“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” his friends shout around the table.
Victor smiles a little and downs his shot. It helps cheer him up a little, but he doesn’t engage in idle conversations around him. At first, Victor was thinking about James, but now, his attention returns to the man in the mirror. He doesn’t talk about it because he doesn’t want his friends to worry. He still thinks he was seeing things, but the man was all too real.
As soon as the food arrives, he cheers up even more. He’s been looking forward to eating the best jambalaya in New Orleans; at least, that’s what Lupe mentioned. As Victor starts eating, he begins to talk more, which makes his friends happy to see their friend finally emerging from the funk he’s been in. Victor lets outa little chuckle here and there, still trying to engage, even though he would prefer staying in bed for the weekend.
Toward the end of the meal, the server brings over a slice of cake with a scoop of ice cream on the side and sets it in front of Victor. This is the part Victor hates. Everyone sings “Happy Birthday.” It’s not because everyone is singing off-key; it’s because everyone is giving him attention he didn’t ask for.
Afterward, Victor and his friends leave the restaurant and head down to Bourbon Street. Everyone is talking about which bar to go to first, while Victor walks in the middle of the group. Along the way, they stop at several shops to check out beads and masks. As Victor looks down the crowded street, he is startled when Lupe adorns a set of beads around his neck with a large birthday cake dangling at the bottom. Lupe places a kiss on Victor’s cheek as he rolls his eyes.
As they continue down Bourbon Street, Victor stops in front of a bar and looks inside. “They’re playing ‘80s music. We must stop here first.” Victor says enthusiastically.
They walk inside and head to an open spot along the wall. Lucas and Jon head to the bar to buy the first round. Victor starts lip-syncing to “Take On Me” as Frank and Elliott sandwich him while dancing to the music.
Lucas and Jon return with two trays of shots, and Victor’s eyes open wide.
“Oh fuck, you’re going to kill me,” Victor mentions as the shots are handed out. “This is how my life ends, in a seedy bar on Bourbon Street due to alcohol poisoning.”
“Drink up, bitch!” Jon cheers, forcing a shot glass into Victor’s hand.
Victor rolls his eyes and takes a shot with his friends. Then another, and another. By the fourth shot, he shouts, “WOOHOO!! IT’S MY FUCKING BIRTHDAY, BITCHES!” Allhis friends, including the entire bar, start whooping and cheering.
“There she is!” Elliott shouts, pulling Victor in for a tight bear hug. “About fucking time you got out of your funk.”
Amber kisses Victor’s cheek, “Happy Birthday, my Lesbro.”
After a couple more drinks and singing at the top of their lungs to every song played, they leave the bar to walk to one of the local gay bars Frank suggested.
“Onward! There are shenanigans afoot!” Victor shouts, pointing down the street.
Frank puts his arm around Victor’s shoulders, “You’re drunk.”
Victor smiles back, “And you’re sexy.”
As they laugh, they don’t notice a woman standing just a few doors down on one of the side streets. She’s a tall woman with sepia-colored, reddish-brown skin. Her long, tight braids drape past her shoulders. She leans against a post while smoking an old-fashioned tobacco pipe with her arms crossed. The woman delicately brings her pipe up to her mouth as her deep brown eyes watch Victor and his friends cross the street.
Jon looks over and notices the woman. He gently nods while keeping up with the group. After Victor and his friends are no longer in sight, the woman looks over her shoulder as the mystery man steps out of the shadows.
“Is that him?” she asks the man in her thick Creole accent.
“I believe so,” the man responds softly, his soothing Brazilian accent evident. “I wouldn’t have followed him from Arizona if I didn’t think so. But we won’t know for sure until you talk to him yourself.”
The woman takes a puff from her pipe and blows a small cloud of thick tobacco smoke in the air. “He seems a bit old.”
“Not everyone we find is a spring chicken.” The man puts his hands in his pockets and turns to walk away. “Are you sure he’ll want this life? He’s technically been off our radar for years.”
The woman doesn’t look back, responding, “I think he’ll come to enjoy it. And maybe he will surprise us.” She takes another drag from her pipe, “Besides,” she exhales the smoke and looks deeply into the cloud, “he doesn’t have much of a choice.”
Chapter Three
Victor finally crawls out of bed the next day around midday, still in his clothes from the night before. With one eye open, he looks around the room and sees Elliott and Frank spooning on the other side of the bed. He gets up and walks into the bathroom, groaning all the way. When he turns on the lights, he realizes it was the worst thing to do with a hangover.
Shuffling over to the sink to wash his face, he looks into the mirror and sees a woman with tightly braided hair smoking a pipe in the corner. Victor freezes, unsure he’s hallucinating. The woman smiles back and gives him a wink. He turns his head, but no one is there. Victor looks back in the mirror and sees the woman smiling back at him before she turns and leaves the bathroom. He rushes into the living room of his suite, but no one is there. Lastly, he checks his door, and everything is locked.
Victor rubs his face as he says, “I really need to stop drinking after 2 a.m.”
“Who you talking to?” Elliott asks, rubbing his eye with the heel of his hand.
Victor looks around the room, “No one. I was talking to myself.”
