* Chapter 10 *

"You hungry?" AJ asked after driving around talking about anything and everything and looking at the city.

"A little," I replied.

"Ok," he said. "I know of this little café on the beach that we can go to."

"Sounds great," I said as we turned onto a deserted side road.

"I know you’re wondering why we are going this way," he said turning to meet my eyes. "Short cut."

Before long, we arrived at the little café along the beach that was surrounded my small souvenir shops. I noticed that it wasn’t very busy, probably due to the time of day and the fact that most of the beach-goers were likely to be clubbing downtown. We got out of the truck and walked up to the door and went in. AJ talked to the host, who then led us to a little private table on the deck that was around the back of the building.

"You’re waiter will be right with you," the host said before walking away, leaving us alone.

When the waiter arrived, we ordered our food and drinks. AJ ordered some sort of steak sandwich with a coke and I ordered a turkey sandwich with water. After our food came, we ate and chatted until we were done eating. When we were done eating our food, we just sat and continued our conversation.

"Birthplace?" I asked.

"West Palm Beach," he replied and returned a question. "Middle name?"

"Ann. Horoscope sign?"

"Capricorn. Birthplace?"

"Provo, Utah. Next hair color?"

"Not sure...maybe pink tips. Play any instruments?"

"Not currently. I used to play the violin, but I haven’t played that for like ten years. Birthdate?"

"January 9, 1978. Yours?"

"June 10, 1981. Any more tattoos?"

"Not anytime soon. You have any?"

"No...I don’t think I’d ever get one either," I said before taking a sip of my water. "Fave foreign city?"

"Paris...the city of love," he said with a smile. "Favorite cartoon?"

"It’s a tie between Cathy and Garfield. What is the first thing you notice about a girl?"

"Eyes," he said with a sly smile. "First thing you notice about a guy?"

"Their smile. Favorite play?"

"Phantom of the Opera. I always wanted to be in that play," he said. "So, are you ready to go?"

"Yeah," I replied as he got up and pulled my chair out for me.

After leaving the small café, we decided to take a walk on the beach before heading to the club.

"This is the first time I’ve ever been to the ocean," I said quietly as the soft sand sunk in-between my toes. I took off my sandals and held them in my hands.

"It’s beautiful isn’t it?" AJ asked.

"Yeah. It is."

"We better head over to the club," AJ said after we walked for a few minutes before we turned back towards his truck. "Otherwise, they’ll think we got lost or something," he continued with a little laugh.

By the time we pulled up to the front of the club, it was about 9 p.m., so AJ quickly parked in a reserved spot by the curb. After he opened the door for me, we made our way to the door of the club. AJ knew the bouncer so we didn’t have any problems getting in. When we got inside, AJ led me to a small reserved table that was on the upper level in a private corner.

"This place looks more like a cocktail party at a mansion than a club," I said somewhat amused.

"Yeah," AJ said in response. "It’s nice to go to places like this every once in a while."

A few minutes after we sat down I saw Nick and Courtney turn at the top of the stairs and start walking towards us.

"Looks like we’re not late after all," I said to AJ who was sitting next to me.

Before he could answer me, Nick and Court approached the table and sat down.

"Hey guys!" Court said excited looking over at me with a huge grin.

"Hi," I said back to her with a smile.

"Been here long?" Nick asked over the loud music.

"Only a few," AJ replied as he looked at me and gave me a mischievous smile. "Where ya been?"

"We decided to get something to eat first," Nick said looking around. "Really, how long you been here?"

"A few minutes," I answered with a smirk that made Court laugh.

She stood up and walked over to the marble pillar balcony that looked over the dance floor and stage where the band and the person singing were playing a swing song.

"Hey Elsa," she said turning to us. "You should do that," she said pointing to the stage.

"Do what?" I asked getting up and standing beside her.

"Do that. You know? Sing with them," she said sitting back down.

"I don’t think so," I said giving her the evil eye as I sat down again.

"Why not?" Nick asked.

"I hate singing in public...," I said insecurely with a shrug. "Ya know, in front of people..."

"Dare ya," AJ said with an evil grin on his face. "No, wait. I take that back. I double dare ya."

I glared at Court again as I thought about it. "What’ll I have to do if I don’t?" I asked sheepishly, not really wanting to know.

"Oh nothing big," AJ said. "Just walk around to people and sing to each person individually since you won’t do it on the stage," he trying not to laugh.

"If I do it, will you do it too?" I asked hopefully as I slowly looked down at the table. Out of the corner of my eye I could see AJ and Nick exchanging looks.

"Sure," AJ said after a few seconds of mentally arguing with Nick’s facial expressions.

"You two have fun," Court said standing up as she grabbed Nick’s hand. "We’re going to go dance."

Before they left, she leaned over to my ear and said, "Don’t worry. You’ll do great!"

"I sure hope so, or you are so dead later!" I replied as they walked off.

"I can’t believe that I’m going to do this! I hate doing things like this," I said to myself as I put my hands up to my face and closed my eyes, still verbally abusing myself.

"Hey," AJ said sympathetically, putting his hand on my back. "You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to."

"No. I’m going to do this," I said putting my hands down on my legs. "I need to get over this little fear of singing in front of people," I turned and gave him a smile.

"You sure?" he asked.

"Yes, I’m sure. I just don’t know what song..." I trailed off moving my gaze from his brown eyes to my ice-cold hands.

"You wanna do it now and get it over with?" he asked.

"Yeah, just a minute," I said as I took a few deep breathes. After I was relaxed a little bit, AJ grabbed my hand softly in his.

"Let’s do this!" he said happily as he led me to the stairs.

We went down and began to weave our way slowly towards the stage. I stood on the dance floor in front of the stage while AJ talked to the piano player. After a few seconds the piano player turned to talk to the bass player, then the drums player, and then back to talk to AJ some more. After a few more seconds, AJ walked back over to me.

"They said they’d be happy to play for you...I mean...us," AJ said taking my hand and helping me up the steps on the side of the stage. Right before the band finished the song that they were playing, AJ leaned over and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

"You’ll do great!" he said in an assuring voice before he let go of my hand and headed back over to the steps.

‘Great! Why did he have to kiss me? Now I’m even more nervous’ I thought as I slowly walked over to the piano player. The spotlights went out as I told the older man which song I would be singing and where I wanted the piano solo. He suggested for me to sit on the closed grand piano, so I took his suggestion, hopped onto the piano, and made myself comfortable by crossing my legs as he handed me the microphone.

"Ah, a jazz standard huh?" he asked softly with a smile.

"Yeah," I replied softly as the lights came up and I began counting off the slow and steady beat for the band.