Four years and three hundred and sixty four days later
The thing about the New York subway is that you’re never the strangest thing on it.
I look down the half-empty car at a guy in a neon-green jumpsuit who’s got a boa constrictor wrapped around his body.
Dude’s just casually taking the train with a whole-ass snake.
With brows drawn, I turn to the other end, where there’s a couple doing some kind of acrobatic pole dancing. There’s not even an upturned hat masquerading as a tip jar, they’re just practicing their skills.
This is why I never hold the poles. Chances are, it was rubbing someone’s unmentionables.
I shake my head, refocusing my face forward because the best show is actually the one in front of me—a sweet-looking little old lady in comfortable shoes with a French loaf in her purse and a Kindle in her lap.
The text is oversize because she must need help seeing the words.
Words likethrobbing memberandwet folds—
I chuckle to myself, unable to complete the thought, because it really is always the innocent-looking ones. Although, good for her. At least she’s getting some kind of action the day before Valentine’s Day.
AllIhave is the company of Benny, my best friend, who’s sitting next to me on our way to a Chinese restaurant, owned by an Italian dude, in Hell’s Kitchen. Those three qualifiers aren’t even the strangest part about my day. Nope, it’s that we’ve been hired to play Cupids. To entertain a bunch of ladies as some kind of paid-under-the-table Galentine’s Day brunch show.
We’re singing for our supper, so to speak. Here’s the thing, Benny can’t sing. Neither can I.
But we need rent money.
My eyes close for a moment, letting that thought sink in, because this is what my life’s devolved into. I’m a twenty-seven-year-old out-of-work actor, forced to become a singing Cupid just so I can survive. I have, in fact, hit my career low.
Benny looks up from his phone.
“Damn. She canceled.”
“Huh?” I answer, lost in thought watching someone’snonnahighlightmy fingers couldn’t fit around him.
“Jesus Christ, is she doing a Coke can?” Benny whispers, having upside-down read what I did too. “That feels like a hospital visit ... He’d have to have some kind of infection to get that kind of girth, right?”
I clear my throat, forcing him to stop talking.
“Who canceled?” I redirect.
He grins and teasingly winks at the lady when she looks up before he shifts his gaze back to me. “The girl I’ve been talking to.”
“The vet?”
He nods. “Yeah, she said spending the night together was moving too fast.”
“How long have you been dating?”
“Whoa ...” he draws out. “Easy on dating. We just started talking.”
“So why’d you ask her out for the day before Valentine’s?” He grins, making me shake my head. “You didn’t know tomorrow was Valentine’s, did you?”
He winces. I laugh. What a dumbass.
But Benny recovers quickly. “Let’s go to Patty’s after we’re done here?”
Patty’s is an Irish pub below our shared apartment. It’s for lifers and the occasional bachelorette party.
I shake my head because I’m not in the mood. Not even to drown my sorrows over my life.
