The Back Seat

I used to make love to her
In the back seat

Back when I lived in L.A.
She and I would find some hill
And park

We'd have a bottle of wine
We'd watch the sunset
We'd be corny
We'd have sex
Then we'd get take-out Chinese food
And fall asleep on the couch in our apartment
Watching movies on t.v.

That's a tricky kind of life
Because you don't know how good it is
Until you've traded it in
For something seemingly better
But much more complicated

When she took the job in New York
We decided to drive cross-country
As a way of transitioning into our new lives
And we took the car with us

We made love at rest stops
At drive-inn movies
At diners
In motel parking lots
Next to churches
Next to rivers

In all the places one would normally get murdered
By a serial killer

By the time we made it to New York
My back seat was worn down
With the imprints of our bodies
But the car still drove like a dream

And the first thing she said to me
When I pulled into a parking spot
Right outside our new apartment building was--

'Aren't you going to sell that car?'

I said, 'No'

She said, 'We don't need a car in New York.'

And I said, 'What about when we go back to L.A.?'

It was only then that I realized
I was going back to L.A. one day
But I was going back alone

We only had sex a few more times after that
And none of those times was in the back seat of my car

I remember the apartment we got
Had this little bed in it
And even though it was bigger than my back seat
It was still a lot harder to make love on

It was a hard bed, and naturally cold
Even in the summer
With nothing but one half-hearted fan
Aimed at the two of us
Desperately trying to recreate California
In the middle of Manhattan

Eventually she gave in
And became a New Yorker
And I packed up my car
And made the trip back

I picked up a few girls along the way, I won't lie about that

But each time I did
I went to their place
Or took them inside whatever motel I was staying at

But I never made love to anyone else
On that back seat

Not just for sentimental reasons

I swear, if you look
You can still see the imprint of those two bodies
And I always thought the other girls would see it

And know exactly what went on back there