Rubies And Wine

V-4

A few nights after allowing myself to get into a rhythm, I think I've finally found my footing in the city. Most of my days begin with taking the city bus to campus, taking the bus again to work, go to work until my shift is over -- if I have one that day -- and come home to chat things up with Suzanne before lying in bed while video chatting with Drew.

"So, you'll be singing this week?" Drew asks with his head buried in a pillow.

"Yeah. They gave me a list of musicals that get requested pretty often and told me to look it up and put my own little spin."

"Your own spin?"

"Like holding a note a bit longer, shifting the tone, or letting customers sing along with the chorus."

He just flashes his signature grin. That's pretty cool. I'll be sure to get the guys together and come see you. We'll just be obnoxiously cheering you on the whole time."

I laugh while trying to keep myself down from keeping Suzanne up. "Oh my god. You wouldn't"

"Try me," he smiles. "Plus, it'll be a good chance for Suzanne and Leo to make out."

"Yeah, if they would actually grow a pair and get together." I say half jokingly and half serious.

Drew scrunches his brow before smirking at me. "They didn't tell you did they?"

"Tell me what?"

He laughs uncontrollably before checking over his shoulder for any of the guys passing by. "They got together. About a day after you guys came over, he called her and said he actually wanted to be with her. Not even a second later, he could hear a girlish squeal on the other end of the line."

MY eyes widen to the size of golfballs. "I'll be right back," I say while already leaping out of my bed.

I blitz out of my room and across the apartment before grasping the door handle and throwing myself through. Suzanne, who seemed to be wrapped comfortably in her covers and on the verge of blissful sleep, bolts up at my sudden and loud entrance. I must look like a deranged bat out of hell with my violent actions and almost crazed yet genuine grin.

"Jesus, Em! What the hell?!" Suzanne almost yells in a panic.

I just giggle somewhat like a maniac. "I know your little secret."

"What are you--" She catches herself as it becomes clear what I mean. "Who told you?"

I realize my phone's still on and I just hold it up as Drew's image faces her. "Hey, Suzanne."

"Hey, Drew," she says weakly and unenthusiastically.

"Drew," I begin as I analyze her expression more. "I'm gonna go now. I gotta have a little chat with Mrs. Leo."

"Okay. Bye, tulip."

"Bye, pineapple." I turn the phone off, put it in my pocket "What's wrong?" I ask while plopping myself on the foot of her bed with my legs crossed facing her sitting up.

"Nothing really. I just didn't plan on Drew telling you."

"So, I was gonna find out sooner or later. Why didn't you tell me in the first place?"

"I didn't think it was that big of a deal."

"That big of deal?!" I cry out sarcastically. "I've been trying to get the two of you to at least hold hands for years! Now you guys finally get together and I don't get to know?"

"Sorry. I just was enjoying it myself. I didn't think he'd tell Drew," She says flatly.

"I thought me and you would be jumping up and down the wall. What's bugging you?"

She only sighs. "I don't know."

"Yes, you do." Still no response. "Come on. I wanna know."

Almost immediately but just as softly, she says, "I love him."

I'm taken aback from the bluntness of her statement. "That's good though, isn't it? I mean, the two of you always were pretty close. I always saw that twinkle in your eye when you saw him. What's wrong with loving him when he loves you back."

"He'll leave," she saws painfully slowly. "He's gonna be off training for the Navy."

"He's gonna be in town though."

"He's gonna be in a camp on a beach outside of the city where he'll be too busy to pick up the phone. And what happens when he gets shipped out to God knows where?" Her breathing speeds up and her eyes well up. "What happens when he can't get to a phone or even a letter for days, weeks, months on end? What happens when you go for a midnight snack and find me at the counter holding myself up just in case he calls from a different timezone and I need to hear his voice for just a second to get by?" At this point, she's trembling and her breath catches in her throat. "What happens if I finally get over all this and I get that call... from an officer... saying he won't come home?" Her shoulders shiver as her sadness is now unmistakable. "What then?"

I scoot myself closer to her and wrap my arms around her now trembling torso. Her head falls into the crook of my shoulder.

"Don't worry," I soothe. "That won't happen. I promise it won't"

Suzanne, although usually beaming and energetic, suffers from scattered anxiety attacks. Luckily for her, they only come once in a blue moon. My mother told me my dad suffered from them and would get them every other week from all the stress he put himself through. She told me that although it hurt seeing him in that state, she found no greater comfort than rubbing his back as he calmed down in her arms. I always found that same warmth doing this with Suzanne.

"He'll be around. He'll call. Heck, he's just a short drive across town. Just enjoy the time you have with him." She only whimpers as she tries to collect herself. "Don't think of it as some kind of beat-the-clock game. Think of it as setting the record. Do everything you can with him so you can reflect on those good time when he can't be with you."

After seven minutes, she slowly brings her head up and sniffles while wiping her eyes. Her gaze fixed straight forward somewhere to the corner of the room besides the door. "Promise me," she says with almost no emotion whatsoever.

"What do you mean?"

"Promise me that nothing bad will happen to him."

I put my hand on her shoulder, look her in the eye and say "I promise, Suzanne."

"Thank you," she lets out a shaky sigh. "I'm -- I'm sorry I made a big deal out of it." She rubs of the wet trail left behind by the single tear she wept. "I'm happy. I really am. I'm worried that something will go wrong, but I'm glad we're together now."

"Well, I'm happy for you," I say as I now notice she has calmed herself down.

"You don't have to tell me that. I think you wanted us to be a couple more than we did."

"I wasn't that invested in it," I say as Suzanne raises her eyebrow "Okay, maybe a bit."

She laughs lightly at this. "Remember back in Junior year at homecoming when you pulled Leo by the ear and yanked my arm for us to slow dance together?"

"Yeah," I say as the memory brings a smile to my face. "Then I was moving you guys close and shifting your arms as Drew just laughed against the wall."

"You're really something Emily Lage."

I stand up and put my hands on my hips. "The best damn something you'll ever know, Suzanne Dane" We both laugh at ourselves. "Well, i gotta be ready for class tomorrow."

"Okay," she chuckles. "Good night Emily...and thanks."

I go through the door while calling back to here. "Night and you're welcome."