Not Another Love Song

by Julie Soto

“If you don’t want to be with me, together with me, I can understand,” he said, and she felt her knees wobble. “But, Gwen, please make music with me. I need you in my life. I need to be in your orbit in some way, and if you don’t want me to touch you and kiss you and fuck you, then let me make love to you onstage every night because it’s the most alive I’ve felt in ten years—

“Write down the name of your shampoo and wash. I’ll have them for you next time.”

Can we go upstairs? I have to make dinner and ask my girlfriend if she’d be my girlfriend. And then I want to tell the whole world she said yes.”

“It’s simple, really,” he said. “It’s about a cello who fell in love with a violin.”