Marie said to me, “Oh my goodness. That was like I was at a concert.”
I smiled and made sure to not look in Mason’s direction, although I could have sworn that his eyes were on me. I looked over at Kat.
“Oh, you know that payback is a bitch, right?”
Of course luck was on my side, because I won the next game and smiled.
“Lauryn Hill’s Ex-factor.”
She stood and shook her head. “You don’t love me at all, do you?”
I laughed. “Come on. I’ll sing with you.”
The music started, and I let her take the lead on the song. This is also one of those songs that talk about a woman who is in love with a guy who doesn’t know how to love her back. Well, that’s my opinion, anyway. She started the first verse. Then I sang the second verse for her, saying how a guy can just express how he feels so easily but then can just walk away.
What I love about this song is the hook. It is perfect for how AB has been treating her, which is why I got her to sing this song.
We both sang this song for the two men in our lives that have no idea how much they affect us but won’t take that chance to see the reward. Kat and I were in our own worlds as we sang. When we were done, Cory started playing some dancing music, and we just started dancing. We heard screaming and clapping, and we saw that the band and some of the people we invited from the bar the other night had arrived.
This party for eight had turned into a real party. I was relieved, because I didn’t want to pull another card and lose. There was no telling what Kat would have asked me to sing.
Kat and I danced with everyone in the room except for the people our hearts wanted the most. I looked over at Cory, and I could tell something was heavy on his mind. I knew it was time I made a decision. For some reason, tonight was telling me more and more that I shouldn’t be wanting a man that didn’t want me.
I was stealing glances at Mason and Diane, and it seemed they were in their own world. He would touch her and whisper to her, and all she would do is smile at him and lean into him slightly. I sighed. She is the woman for him, and I need to accept that. He doesn’t want me; I’m not the one for him. I wanted to cry. I didn’t know what I did wrong to change his mind about me.
As the night went on, I continued to drink until I was going to pass out. Cory looked over at me with worry, but I gave him a reassuring smile. If there’s one thing I mastered over the years, it is my tolerance for alcohol.
I noticed that Kat was screaming for AB to give her some attention, but he seemed to be a little preoccupied with a few of the bar maids that came to the party.
As the night went on, our party mood started to fade. Marie mentioned to some of the guys from the band what we were doing before they showed up.
“Can you two lovely ladies sing?” one of the older guys that played the drums asked.
“Oh yeah, they can,” Marie told them.
“Well hell, why don’t you sing something for us?” he asked.
“I would love to hear you beautiful women sing us a song.”
A couple of the guys around us started clapping, and I pushed Kat up to the front.
“I don’t know what to sing.”
She looked out onto the crowd and saw AB still talking to a couple of women in the back of the room. She narrowed her eyes.
“Now I know what to sing.”
Cory was playing slow mellow songs at this point, so it didn’t matter if he played the song through a CD or if it was sung live. She whispered her song selection, and he smiled and shook his head.
I reached for the mic and said into it, “The birthday girl here wants to sing a song for the guests that came to party with us.”
The guys that were next to us clapped, while the music started. I smiled when I heard the beat, because I knew someone was in trouble tonight. The song was Tamia’s Stranger in My House. It talks about a woman who feels as though her man has become a stranger to her. He doesn’t feel the same as he used to, but he won’t tell her that he’s changed. But in the song she contemplates that maybe it’s her wanting more, and he’s the one that hasn’t changed at all.
Tiffany has an amazing voice. Her range can go close to a first soprano and close to a second alto. When we sing together, she usually takes the higher notes. She’s an amazing singer that sings with so much passion, so when she started to sing everyone took notice.
I swear the way she sang this song sounded close to the original, but had a taste of Kat all in it. When she ended the song, everyone stood and applauded. I looked back and seemed to have seen more people standing in the room than what we had before. AB looked angry, but I saw Mason lean into him to say something that relaxed his face ever so slightly.