Maddy narrowed her eyes.
“How did you know that?”
“I had a hunch.”
“Hm,” she eyed him suspiciously. “You think you have me all figured out, don’t you?”
His hand had slipped away from where he had been holding her to shuffle through the CDs, but he was now turning fully towards her to answer her.
“I’m starting to realize that it would take me years to figure out some things about you but never everything.”
Maddy felt her breath catch at his statement. Sometimes it was like he knew which raw nerves were exposed and needed soothing.
“Why are you saying these things to me, Nate?” she looked him straight in the eyes, needing to read the truth of his words there.
Nate returned her look calmly and unflinchingly.
“You wanted my honest opinion. Well, this is my honest opinion.”
Maddy felt that her voice would crack if she attempted to speak, so she gave him a smile she hoped conveyed what she was feeling and nodded.
“And in the name of honesty,” he continued with a sheepish expression, “I will have to admit that, though I wasn’t a Madonna fan, I was a bit infatuated with Nelly Furtado there for a while.”
Maddy could practically feel her face go slack with shock.
“Really?”
“Yes, really. And don’t look so shocked. I was just a teenager and she was… well you know how she looks. And her songs were really catchy,” Nate finished with a wide-eyed, almost panicked expression, probably expecting she’d make fun of his confession.
“Nate, I know. Anyone with eyes and ears would agree that that infatuation would have been one hundred percent justified.” Maddy considered for a brief moment how much to reveal. “I had a fixation on the HIM front-man. There was just something about that guy with his eyeliner and his beanies that used to be a sight for sore eyes for quite a while back then.”
Their eyes caught and they both started laughing.
They talked about several more bands and types of music, reminiscing about the tapes they would have to rewind by using a pencil to unwind the tape’s film, or the almost manic way they would catch a favorite song on the radio and blast it through the speakers a long time before streaming services were put on the map. It had been so frustrating and so fun at the same time.
After a full hour of walking through the aisles, Maddy’s gaze caught on a band she hadn’t listened to for quite a while. And a song that always made her heart full as much it made it ache.
Tugging on Nate’s sweatshirt, she slipped a hand around his wrist, pulling him to a stop.
“Do you trust me to pick out something for you?”
“Of course, Mads.”
With a wide smile, she picked up the white and gray cover of two figures embracing of the ‘Eyes Open’ album by Snow Patrol.
“Here,” she said, handing it to him, “something to remember this day by.”
Nate’s eyes fell on the album before he fixed his piercing stare at Maddy.
“Grab another one.”
Maddy looked at him quizzically.
“One for you, and one for me. Something so we can both remember this day by.”
The warmth that spread through Maddy at his words was something she hoped she would never forget.
twenty
