“I just couldn’t help myself. Hello ladies,” Lucah said, pulling out the chair for me to sit. It appeared that they were already one or two drinks in. This could be an interesting evening. I was going to take it easy because of all the wine last night, so when Lucah asked what I wanted, I ordered a soda.
“Your life makes me want to hate you,” Sloane said, clearly on her second drink, in spite of last night. “But I love you, so never mind.”
“So, what’s new?” I said to change the subject.
“You’re not the only one who got laid,” Marisol said, pointing at Chloe, who grinned and sipped at her martini.
“Um, details,” I said. It was about time. She’d had such a hard breakup and was just getting back on her feet and smiling and being happy again. A little sex was just what she needed.
“It was really a one time thing. Met her at the gym and I took her home for a little workout. And then she did this thing that reminded me of—of someone, and then I cried and made her leave. So yes, I did get laid, but that kind of killed the buzz.” She downed the rest of her drink and plunked the glass on the table.
“Aw, babe I’m sorry,” I said, rubbing her arm. “There are other girls in the sea.” She pouted and stared into her empty glass.
“A good woman is hard to find,” she said. “Especially one that plays for my team. You bitches are all too f**king straight.”
“If I have a few more drinks, that could change,” Sloane said with a wink.
“How many times have I told you that if you had penis, I would be with you? How many times?” Marisol said, forcing Chloe to look at her.
“More times than I can count,” Chloe said, and finally cracked a smile. Lucah came back with my soda, a whiskey and water for himself and another round for all of my friends.
“If only you had a vagina,” Chloe said sighing and taking her drink from Lucah. He gave me a look.
“Just go with it. It’s a compliment.”
“I dated a ginger girl once,” Chloe continued, still staring at Lucah. “She was crazy in the bedroom. Some of the best sex I’ve ever had.”
“Must be a ginger thing,” I said, poking Lucah in the stomach. He took it in stride.
“Redheads do it better.” It was true.
After drinks, we ordered pizza and wings, and Lucah went to sign himself up to sing. He wouldn’t tell me what song he had lined up. I had to practically beg him to sing at home, or trade sexual favors. I didn’t mind so much because he usually sang and played shirtless, or naked and that just led to me getting sexual favors. Win-win-win-win situation.
But we had to suffer through several terrible singers first. There were a few who might not get eliminated in the first round of American Idol, but most were pretty awful. There was much booing and throwing of napkins and so forth.
If there was one thing that was true about Bostonians, it was that we would ALWAYS tell you what we think. It’s in our DNA.
It was finally Lucah’s turn and our table cheered him on, and there were wolf whistles and several inappropriate comments. Some of them may have come from me. I neither confirm nor deny it.
“Hello everyone. Tonight I’ll be singing an oldie, but one that’s still true.” He sat on the stool and settled his guitar on his lap. He began strumming and I didn’t recognize the song until he started singing. “Forever Young” by Bob Dylan. He looked at me and winked. Lucah’s voice wasn’t anything like Dylan’s, but it didn’t really matter. He took the song and made it something new and fresh, but it also stayed true to the original. A few guys at one of the tables started singing along, and a few more people joined in and before we knew it, there was a bar-wide sing-along happening. I didn’t think that was anything I’d seen before. But that was Lucah. He could make things happen like that.
There was a round of applause and lots of cheering and hollering when he finished. And of course I was beaming with pride. So much so that I almost felt like I was going to cry. Ridiculous, I know.
He headed right for me when he came offstage and I put my arms around him and gave him a kiss that had the potential to turn into something much, much more. It didn’t matter that there was a bar full of people. Hey, they could get dinner and a show.
“You’re getting rewarded for that later,” I said in his ear and squeezed his ass.
“I heard that,” Sloane said.
“Good. I meant you to.” She probably wasn’t going to remember this in the morning. More drinking and bad singing followed, and Lucah was asked to sing again, this time he did the Matt Nathanson song he’d sung the first time. If he was trying to get in my pants, it was working. Not that he hadn’t JUST been there a few hours before.
I stuck to water and soda, and watched as my friends got more intoxicated. Gotta admit, it was pretty fun when you knew you were the only one who was going to remember anything the next day. Chloe got so drunk that we were even able to talk her into going up and singing. Her voice was reminiscent of Dolly Parton with a Nora Jones twist. That sounded like a bizarre combination, but when Chloe sang, people listened. She had that same quality as Lucah did. Mesmerizing. It also caused her to get hit on by men, which was one of the reasons she preferred not to sing in public.
There was a moment of stunned silence when she finished as everyone came back from wherever she’d taken us all.
She stumbled back to the table, which was shocking, because she’d been completely lucid for the song.
Lucah cut everyone off, to the tune of many boos and lots of soggy napkins being thrown at him. We got all the girls into cabs and made sure they were getting where they were supposed to go. Lucah had only had the one whiskey, and I hadn’t had any, so we walked for a little bit, enjoying the cool nighttime air. The city was still alive and kicking, and music and laughter spilled out from the restaurants and bars into the streets.
“You ready for tomorrow?” I’d almost completely forgotten about going with Lucah to meet his family. That was probably a good thing, because I hadn’t had much time to fret and work myself up about it. In contrast with everything that was happening at work, it wasn’t that big of a deal, actually.
“I hope they like me,” I said, and I knew what his answer would be, but I needed him to understand how seriously I took this step, and how much I valued it.
“I’m not even going to dignify that with a response, because you’re being ridiculous again, Sunshine.” He put his arm around me and pulled me close as we walked.