I think back to the hot tub in Singapore, when we were talking about our bucket-list items. The way her smile lit up when she was talking about Hollywood and how it dimmed again when she thought of her dad. “He would never go for it.”

“You should think about the acting thing again,” I say, trying to sound nonchalant. If she can offer me some empathy, I can try to do the same for her. I may be nervous about stepping in front of the camera, but Mina was born for the spotlight. “I think you’d be really good at it. You have the hustle. And you’re great on camera.”

She smirks. “Where’s this coming from?”

“You’re not the only smart one. Take it or leave it,” I say, smirking back.

She shakes her head, a hint of a real smile on her lips. “I’m going to try to go to bed now.”

“Okay.” I nod. “And I’m going to… sit here and try to remember the song I wrote.”

“You wrote it. It should be easy to remember your own lyrics.”

“You’d think so,” I sigh.

She puts her mug down on the coffee table and folds her arms across her chest, nodding at me with a challenge in her eyes. “Try. I dare you.”

“What? Out loud?”

Her gaze doesn’t waver.

I rack my brain, trying to remember the lyrics. “When the sun sets and the lights fade so fast, don’t fear the night or the shadows that may pass,” I sing. “We’ll be… We’ll be…”

How did the next part go? I trail off. I can’t remember.

“Brighter in the dark,” Mina says suddenly.

“Huh?”

“Brighter in the dark. That would work well as the next line.”

I stare at her, and a chill washes through me at how perfectly I can hear that line in my head. She’s right. It’s not the original line that I had written, but I have to admit, her suggestion is way better. I nod slowly. “Okay. Yeah. That could work.”

“It could even repeat three times with added harmonies in each round,” she says, her voice excited now like she’s onto something. As if catching herself, she drops her face into a neutral mask and shrugs. “I mean, if you want to. It’s your song.”

“That could be cool,” I say. “Why don’t we try it together?”

I sing the first line on my own. “We’ll be brighter in the dark.”

I sing it again a second time, and Mina jumps in with an effortless harmony. “Brighter in the dark.”

Finally, we sing it together a third time, bringing up the harmony. “Brighter in the dark.”