Tango In The Night Part 1: Big Love

And Do The Tango In The Night

Hollywood Hills, California
Sunday, May 24, 1987
(11:30 pm)
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The first time Stevie and Lindsey had declared their love for each other, they had been alone in a bedroom.

In December 1970, in Stevie's room at the Tropicana Motel in Los Angeles, when they'd traveled down from San Francisco with the three other members of Fritz to meet with a record label, they'd quickly learned that it was only the two of them the label was interested in. Later that night, over In & Out burgers and fries and cheap champagne, they'd gotten to talking about their friendship on the bed, about how Lindsey worried for her sometimes living alone with Robin, her family miles away in Chicago, how he felt a responsibility to keep her warm, safe and fed. The fact that it was so much more than friendship they felt for each other had come out in their conversation, and he'd declared his love for her - and she had done the same - before they'd spent their first night together...

Lindsey was lying on top of her with his full weight and using his fingers to stroke every feature of her face, as if he were trying to memorize her for a sketch. After all of the emotional upheaval of the day, Stevie had come to realize yet another thing that had made tears come to her eyes after all she'd shed after the meeting earlier today with Polydor and the possibility of Fritz breaking up - she had just spent five years with a very nice guy but had literally never been in love before until tonight. She felt as though she would die if Lindsey got up now and removed his body from hers, and when he kissed her and his fingers tangled into her hair, she secretly hoped it meant he was about to make love to her again...because she'd also realized tonight that whatever she'd been doing up till now may have counted as sex, but what she and Lindsey had done tonight was definitely making love.

"Mmmm...Stephanie..." His mouth moved down to her neck as she gasped and pulled him closer to her. "Stephanie...Stephanie...I'm going to write you a song and call it 'Stephanie'...just a guitar instrumental."

"No words?" She felt tears come to her eyes as he kissed his way up to just behind her ear.

"Don't need any," he whispered at her ear. "If I tell you I love you every day, those are the only lyrics you'll need, but no one else needs to hear them but you."

Lindsey proceeded to leave little kissed along the curve of her neck, and Stevie tried hard not to let him know she was crying. Her tears were a mixture of sadness at the demise of their band but the sheer bliss of Lindsey's lips on her skin, telling her without telling her that not only did he love her now but he had clearly been in love with her from afar for a long time...as long as she had been in love with him. His mouth moved down to her collarbone and then down to the top of her breasts and then back, and she heard a soft, contented sigh and realized it was she who had made it.

"This is it, you know...we're in this together, Stephanie." He was cradling her head in his hands, one slid between her and the pillow and the other running through her hair. He couldn't help but think her hair looked like rays of sunshine the way it spilled against the pillow.

"I know, but my God, Linds...the guys..." Stevie covered her face with her hands, and he pulled them away.

"Don't hide your eyes that way, angel," he said. "Anyway, I'm not talking about Fritz here...I love you, Stevie...I mean, don't you get it after tonight? Don't you know I'm in love with you?" He had made love to her twice so far that night, and it was the first time she'd cried out his name that he'd decided he had to call Sally as soon as they got home and tell her it was over. She was going to yell and say she'd known it all along but he didn't care. He was in love with Stevie and he didn't care who knew it.