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| Raymond performing as Juan Paulo Audience: Tabby as Scarlet, Me as Vanessa, Ankha as Talia |
Talia showed up at the crack of dawn every day. She wasn’t blasting her music anymore but much to Alejandro’s chagrin, she played each of her daily selections close to 50 times in a row. So he often ran through his daily routine in the storeroom where only a hint of vibration was audible and Emilia was his only company.
Funny enough, this arrangement produced some unexpected benefits for the business as a whole. As she picked up more responsibilities with inventory, Emilia began noticing patterns in terms of which liquors and ingredients were most popular. She made various suggestions about ordering some spirits in bulk opposed to two or three bottles at a time. Customers were also skewing younger; falling under that age group herself helped inform her decisions.
Talia appreciated this new initiative, of course, but whatever praise she offered was fleeting and she’d depart abruptly to address another matter. These occurrences became more frequent over time to the point even Emilia knew something wasn’t right.
“Is it just me, Alejandro, or does she seem extra distracted these days?” She finally asked after three days of similar events.
“Trust me, it isn’t just you,” he sighed but quickly recovered, “come on, let’s move onto our next order of business. Just because Talia is distracted doesn’t mean we can afford that luxury ourselves.”
Although Monday’s follow-up appointment with the doctor went well and her prescribed break from sexual activity had reached its end, Talia decided to forgo a second Wednesday. She found Amber at the bar that morning, who was dressed in leather from head to toe. She fidgeted with the gloves encasing her forearms but ceased the moment Talia sat next to her. After hastily crossing her arms against her chest, she demanded, “what do you want?”
For a moment she closed her eyes and deeply inhaled to defuse the tension in her ribs. Newly composed, she replied, “I’m here to offer you another show tonight if you’re interested.”
“No thanks. After the lukewarm reception I got from my circus act last week, I decided I don’t want your sloppy seconds.” She flipped her hair and hopped off her stool. “You can count on me for tomorrow when the crowd knows they can expect me.” Not sparing another second, she left for the stage to set up her chair routine with Vanessa. Once there, however, she shared a brief glance with Alejandro.
Talia noticed this silent exchange immediately. She turned to face him only to find he disappeared below the bar to count rocks glasses. She barked, “You told me last week was a massive success. You better not have lied to me.”
“Believe me, Talia,” he exhaled with an unmistakable hint of exasperation coloring his tone, “I never lie when it comes to the business side of this operation.”
Noticing a similar resolve in his eyes when he reappeared, she relented. “Fine, never mind it then.”
As Thursday night approached, the band’s rehearsals and performances grew more rigorous. Juan Paulo’s songwriting continued at a blistering pace. More than once, Scarlet compared his level of dedication to Talia’s. She and Javier also agreed that Juan Paulo was staging the upcoming show as a last-ditch attempt to change her mind about him.
Scarlet maintained her commitment to the sirens, never missing a day of rehearsal. But as she spent more time with the band, Javier began picking up on an interesting habit of hers. During certain songs, she got on her feet and lost herself in the mood as the rest of the world disappeared around her.
Finally, at the end of Wednesday’s rehearsal, he asked her about it while walking her home. “What do you think about when you dance to our music?”
“Oh my…” She skidded to a stop and temporarily buried her face in her hands. Her freckles were camouflaged by her immense blushing when she emerged. “I thought everyone was practicing too hard to notice.”
“Well, don’t be embarrassed.” He gently nudged his shoulder against her. “Your moves are really good. In fact, I can see you up there with us. Especially those slinky steps. They’d give the slow songs a whole new dimension.”
“Oh, I don’t know…” She combed her short hair past her ears. “I’ve never done a solo before. Even at our club…” She shook her head at the reminder. “Being on my own terrifies me. I can’t explain why.”
“Hey, it’s ok. Come here,” he opened his arms and she slowly slide into them, “you don’t need to explain anything. I only ask that you think about it. Besides, you wouldn’t be on your own up there. You’d have me and JP as your teammates.”
Scarlet inhaled Javier’s hickory cologne to draw a wave of calm around her. The edges of her mouth curled as she imagined what it would be like. Her hips sliding from left to right and back again to the notes of her boyfriend’s acoustic guitar. The occasional flirting eye contact. Her mind continued to wander until the daydream took her back to his place where they could be alone. His strong lips on hers. His hand on her hip to pull their bodies closer to one another. She didn’t know how long it would take her to reach that level of comfort with him, but she hoped it wouldn’t be much longer.
After stepping away, she nodded with a warm glow in her eyes. “I’ll think about it. Thanks, Javi.”
* * *
Talia
returned to the apartment from Thursday’s rehearsal with Ruby and Amber just as
Vanessa was coming out of the bathroom. Fresh curls framed her face and the
smallest hint of mascara made her green eyes pop. Her ash blonde hair ran down
her bare back in a cascade of waves. A slinky tangerine dress accentuated her
curves. Mahogany sandals revealed a matching pedicure.
After
taking it all in and circling Vanessa a few times, Emilia broke the silence.
“Well, what do you think?”
“Hmm,”
a slight chuckle escaped her lips, “I think I have some work ahead of me so I
am able to compete. But for tonight, it appears I may be outclassed.” A slight
brush of the shoulder served as a parting gesture as she disappeared into her
bedroom to get ready.
Noting
Emilia’s perplexed state, Vanessa explained, “Coming from Talia, that’s a
compliment. Trust me.”
“So
you really think tonight isn’t going to be too weird?” She made sure to keep
her voice low to prevent Talia from overhearing. “When I suggested this set-up
in the first place, I never imagined it would be this awkward.”
“Hey, don’t worry about it. It’s not
like I wouldn’t have come up with this idea on my own eventually.” As she studied
the closed door, she added, “Talia definitely approves. There’s no question
about that. But it will be interesting to see if anything changes after
tonight. Going off what Scarlet has been saying about JP over the last few
days, he hasn’t given up hope she could still change her mind.”
* * *
Once the wardrobe was officially
decided, Scarlet ran on ahead to catch up with the band. Juan Paulo greeted her
with the same warm smile before downing the contents of his water bottle with
vigor. Javier clarified, “We’d been going since early this morning. JP’s
starting to run his voice ragged.”
He came up for air to defend
himself, but his voice broke on every other word. “You worry too much, Javi. You
always do…”
“Ok, ok,” he clapped his hands a
couple of times, “that’s enough talking for you. You need to save your voice
for the show, remember?”
“Is the final setlist ready?”
Scarlet asked.
Juan Paulo moved to answer, but
Javier quickly covered his mouth to hush him up. “We’ve decided on five songs.
Three fast and two slow.” He then leaned to whisper in her ear. “Have you given
any more thought to my suggestion?”
She shook her head. “Not tonight.
But soon, I promise. I really want to give it a try.”
“Muy Bueno! This is exciting. I
suggested it to JP and he’s on board as well.” He didn’t even have to turn his
head to make him go along with the suggestion. His eyes lit up and he nodded
with equal enthusiasm.
“Hey guys,” Steve the drummer called
their attention back to reality, staring down at his watch, “we have 10 minutes
before show time. We’d better get our act together.”
“Thanks, Steve. We’ll go do that.”
Javier started pulling Juan Paulo towards the dressing room when he rooted
himself in place. He pled with his eyes, panning them between his bandmate and
Scarlet. “Fine. One more thing, but that’s it.” He rolled his eyes before leaving
them alone.
Juan Paulo stepped forward, clearing
his throat. Much of the rasp had dissipated but remained a factor. “Any
suggestions about what Talia might like?” He coughed for a moment and braced
his windpipe to ease the tension.
“It’d been a while since we’d listened
any music from male artists. But I remember from years ago, she has a thing for
the high range.”
He nodded, his smile growing as the
plan materialized in his head. “I have just the thing. For the finale.” One
more throat clear and he was gone.
Vanessa and Talia, who was dressed
in the same green dress from that first meeting at karaoke, took their seats
next to Scarlet in the front row just as the home lights dimmed. Juan Paulo
eased his way into the set with an opening ballad, but his voice steadily
regained its strength over time. The special guests in the front row were all of
the motivation he needed. The rock number that he wrote after first performing
with Talia made a reappearance. Other songs fell under a different category.
They were all about waiting for the right moment, the right person, before
taking a chance on love.
For the finale, the set-up on stage
changed dramatically. Steve and Javier took their bows and left Juan Paulo with
nothing but a stool, a spotlight, a microphone and an acoustic guitar.
Following Scarlet’s suggestion, he favored falsetto to bring the raw emotion
the song needed to get its meaning across. The second wind his voice enjoyed
through the showcase was beginning to wane, but it wound up working in his favor.
All
the while, there was no mistaking who this song was for. His eyes never left
Talia’s. Every couple of bars, she had to remind herself to swallow and to
breathe. The lyrics was sickly sweet, reading almost like a proposal, but the sardonic
humor that had become her bread and butter over the years never surfaced. Even
more surprising, the edges of her eyes singed with tears and the slightest hint
of a smile crept across her face. Thanks to the dim lighting in the room, no
one was aware of this turn of events except for herself and for that, she was
very grateful.
Music:
Off the top of my head, I'm not sure of all of the songs I'd have Juan Paulo do in this showcase. The reprise song would be "Out of my head" by Daughtry. But two of the new songs are by Ryan Cabrera.
"Let's take our time" is somewhere in the middle of the set.
And "True" would be the final song where he's solo with a guitar and microphone.
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