9 Boyfriends

Chapter 21

-Sang-

At exactly 6:50pm I was pacing in Nathan’s living room. Gabe and Nathan were sitting in the kitchen, leaving me to my thoughts. Victor would be here any minute. I felt amazing in the dress and tall in the shoes. I still am not used to heels so at least all this pacing was giving me some practice. After what felt like a half hour, I looked at the clock, 6:59pm. As if he was just waiting outside for the clock to strike the hour, the doorbell rang at exactly 7pm. I started to run to the door, tripped on my heels and feel onto my knees. Gabe and Nathan ran out to see what the thud was.

“What the fuck happened Trouble!” Nathan had moved forward to help me up. It took a few seconds for me to get my balance back.

“I got excited about the doorbell and tripped. The door! Victor has just been standing out there!” I walked, a little slower than I wanted, to the door and opened it. Victor stood there, with a handful of tulips, moving from foot to foot. He had on black dress pants and matching coat, a white button down shirt and a blue and silver tie that matched the belt on my dress. Gabe thinks of everything. When I opened the door his eyes were looking down at his shiny black shoes, but I saw his eyes sweep up until they locked on mine. The fire inside them was burning bright and I couldn’t look away. Finally a cough from behind us broke the silence. I turned to see Gabe rolling his eyes at Nathan, who must have been the one to cough.

“Hi Princess. You look gorgeous. These are for you.” He held the tulips out to me. They were purple and white parrot tulips and they looked so springy that I wondered where he got them this time of year. I took them from him and brought them close to my nose to smell. “Thank you Victor, they are beautiful.”

Gabe came up behind me and reached around for the flowers. “I will put these in a vase for you Trouble. You two have fun! O and Sang” he paused until I looked at him “don’t let Victor say no when they call him up.” Gabe winked and then walked back into the kitchen. What did that mean? When who called him up? And up to where?

Nathan opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, but instead he just did a small, somewhat weird looking, wave and backed up until he ran into the small table that was by the door. As he was steadying the table, he stuttered out a “bye, see you later” and then quickly followed Gabe. I turned back to Victor to see him smiling after Nathan.

“Well that went better than I thought I could. Ready Princess?” I nodded and followed him out to his car. He opened my door and waited for me to settle into the seat. Once he was settled I asked “what did Gabe mean? About not letting you say no?” Victor didn’t answer at first, but looked over at me and just sighed. “Every once in a while, if the owner of the club is there and sees me, he asks if I can play something when the band is on a break. I usually don’t like playing in front of people, but for some reason, at this club, I can.”

“Maybe it is because your dad isn’t there?” I know he doesn’t like to play the concerts his parents schedule for him because his dad is so rough with him afterwards.

“Maybe. It may also be because they don’t know who I am. The first time I went there I went with Gabe, Nathan, and Luke. The band was on a break and the owner went up to the stage and said that anyone that wanted to play could come up, kind of like an open mic time. I had no intention of doing it of course, but Gabe and Luke practically picked me up and placed me on stage. I played something quick, just wanting to get it over with, but I realized once I was done that it wasn’t that bad. The owner came back on stage and asked me my name. I almost gave him my name, but then I thought, what if someone was here that would recognize the name? I didn’t want it to get out that I was playing at a little Jazz Club. My parents would have a fit and I would probably never be able to go back. So I told him my name is Nathan Taylor. I go back about once a month, and if the owner is there, he calls me up on stage during the break.”