Chapter 11
CHAPTER 11
MY REVAMP OF THE PINK UNICORN’S KARAOKE NIGHT was only one part of my improvement plan. Now that I’ve proven it works, Aaron and Bryan want the full details of everything else. We decide to meet at the bar during the week, which I’m looking forward to. Not just because I want to go over my plan, but because I’m also eager to be with Aaron again.
I haven’t seen him since Saturday night. We’ve been texting each other, but the messages have been frustratingly ordinary, as if we were nothing more than acquaintances. Maybe I’d misread Aaron’s intentions when he invited me over last weekend. Maybe this isn’t the big second chance with him I’d hoped it would be. Did he actually meet up with his running friends on Sunday morning? Or was he just trying to get me out of his place early, like he always used to insist on? Maybe Aaron hasn’t changed at all.
Tuesday after work, I stop by, expecting Aaron to be doing his usual shift. Before I head inside, though, I take a quick look at the building’s exterior, taking note of what needs to be worked on. The metal unicorn sign should be replaced, and the awning above the door requires a deep cleaning. But a good coat of paint would fix everything else. Next door to the bar is a closed-down cafe. It’s been empty for a long time, if the dust on the stray pieces of furniture inside are any indication. Not a great look to be next to an abandoned space, but there’s nothing we can really do about that.
Inside the Pink Unicorn, Bryan is tending bar instead of Aaron. Two people play a leisurely game of pool while two others sit chatting at a table. Other than that, the place is empty.
“Hey, Bryan,” I say, waving. “I thought Aaron would be here. I can come back some other time if that’s better.”
“I’m just covering for him while he’s running an errand. Won’t take long. Have a seat at the bar. I’ll make you a drink. What’ll it be?”
“A club soda’s fine.”
“You sure? It’s on the house.”
“Well, in that case, make it a club soda with a dash of vodka.”
“One vodka with a dash of soda, coming right up,” he says with a wink.
He moves about the bar casually, confidently, his gray hair bobbing as he whistles something jaunty. “You two doing okay over there?” he says to the men sitting at the table.
One of them turns around. “We’re good, Bryan. Thanks,” the man says, who I realize is José.
“You just let me know when you want another round of your usual,” Bryan says cheerfully. “Two of my best customers,” he says to me. “They’ve been coming here for years.”
“How long have you owned this place?” I ask.
His gaze brightens, as if recognizing someone in the distance. “Gosh. About a decade now. But I was the manager before that for fifteen years. And before that I was coming practically every night. This has been my home for almost thirty years. Still the same as it ever was, god bless it.”
Unchanged for three decades. Part of the reason it needs a major renovation, I think. But I just nod and take the highball glass from Bryan when he hands it to me. “To places that feel like home,” I say, raising the glass.
He grabs an open bottle of beer from the back counter and clinks my glass. “For as long as they last,” he says.
He takes a long sip and looks around the bar, sighing sadly. “I don’t know how much more life she’s got in her. Gay bars are closing all over the Bay Area. This is one of the last ones left in Oakland.”
Many establishments all over the San Francisco Bay Area are being forced to close due to a still struggling post-pandemic economy and skyrocketing rents. Not only gay bars but restaurants, shops, and other small businesses. Lumber Janes, the last remaining lesbian bar in San Francisco, shuttered last summer. One of the few gay bookstores left, Reading and Rainbows in the Castro, closed in October. It isn’t much better in Oakland and Berkeley.
“The Pink Unicorn’s an institution, you know,” Bryan says. “Elton John used to stop by here in the seventies whenever he’d be in town. David Bowie, too. Melissa Etheridge, k.d. lang, even Green Day. They’ve all been in here. Sometimes they’d surprise us with a short set. Just them and their guitars. Hell, if these walls could talk.”
“Would they tell me any stories of yours?” I ask, half kidding.
“One or two, maybe.” His pale blue eyes twinkle, and for a moment, I see him younger, his hair darker, his back straighter. Bryan’s a handsome older gentleman. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out he was a big player back in the day. In fact, there’s something about him that feels familiar, almost as if I might have run into him in the past—though I’ve never stepped foot in the Pink Unicorn until this month, and it doesn’t seem like he spends much time anywhere else.
“I’d be interested to hear your secrets,” I say.
He doesn’t seem to have heard me. He looks past me, his eyes clouding over subtly, landing on someone who’s just entered.
“Aaron,” Bryan says, “Rex is here to go over his ideas for the bar.”
“Great,” Aaron says to me. He gives me one of his hearty embraces, warm and reassuring. For a moment, I feel a bit more optimistic about our chances of getting back together. “Show us.”
I pull a folder out of my Symria bag and lay it open on the bar. Inside are some documents I’ve been working on in my spare time at work: a mock-up design of the redecorated bar, a list of renovations with corresponding items and their costs, a proposed calendar of weekly events, a simple social media and advertisement plan, and a guide for more improvements to karaoke night. Having Regina Moon Dee as the main host was only the first step. I did some research on the karaoke software program that Bryan had purchased, SYNGX, and realized it’s never been used to its full potential by Paolo. When I took a deeper dive, I realized it has the capability to integrate light shows and music videos, which can easily connect to the video projection unit and the bar’s light system. Not only that, but it can be used in conjunction with a song request app that people can download onto their phones, and requestors would have an easy opt-in to sign up for the Pink Unicorn’s mailing list. All of which would modernize karaoke night and make it easier for everyone to make requests. And double as added marketing.
Aaron goes behind the bar, pops open a bottle of beer, and stands next to Bryan so that they can look through everything together. Bryan slips on a pair of reading glasses and skims his finger over the various pages while Aaron looks through the others, drinking.
“I forgot to factor in any improvements we’d do to the outside,” I say as they read. “But I checked, and I think the added cost would be minimal.”
Bryan looks up at me. “I don’t understand the social media stuff, but the rest of it looks good. And using the karaoke system to its full potential—I’ve been wanting Paolo to do that for weeks now. I’m just worried about how much everything would cost. What you’ve got planned here is a little more than we’ve got in the bank right now.”
“How much more?” I ask.
Bryan and Aaron look at each other.
“A lot more,” Aaron says.
“We’re not exactly flush with cash these days.” Bryan points his chin at the nearly empty bar.
“One thing at a time,” I say, trying to stay positive. “Regina Moon Dee’s already started pulling in a huge crowd. We can implement the publicity and advertisement plan, and that won’t take much money at all. That sound okay?”
“Let’s do it,” Bryan says. “And could you work with Paolo on learning how to use the other features of the karaoke system?”
I feel a tiny flutter inside my chest. “Sure,” I say.
“This is great, Rex,” Aaron says, drinking more of his beer. “We owe you for all this. Let me thank you by taking you out to dinner next week. You paid for me the first time so it’s my turn now.”
Another date? Yes, please.
“Sure,” I say, trying to keep my cool.
“Great,” Aaron says. “And is it okay with you if two of my running friends join us? I told them about you on Sunday, and they want to meet you. One of them, Miguel, has a Filipino stepmom. I think you’d like him.”
So he did go running. And he’s already telling other people about me. I was wrong to second-guess him. “Cool with me,” I say.
“Okay, back to my Moonlighting marathon,” Bryan says, excusing himself to sit on his regular stool at the end of the bar. I notice that there’s already a bowl of snack mix waiting for him there.
Aaron glances at my empty glass. “Refill?”
I nod. “Vodka soda.”
“Oh, and more good news.” Aaron pours vodka and spritzes soda into my glass at the same time, making everything fizz fiercely, bubbles violently spilling up and over. “Joey’s mom is changing her shift at the hospital to Fridays soon. So in about a week or so, I’ll be able to work Saturday nights and join in on the karaoke fun with you and Regina and everyone else. Permanently.”
As he hands me my drink, I plaster a smile on my face and try not to freak out.
“Wonderful!” I say, and chug half of my drink in one swallow. “Just wonderful.”
AT THE OFFICE THE NEXT DAY , sitting in a chair next to Kat’s, I put my forehead on her desk.
“I’m screwed,” I groan at the floor.
“Quit stressing. We’ll figure something out,” Kat says, blowing a bubble that pops with a watermelon-scented snap. She’s wearing one of my favorite outfits of hers—a lilac suit jacket over a cute pale blue top that I’d steal in a second. She lifts my head by the chin. “But good ideas come to me better over food. Let’s grab some Chinese at Golden Lotus for lunch.”
“Kat!” Susan’s yell rings from her open office door and straight down my spine.
“What?” Kat shouts.
“Have you done my expense report yet for my business trip to DC?”
“Like you can call a trip to a sorority sister’s birthday party a business trip.”
“She’s a potential investor, Kat!”
“Fine! After lunch,” Kat yells back.
“Lunch already?” Susan says. “Do you even work at all?”
“Why, am I fired?”
“Yes!” Susan says.
“Good! I’m leaving!”
“Good!” Susan yells. “And bring me back an order of egg rolls and mu shu pork. Ooh, and some hot and sour soup, please.”
“Golden Lotus is her favorite,” Kat says to me. “You got it, boss,” she says over her shoulder, before tugging me along after her.
She tucks her arm in mine as we walk toward the elevator.
“I don’t think I’ll ever understand your guys’ relationship,” I say.
“That’s okay,” Kat says, leaning her head against mine. “Susan and I get each other. That’s all that matters.”
From the outside in, some relationships might not make sense to others. Would people see Aaron and me and think we’re not good for each other? Maybe we aren’t. After all, he doesn’t even know a big part of who I really am.
But we withhold things from people we love all the time. Some secrets are all right, especially when they’re for the benefit of the relationship. That’s how my dad and I are, and we’ve never been better.
Right?
Outside, the clouds have gathered, threatening rain. Near our office, there’s an unfortunate wind tunnel effect that gathers cool air from the San Francisco Bay and funnels it straight through to our street. Kat and I look up at the sky and do the four-block walk to Golden Lotus more briskly than usual.
“Hey, I’m sorry I can’t be there this Saturday,” Kat says as we walk. “The Nine Tails girls and I are hanging out again.”
“You can’t do it at the Pink Unicorn?”
“Actually, we’re having a jam session. Nothing serious. Just for old times’ sake.”
Despite Kat’s band’s interpersonal problems, they really could rock a room. Literally. I know how much she’s missed making music with them.
“That’s awesome. I guess we’ll both be performing this weekend. But…” I sigh. “What am I going to do when Aaron eventually switches his volunteer gig and starts working karaoke nights?”
“Can’t you just tell him that you—Rex you, not Regina you—have a conflict and can’t come on those nights from now on?” Kat asks.
“We already did that last weekend. That might work one more time. But then he’s going to suspect something’s up when he starts noticing that Regina Moon Dee and I are never in the same place at the same time.”
“That’s it!” Kat says, snapping.
“What’s it?”
“You just have to both be in the same place when Aaron’s around.”
“How am I supposed to do that?”
She starts walking faster, getting more animated. “You need a doppelg?nger. Someone to pretend they’re Regina. Then have Aaron see you and her together, in the same place at the same time.”
“At karaoke night?” I ask, trying to keep up with her. “My fans will notice if someone is trying to impersonate me.”
“No, not that night. Some isolated situation where it’s just you and Aaron together.”
“And what situation would that be? Should fake Regina just come over to Aaron’s house one night when we’re in the middle of man-love time?”
“No. And please don’t ever say man-love time again,” Kat says. “When you’re at the bar on a regular night when Aaron’s working, just have Regina Number Two stop by to say hi. Bam, problem solved.”
My mind starts racing with this improbable scenario. Could it work? It would just take one time for Aaron to see Regina and me together and then he’d always think we’re separate people. Even when I conveniently tell him that I’m not able to come to karaoke nights for whatever reason. I’d have to figure that out, too. But one step at a time.
We arrive at Golden Lotus. I open the door for Kat, and we hurry in, just beating the first few spatters of raindrops.
“Okay,” I say, a little breathless from our speed-walking. “It’s worth a try. But who would I ask? Another drag queen? I haven’t really kept in touch with any from before.” This is true, unfortunately. I haven’t spoken to the girls from Dreamland in years.
Kat makes a gesture for two to the host. He pulls two menus from the wooden shelf next to the door, and we follow him into the dining room.
“Doesn’t have to be a drag queen,” Kat says, sitting at the table and looking through the menu. “They just need to look enough like you. How about Eva?”
Eva’s face does look similar to mine because we’re siblings. But it wouldn’t work. “She’s too short. And would Aaron really believe she’s a man in drag?”
“What about this uncle you said was your drag mom? Could he do it?”
I pour us glasses of water. “We’re not really talking anymore.” My heart grows heavy. I miss Beaucoup Buko and would love to see him again. But would he really help me after all this time? “He’s also a lot rounder than me. And last I heard he moved to Palm Springs.”
“Paolo?”
My hand seizes up, making me almost drop my water glass. “What? No way.”
“Come on, you have to admit that he’d be the perfect person, physically.”
She’s right. We’re around the same height and build. And our faces aren’t completely dissimilar. Certainly, with enough makeup, I could make him look like Regina Moon Dee.
“He doesn’t know the first thing about drag, though.”
“He doesn’t have to walk the runway, Rex. He’s just coming into the bar to say hi and bye to you and Aaron. It’ll be five minutes, tops. You can teach him everything he needs to know.”
Something about Kat’s idea tickles the back of my neck and makes the hairs there stand up. Probably just because I’m excited by a possible solution to my problem, that’s all. Though now the image of Paolo in the bathroom with lipstick on his mouth has come back, morphing into something different. Now I see Paolo with my mascara on. My eye shadow. My wigs. My clothes. I can’t stop thinking about how amazing it will all look on him.
“It could work,” I say.
“Of course it’ll work,” Kat says.
Our waitress approaches. “Are you ready to order? Or do you need more time to decide?”
Kat looks at me. “Do you know what you want?”
“Yes,” I say. “I do.”