Chapter 15

Rafi stomped into his bedroom and picked up one of his guitars. Playing always helped clear his head; he wandered through a handful of random notes and chords before his hands settled into “Beach Song” from Epicurious. He supposed that was inevitable.

He remembered trying to write that song; he’d intended it to be happy and fun, and while the melody was, the lyrics really weren’t. They’d never released it as a single, but it always got a good reaction at shows. He’d written it in the aftermath of his breakup with Bo—the firstbreakup, the one before Cory—and while it wasn’t directly about that, those feelings of raw sadness and desolation had made their way into the lyrics.

Rafi knew he’d be better off writing new stuff than futzing around with the old, both psychologically and practically—he needed new material to have any hope of salvaging his career—but he didn’t feel like writing about Bo right now, and he doubted he’d be able to focus on anything else.