A beat later, I noticed a handful of friends in the choir glancing at the door, so I looked over too, and I smiled widely. He came. Gideon actually showed up. He looked a little ruffled in his very unruffled suit; my guess was that he was a bit overwhelmed, but he offered a small smile and sat down in one of the chairs below the window.
My eyes were still on him as I leaned toward the mic and sang backup for Anthony, and I prayed Gideon paid attention to the lyrics too. Then I backed off and dropped my gaze and delivered what I hoped was an impressive solo, short as it may be. It wasn’t the kind of song to amaze, to be honest.
It would be kinda cool if he were amazed by me, though.
At around ten, everyone was starting to get tired and checking the clock on the wall a lot, so it was time to wind things down. Gideon had spent half an hour watching us rehearse the same song over and over, and that couldn’t have been a blast. But he was here. He hadn’t checked his phone a single time either.
“Only one rehearsal to go!” Maria exclaimed happily.
“We’ll have two hours in the morning the same day as the concert too,” Anthony replied, reaching for his towel to wipe his face.
I wiped my forehead on the sleeve of my Henley.
“Only two rehearsals to go!” Maria corrected jokingly.
The first rush of people was quick to say their goodbyes and wish everyone a happy weekend before ducking out, leaving Anthony and me with Maria, Luiz, Sylvia, and Nina. While Anthony huddled with most of them to shoot the shit, Maria and I went over the set list—what we had so far, anyway—so she could print it out for everyone for next time.
“So we’re moving ‘Testify’ to the first section?” she asked, holding up her binder.
I nodded and tapped a finger to an empty slot. “Yeah, and this one goes from here to the last one.”
During the event, we’d play five songs in three different time slots. Fifteen songs in total, with breaks in between for other acts. A local kids’ comedian was coming, and there was some auction with the proceeds going to a shelter.
We had thirteen songs at this point. After checking with Anthony this week, we’d added “Stand by Me” to the last slot, and I was fairly certain he’d choose “Washed by the Water” as the fourteenth. It was one we’d performed with the choir before, so it wouldn’t require a lot of practice.
“By the way, is there any news about Nashville?” Maria asked.
“Anthony would know that better than me,” I replied. “I think we’ve shared all the info. You’re in, right?”
“Of course! I’m not missing that.” She bumped her hip to mine, and I grinned. “We’re gonna party it up in the South, papi.”
“Fuck yeah.”
Next spring, we had a gig at a rock festival outside Nashville, and we’d left it open to the choir to join us. We were an on-again, off-again band—or rather, a band with plenty of hiatuses—and it wasn’t anything we put that much energy into. It was just fun to play here and there. This festival happened to be right up our alley, so Anthony had submitted a demo, and we’d been picked in the first selection, which was fucking cool if you asked me. But it wouldn’t make us rich or anything. In fact, we were chartering a bus and staying at the cheapest hotel in the area, and those from the choir who wanted to join us had to pay for their own room and board.
Nine men and women from the choir had signed up, last I checked.
By the time Maria said it was time for her to hurry home, Anthony was alone with Luiz by the drums, and I could finally say hey to Gideon.
“See you next week, babe.” I closed the door after Maria, then turned to the hottest man in the universe. “I don’t wanna tiptoe around anything, so I’m just gonna come out and say it made me really fucking happy that you showed up.”
Gideon had shared with me the countless hours he’d spent in front of the mirror perfecting “casual, polite, kind” smiles, and he wasn’t bad at those. He blended in just fine. But when the smile warmed up his eyes, that was when I knew it was genuine. It was small, but it was there.
“I wanted to see you.” He rose from his seat and smoothed down his suit jacket. “You’re very talented.”
“Thank you.” I wanted to kiss him but figured that would be too much. “Did you dislike these lyrics too?”
I’d been right about the other song. Gideon hadn’t liked it because it hit too close to home. He just hadn’t clarified further than that, so I remained in the dark. Was it about the settling for less than what he really wanted, for instance? Or was he feeling trapped?