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On Christmas Eve, sporting matching hoodies that said Fully Completely, Shane drove her to the city for the show.

She’d never been to a concert before and was squirming with excitement as they walked through the crowd hand-in-hand.

“Keep still,” he scolded. “You’re going to break my wrist if you keep bouncing around like that!”

“Carry me, then,” she said, sticking her tongue out and leaping onto his back. He laughed, a beautiful sound that he seemed to give her more and more freely, hefting her up and locking his hands under her knees as she wrapped her arms around his chest and sucked on his ear lobe.

An older couple glowered at them, but she looked the woman right in the eye and stuck her tongue in Shane’s ear.

The woman huffed at her and walked away.

It was hot, and crowded, and loud, but she loved every second of it. Shane wrapped his arms around her, his chin on her head, and sang along to every song. He had a surprisingly melodic voice, clear and sweet, and she warmed for him as always, heart full and panties soaked.

I left your house this morning

‘Bout a quarter after nine

Coulda been the Willie Nelson

Could been the wine

When I left your house this morning

It was a little after nine

It was in Bobcaygeon, I saw the constellations

Reveal themselves one star at a time

She closed her eyes, Shane’s hypnotic voice in her ear, thousands and thousands of lighters swaying in the dark.

Went back to bed this morning

With working on my mind

I thought of maybe quittin’

Thought of leavin’ it behind

Went back to bed this morning

And as I’m pullin’ down the blind

Yeah, the sky was dull and hypothetical

And fallin’ one cloud at a time

She squeezed her thighs together, thinking of their sleepy morning birthday tryst. Shane had slipped into her from behind, bare, both of them on their sides, his hand on her nipples and his mouth hot on her neck.

That night in Toronto

With it’s checkerboard floors

Riding on horseback

And keeping order restored

‘Til The Men They Couldn’t Hang

Stepped to the mic and sang

And their voices rang with that Aryan twang

She thought of that night in the hotel in the city. She remembered washing away her blood – the last remnants of her virginity – and Shane, dropping to his knees and hooking her leg over his shoulder, licking away the sharp, slicing pain.

I got to your house this morning

Just a little after nine

In the middle of that riot

Couldn’t get you off my mind

When he’d stood again, water running down his naked body, he’d taken her in his arms and murmured into her ear, “I want to show you things to do with your body that you can’t even dream of… I want to do everything with you that two people can do together…”

She was trembling with desire, the memory burned into her brain, and she thought her heart might literally burst, right there, right in the middle of that damn concert, because one person couldn’t possibly contain so much love.

So I’m at your house this morning

Just a little after nine

‘Cause it was in Bobcaygeon

Where I saw the constellations reveal themselves

One star at a time

I love you, she was screaming silently.

“I know,” he said in her ear, “I love you, too.”