Chapter 42 A 19th Century Jacket
“I am yours, Daphne! I have always been yours!”
I almost dropped my paperback copy of Cinderella Is Dead when I heard Myles’s resounding voice cut through the otherwise peaceful environment at Vila do Acaí.
I whipped my head up, just as a few customers laughed before making way for him to walk up to the main counter.
What. The. Ever. Infesting. Fuck.
My eyes all but popped out of my sockets when I looked him up and down.
He was wearing a grey tank top, ivory joggers, his usual Blackhawks beanie, and…and a 19th century crimson suit coat/jacket that looked exactly like the one Regé-Jean wore in Bridgerton.
Daniel and Cruz stepped out of the bakery, and the former sucked in a breath when he saw Myles. Cruz, on the other hand, just ran a hand over his face, then began finger-combing his beard in frustration. I could only imagine the looks on Simran and Remi’s faces.
“Daphne! I mean, Rina.” Myles drummed his fingers on the counter and gave me a grin. “I have the best news.”
I blinked, still trying to get a handle on his outfit, because Lord, he looked like a fucking hybrid in those clothes.
He hadn’t come to the house in the morning, so it’s the first I was seeing him since yesterday. And man, what an eccentric view he provided.
I set the paperback I was holding, next to my work laptop. What? I signed.
“Remember that choir from last year?” Myles asked. “The one we’d seen outside the café in November?”
I nodded.
His grin widened. “Yeah, so I follow them on Instagram, and they shared a post an hour ago saying that they’re doing a little Bridgerton inspired musical down the street for those who can’t afford to, or couldn’t get tickets for, The Queen’s Ball: A Bridgerton Experience.
We can even donate some cash to the choir so that they can keep doing these shows, but bigger.
” He leaned in. “Would you care to indulge me, Miss Ribeiro? A little bit of this, and a little bit of that – with yours truly.”
I looked down at my pink sweater dress, beige yoga pants, and brown winter boots, then gave Myles another once over.
Where did you get the jacket from? I asked him.
He fixed the lapels of said jacket and gave me a wink. “I borrowed it from one of the performers. Told him I wanted to impress my girl and shit.”
I chuckled, just as Daniel said, “Rina, kindly remove this mutant from the premises. It is scaring away our customers and putting a major damper on our business.”
Everyone, including Cruz, laughed.
Myles only flipped Daniel off in response, earning a few giggles from the female shoppers in the store.
“Mature as always, I see,” Daniel stated with a belligerent roll of his eyes.
Myles blew him a kiss. “Had to make sure it matched your level of intellect, bestie,” he quipped.
I snorted, but quickly placed a hand over my mouth when Daniel glowered at me.
The electronic bird chirped, and as another group of customers entered the shop, almost all of them gave Myles either confused or incredulous looks before going about their business and browsing the display cases and framed menu boards.
He didn’t care about any of that, of course, and brought his attention back to me. “So, you coming?” he asked around a smile. “I know you love the show, and I’ve also sorta, kinda, a little bit, found sense in it. It’ll be fun – just you and me, and some ear-splitting crescendos.”
There will be other people present, I signed. It is a street, after all.
Myles shrugged. “So? Big deal, Rina. When has that ever stopped you from being you?”
I shook my head as I chuckled, because he was right.
Of course he was.
Okay, I told him, then looked at Remi from over his shoulder. Take over for me, I signed to him.
He nodded and gave me a thumbs up.
I then looked at Laurel and Hardy – I mean, Daniel and Cruz.
Assist Remi, please, I signed.
Daniel crossed his arms over his chest. “If you come back wearing a corset and an empire-waist dress, I swear to God I’m going to refuse to identify you and most definitely disown you as a friend,” he said.
Cruz kicked him in the shin, making Daniel yelp in surprise and glare at him.
“What he means is,” Cruz began, then gave Daniel a bored look, “we’ll look after the shop and help Remi if there’s a customer rush. You go enjoy the choir.”
I love you, I said to Cruz. You rock.
“He doesn’t,” Daniel objected.
“You’d wish that, wouldn’t you?” Cruz told him, then signed, Have fun; love you, to me, before grabbing the back of Daniel’s collar and dragging him back inside the bakery.
“Wow…” Myles scratched his jaw with a contemplative look on his face.
“I always wonder if those two are real, or just crazy side characters from a quirky romcom novel. But then I also think about how I don’t really give any number of shits in regards to that little idea, and then go about my business. ”
Huh?
God, I was so confused.
“Anyways.” Myles grinned at me again. “Should we get going, or what?” He offered me a hand.
I nodded, slid my phone into my dress pocket, placed my hand in Myles’s, and let him lead me out of Vila do Acaí.
Once we’d stepped outside, Myles began running down the left side of the street, and I laughed as I tried to keep up with him.
I noticed that every single streetlight on the stretched-out pavement was turned on, because even though it was early morning, the day was rather muted due to the chilly weather and steadily falling snow.
Myles and I sidestepped a few cars in our haste, and because I’d forgotten my coat at the shop, I pulled his beanie from his head and put it on as decently as I could, while also trying not to get hit by oncoming vehicles.
We took a sharp right, and when Myles began slowing down, I matched his speed, then came to a halt when I looked at the meager setup just a few steps ahead of me.
The group had hung fairy lights over the streetlights, which made no practical sense, but aesthetically, it looked adorable.
A lavender carpet was draped over the platform they were standing on, and they’d even erected a floral-wallpapered photography wall on top of it to give the whole thing a thematic appearance.
Come to think of it, ‘meager’ may not be the perfect term to describe the setup the group had come up with; maybe quaintly duplicate was.
A small crowd was scattered around the platform, either talking amongst each other, or tapping away on their phones.
“Here you go, man; thanks for letting me borrow it,” Myles said to the performer who was on the stage, then handed the velvet coat to him.
“No worries,” the guy said around a smile. “I hope it helped.”
Myles grinned and jerked his head in my direction, and when the guy looked at me, I gave him a smile and a wave.
“Hey.” He waved back, and I may be crazy for saying this, but he looked kinda like Regé-Jean Page, and that slight resemblance was enough to make me blush a little.
Sorry not sorry.
“I’m Jayden,” he told me. “It’s nice to meet you. Myles here says you’re one in a million, and also a hardcore Bridgerton fan. Thanks for stopping by today; it means a lot.”
The other performers were bustling around the setup. Some were rehearsing, some were fixing their hair and makeup, while the others were either taking selfies or working on tweaking their musical instruments.
I’m Carina, I signed to Jayden, hoping he’d understand. It’s nice to meet you as well.
He flashed his teeth in a megawatt smile, and I wanted to sob because he really did look like Regé.
I hope you enjoy the show, he signed, and in that moment, I came to the conclusion that he could not get any more perfect than that.
I loved Myles to pieces, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t fangirl every once in a while, okay?
“You know Sign?” Myles asked Jayden. “That’s great, man.”
Jayden nodded. “I do, yeah. My younger sister has sensorineural hearing loss, so we communicate through Sign, among other things. It’s as natural to me as speaking is.”
“It’s kinda the same for me, even though I’ve only known Sign for around three months,” Myles said to him. “Learnt it for Rina, and I’m so damn glad to have done it.”
Jayden smiled at him, then at me. “It sure is a completely different feeling to interact via Sign, isn’t it?”
“It is,” Myles agreed, just as one of the performers hollered, “We’re ready for show time!”
Jayden put on the Simon-coat and pointed a thumb over his shoulder. “I gotta go double-check my mic. You two have fun, okay?” he told Myles and I.
“We sure will,” Myles stated.
Donation box? I signed.
Jayden pointed at a red box on the far left of the stage, then, with another wave, he joined the other members of the group behind the stage.
I walked over to the donation box and slid a $20 bill inside it.
Myles did the same, then took my hand in his before leading me back to the area close to the platform.
“I made Taron binge the show with me last week,” he told me, and then wrapped his arms around my waist. “Four episodes in, and he started losing his shit. He began looking for 19th century gowns for himself, and even drew a digital sketch of a carriage he wanted to make for himself. But…” He paused for emphasis, “…before he could actually make true on any of that, I stopped him. A couple of chokeholds here, a few arm twists there. I think I even used his beard as a leash at one point, but it’s kind of a blur right now.
” He faintly lifted a shoulder. “It worked, though, so who am I to complain, right?”
I stared at him in absolute shock.
At this point, I know that I shouldn’t be surprised by anything Myles says, or does, or both, but it’s impossible for me to not lose a slice of my commonsense every time I hear him say something as aberrant as what he’d told me.
You and Taron belong in a museum, I signed. You two are crazy.
Myles chuckled. I know, he signed back, then said, “You should be ready for shit like this by now, Rina. I can’t drop these bombs and have you standing here gawking at me like you have no idea what to do with yourself. It’s very unbecoming, babe; live up to your damn reputation.”
You said you used Taron’s beard as a leash. How was I supposed to expect that? I asked. My bravery can only stretch so far.
“We’ve done worse to each other than that, though,” he stated casually.
I rubbed my hands over my face in utter frustration, which resulted in Myles to chuckle again.
“You’ll get used to it, I promise,” he assured, like it even was something I needed assurance on.
Asshole, I signed, just as a loud screech of the mic, followed by the mellow sound of a piano, filled the air.
One of the musicians began playing the familiar tune of We Could Form an Attachment, an original Bridgerton background music, on the piano, and the crowd around us started cheering and taking pictures.
A few moments later, Jayden and a female performer walked on stage, just like Simon and Daphne had walked into the Vauxhall gardens at the end of episode one.
The two bowed ceremoniously, then fell into a beautiful waltz, and surprisingly, so did a lot of the couples in the crowd.
Myles grinned down at me, and I couldn’t help but laugh at him.
“Stare into my eyes, Rina,” he commanded.
I would have rolled my eyes at him for quoting Simon, but I just couldn’t, because the way he was looking at me – it defied every single level of intensity any fictional character has whilst looking at their love interest.
Because this was real. We were real.
And nothing – not even my love for a period drama and its lead guy – meant anything compared to what Myles meant to me.
I stepped closer to him and gazed up at him. Even under the dim daylight and shadowing streetlights, I could clearly see the bright flecks of grey in his eyes. I ran a hand up and down his chest, then draped my arms over his shoulders before gently cupping the back of his head.
“Would it be right for me to presume that you don’t know how to waltz?” he asked.
I nodded.
“Great.” He playfully fixed the beanie on my head and gave me a subtle wink. “Let’s wing it, then.”
And boy, wing we did. We started taking short steps from left to right, then from front to back. The loop was far from perfect, but it still made me smile.
Left, right.
Front, back.
Left–
“Ow!” Myles grimaced. “Babe, you just stomped on my feet.”
I looked down, and flinched when I saw that my left boot was pressed over one of his sneakers.
Sorry, I signed.
He shook his head. “You’re lucky I have resilient feet,” he said, then twirled me once, twice, before bringing me close to him again.
I didn’t remind him how his resilient feet had been unsuccessful at handling Oxford shoes just a couple months ago, and had ended up looking like a carnival of blisters when he’d come over to my place.
He may be the sweetest guy I know, but Myles is also a man, and most men have egos – whether they like to admit it or not.
And I also didn’t tell him because once he starts pouting over something, he just doesn’t let up. It’s very cute, but also very concerning.
Myles dipped me briefly, to which I laughed, and then we continued our left-to-right and front-to-back routine.
The couples waltzing around us weren’t doing an excellent job, if I were being honest, but they most certainly were way better than us.
Not that it mattered to me.
Myles and I stepped to the left as the piano’s harmonies continued to play, and when he tilted his head to the side just a little bit before looking down at me, I saw a vein shift on the right side of his neck.
Pressing myself against him further, I leaned in and kissed his cheek once, followed by his jaw, then inhaled the orange-and-cedar smell of his cologne.
We stepped to the right, and I slowly ran my lips over the vein on his neck.
Myles’s head fell forward at that, so I smiled and traced the vein all the way up to the space behind his ear.
When I heard a soft gasp from him in return, I placed an open-mouthed kiss on the vein, then gently sucked on the skin next to it, making Myles whisper a curse against my neck.
I pulled back, and when our eyes met, everything around me faded. He looked at me, I looked at him, and the music drifted away. I licked my lips, and his gaze immediately dropped towards it, resulting in my head to buzz.
I realized I was breathing hard – like I’d been running instead of pretending to waltz.
Myles gripped me tighter as he blinked at me, and when I knew for sure that I couldn’t wait any longer, I touched my forehead to his before signing, Take me home.