“I don’t want to leave her now

You know I believe in how”

The sounds of the piano fill my ears and flood my heart. The people in the room begin to simply disappear at the sound of her voice.

“Something in the way she knows

That I don’t need no other lover

Something in her style that shows me

I don’t want to leave her now

You know I believe in how”

She catches my eye and I’m brought back to the place when I first met her, and what a journey we’ve had since then. I feel the tears begin to well in my eyes from the happiness I feel in me and the happiness I see in her eyes when she looks at me.

“You’re asking me will my love grow

I don’t know, I don’t know

You stick around now it may show

I don’t know, I don’t know”

Ashley uses this lyric break to display her skills at the piano. Her playing mimics the guitar in the original piece but hearing it on the piano just makes it sound more meaningful and almost spiritual in a way. I see the determination on her face and I smile to think of how hard she’s worked on this and I’m so proud of her for doing so.

“Something in the way she knows

And all I have to do is think of her

Something in the things she shows me

I don’t want to leave her now

You know I believe in how”

She ends the piece beautifully with a few more chords and then lets the music die out. The audience cheers, with mostly everybody out of their seat and giving her a standing ovation. It takes me a second to realize that it’s over and I join everyone in their cheering and applauding. Ashley lets out a deep breath as she draws her hands from the keys and turns to her audience. Her eyes never stray from mine though as she looks out to the crowd and takes a bow while still sitting on the bench. She has a relieved look on her face as she scans the crowd a few times but never looking away from me for longer than a few seconds.