Chapter 5

* Daniel *

I hustled into the karaoke bar twenty minutes late. Kelly's boyfriend, Josh, gave me a shout from behind the bar, where he was serving drinks at top speed to thirsty sorority girls in skimpy Halloween costumes.

"Lewis, she's been waiting for you, like, half an hour! Be a pal, get your ass over there and calm her down, or I'm not gettin' any tonight!"

"Ugh. TMI, dude!" I called back. But Josh was actually a pretty decent guy. He was really good to Kelly, and way more cool with me being their third wheel than I had any right to expect.

He'd been exaggerating, I found out when I reached Kelly. She muttered something about "operating on gay time," but she seemed too self-satisfied to be really upset. She'd taken advantage of my tardiness to assign us both songs for the first round of the evening.

It's kind of a guilty secret of mine how much I enjoy singing, even though my voice is nothing special. Kelly, on the other hand, has a great smoky lounge singer alto, and knows how to use it.

"So whaddya think of these songs?" she asked.

I looked at what she had picked out for us. "I think you got our selections mixed up, Kel. 'Fever' is your song. It's way too low for me. Besides, it's a chick song."

"'Chick song?' Excuse me? What kind of sexist are you?"

"It's right there in the lyrics, Kel. 'Chicks were born to give you fever.' You're asking me to sing a straight chick song that's out of my range."

"So change the lyrics, then. Come on, I always do the torch songs. Let's mix things up for once."

I groaned again when saw that she'd picked out the Michael Bublé cover. I hated that version, it was so overdone. "Sorry, sweetie, it's Peggy or nothing," I told her.

My voice is tenor, to my eternal dismay. I'd always wanted to have a rich, authoritative baritone instead. Adapting to Peggy Lee's sultry alto was going to be tricky for me, but at least it was going to be listenable.

I glared at Kelly and stomped up for my turn at the microphone.

The first verse was low, all right, but I could just handle it, and at least the roughness at the bottom of my voice suited the lyric. The song modulates up from there, so I knew I could handle the rest of it, and started to relax.

That was my mistake. Before I knew it I was imagining Jeff Williams, and singing it for his ears only. When I got to the "chicks" line, I switched it to "you were born to give me fever," and had a mortifying moment when I realized I'd mentally changed that word to "Jeff."

When I sat back down, Kelly had a smug look on her face, as if she'd caught me out in the middle of doing something mildly naughty.

"You sang that song like you meant it, Daniel."

"You know sincerity's the secret to a singer's success. Wow. Try saying that five times fast."

She didn't fall for any of it—the explanation or the lame attempt at distraction.

"I've seen your sincere, Daniel. This went way beyond that, right into heartfelt. I just couldn't help wondering if you were singing that song to any guy in particular." She sipped her drink, but her eyes were still fixed on my face, which I hoped and prayed wasn't beet-red at this point. "Maybe a certain handsome leading man?"

I choked on my own drink. "Who, Williams? Are you kidding? Don't you think he's a little bit out of my league?" Shitshitshitshitshit, why'd that last bit slip out?

Kelly's face went from amused to serious. She slid over and pounded on my back to help clear my windpipe, but she took advantage of our proximity to speak softly into my ear. "It's been written all over your face since he first walked into the theater, Daniel. It's okay, you know. Not only is he fucking gorgeous, he's a genuinely nice guy, and he's definitely showing an interest in you. After the losers you've been with, Jeff's the first guy I've seen come along who might actually be worth taking a risk for."

"What on earth makes you think Jeff Williams has any interest in me? You said it yourself, he's a leading man. I'm just the kid handling the props."

"And I'm the Good Witch of the North. Why do you keep selling yourself short?"

"I'm not selling myself short, I'm being realistic. And, oh, did I mention, we're co-workers?"

"Daniel, realistic is recognizing that at the end of the day you're just two guys who might have something good together if you took a chance. The rest is just scenery. And speaking of scenery, for what it's worth, I think you two would be super hot together."

"Speaking as a straight woman?"

"Oh, yeah," she responded, giving it just the right amount of lasciviousness. I laughed, and we were once again at ease. But as we were saying good night, she hugged me and whispered in my ear, "Happy Halloween, Daniel. Just think about what I said, okay?"

I had a feeling it was all I would be able to think about for the foreseeable future.

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✨ AUTHOR'S NOTE ✨ : HI Guys!! I know I've been gone for awhile but I'm back and I hope y'all will enjoy this one. I've had a rather hectic year and I've been trying to get back to my normal which has been a bit hard but hopefully we get there 🙂.

Please don't hesitate to leave your thoughts in the comments I would love to hear from you on what you think of the story. It really helps me try to improve where I can.

I'll try to be more consistent with this one and post at least 3 chapters every week so keep a look out 😉.

Love you all and thanks again for your support 😘.