It's 1986 and Willow is studying to be a vet, but she can barely make ends meet with her crappy job. When her streak of bad luck peaks and she gets fired, a night of drinking her problems away at a bar puts someone quite unexpected on her path - som...
Getting ready concerned Willow much more than she would have liked. It was dumb, it was nonsense, and she still didn't want to leave the house until she looked her best, which was rather hard to achieve considering how much she cared. And what for? All she intended was to see him one more time - one last time - and from far away. There was no way he'd be able to notice her in the crowd, not with her imposing five-foot posture anyway, and the place was bound to be packed.
It was the longest cab ride she had ever experienced, kind of wishing it would never end to spare her whatever the night had in stock, but she didn't ask the driver to turn around.
"You're a big girl," she kept repeating under her breath. "At least act like you got things under control."
Her cabbie shot her a few concerned glances in the rear mirror, but Willow didn't even notice. When they pulled over three blocks from the club - anywhere closer it was pure madness, cars and people occupying every square foot - she took a deep breath and stepped out on the sidewalk.
The gig had already started and she wasn't quite sure how the hell she was going to push herself past the crowd already determined to make it inside. After some solid twenty minutes of slalom, she only got as far as half a block away from the club and felt it was the time to accept defeat.
Maybe it's for the best, she thought. Maybe I should really take it as a butt-saving sign and...
"Are you Willow?"
A man she could only assume was a bouncer towered over the crowd. He was giving her a less than excited glare, looking really done with the whole event.
"Uh, yeah?"
"Get inside. Was told to keep an eye out for you."
What. In. The. Flying. Fuck. A little befuddled, she followed the bouncer, happy to have him serve as a snowplow cutting through the crowd, but once inside, she was on her own to find her way.
It didn't matter. Nothing mattered once she got a look at the stage.
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He was there, all smiles and hotshot looks, his voice - how could she not recognize it the second he offered her the lighter, his band, they were all over the radio - making the floor reverberate, his moves so smooth he could've been born in the spotlight...
Everything, from the girls screaming right under the stage to the base powerful enough to resound in her chest, all of it faded for Willow. She felt a dopey smile stretch her lips; even if she was to turn around now and leave, seeing him was worth it. Not quite as having him just for herself, but eh, beggars can't be choosers. Maybe between her future vet shifts she would write some goddamn whiny love songs, remembering all this, and be a rockstar too after hours.
She leaned against a wall from where she could keep staring without having the ecstatic 18-year-old chicks howling into her ears. It wasn't bad. She was sure she would see a fair amount of him in the magazines or TV, unless they cut her cable off before that since she couldn't remember when was the last time she had managed to pay a bi-
Her dreamy eyes regained focus as Morten raised his hand and the music slowly faded.
He was looking straight at her.
Willow blinked and quickly looked around, but the heads of the crowd turned towards her as well; there was no one else around.
"You know, yesterday I made a promise," Morten said from the stage with a quiet chuckle. "I promised someone very special to brighten up her night, but I'm not sure if I really did. So, uh, I stayed awake and wrote something in hope she would accept my invitation and come here today, and she did. I was worried, you know, I thought she wouldn't, but then I would just go and sing it at her doors."
A loud "Awwwwhhh" rolled across the audience. Willow felt as if she was watching a movie with the main character looking just like her, because this couldn't be about her, not really, could it?
At my doors? At my fucking doors? Like he would come to my house? Her thoughts felt blurry and fudgy, and her head swam.
"So if my boys here need a break, uh, for stuff, I haven't even told them about this song, so I guess it's gonna be a little acapella..."
"All your songs are the same, man," a voice from behind the electric piano, must have been Magnus, made the crowd burst in laughter. "Just go for it, I got you."
Morten chortled, shaking his head, and his eyes sought hers again.
You are the one Who has done me in Guess you knew from the start
"Oh", was all Willow could muster, slack-jawed and convinced she looked like an utter idiot. She thanked whoever kept the lights focused on the stage, leaving the audience in the relative darkness.
I call again, but there's no one in Don't know where With whom you've been
Piano and guitar were already following, offering a rhythmical background.
But I do love you Any way you want me to
WHAT.
And you are the one Now the state I'm in! Catching you was so hard
Never taking his eyes off her, Morten grabbed the microphone and started towards her, hopped off the side of the stage and what the hell, he was closing the distance, the people parting in front of him, all of them as disbelieving as Willow was.
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I fought for you Did you let me win? You don't even care You don't care where I've been But I do love you Any way you want me to
And there he was, once again towering over her, giving her that cheerful, goofy smile, as if she just cracked a joke at his expense. It was as though last night never ended and they still didn't know each other's name and didn't care, all that mattered were their light-hearted conversations and having fun in the spur of the moment.
"I hope she liked that, you guys," he turned to the audience, and then back to her. "Because I would ask her to see me backstage afterward to hear the rest!"
"Do-it-do-it-do-it", the people started chanting and whooping. Morten pushed a loose strand of hair off her face and Willow grinned.
"I'll see what I can do," she said so that only he could hear her.
His beaming smile must have reached from ear to ear. He leaned over, touched her forehead with his for a second, and spun to walk back to the stage.
"Oh, one more thing, vet girl," he said over his shoulder and winked to the crowd around them. "Would you, say... take on me?"
Her laughter drowned in hysterical yells and exclamations as the first tones of A-ha's greatest hit carried from the stage.
