The smooth mahogany from my grandmother's guitar was cool on my lap. But even with the coolness comfort radiated from it. Asher's car door opened with and closed with a thud. I cracked open my eyes to him sitting next to me. Everything about him changed, and the wrongness is back in full force. He starts up the engine with a roar driving back onto the highway. I extend my hand to him and it hangs in the air between us. He doesn't take it and I don't know why it hurt but it hurt. I curled it around my grandmother's guitar pulling her instrument tight. The world race by me. Never felt so alone sitting so close to someone else. This time though he drove carefully.

On the highway as the miles stretch out the stars I so love to see in his nebulous eyes return one blinking light at a time. The wrongness slips away from him. Asher gave me a brief glance as if making sure I was still there while I kept listening to my music on my headphones. I had nowhere else to go. We were on the highway he was driving. It was like he didn't want me to know he was looking and it was a little funny. Maybe he thought I was sleeping? I wasn't. His hand touched mine while it was on my guitar. I didn't move it away, and I kept listening to my music. His shoulders got less stiff, and he kept his hand in place as we drove the night.

Sacramento to Los Angeles is about 6 hour's drive. So, fake sleeping through the rest of the 2 hours wasn't an option. I open my eyes catching Asher looking at me again. He removed his hand against mine and kept driving. I wish he'd have kept it there. At that moment I was like fuck it. I took his hand back and put it next to my guitar with me. He smiled and kept driving. We were slowly getting back to the happy place we were before the call and weirdness drained out into the wind.

"Is that guitar a Gibson L5?" Asher asks.

"Yep, I see the lust in your eyes," I say with a laugh. It's always that way with guitar people. The older a guitar is the better it sounds. Wood dries out and improves the tone giving it more of a character sound. "Harriet was my grandmother's, it's my pride and joy. It came in a set. One was my grandfather's that got passed to my mother. The other one is Harriet who belonged to my grandmother. But my brother sold it to help pay for our college. I want to repurchase it for my brother someday." The sad thought of it owned by my college professor but well-loved always made my heart ache.

"Harriet's beautiful," he said.

As the hours kept going, I remember something. Greedy as always I wanted my shit.

"What's the surprise?" I asked him.

"You didn't use up all your guesses." He replied.

I wasn't really in the mode for more of a guessing game. The muscle car turns onto a street just outside of LA proper. We drove through the night streets before the rest of the city woke up again at dawn. What was the surprise? I gave him my patented don't fuck me with my glare.

Unfortunately, it only made him grin wider. The mischievous baddie was back in full force in the car. That feeling that tugged at my chest tugs again.

Asher pulls into a long driveway in the hills. The night still hasn't broken, pitch black with a golden haze cast by the LA city lights. Stars could barely be seen from the hills. Unlike the long drive where it was like the sky was dipped in glitter and you could run your hands through the stars. It was beyond pitch black, I could barely read the sign Deronda Dr. as we went by. Then we drove up to a gate where a guy was standing by who waved us through.

We went up the access road then we came to a stop. I was confused looking at the back of the Hollywood sign. One or two letters were lit up from the back but not very bright. It wasn't at all like all the videos and movies. The sign is always lit up so you can see it at night. I'd been to LA before when I was a kid a few times with my family and Zo. But stopping to think about it I'd never seen the Hollywood sign at night looking up. But I could sort of spot it during the day. He hopped out of the driver's side coming over to my side of the car.

"You're frowning at the surprise," Asher said with worry in his voice.

"It's a pretty view with the city lights but... I thought the sign was supposed to be lit up?" I asked. Asher took my guitar from me putting it back into its case in the trunk with my duffle bag.

"A few years back they lit up the sign at night." He points out the lighting for the sign to be fully lit up. "When I was younger my brother, Rux, and Teddy would come up here all the time. The four of us Inglewood kids on top of the hills. Before it became an Instagram spot, not many came behind the sign but hikers during the day. Then after Rux and Teddy join the military, they were gone. And my brother was touring with his band, gone as well. It was just me coming up here on the Bus and walking. I'd jump the fence at night and hope the cops didn't get called. Be up here all night until the buses in the morning." He surveyed as if time was catching up to him with memories. In a smaller voice than he used before he said. "Also, to avoid my father."

"Cops," That keyword stuck out to me. I'm not a cop person."So, it's not open at night? Should we be here?" I looked around for trouble coming because I'm not about that.

"I've permission to be here. Were fine, cameras off for maintenance." He opens the door to my side of the car extending his hand. I look at his hand all inky tattoo with the back of the big Hollywood sign behind him. His grin is boyish and filled with mischief. If he talks about Pusszy again, I'll hit him.

"So, little Asher hanging out behind the sign in the middle of the night huh?" Something about little him looking down at the city as a boy was striking. It was a complete juxtaposition to the powerful music mogul he became. He and his brother both became one of the biggest music acts in the industry for years.

"Little Asher?" He asked me looking not at all happy with the description. His hand hangs between us still. Asher was in an open Hawaiian shirt looking sexy. The open shirt set off his tattoos that covered almost all his body in such an intriguing way. I'm not sure why I wasn't grabbing his hand but for some reason, it felt like more. I wasn't sure I was reading more into it than was there but I wanted to think about it for a second.

"Yeah, you as a little kid up here reminds me of..... everything like." I wanted to say it was like my obsession with stars but it felt too exposed of a statement. He saw it in my journal again and again space and stars. Star trek quotes of nerdy goodness. Hundreds of lyrics and imagining of space. I've spent my whole life investing my hopefulness in a space that's filled with stars. Maybe Asher would understand that sentiment a little too much. Something about the determination of a kid from Inglewood should never be underestimated. He came all the way out to the hills alone to look down on the stars. When he brought me up here all I could do is look at the sky and the stars above instead. At the same time, there's a sentiment we do share. A mutual pull and I wasn't going to say too much and get too exposed. Even for Asher who burns too bright and I would let burn down my world.

Finally, I take his extended hand, and he pulls me out of the front of the car. The headlights of the car light up the backup sign and we stare out into the night together. He wraps me up in his arms. Then spins me towards him. I lift my eyebrow at him.

"Page 83," Asher says to me. Fuck... my journal talking about my shitty Prom. How my ex-boyfriend didn't dance with me at prom and I wanted to dance. At the time I didn't know why he didn't want to dance with me. But I remember feeling like shit at the dance. Later, I found out from Zo that he didn't want to upset his next girlfriend. He planned on after Prom let me down gently and break up. He was moving on and I was just that little girl who was always at the hospital with her mom. In a way, he was lying to me that whole night trying to be nice. I really wish he didn't.

"We're not dancing?" My smile was for him and I buried the sad memory.

"Aren't we?" He spins me again and I follow his lead. Asher hums out a song that doesn't exist yet. I can't believe he remembers that from my journal. It was a short list I copy into every new journal about the things I want to do. Then I cross out the stuff I've already done or things I no longer want to do like jump out of a plane. It was never a good idea but sounded cool when I was thirteen. I wasn't really thinking about hitting the ground. But does anyone think about hitting the ground when you're a teenager?

As we dance, I welcome Asher close to me because this part of him I loved. What's worst is that this part of him that I loved was love without reserve. Foolish. And when I looked up into his eyes so backed by the night star-filled sky above LA he lean down and kissed me. He kissed me softly like he couldn't help it. Like it had to be done, and I savored it wanting this to last. Because when we were alone, just me and Asher without interruptions it was so good. But bubbles do what bubbles do, burst. I knew better than to put too much into this. I knew... but...

"How do you like the surprise?" Asher asked me.

"I really like it thanks for taking me to your spot," I said to him.

"How does she like the spot?" He asked.

"She?" I answered.

"You know Pussz-," I smack him on his chest cutting him off.

"You're fucking ruining it!" I laughed. After his deep chuckle, he went back to humming me the song.

I follow his melody with my own and skip over the notes. And it hit all at once the realization of the truth of it was we worked together. It's natural, as our voices dance together above the stars below in LA and dance below the stars above our heads. What is it with this man and the way he tugs at me without trying? He's mercurial, and that's so confusing as fuck. One minute to the next a complete mischief-maker who's making me laugh and the next a different guy. I lean my forehead into his chest. It was just too much.

Just like our first time together he lifted my chin from his wide chest and kiss me in that feather-light way. The softness of it was jarring and somehow the music we made together didn't stop. It lifted us up. Asher's tongue teased at my lips. I let him in and he reminded me again how he utterly ruin me. I moved with him as he held me close our bodies connected and dancing together. The kiss became deeper he tasted so good. Always so spicy and more. I always want more always so hungry, and so damn greedy. I'm not sure what happened but something inside me snap.

A/n: I dunno why but this chapter trip my inner kid. Where you would run off to random places and hang out there. Then you go back and it's totally different or exactly the same . When ever I go regularly to a new place I'm always the person who finds the spot. I always make friends with someone else who has a spot. Just the nerd in me.