Not Without You [Chris Evans]

80

Chris' POV

Everything was quiet and dark when I got home; I wondered where Megan was. It was way too early for her to be in bed already but I still poked my head into our bedroom to check anyways, disappointed when she really wasn't there.

I didn't remember her telling me she had plans tonight but maybe she'd stopped by Seb's to get something she'd forgotten yesterday. I pulled out my phone to see if she'd sent me a text and cursed at myself. I'd forgotten that I'd turned my damn phone off during the audition instead of just putting it on silent.

Since Jenny had been at the same audition, I hadn't needed to text her; I hadn't even pulled my phone out of my pocket until now. I turned it back on and my phone went crazy...a whole slew of texts, voicemails and messages came through that I'd missed. I blew out an exasperated breath - I hated it when that happened. It took me twice as long to catch up.

As I walked into the kitchen, I saw the note on the island in Megan's neat cursive.

Chris -
Went to a show with Tom.
Be back later – don't know what time.
XOXO Me

PS – Take your phone off silent!

I sighed, knowing she wasn't going to home for quite a while yet. I decided to call my mom; she'd messaged saying she wanted to hear about the audition. I grabbed a beer from the fridge before walking into the living room; it was going to take a while to catch up on all the messages I'd missed. I might as well watch some of the shows I had on the DVR since it was starting to get full and Megan had hinted she'd like to record a couple shows, too.

* * *

Megan's POV

It took some fast talking, but I finally convinced Tom that he didn't need to go out of his way to drop me off. But instead of going back to Chris' - I refused to think of it as home - I went to the studio. I needed to work out some of my frustration and I did that best by pounding on the piano.   

I wasn't the only one there - even at this time of night - but Darian just waved me into one of the smaller rooms with just a piano. "Let me know when you're ready for me to record, Megan."

"Thanks - I will. I don't know if there'll be anything worthwhile out of this tonight," I warned him, taking off my coat and hanging it on the hook on the wall.

He snorted. "You're here for a reason," he said, his eyes understanding as he took in my attire - heels and an evening dress. "You can stay as long as you like - no one's booked that room until tomorrow afternoon. Pencils and staff paper are in the bench if you need them."

I nodded. I suppose most people didn't show up in evening gowns to just play piano - not for what studio time cost. I'd negotiated my contract specifically to say that I could use any of the studio's facilities whenever I wanted as long as they weren't booked.

I sat down at the bench and ran through various songs until I started morphing them into my own song. It had been a while since I'd written anything new, but tonight the melody came first for me and I repeated it several times to set it in my mind before scribbling it down and adding the words to it that had been circling in my mind.

When my hand cramped for the second time, I decided to taking a break. I replied to some Snapchats, sending one of my own to Shawn and Ed and some of my other musically inclined friends. I liked my selfie enough to even put it on Instagram, captioning it: When you can't get a song out of your head until you write it down.

I worked feverishly until I had it all down and ran through it all together a couple times before deciding to record it as a demo. I buzzed Darian. "I'm ready," I said when he answered.