“It was fun,” Emily said. “Want a drink?”

“You really do contain multitudes,” Priya replied. “I’ll take another vodka tonic.”

The women sat together drinking and listening to music, and then it was time for Tony and Rob to close the show.

“So as most of y’all know,” Rob said, “I’m Austin Roberts, and Tony here, the owner of this fine establishment, is my friend from college. So he offered to come up and play drums while I sing my Billboard hit—I still can’t even believe I’m saying that—‘Crystal Castle.’”

Tony whispered something to Rob.

“Oh! And Tony says that our friend Emily—you remember her from her kick-ass Tracy Chapman before—promised she’d come play with us for old times’ sake. Queenie?”

Emily stood up and walked up on stage with them and sat down at the piano.

“You remember the chord progression for ‘Queen of All the Keys’?” Rob said to her off mic. “It’s the same.”

She nodded, not telling him that she’d already figured that out.

The three of them started playing, Rob started singing, and Emily offered some harmony lines that matched the ones she used to sing in “Queen of All the Keys.” It only took them a couple of measures to get their groove back. And then they rocked it. Emily followed Rob’s lead, the way she always did, and listened for Tony’s beat, and the three of them were totally in sync, playing together as if they hadn’t ever stopped.

When the song ended, Rob turned to Emily and mouthed, Please come on tour.

Emily smiled at him and stood up from the piano bench, but he shook his head. She sat down again, not sure what he had in mind.

“Since we’ve got our band back together again, we’re gonna play one more song for y’all, the finale we used to jam to thirteen years ago. So please give us a break if we don’t remember all the words.”

He turned to Emily. “Only love can break your heart,” he said.

She smiled at him, wondering if she would actually remember any of what she was supposed to sing.

He kept going, and she responded without even thinking about it until the duet started in earnest.

It all came back to Emily, almost as if the song had shortcut her brain and somehow appeared in her fingers and in her vocal cords. She stood up, nudging the piano bench to the side with her foot, and was flirting with Rob on stage the way they used to. They were laughing and teasing each other, and then they got to the final bit they sang together, facing each other. They sang about how wonderful life was because they were both in the world.