The night seemed peaceful. Mike sat on the back steps of the pad, looking out at the ocean and thinking. It had been two days since he'd seen her. Layla. A beautiful name. He still couldn't stop thinking about her.
He wondered if the guys had noticed he was a little out of it. He couldn't remember the last time he'd fallen in love, so they must be a little surprised. But actually, he didn't care what the others thought.
He heard a sound behind him, someone's quiet entrance had been disturbed. He didn't turn around, knowing that whoever it was would announce themselves in one way or another.
Footsteps crossed the patio and someone sat down next to him. Peter.
"Hey Mike," he greeted casually.
Mike nodded in response, not turning away from the ocean and the stars above it.
"Whatcha doing out here?" Peter asked, apparently not content to leave it all silent.
"Nothin'," Mike replied. "Just lookin' at the stars."
"And the ocean?"
"Yeah, that too," he added. "Thinkin'."
"What about?"
"I dunno. A lot of things. Last night, for instance," Mike replied. Mr. Olsheim's friend had been at their gig the night before, he'd been to several actually, and he hadn't said anything.
"Last night?" Peter asked, and Mike remembered that he hadn't told the others about the record company executive that had been coming to watch them. "I guess it went okay," Peter continued. "But nothing to write home about."
Mike nodded absently. Tonight they would have to impress the man, he thought to himself. What songs could they do that would impress the man? That they hadn't done yet?
"Mike?" Peter asked.
He turned, broken out of the thoughts by Peter's voice, and looked at him.
"Who is she?"
So Peter had guessed. Or someone else had. He wondered if Micky and Davy knew, too. Or if it was something obvious to all of them.
"She?" he echoed blankly.
"Yeah, " Peter replied. "The girl you're hung up on. Who is she?"
"Who said I'm hung up on anybody?" he asked.
"Nobody. But it's kind of obvious," Peter replied. Mike sighed. "So who is she?"
"I don't know," Mike replied.
"Oh?"
Mike sighed. "Her name is Layla," he explained. "But that's all I know."
Peter nodded, understanding. "I see. A mystery girl." He smiled.
Mike nodded, leaning back slightly. "I can't stop thinkin' about her, Pete," he confessed.
Peter smiled the knowing smile of a man who knows what it's like to be in love. The same smile old men give young lovebirds in the spring when they fall head over heels for every one that passes their way.
Mike was hung up on a girl. He grinned, eager to pass along this bit of news to the others.
"Peter?"
"Huh?"
"You won't tell anybody, will you?" Mike asked. His eyes had a pleading look in them, and Peter was taken aback for a moment.
Darn.
"No, Mike, of course not," he replied. Grinned again. "I won't tell anybody. I promise," he added for good measure. But all the while he was thinking; Darn.
