shut me in, lock me tight

"I love you," is all I said to him. Even added a little "you know" at the end for good measure. Silly men usually seem to like that.

That's all I said. What I think he heard, however, is something a little bit more like, "I'm paying attention to you now, and you have to continue performing to keep my attention."

Which is silly. Because if I started paying attention before he knew about it, there's nothing he's got to change.

But I can't love the fear out of him, anyway.

He loves performing. It's all he wants to do.