Talk To Me: The Dance Thriller, Part 1

Must You Keep Your Secret

Santa Monica, California
Thursday, April 4, 1997
(9:30 am)
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"When you're young and so in love as we...and bewildered by the world we see...Why do people hurt us so...Only those in love would know what a town without pity can do..."

Lindsey was dressed only in his boxers and white t-shirt, standing barefoot against the black and white tiles of Stevie's kitchen floor and grandly singing along to Gene Pitney's "Town Without Pity" on the oldies station on the radio as he filled the coffee maker with water. He took the remaining water from the tall Evian bottle and filled the little pink plastic heart-shaped bowl at his feet, and Stevie's little dog was quick begin lapping it up. He'd left Stevie sleeping soundly in between pale pink sheets about fifteen minutes before, kissing her softly on the temple before heading into her bathroom, then to the kitchen to search among the disorder in the cabinets for coffee. To his surprise, Karen had been to the grocery store as soon as they'd landed on Tuesday afternoon, and among the items he'd found were the ingredients for blueberry pancakes. He couldn't wait to see her smile when she woke up to her surprise breakfast.

He still couldn't believe he wasn't dreaming. Twenty-four hours ago, Stevie Nicks was his ex-girlfriend, the lead singer of his band, the woman with whom he'd shared a weekend of passion not long ago but with no real commitment made on either side when her plane had taken off for Phoenix on Sunday morning. Now he stood in his underwear in the kitchen of her rented apartment, her little dog at his feet, singing happily along to a radio hit from their youth and making her breakfast as she slept naked between the rumpled sheets of their lovemaking just hours ago. He kept waiting to wake up, but it was all real. He hadn't stopped smiling.

Somewhere around two in the morning they'd both woken up and realized that the living room was still lit by lamps, the lilac candle was still burning, Sara Belladonna was wandering the living room confused. They had reluctantly risen from bed and closed up the house for the night, Lindsey blowing out the candle as Stevie had wrangled little Sara into her arms and carried her to her little pink bed in the bedroom. Normally her dogs slept in bed with her, and Lindsey had expected no less, but when he'd watched her place Sara in her own bed, the sleeves of her long black silk robe swinging below her like one of her concert capes, he'd gotten the message.

He'd backed her slowly onto the bed in his arms, kissing her all the way, and made love to her a second time...and then a third. They'd finally fallen asleep for the night close to five, just the tiniest bit of light coming in from the windows of the bedroom as the moon disappeared beneath the horizon to make room for the coming sunrise, and as he'd watched Stevie drifting off to sleep safely tucked away in his arms, he'd found himself thinking of the lyrics to one of her solo songs, a song he remembered being meant for Bella Donna but not making it onto the album.

"As the moon rose over the mountain, you were lost in your dreaming..."

He'd remembered the rest of the lyrics having to do with the subject of the song being asleep and how they would not have been frightened, and it had made him pull her in closer to him under the covers, made him tuck her in tight and wrap her up in his arms as she'd instinctively turned herself into him and buried her head in his chest, making sure she could feel him in her dreams so she would feel safe, so she wouldn't have any bad dreams, and she would know how much he loved her. She'd clung to him almost like a child, so tiny all curled up in his arms, and he almost couldn't wait for it to be bedtime again the next night so he could hold her again.

"Take these eager lips and hold me fast...I'm afraid this kind of joy can't last..."

Stevie appeared in the kitchen then, singing along to the song and smiling, wearing the black silk robe again, hair disheveled and spilling over her shoulders, and Lindsey felt his heart stop beating for a minute. Together, they began to sing to each other, moving towards each other for a slow dance.