Danny shouts with his back turned like he has eyes in the back of his head.

The guy glances over at her then looks back at the bar. Cassie gets up with her drink in her hand and makes her way to him.

"Hi." She says, looking him over. "Awful kind of you to buy a stranger a drink." He blushes softly, unsure of what to say. She has him speechless. "Listen, I gotta get back to my table. You wanna sit with me?"

"Sure. I'm Morgan."

"Cassie."

+++

Cassie wasn't expecting to have so much fun talking to Morgan but she did. He's an ornery guy and it's refreshing.

The last date she went on, she ran into her ex boyfriend which was awkward as hell and it kinda ruined the rest of her afternoon because she couldn't get him out of her head. But there's just something about Morgan that makes that seem so in the past.

Right now, Cassie is in Morgan's arms as they lay in his bed, her head on his bare chest while he traces shapes on her exposed back.

"You gonna tell me what you been workin' on in that notebook of yours?" He asks quietly, brushing the rough pads of his fingers across a splotch of ink on her ribs.

"Maybe." She mumbles back, his touch relaxing her usually tense body more than she could ever imagine.

He smiles at how sleepy she's getting and moves his touch to her hair, gently playing with the soft blonde strands. She hums softly, dozing off with her cheek against his chest.

Morgan lays there for a while before he gently moves her over, sliding out from under her.

He gently drapes his sheets over her and pushes her hair out of her face then heads down to the kitchen for a beer.

His blue eyes scan his kitchen and land on Cassie's purse and notebook on the table.

It's just sitting there.

Alone.

Unsupervised.

She won't know if he just has a little peek, right?

Morgan sits at the table and glances around before he opens the notebook up. His jaw drops as how many pages are filled up, over half of the book is used.

Song after song, wow.

She's been busy.

"What the hell're you doin?"

Morgan jumps in his chair, his knees hitting the underside of the table. He gets to his bare feet."Shit, baby, I'm sorry. I just- I was just so-"

"I told you don't touch it." Cassie snatches her book back. "Didn't I?"

"Yeah." Morgan looks down. "I'm sorry, Cassie."

Her heart aches slightly. "I'm overreacting." She sighs, sitting at the table. "C'mon, sit." Morgan does as he's told. "When I was in college, my roommate stole my songs and took them as her own so I'm just over protective of what I've done."

"That's understandable."

"But I trust you."

"Really?"

She licks her lips then nods slowly, opening up her notebook. She slides it back to him. "This is the one I've been workin' on."

Chasin' You

Morgan skims the lyrics and nods. "Wow, this is good."

"You think so?"

"Yeah."

Her heart picks up and she shuts her notebook. "Cool."

"Hey, y'know what I could do?"

"Steal it and claim it as your own?"

He scoffs. "No. I could bring you into work and have you work with my band and producer and see about maybe getting it out there."

"I don't-"

"C'mon. You wrote two bangin' Pardi songs, baby. It's time to add another one to the list."

Cassie bites at the skin on her bottom lip before finally nodding. "Okay."

"Great. Hell, maybe you'll even get signed to Big Loud as a writer!"

"I don't- I'm more of an independent typa writer, Morgan. I don't really-"

"I'm not asking you to make your mind up right now. Just think about it." He leans over and kisses her forehead. "Monday mornin' I'm takin' you in so get home and pack a bag 'cause you're stayin' here with me all weekend."

Cassie blushes and smiles, her fingers messing with the worn cover of her notebook. "Okay."

Morgan kisses the top of her head then heads back into the kitchen. "What're you waitin' for, baby? Get on home and pack a bag!"

She giggles to herself and stands. "I'll be back in an hour."

"Okay." He smiles back as he watches her step into her Vans and pick up her keys, leaving her notebook and purse on the table.