28 - Sophie
28
Sophie
Their reactions were everything I could have hoped for.
All the color drained out of Eli’s face. He stared at the stage, completely still, like his brain was in the middle of rebooting.
Johnny glanced at me, immediately realized what had happened, then doubled-over the bar with laughter.
That seemed to unfreeze Eli. He twisted to look at Johnny, then regarded me with confusion. Slowly, understanding crept into his eyes.
“You asshole,” he said with a slow smile.
I gave him a shit-eating grin. “Why, I don’t know what you mean.”
“Is this for last night?” he demanded. “You’re gettin’ me back because I’m making you wait for our date?”
I batted my eyelashes. “That’s one theory. Are you going to play? The crowd is getting antsy.”
The packed room had erupted in applause when Eli was announced, but now there was a nervous chatter as they stared at the empty chair on stage, illuminated by a single spotlight. If he didn’t play, this whole thing would backfire on me.
“You don’t have to play,” I teased. “If you’re too scared…”
It was easy to see that comment ignited something inside Eli. He scoffed and said, “I’m a lot of things, Sophie darlin’. But scared ain’t one of them.”
He pushed back his stool and strode right up to the stage, ignoring the steps and leaping right up onto the wooden platform. The crowd cheered at the sight of him, and he doffed his cowboy hat with a flourish.
“Evenin’, y’all. Only my good friends call me Eli, but tonight, I’ll make an exception for y’all.”
“You ought to be practicing for the Steer Wrestling event!” someone near the stage shouted.
Eli picked up the guitar and sat on the chair. “Is that you, Abraham? I’m surprised you can walk after the kick you took in the arena the other day. Ladies and gentlemen, can I get a quick round of applause for Abraham Jackson? He finished second-to-last in the Calf Roping competition last night, so he needs all the encouragement he can get.”
That drew cheers and a few whistles from the crowd.
“Just kiddin’, y’all. There’s a lot of sour souls in the rodeo, but Abraham’s one of the good ones. Y’all want to hear some music?”
I smiled as the crowd roared. Eli had good stage presence.
“Let’s see what I’ve got in my lungs tonight.” Eli strummed the guitar a few times, testing the notes. “Try this one on for size.”
The guitar came to life beneath his fingers, filling the room with the amplified sound of music. After a few chords, Eli leaned toward the microphone and began singing with a pronounced country twang.
“As I strolled through the valley of the shadow of death,
I take a look at my life and realize there’s nothin’ left.
‘Cause I’ve been ridin’ and laughin’ so long,
Even my momma thinks that my mind is gone.”
Johnny glanced at me. “Is that… a rap song?”
“Gangster’s Paradise,” I confirmed, laughing at the juxtaposition of rap lyrics with a country music melody. “By Coolio.”
But when the chorus came, Eli changed the lyrics slightly.
“Been spendin’ most my life
Livin’ in a cowboy’s paradise.
Keep spendin’ most my life
Ridin’ in a cowboy’s paradise.”
The crowd ate it up, and exploded with applause and cheers when he finished the song. He nodded at the crowd, then met my gaze from across the room.
And winked.
Son of a bitch. I thought I’d gotten the drop on Eli, but he was definitely coming out ahead of this prank.
But I couldn’t be mad. As Eli played rap song after rap song, each of them redone in a country music style, I found myself totally entranced. My drink making slowed down because I kept getting distracted by the sight of him up there, confidently playing for the crowd without any warning or warm-up.
Some people were just natural performers, I supposed.
He even played a country music version of Not Like Us , by Kendrick Lamar, which the entire crowd sang along to. Johnny gave me a look of disbelief which mirrored my own feelings.
“All right, I’ve just about overstayed my welcome up here,” Eli said after an hour of music. “I’ve got one more bullet in my chamber, though. Hope y’all don’t mind if I slow it down a bit.”
He hung his head and began playing the guitar, one soft note at a time. The song felt vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it.
Then he began singing.
“Hold it, I’m about to drop off.
Let me tell ya my last thought.
Drift into a deep fog.
Lost where I forgot to hold it.
I can feel you most when I’m alone.
I can feel your ghost when I’m alone. ”
As he sang that last line, he finally tilted his head up, making eye-contact with me for a moment before scanning the room as he continued singing.
“How did he know?” I wondered out loud.
Johnny glanced at me. “Know what?”
I waved him off as I continued listening, the drink I had been in the process of making forgotten on the table in front of me.
“Stare up at the ceiling,
Preview of a screenin’,
Flashback of a feelin’,
Sick sense of a callin’,
Heard you fuck through the wall,
I heard you fuck…”
The guitar suddenly sped up as he reached the chorus. Eli’s voice rose with emotion, and I found myself singing along under my breath.
“When I’m bored
I send vibrations
In your direction
Through the satellite mind.”
His eyes locked onto me again, full of emotion and meaning.
“When I’m bored
I send vibrations
In your direction
Through the satellite mind.”
I couldn’t move. It was like we were alone and he was singing it directly to me. I felt my stomach tighten the way it did when he had almost kissed me last night.
“Is that Metric?” Liz asked.
I blinked at her. “What are you doing here?”
“Jessica needs you to unbox all the new pint glasses,” Liz said. “How did that cowboy know to play your favorite band?”
“No idea,” I replied, unable to take my eyes off Eli as he reached the end of the song.
“If you don’t fuck that boy,” Liz said, “then I will.”
I pulled my gaze away from Eli. “You’re married!”
Liz gave me a look. “Then you’d better jump on him to stop me from making a mistake. Because after that performance, somebody in this room is going to take him home, and it’d be a damn shame if it wasn’t you.”
I knew she was joking. She would never cheat on Travis, and was only trying to prod me into action.
But she had a point.
The guitar struck a final chord, and the crowd erupted like I had never heard it before. Eli stood up and gave a bow while holding the guitar by the neck, then returned it to the stand on stage and hopped down like a boy leaving a playground.
I wanted to take him home right that minute. It was tempting—I could make an excuse about being sick or something, then go back to the rodeo camp and make Eli’s trailer rock off its wheels. But I was in the middle of my shift, and couldn’t make a mistake like that.
“Where are the pint glasses?” I asked Liz.
“The overflow room behind the main honky tonk,” she replied.
I gave a final glance toward Eli, who was being mobbed by the crowd of fans, then left the room and weaved through the honky tonk until I reached the overflow room. We used it as a private room for special events, but tonight the two wooden doors were closed shut. I slipped inside, closing them behind me, and immediately located the pallet of boxes in the corner next to a stack of dishwasher trays. I had done this before; the new glasses needed to be moved to the trays so we could give them a rinse before serving them to customers.
I had opened up the first box and removed a single glass when the door opened behind me. Music drifted into the room for a moment before becoming quiet again as the door closed.
“You here to help me with this work?” I called over my shoulder, thinking it was Liz.
“I’m gonna help you do somethin’,” Eli’s voice replied, smooth as expensive whiskey. “But I promise it won’t be work.”