Chapter 13
CHAPTER 13
“WHAT DO YOU THINK?” I ASK.
Eva steps back to examine my face. She makes a circle with her finger, and I twirl. My pink wrap dress flows outward around me like flowers floating in the breeze.
“Much better,” she says. “I’ll chalk up last Saturday’s makeup disaster to you being a little rusty.”
Eva’s at my condo to take pictures and videos for us to use for an official social media campaign on both the Pink Unicorn’s sites and Regina Moon Dee’s.
“Sit for a sec,” she says. “I want your eyes to really pop in the pics.”
I sit down at my desk. Eva sorts through my makeup, finds a light primer, and starts applying it on the inner corner of my eyes.
“Have you asked Paolo to help you with your crazy doppelg?nger plan yet?” she asks.
“Not yet.”
Eva switches to my white inner corner highlighter. “He seemed very into you as Regina last weekend. Like, he couldn’t take his eyes off you.”
“What?” I say. “That can’t be true.”
“Trust me. He almost missed a few karaoke cues last Saturday because he was so busy watching everything you were doing.”
“That doesn’t necessarily mean he likes me or anything.”
“I didn’t say he likes you. I’m saying he was fascinated by your drag. It might not actually be that hard to convince him to try it.”
“Oh.” It wasn’t actually Rex who Paolo was interested in. Why would he be? “Right. That makes sense.”
“Why don’t you invite him over here before the show on Saturday so he can see you get prepared. You’d have to explain it all to him anyway if he says yes, right? Might as well give him a sneak peek. Get him excited about the world of drag. And then slip in your request.”
A sneak peek. Into my process. My world.
“Great idea. You always were the smart one.”
“Yeah, yeah, and you’re the pretty one,” Eva says. “Now pucker your lips. I want to make them pinker.”
Eva adjusts a few more things, making sure my wig and dress are on straight, and then takes a series of pictures and video clips. It’s a lot like when I used to make my homemade music videos, but also not. Eva uses different filters, effects, and captions—all things I never did with my YouTube videos. She works on writing the copy, doing the tagging, and optimizing everything for maximum exposure, choosing several hashtags for the posts: #guesswhosback, #dragislife, #ReginaMoonDee, #queerkaraoke, and of course, #KaraokeQueen. I’m in really good hands with Eva. Just like I was with Mom, and later with Tito Melboy. Just like Paolo will be in mine.
If he says yes to me, that is.
I TEXT PAOLO AFTER EVA LEAVES , asking him if he’d come over to my place a little earlier on Saturday for extra karaoke night “training.” I leave it at that.
Within seconds, he responds, Yes. What time on Sat?
I’m relieved. He always seems to have Saturday nights free from AquaMarine in order to KJ at the Pink Unicorn, but last weekend he was late coming from the restaurant. I wasn’t sure if he’d be available to come earlier. Getting an affirmative answer from him so quickly makes me excited. But then I remember that the hard part is still to come. Convincing him to be Regina.
Is 6:00 okay? I ask.
Totally. I’ll be there , he responds.
Thank you , I text, adding a few smiley faces and hearts and then erasing them all before just sending my address instead.
For the next few days, meeting up with Paolo is all I can think about. Even that Friday night—as I spend time at the bar with Aaron during his shift, reminiscing about our nights at Kilpatrick’s and trying to get him to remember how great we were together—I still think of Paolo and how fabulous he would look in my drag.
Saturday evening rolls around. I hear a knock on the door. True to his word, Paolo arrives on time.
“Come iiiinn,” I sing.
“Hi,” Paolo says, opening my unlocked door. “So what are we—whoa!”
I’m a little bit of a mess, I admit. I’m still in a bathrobe and wig cap, and my face, streaked with foundation and concealer, hasn’t been finished yet. I wanted to give Paolo the chance to see the final steps of my process so that he sees what he’ll be getting into. And I hope it’s more inspiring than horrifying.
Paolo, at least, looks much more fetching. He’s got on a chino blazer over a V-neck T-shirt, his hair is slicked back, and his tortoiseshell glasses bring out his dark brown eyes.
“Thank you so much for coming over so early,” I say, motioning to my couch. “Please. Sit.”
My condo is technically only a studio, but at least it’s completely new. The building is an old cannery that was refurbished into two hundred or so modern residences. I’m the first person to own my unit, with high-end appliances and tall ceilings that make it seem more spacious.
I turn in my desk chair in the living room to face him. Paolo’s eyes roam around my face. Something about the way he does this makes me feel devoid of makeup. Like he can see my naked skin underneath. The tips of my ears start to get warm.
“You know, not many people get to see what’s behind my drag queen curtain,” I say, fanning myself.
“I appreciate the chance to have a peek,” Paolo says with a smirk. “So, you said we’re training?”
“Yes.”
“I was assuming it was on the karaoke program, but…” he says, swiveling his head around, “I don’t see the KJ laptop anywhere.”
“Right. We’ll have to go over that some other time.” I make a mental note to myself about this. He really does have to start figuring out that program soon. “It’s a different kind of training. How much do you know about drag?”
“Drag?” Paolo’s eyes widen. “I mean, it definitely fascinates me.”
“Yes, I sort of got that sense.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Eva said you seemed very interested in me last Saturday. Uh—interested in my drag, that is.”
“Your sister’s very observant.” Paolo’s eyes twinkle. “I was very interested.”
I feel my cheeks heat up. So much so that I check myself in the mirror to make sure my foundation is concealing any embarrassing redness.
Satisfied that Paolo can’t tell how hot under the makeup he’s gotten me, I lean in close, as if I’m about to let him in on a secret. “So… have you ever thought about what it would be like to do drag yourself?” I ask.
“Me? Not really. I don’t think I could do it myself.”
“You could!” I say. “Drag is for everybody. Anyone can do it, with the right teacher. I’d certainly love to show you.” I watch him, cautiously gauging his reaction. “But only if you’re up for it, of course.”
Paulo looks at me curiously, as if waiting for some sort of punchline. I just sit there, silent.
“I don’t get it,” he says, shaking his head when I don’t say anything else. “Is this some sort of accreditation? Do you get points for teaching, or something?”
“Actually, it is kind of a rite of passage for drag queens to mentor—to become a mother to someone else. But in this particular case, it’s really more of a favor,” I say, smiling shyly. “For me.”
Paolo squints.
“A big favor,” I add.
“Okay,” he says. “I’m listening.”
“I would like to train you because…” I peer at him from the corner of my eye. “I want you to be me. I need you to be Regina Moon Dee.”
Paolo’s face goes blank. He blinks once. Twice. Then he bursts out with laughter. “You want me to be you? To take over hosting karaoke night?”
“Not to host karaoke night.”
“Then what?”
“This is going to sound weird, but I need you to be my double. Rex needs to be seen with Regina, in the same place, at the same time. So someone won’t suspect that she and I are the same person.”
“Oh,” Paolo says, his smile vanishing. “You mean Aaron.”
His obvious disapproval hits me harder than I expect. I stand up and start to pace around my little living room. “Aaron can’t find out I’m a drag queen, Paolo. Or at least not right now. He wouldn’t understand. And all the work I’ve been doing for the Pink Unicorn—”
“Is for him. All for him,” Paolo says. “And here I was thinking maybe if I…”
“What?”
“It doesn’t matter.” He hangs his head.
Without thinking, I sit back down, reach out, and take his hand. It’s nice and warm.
I begin to pull away because, yet again, I’ve intruded on his personal space. And I know how freezing my hands get when I’m nervous.
But when I try to let go, Paolo holds on. “You’re serious about this?”
“I know I’m asking a lot,” I say. “But Regina is pulling in so much business for the Pink Unicorn. She’s good for the bar.”
“She’s just not good for your potential relationship with Aaron,” Paolo says. But despite the sadness in his eyes, he doesn’t let go of me. “Don’t you want to be with someone who accepts you for who you are? All of you?”
I stand up, breaking our connection. “He will. One day. It just takes Aaron a while to get used to… gay things.”
He mutters something to himself that sounds like, That might take longer than you think.
“What did you say?” I ask.
I look at Paolo, expecting to see those same sad eyes. But instead, they’re filled with determination now.
“You’ll really show me how to be Regina?” he says.
“Yes.”
“In order for this to work,” he says, “I’ll have to be your twin. You’ll have to show me how to walk like you, talk like you, be you. That’s going to take a lot of work. And time.”
“Yes,” I reply. “We’ll have to spend a lot of time together.”
He grins. “Then let’s do it.”
Relief rushes through me, along with something else.
“Wonderful,” I say, looking through my makeup. “For now, you can get a sense of what some of the steps are while I finish my final touch-ups. And then we’ll figure out another time to work together through the entire process.”
“How about tomorrow?” he offers.
I hadn’t intended for us to do it so soon. But no time like the present. “What time?”
“Nine o’clock in the morning?” Paolo says. “I know it’s early, but I’ll bring breakfast.”
“How can I say no to that?” I say. “Nine o’clock it is. Now where the heck is my lipstick…?”
I sort through everything on my desk and in my kit. Still not able to locate it, I get down on the floor, crawling all around my desk and failing to find it anywhere.
“Found it,” Paolo says.
He’s standing above me, holding the opened lipstick. He smiles, and a swath of crimson lies streaked across his lips.
I stare at his mouth for much longer than I should. “Hey, stop fooling around.”
He smiles a glossy red smile. “I thought I’d get a head start,” he says.
I take the lipstick from him.
“Aren’t you going to clean it off me again?” he asks.
Something stirs in me, deep and low. I grab a moist towelette and toss it at him. “Quit distracting me! I need to finish getting ready.” At this point, it’s going to be a struggle to fully focus on my final touches.
By some miracle, though, I manage to finish with enough time to spare. Paolo’s presence over the next hour somehow switches over from being disturbing to grounding, even calming. He stays quiet by my side, asking questions here and there, but mostly watching intently as I work, almost as if he’s taking notes in his mind. Not even Eva as a kid ever paid such close attention to my makeup process. He even makes me more confident in my makeup choices. I don’t doubt for a second that I look beautiful after I’m done. One look at Paolo’s face tells me that I am.
When it’s time to get tucked and dressed, I excuse myself to go to my bathroom. I don’t want to shock him with the whole tucking process, but also the thought of being nearly naked in front of him makes my heart race so fast I can barely breathe.
I’d decided earlier in the day to wear one of my big gowns and a short pixie-cut wig, but after Paolo arrived, I changed my mind. I felt the inexplicable urge to show off my legs. And arms. And chest. And to have longer hair. So I’ve thrown modesty to the wind and have switched to a one-piece bikini-style bodysuit, bejeweled with silver rhinestones and trimmed with white ostrich feathers, topped with a long, pink, wavy wig.
I emerge from the bathroom and do a seductive spin for Paolo. “How do I look?”
“Wow,” he says, his eyes getting very big very fast. “Just… wow.”
It’s the effect I expected from him but it still thrills me to see it. “Thank you, darling. Shall we get going?”
“I’m ready,” Paolo says, his eyes glued to me. “And I’ll be watching you all night. To prepare for when I have to pretend to be you, of course.”
“Of course.” I head for the door, quietly fighting against the irrepressible smile growing on my face.