Sweet Harmonies Page 10

  But Ryan seemed so comfortable addressing Noah. He looked him in the eye, talked to him directly, and spoke to him in a normal voice. In short, he treated him like a human being.

  One point for you, Ryan, she thought to herself approvingly.

  Oh, who was she kidding? If she were keeping score, this would now be approximately point number 143 in Ryan's favor. But who's counting?

  “Well,” said Noah slightly tremulously, nervousness starting to show through in his face and voice again, “I was kind of wondering, because I wanted to learn how to play the guitar like you can, and my Dad said that he would buy me one, and if you would, um, teach me, then it could be lessons and you could be my teacher,” he finished, his nerves getting the better of him and causing him to rush through the end of his proposal, stringing the words together quickly.

  Amanda jumped in to help, “And, obviously, we would pay you,” she said, “But, if you'd be willing to give Noah guitar lessons, we think it would be a really great experience for him.”

  “I'd love to,” Ryan said, “and please don't worry about paying.”

  “Oh, no, absolutely. We weren't asking you to do it as a favor,” Amanda assured him.

  “Well, either way,” Ryan said, “I'd be happy to. Why don't you stop by the cafe later this week and we'll work out a schedule?”

  Noah beamed. “All right!” he shouted, pumping his fist into the air, “I'm gonna play the guitar!”

  And with that, he ran to the middle of the stage and broke into some seriously rocking air guitar, channeling some heavy metal thrashing while he was at it.

  Ryan chuckled, “Um, I don't know if you're going to be playing it exactly like that, buddy, but I can definitely help you get the basics down pat.”

  “All right!” Noah enthused again, pumping his fist into the air. He then scampered offstage.

  Amanda ran after him, calling, “Hold up, buddy! I'm your ride!”

  Ryan and Karina waved at Amanda and Noah as they left, and then were hit suddenly and simultaneously with the realization of how very alone they were in the big, empty auditorium.

  Ryan leaned down close to Karina's face seductively. “You know what I always get the urge to do when I'm alone with a beautiful woman in a big, empty auditorium like this?” he whispered huskily.

  Karina shook her head, her voice disabled, her breath suspended, every nerve in her body tingling, awaiting his response.

  Ryan took his time, dragging the moment out, teasing her. Finally, he slowly whispered, “Play my guitar.”

  They both started laughing, and Karina hit him playfully on the shoulder. Then, through her giggles, she said, “Honestly, so do I.”

  “I don't suppose you have yours?” he asked.

  “Never go anywhere without it,” she said firmly.

  “In your car?” he asked.

  “Yep,” she replied.

  “Meet you back here in five?” he challenged.

  She smiled, upping the ante. “Make it four.”

  --- ~ ---

  Karina raced back into the auditorium, carrying her guitar in front of her carefully so as not to bump it into anything.

  To her shock, Ryan was already reclining on a folding chair up on the stage, his guitar out of the case, and was noodling around on the strings, conjuring scales and chords and bits of melody.

  “Where you been, slowpoke?” he asked teasingly, inclining his head towards the empty folding chair he had set up for her next to his.

  “How could you possibly have gotten back and forth to your truck in that amount of time?” she said incredulously, “Where were you parked?”

  He laughed, “Fine, I admit it, my guitar was here the whole time, sitting under the front row. I only proposed the race because...well, to be honest, I thought it would be funny to see your face when you came rushing back in here, only to see me kicking back like I'd been here for an hour.”

  She laughed along with him, “OK, I see how it is. Nicely done, Ryan, nicely done.”

  She set her case down, opened it, and removed her guitar. She slid the strap over her shoulder and settled herself into the folding chair that Ryan had brought up on stage for her. She began plucking notes from the strings, following along with him, playing a complementary harmony to his melody, and joining her voice with his, again in harmony, when he began to sing.

  She couldn't remember the last time that she had had this much fun.

  There was no purpose to their playing, no end game. They weren't writing a song for her next project, she wasn't auditioning him to play in her band. They were just using their instruments and their voices to make music, pure and simple, just for the sheer pleasure of it.

  It was almost too sweet to bear.

  It was exactly what she had been missing.

  As the minutes turned into hours and neither of them showed signs of tiring, Karina again felt the connection between them growing and strengthening, like a tangible cord that was wrapping itself intricately in and around them.

  It was fed by the music. It was fed by their growing trust in one another. And it was certainly fed by the long, lust-filled glances they continually exchanged as the music filled the auditorium hour after hour.

  Karina was still a little spooked by the sheer strength of her physical and emotional reaction to Ryan. After all, having strong feelings puts you into a vulnerable position with someone, and vulnerable was something that Karina NEVER was.

  But, she was definitely making the switch from being mostly-freaked to being mostly-intrigued with the unexpected development of Ryan popping into her life.

  Chapter 9

  The next morning, in what seemed like the cruelest instance possible of deja vu, Karina was jerked out of a deep sleep by the loud pealing of her front doorbells.

  Again, she sat bolt upright. Again, she fumbled for her alarm clock. Again, it was not too far into the six o'clock hour. And again, it was a glowing and spandex-clad Sam who stood at her front door, bouncing from foot to foot so as not to let her heart rate slow.

  “We really need to stop meeting like this,” Karina grumbled as Sam jogged through the front door past her, and then into the kitchen.

  “I wanted to find out how the try-outs went,” Sam bubbled, pulling her customary water bottle out of Karina's refrigerator.

  “You realize that you continually dropping by my house at this time every morning is only going to make me stop stocking water,” she told Sam as she plopped herself down into a kitchen table chair.

  Sam shrugged nonchalantly.

  “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but threatening to withhold water will only make me bring my own,” she rhymed.

  Karina laughed.

  Sam whirled towards Karina and cried, “Yes! I made you laugh! I did it! I am getting better!”

  “It's early, my defenses are down,” Karina protested, but then conceded, “Although, that one was pretty cute. I will admit to improvement.”

  “So...tell me about the try outs,” Sam pushed.

  “What do you want to know?” Karina teased.

  “How did things shape up with your...” at this point, Sam lowered the timbre of her voice, affecting a Mae West, va-va-va-voom inflection, “committee co-chair?”

  Karina laughed again, “Sammi, only you could make the phrase 'committee co-chair' sound naughty.”

  “I think you're avoiding the question,” Sam stated matter of factly.

  Karina sighed, “Maybe I am, a little, but not because there's anything I don't want to tell you, Sam. Only because I'm not quite sure what to make of things myself. I'm confused. And I'm never confused! Not about guys! Guys are the simplest creatures in the world. Feed them, let them play video games, and manipulate their joystick every so often? They're happy as clams. Simple.”

  “Maybe Ryan is a better class of guy than you usually deal with,” Sam suggested.

  Karina conceded the point glumly, “He'd have to be. But that still doesn't account for why his presence com
pletely throws my system out of whack. I breathe funny, my heart races, my skin gets flushed, and my brain stops working!”

  “You're allergic to him,” Sam concluded.

  “Don't think I haven't considered that, my dear little budding smart ass!” Karina said miserably, “And the worst part is, all of this happens around the ONE person in the world that I'd actually like to impress. I could give a crap what anyone else on the planet thinks of me. The one and only person that I want to think I am cool? He's the one and only person I seem to have a biological imperative to act like a moron around.”

  Sam sighed dreamily, “Aaaahhhhh, love....”

  But Karina had built up a head of steam, and did not even stop to acknowledge Sam's comment. She continued, “And, you know what? I lied. That's not even the worst part. The ACTUAL worst part is that, while on one hand all of my idiot antics around Ryan over the past few weeks collectively form the single most humiliating series of events in my life, I actually actively look FORWARD to the opportunity to throw myself on that fire again! I can't WAIT to see him. Any time we're apart, I start counting the minutes until I see him again, and am therefore afforded yet another chance to make a total fool of myself. Am I crazy?”

  Sam took her hand, “Crazy in love.”

  Karina shook her head. “That was Beyonce. Not me.”

  Sam shrugged, “It's you now. Plus, I don't know why this is upsetting you so much. This sounds to me like what everybody in the world wants to have happen to them. This sounds like the fairy tale.”

  Karina waved her hand dismissively, and more than a little irritation tinged her voice as she snapped, “You just don't understand because you've never had a boyfriend. Once you get a little experience...”

  Even as the words were escaping her mouth, she heard her own condescending tone and saw the hurt in Sam's demeanor as she suddenly sat straighter. Karina looked up, meeting Sam's stricken gaze, and said, “Oh, no, Sammi, I didn't mean it! Seriously. I didn't mean it at all.”

  “No,” said Sam in a small, hurt voice, “You're right. I don't have any experience. What do I know?”

  “You know plenty,” Karina assured her, “Why do you think I keep pouring my heart out to you morning after morning?”

  Sam smiled, “I guess it must be because I do have good insights.”

  “No,” Karina joked, “It's because you show up at my door at an ungodly hour and press me for gossip before my senses have had a chance to kick in. But, hey, you're insightful enough to do that, right?”

  Sam laughed, “My motto has always been, why mess with a winning system?”

  Karina smiled and took both of Sam's hands in hers, looking into her eyes sincerely, “In all seriousness, though, I'm sorry. That was a super bitchy thing to say.”

  Then Karina got up and walked around to Sam's side of the table. “See? To show you how sorry I truly am, I'm even going to hug your sweatiness, exposing myself to the dangers of second-hand sweat.”

  Sam laughed, “Well, to make you pay for it, I'm not going to turn that offer down, which is what I know you were secretly hoping for.”

  She wrapped her arms around Sam and they shared a hug.

  “Good, I deserve it,” Karina shot back with a crooked grin. She padded back to her chair and flopped back down in it.

  “I don't know, Sam,” she sighed, “I'm starting to think maybe what I'm going through is really just pent up lust. Maybe it's just that our relationship isn't consummated yet. Maybe if I just had sex with him, it would get him out of my system, so to speak.”

  “Is that how that works?” Sam asked with a faux-innocent tone as she cocked her head to the side, “because, like you pointed out, I don't have a ton of real-world experience, but from my observations, it's pretty much the opposite. Sleeping with a guy generally makes you quite a bit MORE wrapped up in him than you were before, not less.”

  Karina considered Sam's words, “Hmmm. Maybe. For other girls. But not for me,” she shrugged, “I've never really been all that emotional about sex. I mean, it is what it is. A physical urge, a biological imperative.”

  Sam, in turn, considered Karina's words, “Maybe. But, then again, maybe that comes back to my original assertion – that Ryan is a higher class of guy than you usually deal with.”

  Karina made a show of thinking about this, but it was clear that she had already latched firmly onto her new theory. She shook her head, “No, I'm pretty sure, now that I think of it, that this whole mind-body-soul discombobulation-twitterpation-obsession thing I have going on here? Is entirely the result of an unhealthy buildup of sexytime hormones in my brain.”

  Sam looked skeptical, “I'm no doctor, but I don't think that's how it works.”

  Karina would not be dissuaded, “Well, like you said, you're not a doctor.”

  “Well, be that as it may, I have enough of a medical background to know that 'sexytime hormones' is not a valid scientific designation. And by 'enough of a medical background' I mean none at all. Because everyone actually knows that's not a thing.”

  Karina shook her head, “Look, think of it this way. It's like pressure building up inside a balloon. The balloon gets stretched thinner and thinner the more air that gets squeezed inside it, creating an untenable and unsustainable situation. What I really need to do is...”

  “Pop the balloon?” Sam interjected, “Metaphorically speaking, of course.”

  “Exactly!” said Karina, pointing at her.

  Sam sighed, “So, if your brain is the balloon in this story, you do realize that after it gets popped, it ends up spread across the room in tiny little pieces, right?”

  Karina shrugged, “It's not a perfect metaphor.”

  Sam parried, “It's not a perfect situation.”

  Karina flashed Sam her pearly whites and asserted, “Nope, but it's about to be vastly improved.”

  Sam looked unconvinced, but conceded, “OK. You know yourself better than anyone. Whatever you say.”

  Karina laughed, “That, right there? Has always been my motto!”

  --- ~ ---

  “Curtain in 45 minutes!” called Amanda into the crowded backstage area where Karina and Ryan were attempting to corral the contestants who had made the final cut and comprised the lineup of the Town Follies, “You only have 45 minutes to be completely costumed, made up, and ready to take the stage!”

  Karina turned to Ryan, her eyes shining. “This is exciting, isn't it? I know I was a little hesitant to take it on at first, but I'm actually really into it now.”

  Ryan smiled, his excitement matching hers, “I know, me too! I mean, I know it doesn't make sense, but I feel a sense of pride. I feel like the Follies was our baby.”

  Karina put her arms out expansively and donned a faux-TV-announcer voice, “Ryan and Karina, congratulations! You are the proud parents of a bouncing baby talent show!”

  Ryan laughed, “I think the nervous energy back here is infectious. Do you feel that? It's like the air is crackling or something.”

  Karina nodded, “Oh, yeah. This is one of the best parts of performing. It's like when you kiss someone, that delicious instant before your lips meet.”

  Ryan shook his head, “It's crazy. I mean, it actually feels like something amazing is about to happen. Like...anything could happen, and probably will. Nothing feels out of the realm of possibility.”

  Karina nodded, “Yes, that's it exactly. I've never thought to phrase it precisely like that, but you're completely right. The sense of boundless possibility is the crucial element that separates pre-show excitement from other kinds of excitement.”

  Ryan exhaled happily and exclaimed, “Man! It's intoxicating! Why would anyone do drugs when you could have this?”

  Karina looked at him, slightly puzzled, “Wait, you mean you're not just making idle chit chat, this is actually the first time you've felt this?”

  Ryan nodded, like it was obvious, “Sure it is. Of course.”

  Karina was taken aback, “So...you've really never performed
before?”

  He shrugged, “I mean, at the cafe. You've seen it. Nothing even remotely like this.”

  She stepped closer to him, unsure of how to proceed. She touched his arm and spoke slowly, carefully, “Okaaayyy...so, here's the thing. I've done something. In retrospect now? Maybe it was slightly insensitive. Maybe not the smartest move. But after I tell you what I've done, please try to remember that my heart was in the right place.”

  He eyed her suspiciously, “What exactly did you do?”

  She laughed, “We are SO going to look back on this and laugh one day.”

  His gaze was still suspicious, “Look back on what?”

  She smiled uncertainly, “Well...when I was putting together the absolute final list order of acts to send to the printer, I...uh...put your name on the list.”

  He looked as if he didn't understand, “The list?”

  “Yes. Of acts. Who are performing tonight.”

  He shook his head, not comprehending, “But I'm not performing.”

  She laughed, trying to make light, “Well, that's the thing. You actually are.”

  He started to look a little freaked out. “What?!”

  Karina tried a different tactic. She threw her arms wide, weakly, and gave a little halfhearted jump. In a weak, high voice, she cried, “Surprise!”

  Ryan laughed, but the slight edge of panic showing through at the edges of the laugh let her know that it wasn't an entirely lighthearted chuckle.

  “So...tonight...literally, in just a little over an hour...I'm supposed to go out in front of a couple thousand people and play. No warning. No rehearsal. No time to wrap my mind around it and get my head on straight. Just walk out there and play.”

  She smiled overly-brightly. “Yep! You just about nailed it!”

  His eyes widened, “I don't know if I can do that.”

  She nodded gravely, taking his shoulders in her hands.

  “Ryan,” she said intensely, looking straight into his eyes, “you absolutely can. This is what it means to be an entertainer. If there's a crowd and an opportunity to perform, you jump at it. This is what it is to live and breathe the stage. You talked about wanting to make music your life. Now's your chance. You have a repertoire. You're prepared. You can do this. More than that, you can kill it dead. I've seen you, I know what you can do. The world deserves to see it, too.”