I Sing For The Things: A Birthday Love Story

You Say You Don't Believe

Santa Monica, California
Friday, May 26, 2023
(8:00 pm)
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"I'm going to strangle Mick."

Stevie had been in the back of the limo for all of thirty seconds, and she already understood what was happening to her.

Mick knew I'd eventually accept his dinner invitation, but I'd never have agreed to go out with Lindsey tonight.

It occurred to Stevie in that moment that Mick's amplified version of friendship and attentiveness since Christine's memorial service had most likely served two purposes - two friends grieving a common loss together, and to take her temperature where Lindsey was concerned. Surely, she thought, Mick had noticed the way she'd frozen in place in the lobby of the venue that day in Malibu, the way she'd purposely chosen to sit next to John at the service but never stopped asking Karen on her other side to look at Lindsey and see if he was looking at her. Surely he'd heard through the grapevine that Tessa, Ruby, Molly, Will, LeeLee and Stella were all in a group texting thread together these days, comparing notes on their fathers and how they were getting along since they'd all been together to say goodbye to Christine, and if that were true, Stevie was sure she'd been discussed by the group of twenty-something kids who still called her Aunt Stevie and had refused to take sides five years before when the trouble had begun.

"Be honest, Stevie," Lindsey said, turning towards her. "Would you have gotten into this limo tonight if I'd called you myself and told you I wanted to celebrate your seventy-fifth birthday with you?"

"Lindsey, you have been making choices that directly affect my life and keeping me in the dark about them since 1968," she reminded him, folding her arms indignantly. "I'm used to it."

His eyes were blazing into hers and she could see the nervous energy he was trying but failing to hide as he asked, "So does this mean you're staying in this car? Are we doing this?"

Stevie was thinking of Top Hat playing on the television upstairs as she found herself smiling. "Take me out for Mexican and I'm all yours for the evening."

Lindsey couldn't help but smile back despite his nervousness. "You haven't changed a bit, have you?"

"I could say the same about you," she said. She took a moment to look around her at the menagerie of red roses, wondering where he was hiding the Animal Crackers. With a sigh and a resigned slap of her hands against black velvet thighs, she repeated his question. "So, are we doing this?"

"I have five other birthdays to make up for," Lindsey explained. It suddenly dawned on Stevie as he spoke that there were exactly six dozen roses in the car - 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and the present. "We are doing this." He winked at her, and then opened the partition between them and the driver to stick his head through. "We can get going now," he said.

"Where to, Mr. Buckingham?"

Lindsey looked over at Stevie, and then back at the driver. "El Carmen in Los Angeles," he said. "Thank you, Frank." He closed the partition and looked over at Stevie, who appeared to be on the verge of asking the obvious question. "You asked for Mexican," he said. "As far as I'm concerned, this thing between us has been going on ever since that night we told Mick and Chris and John we'd meet them at El Carmen, and we left there members of the band. I didn't go through all of this just because it's your birthday, Stevie."

"Then why are you doing this?"

Lindsey's eyes were fixed on hers. "Because when I saw you a few months ago in Malibu...when Mick got up and spoke about losing Chris...God help me, all I kept thinking was thank God it wasn't you, that you didn't die before I got to tell you I'm sorry."

Stevie took a deep breath in and out. As the limo took off towards Los Angeles, she said, "You want to know what's crazy? Christine has been gone half a year and it's been awful, but when I saw you in Malibu..." She looked down at her lap, then up into his eyes. "I thought the exact same thing about you."

They both sat back in their seats, but Lindsey sprung up seconds later and began fiddling with a bottle of champagne at the mini bar. He poured champagne into two plastic glasses and gave one to Stevie.

"Here's to your being awesome for three quarters of a century," he said, raising his cup. "And...to old grudges we hopefully won't bring with us into the final quarter."

"I'll drink to that," Stevie said with a smile, and they clinked plastic glasses and drank in unison. When she lowered her cup to her lap, balancing it in one hand, she said, "Hey, Linds...can I ask a stupid question?"

"Shoot," he said, lowering his own drink to his knee.

"Are there any Animal Crackers in this limo?"

Lindsey flashed her a wicked grin. "It's May 26, Stevie. What do you think?"

"I think we won't need to order dessert." Stevie couldn't help but giggle, and Lindsey did his best to pretend it didn't knock the wind out of him.

"Well, you have a definite point there," he said. "But if I were you, I'd go easy on the Animal Crackers tonight, birthday girl."

Stevie was drinking another sip of champagne, and swallowed hard before she asked, "How come?"

"To save room for the carrot cake, of course." Lindsey dared himself to reach for her hand, and he covered it with his own on the leather seat between them. "Like I said when you got in the car...Happy Birthday, Stephanie."

Stevie had to admit, if she had known that Lindsey was in the back of the limousine before she'd gotten into it, she would have declined. But he was smiling at her, his hand on hers made her feel warmer and more safe than she had in years, the car smelled like roses, and he had barely taken those damn blue eyes off of her for a second since she'd been in the car.

And then there was the song.

"Crystal".

"Then I knew," their much-younger selves were singing in harmony on the sound system. "In the crystalline knowledge of you..."

Stevie sat back and let Lindsey pour more champagne into her cup, and any thoughts she'd had of being angry with Mick at the beginning of the car ride had vanished, like a magnet to the sea, she thought.

It had been exactly fifty-seven years since the first time Stevie had laid eyes on Lindsey Buckingham, and she couldn't believe it herself, or offer any explanation for it...but she was instantly at home just being near him again.

She felt like asking Lindsey to pull out his phone and call Mick to thank him.

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