Liz brought their meals with a hefty dose of insincere complaining about how cute they were together ("It makes my teeth hurt!") and then left them to tend the other patrons. They ate as the bar filled to the brim with an even bigger crowd than his first night. Maggie pointed out new faces to Jesse as they entered. "Oh! That's Tanya Anderson. She teaches second grade at the school."
Jesse craned his neck and spotted a slender Inuit woman approaching Duke at the other end of the bar. As they hugged, he asked, "Are she and Duke…?"
"Brother and sister-in-law," Maggie answered. "Her husband Lowell, Duke's brother, is the chef here! I'll have to drag him out of the kitchen later."
"Oh, are they David's parents?"
"How do you know David?"
Jesse found himself grinning. "I met a bunch of kids earlier today. We saw a moose!"
"Ha! No way! You're first wildlife sighting! How was it?"
"Scary as hell," he said. "The kids handled it better than I did, really, but it was cool. In, like, retrospect I mean."
"Always cooler in retrospect," she agreed, spearing a forkful of the salad in front of her. "Ooh, ooh, that's Mayor Woods, just coming in."
Jesse leaned around her to see where she was pointing. Just inside the door, a tall man with a beer-belly and a cowboy hat was shaking hands with Wyatt. "Dude, is he for real?" he asked.
"Swear to God, it's completely non-ironic ," she said.
"Wow…" Jesse turned back to his plate. "And you guys elected him, huh?"
"For quite a few terms, actually," she said. "He's actually pretty cool. He came from some big ranching family down in Montana, but sometime in the seventies he got really into wildlife conservation and moved up here to work with the Park Service. I bet if you could describe it, he could tell you the name of that moose you saw today."
"No way."
"Way!" she said.
As 7 PM hit, Wyatt got up and rung a tiny gong, kicking off the Open Mike performances, which were as varied and odd as the patrons themselves. Two gray-haired men in cowboy hats played 'Devil Went Down to Georgia' on fiddles. A group of late-30-somethings, led by Dale, performed 'Soul Man' as if they were the Blues Brothers. A trio of college-age guys brought their own boom box with a karaoke track of One Direction's 'You Don't Know You're Beautiful' and gave a rousing rendition of the number , dancing among the crowd as they sang. A teenage girl dressed in various shades of black performed a poem she'd composed which didn't have half the angst Jesse had expected. In between acts Nick played an eclectic mix of new and old hits and chatted with the crowd from his station. "Don't be shy folks, we're all friends here! Who's next, hmm? Maggie, I'm getting texts asking when you'll be getting up here! Why keep us waiting, huh? I saw you bring your guitar case with you tonight."
The redhead slid off her stool, scanning the crowd. "Alan?"
From across the room, her fellow bartender stood. "Ready when you are!"
Smiling brightly, she grabbed her guitar case and made her way to the 'stage area'. Jesse watched her slide the strap of the instrument over her shoulder and settle on a stool with it resting in her lap. She fiddled with the microphone stand as Alan joined her on a second stool, a base guitar across his chest.
"Lot of tough acts to follow tonight," Maggie said into the mike. "Am I right?" The crowd applauded. "Ok, here we go!"
Alan began with a simple, infectious riff and she joined him after a moment, strumming gently. It wasn't a song Jesse recognized, but he watched, enraptured as she leaned into the mike and started to sing.
"I wonder how many times you've been had
And I wonder how many plans have gone bad
I wonder how many times you had sex
I wonder do you know who'll be next
I wonder…l wonder…wonder I do"
Someone let out a wolf-whistle and Jesse felt his ears grow hot. It made him feel better seeing her face was flush as well, though she kept on smiling, strumming, and singing.
"I wonder about the love you can't find
And I wonder about the loneliness that's mine
I wonder how much going have you got
And I wonder about your friends that are not
I wonder…I wonder…I wonder I do"
She must've picked this on purpose; it was too fitting. He caught her eye and she winked at him.
"I wonder about the tears in children's eyes
And I wonder about the soldier that dies
I wonder will this hatred ever end
I wonder and worry my friend
I wonder…I wonder…wonder don't you?"
'Ok, maybe not completely fitting,' he thought, feeling a bit less singled-out. 'Still, when have you ever been sung to before?' As embarrassing as it was, he had to admit it was kind of nice too.
"I wonder how many times you been had
And I wonder how many dreams have gone bad
I wonder how many times you've had sex
And I wonder do you know who'll be next
I wonder…I wonder…wonder I do"
Maggie strummed the last chord and then put a hand over the strings. Over the applause, she said, "Thanks guys! Let's hear it for my bassist, right?" She jerked a thumb at Alan, who saluted the clapping crowd as she put her guitar back in its case. The two stood, hugged one-armed and left the 'stage'. As she returned to her spot at the bar, Jesse could see her cheeks were still pink. "Well?" she asked.
"Did you write that?" he asked.
"Oh no! No, that's a song from the seventies," she said, snatching up her glass. "A singer-songwriter named Rodriquez. There's a documentary about him we should watch sometime."
"Ohhh, gotcha," Jesse nodded. "Thought it sounded kinda, like, retro." Nervously, he picked at the cuff of his shirt. After a moment, he asked, "Did you, uh, pick that one because of me?"
"Maybe a little bit," she admitted. "It's also one I know really well and I wanted to pick one I didn't think I'd mess up. But you're right, it kind of has a new-relationship-type feel, huh? Hope I didn't make you too uncomfortable."
"Nah," he said. She raised an eyebrow at him. "Ok yeah. But at the same time I'm kinda, you know, flattered? Not that I want it to be a, like, weekly thing or anything."
"You got it," she said, curls bobbing as she nodded at him. "Now, since I don't have to worry about slipping up a chord anymore, I think I'm ready for a beer."
He smiled and signaled for Liz.
The performances continued on until about 9 PM and after that Nick took over fully, filling the bar with dance music from all eras. The groups seated closest to the stage area scooted their tables further back and the space became a little dance floor. Maggie bopped in her seat, feeling a bit of a buzz from her second beer. She watched Wendy attempting to pull Dale out of his seat only to give up and accept the arm Alan offered her instead. She glanced over at Josh. He was tapping the bar to the beat with one hand, staring off into space.
With what she hoped was a smidgen of grace, she leaned over, draping one arm over his shoulders. With her lips inches from his ear, she asked, "Dance with me?"
She felt his shoulders tighten and he jerked his head away slightly, though he didn't pull himself out of her hold. "N-not tonight," he stammered. The smile he gave her was tinged with guilt. "Some other time, maybe. But, uh, you think we could get outta here? I could use a little quiet."
So close up, it was hard not to notice the dark circles under his eyes. On impulse, she pressed her lips to his temple. "You got it. Let me square things with Liz and then we can go up to my place."
"I got this," he said, pulling his bill fold from his back pocket.
"You sure?"
"Totally." He laid a few bills down under his coaster and rose from his stool. "Thanks though."
"Alright, but I got next time," she said, dipping down to grab her guitar case before standing as well. "Night, Liz!"
Her fellow bartender gave her a wink and mouthed 'Have fun!' Maggie rolled her eyes and decided not to make eye contact with anyone else as she made her way to the back exit. As he had done yesterday, Josh insisted on holding the doors as they left and even took her guitar case so she didn't have to struggle unlocking her door.
"Here we go," she said as they entered her apartment. She pulled off her boots and left them, with her ankle socks still inside, by the mat. As she stepped further inside, she turned back and saw Josh crouched on the floor, working to unlace his work boots. "Oh, you don't have to –"
"It's no problem," he said. He finished with the second one and set them next to hers. "To tell the truth, I've had them on all day, and they're not like, very broken in yet."
"Ooh," she winced. "I hear ya. Want a soda or something?" She padded over to the kitchenette and began poking around in her little fridge.
"Sure, thanks."
She plucked a pair of birch beers from the door and turned to find him hanging awkwardly in the entryway. "Sit, sit," she said, "You don't ever need an invite to do that here."
"Uh, actually, um." He rubbed his forearm, looking everywhere but at her. "Could I, uh, use your bathroom?"
"Oh! Of course, yeah, yeah, it's just through the bedroom," she said, gesturing at the right door with a can of soda. "Sorry if there's, like, underwear laying out somewhere." She felt herself blush as she watched him do the same. 'Why'd you say that? Gah, awkward much?'
Josh ran a hand along the back of his neck. "N-no, it's cool. I'll uh, I'll just uh, be right back. Yeah." He hurried off into the bedroom.
As soon as he was out of her sight, Maggie scrambled to put music on, queueing up a playlist on her iPod, which rested in a third-party speaker dock on a bookshelf. 'No need to make him even more uncomfortable by listening to him pee – god, what's wrong with you? So much for keeping him thinking you're cool, dork.' With an exasperated sigh, she threw herself gracelessly onto the couch, feet dangling over one armrest, and covered her face with a throw pillow. 'Get it together!' she scolded herself.
She heard the toilet flush and hurriedly rearranged herself, sitting up and smoothing her skirt down over her knees. She popped open her soda and timed a casual sip just as he reentered the living room. "Hey," she said, giving him a nod.
"Hey again," he said. "Mind if I…?" He pointed at the couch.
"No, no, please sit," she sat, patting the cushion. "Hope you don't mind the music. I tried to pick a chill playlist."
"Yeah, no, that's cool," he said, settling down next to her. "Sorry. About earlier. I actually kinda suck at dancing, and I wanna be a little more established before I inflict that on anybody." He smiled sardonically. "You know, get people to like me first, so if they make fun, I know they don't really mean it?"
"Aw, I'm sure you're fine," she said, patting his knee. "But no worries. I can wait."
"Thanks." He took a sip of his soda. "So, uh, your song before, kinda got me thinking…"
"Yeah?" 'Oh god, I should've picked a song without sex in it.' She wasn't ready, but she also didn't think she could say no if he asked. Their kiss before had been agonizingly good.
"Yeah," he continued. "Like, I still don't know that much about you. Isn't there some questions game people play of first dates? To get to know each other?"
She smiled. "I might've seen something like that in a magazine at the salon a while back," she said. "So what, we take turns asking questions and we both answer them?"
"Something like that, yeah," he nodded. "Would you be up for that?"
"Yeah, I'm game," she said. "Should I start?"
"Ok."
"Alright – we'll start easy. Favorite color? Mine's teal."
"Green," he said. "What about food?"
"Oooh, gnocchi with cream sauce and arugula. I had it just once at a bistro down in Anchorage and I've been dying to figure out their sauce recipe ever since," she said, smiling at the memory. "Haven't figured it out yet, but I haven't given up. You?"
"Pizza."
She giggled. "Very uncomplicated. I like that. Ok, let's see. How about favorite movie? Mine would be My Neighbor Totoro."
"What?"
"You've never seen it? Oh, I'm adding it to the list. And yours?"
"Hmmm…I'm gonna go with Ghostbusters."
"Ooh, a classic!"
"Alright," he said, scratching his chin as he thought. "What was your favorite toy growing up?"
"Oh god – I had this thing, oh what was it called? It was like a crane that held different colored pens and it dangled over paper and these-gear like plastic disks and they would spin and you could make all kinds of weird patterns with them."
"A Spirograph?"
"Yes! Oh that was gonna bug me all night! Thank you!" She hugged him lightly. "I plastered my walls with stuff I drew on that thing. And you?"
"I had a Matchbox collection that was outta this world," he said. "And I had one of the Batmobile, from the first movie, ya know? That was the only one I didn't use when I played demolition derby," he added with a laugh.
"Ha! Nice. Ok, next - I've got three older brothers. Do you have any siblings?"
She watched his smile fade. "One little brother."
"Do you still keep in touch?"
"Hey, it's my turn to ask," he said. He took a long sip of his soda. "But no. My folks, they uh, they kicked me out when I started using and I haven't seen any of them since."
"God, I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to bring this down so fast."
"Nah," he shook his head. "It was years ago. But hey, you already know my big, dark deal – what was your drama that you moved up here to get away from?"
His eyes were imploring, though his tone had been casual. 'That's true, he did tell you right from the start. It's probably only fair...' "My ex-husband."
