[[[all of your flaws]]] [[[part i]]]

30.

When we arrived home we opened a bottle of wine, kicked off our shoes, my jacket got thrown on the floor and I sat at the piano. There was a small arm chair besides it that Lily curled up on, watching me work. I didn't mind. If I were ever to become famous it would be more than one person watching me. And she'd already seen me in the studio. Which reminded me of what Mark had said earlier that day. I knew once I'd seen her all dressed up that I wouldn't be passing on the message.

'Any luck with finding band members?' She asked as I paused playing to write down some notes. I shook my head. I'd met a few people but they hadn't felt right. It was hard to connect with people who liked my music and wanted to be part of it when I wasn't playing any gigs. As much as I'd tried to get booked in places, I'd only had a few so far. And they weren't the most enjoyable times. I needed other people to be the focus. I didn't like being centre stage. I told her all this. 'But you're really good. You shouldn't be nervous. You write your own stuff. You play your own stuff. And you have an amazing voice. You're really talented, Dan.'

'If I teach you to play piano we could be a duo?' I joked. Her responding laughter answered my question. After a while I felt too tired to work. I plugged my phone into the speakers and played some soothing background music and stood in front of her, holding out my hand. The bottle of wine had gone to my head and filled me with the need to dance. Even if I couldn't.

'What?' She said nervously.

'Lets dance.' I said. She shook her head and covered her face with her hands, laughing drunkenly. 'Come on!' I urged her and took her hands. I pulled her up and bought her into me. She had turned red and now hid her face in my chest. I swayed gently, side to side to the music.

'I can't dance.' She muttered.

'Neither can I.' I whispered. We stayed this way for a while. Neither of us spoke. We just swayed our bodies around the room. I'd never felt like this with anyone. I'd never been so comfortable to just act like an idiot. With Laura, despite being in love with her, I'd always kept up some sort of barrier. Maybe I'd always been too afraid to show my real self incase she didn't love me back. But with Lily it didn't matter. Nothing mattered.