Free Sweet Harmonies by Melanie Shawn

name. She's a superstar. She is...” he shook his head in
frustration, “I mean, anyone would recognize her!”
    “ You didn't,” Sue Ann said
pointedly.
    “ Well, I'm an idiot. My point is, she's
a global phenomenon.”
    Sue Ann smiled, “That's nice.”
    Ryan sighed in frustration at his inability
to get his larger point across, “What I'm really trying to get at,
Granny, is...why would you ever think that someone like her could
be interested in someone like me?”
    Sue Ann looked at him sharply, a little taken
aback, “Are you trying to say that you don't think you're good
enough for Karina Blackstone?” she asked incredulously.
    Ryan considered this for a moment. He hadn't
exactly put it that way to himself, and it was a much more stark
way to think of things.
    He shook his head, “I don't think 'good
enough' is exactly the right way to phrase it. It's not a matter of
measuring up, or being 'good' enough. It's a matter of being...I
don't know.”
    “ In the same league?” Sue Ann
supplied.
    “ I don't know,” Ryan shook his head, “I
don't know what I'm trying to say. It's just the longer that this
rolls around in my mind, the more I start to doubt that we could
have anything in common. I think my head is just spinning from
this. I don't know what I mean.”
    “ Well, I tell you what, Sonny,” Sue Ann
said decisively, “What you need to do with that spinning head of
yours is pull it out of your behind.”
    Ryan looked up, shocked. “Granny!”
    “ Here's the thing,” she continued,
undaunted, “She may be as famous as all get out. I don't know. But,
at heart? She's just Karina Blackstone, and I've known her since
the day she was born. And she's a good girl.
    “ And you may be a boy from a small
town, but you're not JUST a boy from a small town. You have the
best heart of anyone I've ever met. Karina Blackstone would be
lucky to have you. If she gets to know you at all, I think she'll
realize that. I suspect from the way she started gaping like a fish
on the shore when you walked in from the kitchen yesterday that
she's probably already halfway there.
    “ But if she doesn't? Then she doesn't
deserve you. And it has nothing to do with her being out of your
league. And that's the truth.”
    “ Thanks, Granny,” he replied, his voice
growing a little tight with emotion as he set the mug of hot cocoa
on the end table next to her chair.
    “ You're welcome, Ryan,” she said,
smiling up at him and patting his cheek, “But it's just the
truth.”
    --- ~ ---
    Karina sat straight up in bed the next
morning, the pounding in her head so severe that it was actually
causing it to ring loudly with sonorous, crashing bell peals. In
fact, the ringing in her head was so disturbing that it was
actually what had woken her up.
    She was still attempting to get her bearings
when her palms flew to her temples and her brain exploded in agony,
causing her to cry out in in pain, as another cacophonous round of
ringing tore through her consciousness.
    It was only then that she realized that the
ringing existed independently of her poor, broken, hung over brain
– it was coming from her front door. She angrily fumbled for her
bedside alarm clock, and her indignation was only compounded when
she saw the ungodly hour – just before 6:30 am.
    “ Seriously,” she grumbled, as she
grumpily slung her legs over the side of the bed and clumsily
pushed her feet into slippers, “Who the hell thinks it's OK to just
ring my doorbell at this godforsaken time of the
morning?”
    She trudged down the stairs, wiping sleep
from her eyes, her throbbing head killing her, and bile rising in
the back of her throat. She knew she was paying the price for the
night of solo debauchery she had indulged in after her encounter
with Ryan yesterday. She was definitely NOT used to being rejected.
So, while she was normally not a solo drinker, she had felt sorry
for herself and she had decided to go with that sentiment. She had
started out by