AN Okay, chapter 2. Finally getting in to things here. Oh, and for those of you who are not Irish, Siobhan is pronounce shah-VAHN. Please R&R! Thanks!
:oP NeverMind

P.S. If anyone out there is Irish or Italian, please don't take my ignorant generalizations seriously! No offense is intended!

P.P.S. This chapter is dedicated to MrsG & Udjat...I think they'll know why!

I really shouldn't have been surprised. We used to live at this place. It's an old bank that was turned into a pub about 10 years ago. The clever owners decided that to spice it up, they'd make it a karaoke pub. But they wanted to be original, so they hired a house band and allow their patrons to perform 'live' karaoke. It's the only place we know of that does this kind of thing and we love it. We used to be the stars of this place. We'd come here every weekend and sing rock'n'roll songs with the band until our voices were gone.

I was flattered to find out that the owners still remembered us. They chastised us for having been away for so long. I forgot how good it felt to be missed, even if it was by people I hardly knew.

"Remember Johnny?" Aiden asked me as we sat down at a small table near the stage.

"The drummer? Of course. If I hadn't been involved with Jake, I would've slept with him more than once!" I giggled. "Does he still work here?"

She nodded up toward the stage and I saw Johnny smiling and waving at me. He held his hand in front of his mouth to mimic a microphone and raised his eyebrows as if asking me whether I was going to sing tonight. I grinned at him and nodded. He looked satisfied.

I turned back to Aiden, unable to contain myself. "My god, he's lost a lot of hair!"

We both burst out laughing.

We ordered our drinks and cringed at a girl who was butchering U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday".

"I have not had enough to drink for that to sound good yet," Aiden said.

I had to agree with her.

"Oh, I invited some people from work, I hope you don't mind," she said.

"Like who?" I wanted to know, quickly recalling a few stories she had told me about her co-workers.

"Well, all of them, I guess. I don't know who's gonna show up, though."

I pouted. I hadn't counted on having to socialize with people she knew.

She laughed at me. "Oh, come on, it'll be good for you. When was the last time you met new people anyway?"

I opened my mouth, then closed it again, realizing that I hadn't met anyone 'new' for at least two years…oh geez, has it really been that long?

"That's what I thought," she said with a grin. "Besides, you'll like them. I know you and there's nothing like some good New York men to cheer you up."

"They're all men?" I asked, dismayed. As much as I wanted to get over Jake, I didn't want to get over Jake.

"Well, if Stella comes, they won't be," she told me, then in true elusive Aiden fashion, she switched the subject on me. "So what are we gonna sing?"

Mel, the owner of the pub and life-long Emcee, as he liked to call himself, made it sound like Aiden and I had been founding members of their place. Well, maybe we had, but still. It's slightly unnerving to be raved about from someone standing on a stage in front of a couple hundred people, even if it is a live karaoke stage.

Aiden and I belted out INXS's "New Sensation" and I remembered why I loved it here so much. I totally got lost, dancing around on stage like I did this for a living. It was totally freeing to sing one of my favorite songs at my favorite pub with my favorite friend.

When we were done, we bowed deeply to the audience and promised them more later on that evening and that's when I saw him. He was standing by our table, clapping and he had this smirk on his face that made me want to either slap or kiss him, I couldn't tell.

Aiden pulled me by the hand off the stage and dragged me over to the group of three guys standing there. I hadn't even noticed the other two, to be honest.

"Hey guys, glad you could make it," she said with her classic Aiden grin.

"I didn't know you could sing," the tall, dark Irish guy said. At least, he looked like one of my kind.

The gorgeous black guy took her hand and kissed it. "I suddenly see you in a whole new light," he said with a dazzling smile.

The Italian was looking at me. He oozed New York and I was repulsed and ridiculously turned on at the same time. I had been gone a long time, but obviously nothing in me had changed when it came to my bizarre attraction to New York men.

He held out his hand. "I'm Danny," he said.

I took it and Aiden cut me off before I had a chance to swear at him up one side and down the other. Irish women love verbally abusing and being verbally abused by Italian men. "This is my best friend, Siobhan."

"Nice to meet you," I forced myself to say.

His smirk deepened and I almost jumped him.

"These are my other coworkers, Don and Sheldon."

I took each of their hands in turn and almost opened my mouth to insult the Irish cop. How redundant, I was going to say, but fortunately I wasn't drunk enough and I knew Aiden wanted me to be nice. But damn it if this Danny didn't make me want to talk dirty.

We all sat down and I got peppered with all those annoying 'let's get to know the new girl' questions. Well, it wasn't as bad as all that, except that Danny refused to engage in the conversation. He just sat there and stared at me.

I finally couldn't take it anymore. "So what," I said, "You got nothing to ask?"

He just shrugged. "Aiden's told me enough about you. I feel like I already know you."

I gave my 'best' friend my dirtiest stare out of the corner of my eye. "So which story did she tell you? The one about me getting locked out of our apartment in my underwear or the one about the night I got so drunk I fell asleep naked in the bathtub?"

He grinned. "I haven't heard either, but I kinda think I'd like to."

Good lord, he's provoking me.

Aiden threw her straw at him. "Danny, be nice," she chided. "I didn't invite you here to harass my best friend."

"I'm not harassing her," he protested, taking a slug from his beer without breaking eye contact with me.

"Room for two more?" a Greek-looking woman who'd approached our table asked.

"Hey Stella, Mac – there's lots of room, pull up a chair," Aiden told them, getting up to hug them both. "This is my best friend, Siobhan. Siobhan, this is Stella and Mac."

I stood and greeted them. The older man intrigued me. He reeked of New York too, but differently than Danny. There was more sorrow to his bitterness. Aiden had told me about him, of course. Her sweet'n'sour widower boss who could flip from Marine to father figure in a heartbeat.

"You missed the show, Mac," Don was saying. "You wouldn't believe how good these two women are up there."

"Don't worry, we've got another song lined up. Stella, you should join us," Aiden invited.

"No way. Mac's the musician in this group," she said.

I smiled at him, willing him out of his very obvious shell. "Really? What kind of a musician are you?" I asked.

He just shook his head, embarrassed by the attention. "I'm not really. I play bass once in a while with some friends," he said dismissively.

"Really?" Sheldon asked, impressed. "I didn't know that about you, Mac."

"You'll have to come up with us, of course," I said, smiling sweetly, doing my uttermost to get under Danny's skin.

"Let me have a few more drinks first," Mac said.

I glanced over at Danny. I hadn't phased him one bit.