Page 80 of Love Unlimited

Yes! And then I get a sticker!

Dustin nodded indulgently. Of course.

Ash chuckled as they picked up the plates. They were glad they’d had that conversation about their evolving relationship. But seriously. How had Dustin ever worried that preparing Ash’s food was overstepping boundaries?

Ash couldn’t even remember how Dustin ended up being the one to give them stickers. Well, they knew why they got stickers. Zhong gave them to Ash at his apartment, and after Ash had forgotten to get their lunchbox out of their car a couple times, Daddy had put a chore chart up for them on the refrigerator here, too.

But somehow Dustin became the one who actually applied the stickers. Had he just been in the kitchen the first day when Ash remembered their lunchbox and demanded a sticker? Ash kind of figured that Dustin was the keeper of stickers because it was his house.

Sometimes, Ash did things with so much planning, like this guitar lesson. But sometimes things just happened.

Ash scraped the plates and loaded the dishwasher while Dustin put the leftovers away and left the pan in the sink to soak.

All done! Ash announced proudly. They weren’t feeling little, exactly. Just relaxed and happy around Dustin. In the house that they now had a key to.

Then you get a sticker. Dustin was smiling as he got them down from the top of the fridge. Which one do you want?

Ash perused the choices. That one. It matches my keychain. It was a fuzzy puppy with brown ears pouncing on a ball. When the first set of stickers had run out, the collection had mysteriously grown. Ash was pretty sure they were from Dustin.

Dustin gave it to them, and they put it on the sticker chart.

An hour later, Ash’s fingers were aching. Those thin metal strings hurt! Especially for the very tricky G and C chords where they had to stretch their fingers out in different directions. So far, Ash was a big fan of A and E-minor.

Dustin chuckled. Here. Give me the electric guitar and you can just sing.

Dustin put down the acoustic guitar he’d been using to show them the chords. They couldn’t hear most of the strings without amplification, which is why Ash was using the other instrument. With the speaker turned up, they were able to hear their own fingers stumbling through the unnatural positions.

They handed Dustin what they thought of as the rock star guitar and he threw the strap around his head. Naturally he made playing it look easy.

No, not just easy. His fingers flew over the strings like birds on the wing. And the sounds coming out of the speakers were real music—a solid pounding beat with a rich melody gliding over it. He’d totally been holding out on them when he was walking them through their first six chords.

Ash raised their hands over their head, wiggling their fingers in applause.

Dustin shrugged and kept playing. This was one of those moments where Ash really wished that their ears worked better and they didn’t have to listen to everything like they were under water.

They could still get into the groove, though. They shimmied in their seat, drawing Dustin’s smile.

When he reached the end of the song, he pulled out a spiral-bound book from the small pile next to him. Look through here and find something you want to sing.

Ooh! The book had hundreds of songs in it—just the words and chords—and Ash knew a lot of them. Let’s do “Brown-Eyed Girl.” And then “Free Falling.” Can you play those?

Dustin turned the book around. Sure. You sing.

Ash stood up, singing and simultaneously signing along as much as they could. They kept forgetting the words and bouncing over to read them upside down, but Dustin just kept playing until they picked it up again.

He seemed to love watching them so they hammed it up, rocking out on their own air guitar during the bridges. Dustin threw his head back laughing when they leapt off the low footstool and slid to their knees.

As he had warned them, his rhythm wasn’t perfect. For someone with so much technical skill, he didn’t seem to notice when he suddenly slowed down or sped up, and more intricate rhythms threw him off. But Ash didn’t care. They were living it up.

They were in the middle of “It’s My Party And I’ll Cry If I Want To” when Zhong and Landon came in.

Ash turned toward them, focusing more of their attention on the ASL. Musical interpretation was its own special artform, a fanciful merging of words to express new meanings while letting the beat of the music flow visibly through the signs.

Zhong and Landon applauded when they were done, fingers twinkling overhead.

You two look like you’re having fun. Zhong looked like he couldn’t have been more pleased.

We are! You have to hear me play my song. Come on! Ash dragged them both over.