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.
“But I want you to. I like it when you reassure me.” He gave me a look.
“You want to walk home? Or take a cab?”
“Walk all the way home?” It was quite a trek. I’d never done it before, but I’d probably never been sober when I’d left the bar before either.
“We could try. But you might have to carry me.” I was used to wearing heels, but walking a long distance on uneven sidewalks was different than walking on tile floors and carpeting at the office.
“The things we do for love,” he said and picked me up. I squealed.
“You didn’t have to do it right now! I don’t want you to hurt your back.”
He just shook his head and carried me a few more feet before setting me down.
“Rory, you would never break my back. There’s not enough of you. Shit, sometimes I wonder how it is that women have such warped perceptions of themselves.”
“Well, we could get into media and how it brainwashes us with an ideal that doesn’t even exist outside of Photoshop, but let’s not go there.” He smiled and we just kept walking.
“Are you sure they’re going to like me?”
Five
“It looks pretty like that,” Lucah said the next morning when I took my hair down. I’d left it in the braid all night, and now it was beach-wavy. Lucah ran his fingers through it and separated some of the waves. It did look pretty good. I should do it like that more often.
I was fussing about my appearance. I didn’t want to look too formal, but I also wanted to make a good impression. I finally settled on dark jeans, a pair of my red heels (for confidence) and a black and white nautical-looking t-shirt with a pair of silver hoops for my ears. Lucah was also casual in another pair of distressed jeans and a Jimi Hendrix shirt.
“You’re so cool, Lucah. You’re like, way too cool for me.” That earned me another slap on the ass. I definitely wasn’t going to let him make us late by getting me naked again.
“Should we bring anything? Oh my God. I should bring something, right? Can we stop somewhere so I can get something?” My mind started racing, trying to think of what little girls would want, and remembering what I had loved when I was little. Ponies? Mermaids?
Lucah put both hands on my shoulders. I was being much more neurotic than usual, and I was afraid I was going to lose it one time too many and he would realize I was too much work . . .
There I went again. Freaking out about freaking out.
“I’m okay,” I said, putting my hands up. “I’m good. Had a moment of weakness. Resorted to my old ways, but I am going to change and try to be less of a worrywart.” That was the nice way to put it.
“I’m proud of you. That is a very worthy goal. And no. You don’t have to bring anything, but if you want to stop, we can stop.” I got a kiss on the forehead for that one.
A little while later we walked to the parking garage where Lucah was keeping his car. I didn’t even know he had one until he told me about it.
“In addition to my stuff, my pictures and everything,” he said as he led me up the stairs of the garage to almost the top level, “this car has been with me through everything. Until you, there was very little, other than my family and my job, that I loved as much as this car.” He paused next to a vehicle covered in a white cloth. I thought it was a sedan, by the shape.
“Are you ready?” I had rarely seen him this excited. Like a kid on Christmas morning who knew he was getting a pony. With a flourish, he whipped the cloth off the car and let it fall onto the concrete. Very dramatic.
Okay, so I didn’t know much about cars. But I knew that this was something special. It was electric blue and looked like a bad boy in an 80s movie would drive it to pick up the young, innocent girl and do wicked things with her in the backseat. I wanted to do wicked things in the backseat. One quick look showed me that they were black leather. Nice.
“It’s a 1985 Chevy Camaro. I won’t bore you with all the details, but it’s a sweet ride.” He put his hand on the hood, like he was petting a dog. Or an old friend. It was both cute and a little disturbing. But I could appreciate getting attached to something like this. I looked down at my red shoes and clicked my heels together. Yeah, I could understand getting attached to an inanimate object.