8. Parker
8
PARKER
TAKE A BOW
“Oh, my god!” I grabbed Gigi’s hands as she got offstage. “You were so good!”
She was flushed and sweaty, and strands of her bright orange hair stuck to her neck, but she was grinning. Radiant. “I know, right?”
I laughed and pulled her in for a quick hug. “I had no idea you could sing like that,” I said as we parted.
“Yeah, well,” she replied, shaking her hair away from her face. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Samuels.” She punctuated her statement with a wink. And, before I could formulate some sort of comeback, or question why my cheeks were suddenly flaming, the rest of the band surrounded her in a flood of high fives and hugs and celebration.
I took a few steps back, a surge of anxiety crashing over me. I’d been so excited to congratulate Gigi after the show that I forgot. I forgot that Halle would be right there .
In this moment, right there was literally five feet away, throwing her arms around Gigi. I watched as the two women hugged and laughed, my tummy twisting into intricate knots. Glancing behind me, I contemplated taking a step back and just…disappearing into the crowd. Fading away. Leaving the band to their celebration and me to my pining.
But, before I could act on that, Gigi turned toward me. “Parker,” she said, waving me over. “Come here!”
I looked around, as if she could be talking to anyone else, dragged the largest breath in history into my lungs, and stepped forward. I barely felt the floor beneath my feet as I closed the distance between us, barely saw the faces I approached.
“H-hey,” I said once I reached them. “Great set.” I smiled. At least, I was pretty sure I did? From the look on Gigi’s face, maybe it looked more like that grimace-face emoji?
“Halle,” she said, widening her eyes in my direction as if to say get your shit together , “this is my friend Parker. She just moved here from the East Coast and is looking for recommendations for a good taco joint.” Gigi stepped back, shoving her hands into her back pockets. “Discuss,” she said before tossing me an encouraging grin and whirling to throw herself into a group hug with the rest of the band members.
I stared after her for a couple seconds, mind completely blank of every word I ever knew. Let alone anything about tacos. What kind of segue was that? She could’ve at least given me something I could actually carry a conversation about. Now, here I was, no clue what to say while the girl I’d been crushing on for months stood right in front of—
“Casa de Queso.”
My eyes whipped away from Gigi to find Halle watching me, an amused smile on her lips. “S-sorry?” I dumbly stumbled. “What?”
“Casa de Queso,” she said again. “For the tacos.”
“Ahh.” I nodded. “Thanks.” Was I smiling? I couldn’t feel my face. I hoped I was smiling. But, judging from the way Halle was looking at me, with her brow furrowed, her pretty dark eyes narrowing on my face, I more than likely looked like I was experiencing a medical event.
Ask her to take you there, a voice in my head that sounded suspiciously like Gigi whispered. This is your moment.
But, when I opened my mouth, the words that came out were not, Would you like to go to there with me sometime? Instead, what came out was, “I think I’m gonna barf.”
And then I spun on my heel and shoved my way through the crowd until I reached the bathroom. There was a line, but the look on my face must’ve alerted everyone to my impending doom, because they parted to let me in. Once inside, I was flanked by a couple tipsy girls.
“Oh, honey,” one said. “You don’t look so good.”
“Are you gonna be sick?” the other asked. She knocked on a locked stall door and called, “Hurry it up in there, we’ve got an emergency.”
Seconds later, the stall door opened and its occupant emerged. Sympathy transformed their face as they took me in. “All yours,” they said as they walked to the sink to wash their hands.
I dropped to my knees before the toilet, one of the girls slipping into the stall with me. She knelt beside me as best she could in the cramped space and gathered my long hair at the nape of my neck. “Let it out, sweetie,” she said, “we’ve all been there.”
If my stomach wasn’t trying to climb its way up my throat, I would have laughed at her assumption. I wished I’d drank too much. That, I could recover from. What I couldn’t recover from, what would keep me glued to this bathroom floor, was looking Halle dead in the eye and telling her I was going to vomit.
“Oh, god,” I groaned.
The drunk girl rubbed her hand over my back and made soothing sounds. “You’ll feel better if you just let ‘er rip,” she said, tone sage.
Beyond the stall, a smattering of cheers rose from the bathroom’s occupants. I thought they were applauding her advice, but seconds later, a new shadow hung over my back. I winced, knowing it was Gigi before she even spoke.
“I’ll take it from here,” she told my companion.
“Oh, hey,” she said. “You’re the girl from the band.”
Gigi made a noise of agreement, and the girl gave my arm a squeeze before she struggled to her feet. “You were really good,” she said as she slid past Gigi to leave the stall.
“Thank you,” I called, face still in the toilet.
“No problem, sweetie,” she called back. “I hope you feel better!”
Straightening, I leaned my back against the stall wall and watched Gigi step inside. She shut the door behind her and joined me on the floor.
“You’re lucky I know this bar inside out,” she said as she got comfortable. “You wouldn’t catch me dead on any other public bathroom floor.”
At that, I gave in to the impulse to laugh. Just a little. “I can’t say I’ve been on too many bathroom floors,” I said, “but this one is pretty nice.”
“Damn right.” She draped her arm over her knee, her dark eyes zooming in on my face. She looked me over like a doctor assessing for injuries. “What happened?”
Humiliation flooded through me anew. “Ugh.” I threw my head back and squeezed my eyes shut. “I choked. I choked so bad.”
“Did you really tell her you had to barf?” I could hear the amusement in Gigi’s voice, and I squeezed my eyes harder. “I don’t think I need to tell you, barfing is not sexy.” She paused. “Unless you’re into that. In which case, no shame. But from the look on Halle’s face as you ran away, I don’t think she’s into it.”
“I’m not into it, either!” I buried my face in my hands. “Oh, god. Does she think I’m into it?”
The stall filled with Gigi’s laughter. I lifted my head to glare. She pressed her lips together and made an effort to look serious. The corner of her mouth still twitched with amusement.
“I hate you,” I growled.
“Aww, come on, Samuels.” She bumped my foot with hers. “We’ve all made fools of ourselves in front of hot people before. It’s not the end of the world. You just gotta try again. Except, maybe practice what you’re going to say first.”
“Are you kidding? No way.” I shook my head. “I’ll be lucky if I can walk out of this bathroom without bursting into shame flames. I’ll never be able to look her in the eye again.”
“Oh, wow.” Gigi grinned. “You are dramatic . I never would have guessed.”
I kicked her foot. “Screw you.”
She smirked. “Okay, well. I’ve got a bar to run.” She pushed to her feet. “So as much as I’d love to hang out in here with you all night, I should get goi—”
“Wait.” I reached for her. There was a thought on the tip of my tongue. An idea. A half-formed string of syllables I wasn’t sure how to complete.
Her eyes dropped to my hand wrapped around her wrist, then found my face, watching as I opened my mouth then immediately closed it. Simon’s voice rung out in my mind, snippets and soundbites building a new picture altogether. A few practice runs. A little role playing.
I couldn’t take Simon up on his offer, but what if…
“Spit it out, Samuels.” There was a curve to her lip that threatened to twist into a smile, softening her words.
“I…ah…” I released her and stood so that we were eye-to-eye. I couldn’t spit it out while staring at her crotch. “I was just…what if…”
No. I shook my head, dismissing the thought. I couldn’t ask her. I couldn’t throw myself at her mercy any more than I already had. I couldn’t—
“Parker.”
Screw it. What did I have to lose? Except maybe my dignity. And I’d already lost that when I told Halle about my bodily functions.
I inhaled and stiffened my spine. And then: “Teach me.”
Gigi’s brows drew together. Shoving her hands into her pockets, she cocked a hip and eyed me like I’d asked her to join a cat-worshiping cult. “Come again.”
“Teach me,” I repeated, gaining steam. “I’ve seen you. You’re so good. Teach me how to be like you.”
Confusion took up residence on Gigi’s face like it was going to stay awhile. “Not that I don’t appreciate the flattery, vague as it is, but I’m gonna need you to be clearer.”
I nodded. Fair. Twisting my hands together in front of me, I blew out a hard, bracing breath. Then, I met Gigi’s eyes dead-on. “Teach me how to flirt.”
“Teach you…” Gigi looked toward the closed stall door, as if asking the drunk girls on the other side if they were hearing this nonsense. “Parker, what?”
“I know. It sounds stupid.” I grabbed her hands and her eyes found mine again. “But you saw me out there. I’m hopeless. If left to my own devices, I…” I trailed off and gestured around us. “Well.”
Gigi frowned and folded her arms across her chest. “I’m not some sort of gay guru, Parker. I don’t have magical powers or techniques that will turn you into a prodigy of pussy.”
“I know.” I pulled a lock of hair over my shoulder and twisted it around my finger, proud of myself for not flinching at her vulgarity. “I just thought—”
“There’s no guarantee here. I’m not gonna slap a How You Get the Girl in Five Easy Steps sticker on this shit.”
“No, of course. I—”
“The most I could do is give you a few starter points. The rest is up to you.”
“Right. I know—” I stopped, eyes flying to her face. “Wait. Does that mean you’ll do it?”
Gigi frowned harder, but the expression did not toughen her up. “You’re a pain in my ass, you know that?”
I smiled and bounced on my heels. “Thank—”
“Teach you how to flirt,” she grumbled, shaking her head. Reaching for the door, she unlocked it. “Tomorrow afternoon,” she said before she opened it. “Be here.”
I nodded. “Okay. I will. Thank yo—”
The door swung shut in my face before I could finish the sentence.