“You did,” he yelled up at me.
I mock-whispered into the mic. “He’s just saying that because I put out.”
Laughs rose and fell. “But really, he is a funny guy. I’m giving him shit right now, but he’s always made me laugh. In fact, I should get ahead of a rumor from today.”
I sat on the edge of the stage in front of Guy. “You thought I wasn’t going to share this one, didn’t you? You don’t get off that easy.”
Guy’s hand was over his face, laughing his sweet “a-ha, a-ha, a-ha” honking laugh.
“So we were out, doing our cute little NYC summertime things. Stopping in little shops. Eating ice cream. Walking the High Line. I said I wanted to take a nap before I came to meet you lovely people tonight.”
“And that clever, beautiful, muscular, attractive little fucker sitting right there,” I said, gesturing to him in front of me, “walks us into the Ritz-Carlton. Neither of us are staying there, mind you. He tells the lady at the desk,” I mimicked his enthusiasm. “‘My friend would like to take a nap. What’s your hourly rate?’”
I barely got his joke out without laughing myself. The crowd followed my lead.
“Just so you’re all aware: I am not actually a sex worker. Sex work is work, though,” I raised my eyebrows and pointed out to the crowd. “But my very special friend and I did not need a room at the Ritz to do seedy deeds. If you hear that one, just go ahead and ignore it.”
The rest of the show went off without a hitch. A stagehand led Guy, Tania, and a few other friends back to see me after I was done. Guy stood back while I hugged my friends and offered to take pictures of us. I, of course, made him get in them.
“So we going dancing or what?” Tania asked.
I looked to Guy. “You cool with that?”
“Of course,” he grinned.
“Y’all go pick a place and we’ll meet you there,” I said. Tania wiggled her eyebrows at me on her way out. When the door clicked shut, I gave Guy a hard hug. I put his face in my hands, stroking my thumbs at his jaw.
“I read your note.”
Guy smiled. “What do you think?”
“I think I don’t deserve you.”
He gave me a quick peck, looking down into my eyes. “I promise that you do.”
“I left you.”
“I told you I would wait forever, Birdy. I knew you still loved me.” He touched my bird necklace. “Did you wear this for me?”
I nodded. “Every day.”
“That kept me going. Anytime I saw you in it, I knew.”
We stood holding each other. I breathed Guy in and listened to the steady drum of his heartbeat under my ear. We didn’t need to say anything else. We wereusagain. The warmth that we’d shared for years was back.
We took that warmth with us to the bar, where we danced like fools with my friends. It was something of an elevated dive bar, playing throwback hits. In all our time together, we’d only ever danced in frat house basements. We’d never properly gone dancing. I should have known Guy would be a good dancer since he’s so comfortable in his body. It felt like being at a wedding: friends and loved ones all around, goofing off and having fun.
We mixed it up with friend dancing and some coupling off together. We got a little tipsy, but nothing out of control. Just blissful and free. Well, I guess Guy spilled a drink down my front, then made a show of cleaning off my boobs. People took our picture, but we didn’t care. I slipped off my shoes because they were holding back my dancing skills. Guy wrinkled his nose at me but then took off his own shoes.
“You can’t judge me then do the same thing!”
“If there’s glass to step on, I’ll step on it first,” he shouted over the music. It made truly no sense but we were in hysterics. Those drunken decisions that you know are terrible even at the time.
Luckily, no glass met bare feet. I was just happy to be out doing normal fun stuff with him. We’d both grown, but we still played together in similar ways. I hadn’t realized how much Guy was on my wavelength until I had him back.
That whole day had an untouchable joy to it. For that night, I let myself dream. It would all work out. We could have that joy every day. We could make our relationship work.
Chapter 38
