Tracey
It’s Saturday night and Nikki and Alex are insistent I go with them to the Blue Goose for the annual talent show. Anyone in the area with an act is invited to participate. Apparently it’s the event of the season. It’s been sold out for months and they got me a ticket.
“I’m not into it. Can you sell the ticket? Or I’ll give you the money for it. You guys go. Have a good time.”
It’s been weeks since I talked to Dak. I miss him so much. I’m okay though, learning to be a strong, independent woman, like I planned when I came to Bernard. But I’m not into going out to party and risk seeing him out with another girl.
Alex and Nikki see him at the keg parties and he meets them for lunch some days at the Sea Star. They say he asks about me every time he sees them and hasn’t looked at another girl once. I hope that’s true. I can’t even think about him being with Bri or any other girl. He said he would wait and I want to believe he will. I ache to see him, but I never join Nikki and Alex at the parties or their lunches. I can’t be that close to him without wanting to climb into his arms and never let go.
“Come on, Trace. It’s time to join the human race again. You’re a co-ed for chrissakes, not a nun,” Nikki persists. She’s smoking hot tonight in a short black skirt and black tights. She’s rocking a red lace-up bustier top, which is pushing up all her assets, under a black leather jacket, and of course her black Dr. Martin boots.
“Wow, girl. What’s up? Hot date tonight?”
“Could be. We’ll see how it goes.” She gives me a sly grin.
“Bitch you are so coming,” Alex says. “You can see for yourself if Nikki has a hot date.”
“Okay. If it means I get to see Nikki break the heart of some poor unsuspecting boy, I guess I need to go.”
“Hell yes!” Alex cheers. “You want me to do your makeup? I know just what would pop with your auburn hair.”
“Sure. Why not? I could use a makeover.”
“Wear your fabulous purple bandage dress with the lace panels.”
“Really? It’s a bit much isn’t it?”
“Uh, no girlfriend. The color’s perfect on you and it can never be too much. The three of us are going to be so smoking hot tonight when we walk into that bar it’s gonna be all eyes on us.”
Nikki and I can’t stop laughing as Alex parades up and down the room like a model on a catwalk. My mom would love him.
***
When we walk into the Blue Goose an hour later and I take my coat off, Alex whispers against my ear so I can hear him over the crowd, “Girl, every guy in this place just got a big old hard on for you.”
“Eww. Shut up, Alex.”
“I’m serious. Can’t you feel the way you’re being fucked by hundreds of eyes? It’s a good thing you can’t get prego from eye fucks or in about nine months you’d be having multiple births.”
“Alex!” I shriek in laughter. “You know, you seriously need to get over your shyness and say what you feel.”
“Whatever. Just sayin’.”
Nikki is pushing us through the crowd to a table in front of the stage. The Blue Goose has a dinner theater-sized venue where touring musicians and bands wanting to do more intimate shows or try out new music can perform.
“Where are we going? Aren’t all the tables in front already taken?”
Alex quirks a brow. “Connections.”
“I guess so.”
I’m impressed with all the people here. Nikki’s sitting at a table in front of the stage with a reserved sign on it. Alex and I take seats next to her.
“Looking good, sweetheart.” There’s no mistaking the taunting voice. I turn to see Wolfe sitting at the table next to us with several other guys from the hockey team. There’s another table next to them which also has members of the team seated around it. My heart deflates a little because Dak isn’t one of them.
“Hey, Wolfe,” I say. “What’s up?”
I’m surprised to see Dalt and Batt are missing from the group too.
“I’d show you, sweetheart, but it would ruin you for every other guy in the world.”
For crying out loud! Has every guy at this school lost his word filter?
The guys at his table whistle and high five him.
“Nice, asshole,” Nikki sneers.
“You’re looking pretty scrumptious yourself, soccer girl.”
“In your dreams, hockey boy.” Nikki gives him a teasing grin.
“Aw, come on, Nik. You know you love us big hockey men.”
She laughs. “Fuck off, Wolfe.”
Thank goodness the lights dim and the host of the show comes out to announce the first act, because there’s no telling how far down into the gutter this conversation is headed. We order drinks and settle in to the sweet notes of the guy on stage rocking us with an acoustic version of Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes.”
Several Long Island Ice Teas later, having broken my not-to-drink-too-much rule, we’re all enjoying the exceptional level of talent in our small college town. Every few minutes my mind drifts to how much more fun this would be if Dak were here. My stomach clenches when I think about where he might be and who he might be with. It’s ridiculous to be feeling this way. I was the one who asked for the space. I can’t expect him to wait forever.
Alex jumps up and says he has to go.
“Go? Go where? It’s not over,” I say in confusion.
“It’s the last number,” Alex says like that explains why he’s leaving. “I’ll be right back.” He hurries off through the door on the side of the stage.
“Oo-kaay. What’s up with him?” I ask Nikki. She shrugs one shoulder and chews on the straw in her drink.
The host steps back on stage. “I want to thank everyone for coming out tonight. Before we announce the winner, we’ve got a special treat for our last act. Please put your hands together for a new group made up of some of the members of our own champion Bernard hockey team with a supporting role from one of our figure skating champions.”
“What’s going on?” I whisper to Nikki. She shrugs again, sucking on her straw like it’s her lifeline to oxygen.
“Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome The Players!” The stage goes dark and the crowd erupts, especially the tables filled with hockey players next to us. When the spotlights come back up there are five guys on the stage with their backs to us. When the first notes of “I’ll Make Love To You” by Boyz 2 Men pulse through the speakers, the group does sliding sidesteps together from one side and then to the other with some kind of grapevine steps afterward. When they turn to face the crowd I gasp so hard I almost swallow my tongue.
In the back line are Dalt, Batt, Erik, and Alex, and front and center is…no fucking way. Dak? They’re all dressed in matching black button-down shirts and black pants, the same outfit Alex had on when we left the house. And they’re all as scorching hot as the sun. Dak has a microphone in his hand?
“He can sing too?” I ask Nikki. It’s a rhetorical question because I don’t expect her to know the answer.
When Dak begins singing the whole group dances in synchronized choreographed steps, and the room fills with the sounds of girls—and probably some guys—screaming.
How is this possible? Dak sings like a rock star. Of course he does. And the hockey players can dance like B2K? I look at Nikki again in wide-eyed disbelief.
“What. Is. Happening. Right. Now?” I loud whisper.
“He’s making every girl in this room fall in love with him, that’s what. But there’s only one he wants.” She grins and tilts her head. Dak is staring at me while dancing and singing directly to me. I can’t even hear my own thoughts because of all the awws rippling across the room.
“But…but…how…”
“It’s Jeka Jane choreography. Dak got Alex to help him teach it to the guys. They worked on it for weeks, or should I say Alex has pulled his hair out for weeks trying to get these hockey jocks to jook, wop, pop, wobble, and Cupid Shuffle.” Nikki chuckles.
When the music swells, Dak jumps off the stage and drops to his knees right in front of me and when he sings the title line, “I’ll Make Love To You,” I almost fall off my chair. This must be what it means to swoon. Nikki giggles and grabs my arm to keep me from falling.
The music ends and the audience goes crazy. While on his knees, Dak drops his mic. He motions for me to bend down so I can hear him. I do as he asks, holding on to the sides of my chair to keep myself from toppling over. Between the alcohol laced ice teas and how much in love I am with this boy, I’m head over heels as Dak’s dad would say. I can’t hold back the tears in my eyes or the heat pooling between my legs.
“You look like a goddess tonight, baby girl,” he whispers in my ear. “I’m so in love with you, Trace. I know I don’t deserve you and I don’t have all the answers, but if you come back to me I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to find the answers with you. Let’s figure things out together. I’ll spend every day worshipping you, proving to you you’re my whole life, the only woman I want, forever. I love you, Trace. Are you with me, baby?”
I take a deep breath and try to find my voice. How did I become the luckiest girl in the world?
“I’m with you. I don’t need any more time.” Pressing my lips to his, I whisper against them, “I’m in love with you too.” When I throw my arms around his neck, he stands up, circles his arms around my waist, and lifts me off the floor. We stand there holding each other so tight we may never let go. I nestle my head into the curve of his neck under his chin: my safe place, I missed so much.
“By the way, Andersen, you win this one. I can’t sing.” I smile against his skin. “Can we get out of here so you can start submitting to all my demands, or whatever it was you just sang to me?”
Dak’s throat vibrates with this kind of growling noise and I think that’s a yes.
After a few minutes, we become aware of the audience still clapping and cheering. The hockey players at the tables are whistling. When I look up, the other guys are still onstage. Alex and Erik are sucking face like there’s no one else in the room, and Dalt is undressing Nikki with his eyes until she jumps up and says, “I’m outta here.”