that getting Ayoluwa back wouldn't be that simple.

She was right, he had done her wrong so many times.

"I need effort. I deserve effort."

Noted.

But Joshua had never been one for romance, he never had to try this hard for a girl before.

In fact, he had never had to try for any girl before, they usually fell at his feet.

Joshua was laying on his bed at home, his eyes on the ceiling.

When he turned his head, he could see Ayoluwa's window, the curtains hiding her room.

Joshua bit his lip and then grabbed his laptop out of the backpack resting at the foot of the bed.

"Please be up. Please be up. Please-." Joshua let out a sigh of relief when Jalen picked up.

"What's good?" Jalen rubbed his eye.

"Yo, I need to tell you something. It's important. Are you alone?"

"Yeah," Jalen fixed his gaze at the camera, "Are you dying or something? 'Cause it's too early in the morning for you to be dying."

Joshua groaned, "Obviously not. Now shut up and listen. When you fucked up with Noel, how did you make it right?"

"Well," Jalen picked at his curls, "I had to regain her trust so we went back to being friends for awhile and then when I got injured, she flew back for me and when she was about to leave to go live with her mom, I knew like okay you can't let her leave without you. So I got on the same flight and here we are."

"So a grand gesture, basically." Joshua summarized.

"Yes and no. Noel has trust issues because of family shit I'm not gonna get into so I needed to show her that I was here to stay." Jalen replied.

Joshua was quiet, immersed in his thoughts so Jalen continued, "You fucked up with that girl, already?"

Joshua blew out a breath, "Yeah, bro. I'm trying to figure it out."

"What happened?" Jalen asked.

"I broke it off before I went to college and I kinda said some fucked up shit when I did."

"Mmm. Ion know what you called me for."

"I don't know. Advice?" Joshua suggested.

Jalen sighed, "Ion know if I'm the right one to give you advice. I don't know the girl so I don't know what's the best way for you to fix it. You know her, just think about it. Make it some shit from the heart, make it genuine."

Jalen looked up at his surroundings, "Aye, practice is about to start. I gotta go. Let me know how it goes."

Then Jalen hung up.

Joshua glanced at Ayoluwa's house once more then stood up from his bed to dust off his clothing.

Standing on Ayoluwa's porch would never not be nerve wracking.

After a moment hesitation's, Joshua was about to press the doorbell when he hesitated again.

The door opened and Camille poked her head out, "Whatchu want boy? You scaring my granddaughter."

"I just wanted to see if Ayoluwa was home."

Camille's gaze grew amused, "Why are you asking?"

"Just wanted to talk to her. Do you know where she is?" Joshua asked again.

"Yes. But I'm not telling you until you tell me why you want to know."

"It's a long story."

"That's fine." Camille laughed.

Joshua bit his lower lip then launched into a full and detailed explanation of what had happened between him and Ayoluwa.

When he was finished, Camille had an intrigued expression, "So what are you gonna do to get her back?"

"I was gonna start with flowers and then improvise."

Camille tutted at him, "Material objects aren't going to work with her."

Joshua's shoulders slumped, "I don't know what to do. I ain't never felt like this before."

Camille gave him a knowing look, "You got this. She's at Union Recording Studio in Hollywood. Good luck."

Then she shut the door, forcing Joshua off of the porch.

Joshua got into Caleb's car and sat there contemplating before heading over to his Safari app.

"How to write a song," Joshua muttered as he typed into the bar at the top of the screen.

Three and a half hours later, Joshua was strolling through the first level at the recording studios, looking for Ayoluwa.

In his hand was a bouquet of blood red tulips and in the other was a folded up piece of paper that held the song.

The sound of familiar laughter made Joshua stop in his tracks and peer into the studio on the left of him.

Shareef, Dior and Nicholas were on a plush cream couch while Ayoluwa was standing in front of them.

Joshua felt like a creep.

Is this the type of weird shit love makes you do?

I feel like Joe from You.

Ayoluwa went into the back of the room, disappearing from view, presumably going into the recording booth.

This was it.

Joshua took in a deep breath then headed into the studio she was located in.

Ayoluwa was singing a song about being damaged, her song book in both hands as she belted out notes.

Shareef was the first to look at him, "Josh, this ain't a good time. She's working."

When Nicholas looked at him, he gave Joshua a confused look then tapped Dior.

"Aye, you can't be here." Dior immediately said.

Joshua ignored them as he stepped to tap the sound engineer on the shoulder, "I need to talk to her. It'll only take ten minutes, please."

The East Asian man glanced at the flowers in Joshua's hand then sighed before pressing a button on the soundboard, "I need a smoke break. Fifteen minutes."

"Okay," Joshua could see Ayoluwa remove the headphones from her ears and start to head towards the door.

The producer left the room, already taking a cigarette out of a pack from his pocket.

"Why do you have flowers? I literally just realized that." Shareef said.

When Ayoluwa came out, she stopped, her eyes on Joshua, "Um. Hi?"

"So first things first, you need to know that romance isn't my thing. I'm not used to this love shit." Joshua started to say.

Nicholas coughed twice, "Should we leave?"

"No, stay. I need you guys to know what happened." Joshua turned towards the boys still on the couch, "I lied when I said that nothing happened at the lake house. We got together."

Her face was semi hopeful, as if she was waiting for Joshua to say 'surprise!'

"That's an understatement, actually. I fell in love at the lake house and then I got scared of my feelings for you and I pushed you away. But I'm here to tell you that I'll never do that again."

"Words. It's all just words." Ayoluwa muttered.

"I know. I wrote you something. A song. I know it's more words but, how I fell in love with you was music so..." Joshua tried his very best to ignore the burning looks coming from the trio.

Ayoluwa slowly took the outstretched paper from his hand and unfolded it.

A genuine smile lifted to her lips as she read the lyrics, "Do you... Do you really mean this?"

"Every word." Joshua replied in a soft tone.

"I'm tripping out. Why is no one else bugging?" Dior asked in a boisterous tone.

"Shut up!" Nicholas and Shareef hissed.

"I... No one has ever written me a love song before. I don't know what to say." Ayoluwa started to choke up a little.

"I love you." Joshua repeated.

"I love you too."

"Can we leave now? I feel awkward as fuck." Nicholas stood up.

"What? Yeah." Joshua glanced over at them then back at Ayoluwa when she pressed a hand to his cheek to brush his tears away.

He hadn't even realized that he was shedding tears.

As soon as the door was closed Joshua stuck his face considerably closer to hers.

Grabbing his arm for support, she leans up on her toes to finish the journey and not wanting to waste anymore time being apart, Joshua gently rolled his tongue against her lips and she eagerly accepted it.

He pulled away first and Ayoluwa slapped his chest, "See? Effort!"

Joshua rolled his eyes, "Shut up, Palmer."

The song that Josh "writes" is above

I keep seeing sequel but like I don't know what would be in it... like I feel like a sequel would be boring, I'll have to sleep on it

vote & comment, porfa!