"You’re lucky I did. I sensed that we were gonna do something like this so I packed what we brought from Michigan."
"Thank God" I said. I wore a long black dress the collar tied around my neck. My hair was up with little strands of hair hanging out. Its was getting colder so I wore a long thin black jacket. Megan wore a short blue dress with thick straps made of silk. Her hair was pressed for tonight so her wavy brown hair was now a little longer from before and was real straight.
When I went downstairs AJ took my hand and whispered, "You look absolutely beautiful"
“You don’t look so bad yourself.” I said with a grin.
“I’m gonna take that as a complement.”
“You better.” I looked over at Nick, who was still waiting from Megan to come down the stairs. “Looking sharp there Nick. Out to impress someone?”
“Maybe…” He said. “If she ever comes downstairs.”
“She’s a woman Nick, she’s gonna take a while.” Just as the words left AJ’s mouth Megan appeared at the top of the stairs.
“Gosh, Megs, you think you could take a little longer. Blondie over here wasn’t gonna have a fit or anything.”
“Thanks Muz, I needed that.” Nick said before reaching his hand out to help her down the last couple of stairs. He turned his full attention to my friend. “You look nice.” He grinned.
“Thanks, you look great.” He blushed and AJ cleared his throat.
“Why don’t we leave now, before we miss our reservations?” We all agreed and after locking the house, climbed into the BWM that Fatima had told us to use if we needed to go anywhere. Nick and Megan were in the back and AJ drove, which left me in the passenger’s seat.
“Where are we going again?” Megan asked from the back.
“A little place where no one will bother us.” Nick said.
“Why does that sound scary?” She asked, leaning over my shoulder.
“Because there wont be any fans to save us?”
Nick just laughed and pulled her back into her seat. “What? You scared that we are gonna do something to you?”
“Maybe…” I could hear amusement in her voice.
“I promise, we aren’t gonna do anything. Just please don’t sick the fans on us, for the love of God.”
“What about the love of Bob?”
“Bob? Nah, I’d rather have your love then Bob’s.”
That got her to shut up. The rest of the forty-minute ride consisted of listening to music and AJ and I talking. We pulled into a deserted parking lot in what seemed like the middle of nowhere, which was odd considering that we were in NYC. We all climbed out of the car and to the restaurant. The sign above the door read ‘Starlight Café’ and underneath ‘Your own little piece of heaven.’
When we walked in there was no one else inside. We were the only customers. Nick then led Megan over to a room that was separate from the rest. It was outside. I couldn’t see what it looked like, but I was sure I would hear about it later.
AJ took my hand and lead me in the opposite direction, to a room that was very much inside and very much made of real walls. We sat down at a table set for two, a single candle burning in the center. As soon as he sat down a waiter appeared.
“Good evening. We hope that you and Mr. Carter will find everything to your liking. You may order when you are ready.”
“Thank you.” AJ said and began looking at his menu. Once the man was gone he set it down. “So what do you think?”
“I think that you are up to something, but I’m having to much fun to try and figure out what it is right now.”
He grinned. “Well, I figured you would like staying inside better.”
“You’re right. Megan is going to freeze her ass off outside.”
“I’m sure that Nick will take care of her. Have you decided what you want to have?”
“Yes.” AJ then signaled for the waiter, who took our orders. Before leaving the room he flipped a switch on the wall. The lights went out and for a second the only light was that coming from the candle. But then the ceiling illuminated with thousands of tiny lights. “Wow..” was all I could say. They looked like thousands of stars on a clear night, out in the middle of nowhere. AJ watched me and smiled.
“I thought you might like that.”
“I do. It’s wonderful. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that they were real.”
“Well, I thought that if I couldn’t bring you to the stars, then I would bring the stars to you.”
“You are too sweet.”
“I try.”
“Not too hard, I hope.” He just smiled and moved the candle to one side before leaning over the table and kissing me softly. “AJ? Why couldn’t you bring me to the stars?” I asked as we separated.
“Cause…” he started, and pulled back a little to look me in the eye. “…Nick called the balcony.”
“Where are we going?” I asked Nick as I let him lead me away from AJ and Muzic.
“You’ll see.” He grinned.
“I thought you said you weren’t going to do anything to me.”
“I’m not.” He opened the door and let me step in front of him. We were outside on the balcony, but in a room with walls made of lattice and vines. It smelled fresh and sweet, like roses. There was an opening opposite the door and what looked like a walkway all the way around to structure. It over looked a beautiful pond.
In the center of the room was a single table, set for two, with a single white rose in a vase. The entire structure was lit by hundreds of candles, everywhere.
“Wow…” I said stepping into the room further and turning towards him. “You did all of this for me?” He nodded and shut the door. “It’s beautiful.”
He led me over to the table and held my chair out while I sat down. He then sat down across from me and grinned. “Do you like it?”
“No….” His eyes changed, they grew sad. He looked down at the maroon tablecloth. It was cute, but I didn’t want to see him look sad, so I finished my sentence. “I love it!”
His head jerked up and he smiled at me. “Really?”
“Yes, I do. You know what?”
“What?”
“You are so adorable when you think that you’ve upset someone.”
“Only when I think I’ve upset you.” He looked at his hands.
Just then the waiter walked into the room, menus in hand. “Hello. Mr. Carter I hope you find everything to your liking.”
Nick looked at me before answering. “Yes, everything is great.”
“We will have your drinks out shortly, and here are your menus.” He handed us the maroon covered papers and walked back into the main building.
“Dare I ask what the drinks are?”
“Well, Meg, we both know that we are both underage, but I think that you’ll like this.”
“Uh-oh. That can’t be good.” I looked at the menu in front of me for a few moments before deciding what I was going to have. I shut the menu to find Nick watching me. “Can I help you, Mr. Carter?”
“No. I was just wondering if you figured out what you wanted to eat.”
“Yes I have.” The waiter reappeared as if on cue, and placed a Champaign glass in front of each of us. He them proceed to take our orders while he opened a bottle and poured a bubbly liquid into each glass. He placed what was left of the bottle in an ice bucket next to Nick. As soon as he was gone I looked at Nick with apprehension.
“What?”
“I’m not sure, but I’m not going to ask any questions.” I picked up the glass and took a sip, fully expecting to meet a tangy sweet taste when the drink entered my mouth. “NICK! That’s sparkling cider!”
“Yeah, no kidding. We are under age!” I laughed and we began to talk about our day and what we thought was happening with AJ and Muzic at the moment.
“Well, that was great!” I said, smiling across the table at AJ. We had just finished dinner.
“Would you like some desert?”
“Nah… we can have that when we go back to the house. What time is it?”
AJ glanced at the watch around his wrist before answering me. “7:45. We are going to meet Nick and Meg back at the car by 9:20, so we can be back at the house at a decent hour, so Brian doesn’t worry about us.”
“OK. So what are we going to do now?”
“Well, we could go out and take a walk around the pond.”
“The pond? What pond?”
“The one that this place overlooks. Are you up to it?”
“I think I’ll be able to manage.” We both got up and pushed in our chairs, leaving all of our things in the restaurant, and walked towards the back door that lead out to the walkway that wound it’s way around the shining pond. We hadn’t walked 100 yards when AJ grabbed my hand and interlaced his fingers with mine. All I could do was smile and lean my head on his shoulder. “I don’t want this night to end.”
“Me either. But if you decide that you want to be one of our dancers then you would be on tour with us and we would be able to see each other all the time.”
I thought about what he was saying. He was right. And it did sound like a lot of fun. A lot more fun then going to school in Michigan and sitting in a dorm all day with Megan. “I think that I’m going to be taking that job.”
“Really?” He asked, stopping and turning to me. I nodded. “That’s great! That means that we will be able to spend a ton of time together and get to know each other better.” I nodded again. “Muzic, can I ask you something?”
“Yeah sure.”
“Would you like to be my girlfriend?”
“AJ, I would love that!” I through my arms around his neck and hugged him. He laughed a little and put me down.
“You have no idea how happy that makes me.” He was quieter and his face was getting closer to mine. I smiled a little before our lips met in another kiss.
“They are at it again.” Nick said, looking out over the pond and at his friend. We were finished with our food and on our third bottle of cider.
“Big surprise.” I said. I wasn’t really interested in how far AJ was trying to stick his tongue down my roommate’s throat.
“Is there something wrong?” He turned his attention back to me.
“No, nothing.”
“Meg, I may not have known you very long, but I can tell when you are not telling me the truth.” I looked at my hands. “Please tell me what’s wrong so that I can fix it.”
“I don’t think you can fix this.”
“I can try, if you tell me what’s wrong.”
“It’s just that I’m not sure what scares me more. The fact that I am actually here with you and I’m not freaking out, or….” I looked at the glass in front of me and focused on the bubbles that were flying to the top of the golden liquid.
“Or what?”
“Or the fact that all of this is going to end tomorrow and I really don’t want this to end. This is probably all just a dream anyway. But even if it is just a dream, I don’t want to wake up because this is the best dream I have ever had.”
“Is that what you are so worried about?” I nodded. He let out a light sigh and then got up from his seat. Walking over to my chair he pulled it out and helped me up, leading me over to the large open window that over looked the pond. He had me sit in the window and then lifted my head up I was forced to look him in the eye. “This isn’t a dream. If it is then I must be the one dreaming because you are my ideal girl.”
“Yeah right, how many times have you said that to a girl?”
“Megan, listen to me. You are sweet, smart, caring, funny, loving, adventurous girl who has two major talents, singing and making my heart skip beats. Not to mention you are beautiful on the outside as well as all the great things on the inside. This isn’t a dream. And it’s not ending tomorrow. I promise you that we will keep in touch. And if Muzic takes the job that Fatima offered her then we will be able to see each other more.”
“I’ve never thought of myself as anything like that.”
“You are all of those things, and much, much more. But you know what scares me?”
“What?”
“The fact that I can’t put into words what I’m feeling right now. You give me so much energy, I feel I could stay up and talk to you all night, and then stay awake the whole day just so that I could watch over you while you slept.”
“Nick, I-I don’t know what to say.”
“Say that you’ll be my girlfriend?” That caught my attention. I looked at his for a moment, wanting to say yes, but not being able to form the words. “Meg? Are you OK?” He looked concerned. I nodded. “Is that a yes because you are OK or a yes because you will be my girlfriend?”
“Both.” I whispered. He smiled and kissed me on the forehead before jumping up and sitting next to me. He turned around so that his legs were dangling on the opposite side of the lattice wall as mine.
“Look at the stars.” He pointed to the sky. I leaned back a little and looked up. There were hundreds of stars above up.
“Where are we?”
“The Starlight Café.” I gave him a look. “OK, we are about an hour out of the city.”
“It’s beautiful out here.”
“Not as beautiful as what I’m looking at.” He whispered. I looked over my shoulder to find him watching me. “What?”
“You are too smooth for your own good.”
“Yeah, but you don’t seem to mind.”
“That’s not the point.”
