When he’d finished, looking at me over his bottle as he took a long drink, he waited for me to answer. Surprisingly relaxed, I found my voice easily.
“I’d love to. Do you write your own songs?” My steady voice in this guy’s presence sounded foreign to me, but the sound calmed the butterflies down to a mere rumble.
“Mostly. The guys co-write on some, but I write the majority of them. Why?”
“The wisdom in them, well, it touched me, made me think. I like that, when a song or a book can give me pause to really think about life. Maybe I was a philosopher in a past life or something,” I shrugged. The flowing words calmed my breathing even as looking into his eyes increased my heart rate.
“Wow. That’s just about the best compliment I’ve ever gotten on my music. Pretty and smart. An unbeatable combo.”
I couldn’t contain my grin or the red that faintly stained my cheeks.
“So. You’ll stay? You promise?” He asked as he stood, beer in hand.
“I promise.”
“Good. It’s a date then,” he stated before he turned to walk back on stage.
A date? Damn. I didn’t know what to do with that. Thankfully, I had another hour or so to think on it, or to think on him, really. It passed rather quickly, despite my anticipation, as did the wait for him and his band to pack things up. Chloe had waited with me, but then made another quick exit once he arrived back at our table. I’d said good-bye to her and Sarah with a smile so big it hurt my face to maintain.
“Enjoy the rest of the show?” He asked, still standing.
“Yes, I did,” I offered with the hint of a question in my voice in regards to him not sitting down.
My mind of course fled to the fact that he’d changed his mind. Then it flipped to the idea that his interest earlier had all been some sort of a joke. Now, he was here to deliver the punch line. I watched his fingers, ones that had been so apt over the strings of the guitar all night, now tap the table. I could just let him off the hook, but I couldn’t again walk to my car alone. Images of the bloodied man, though fuzzy, filled my mind, came into focus, if you will.
The wolf followed, as he had that night. Right now, faced with this dilemma before me, I no longer bought my hallucination or stress excuse for what I’d witnessed. Right now, I’d swear the wolf lurked, waiting for me. Maybe he’d kill me this time. Maybe I’d just been the second course who’d gotten away. I’d bet money that he waited for me right here in the bar.
“Listen, Christine, I’d love to get out of here,” he said in a low whisper.
“I understand,” I said, the hurt and anger cutting off my words.
“No, I don’t mean without you, if that’s what you just thought. I want to leave with you. It’s just I was afraid to suggest it since we don’t know each other that well. I can take you out to an all-night diner or something. I just don’t want to be in the same club I just worked in for the past few hours. The band, friends who came to see us, I’ll never get to have a decent conversation with you. They’ll ruin any chance I have at getting to know you,” he rambled on, still in a whisper meant only for my ears.
“Oh,” I exclaimed, turning two heads from the next table with the high pitch of my voice. You’d think he’d just propositioned me to sex right here on the table, the way I’d let my voice overreact.
The place had thinned out considerably since the band had stopped playing. I could only assume that he knew everyone left. As if in confirmation, he nodded to the two who now stared at us and spoke to them by name. In short order, though, he introduced us and excused us. With his hand resting lightly on my back, he ushered me out of the club.
This time I walked into a poorly lit parking lot with the gentle touch of what I hoped to soon be a special man in my life. I could probably chalk those overzealous feelings up to my inexperience, but I didn’t care. He felt like an old friend standing there beside me. Maybe that was the way I wanted to feel, needed to feel in order to recklessly go through with tonight. But after last week and every night that had followed, I figured the whole of the universe owed me a good evening.
The night itself, the waning moon, shone brighter than any I’d ever known. I planned to ride out this fairy tale romance bit, too, as long as I possibly could. I’d let him be my knight in shining armor for as long as he wished to play along. Even if only for a few hours, I’d play along.