"Good God, somebody please put that chick out of my misery," he said.<,p>
Karina laughed as he grabbed her hand and pulled her through the crowd. They found a small table near the back of the club and the four of them sat down. Karina surveyed the place, taking note of all of the drunk tourists. AJ ordered a round of jello shooters, a bottle of tequila, and the karoake song list, then lit up a cigarette. He stared across the table at Karina as he began to flip through the pages of the book.
"I'm going to find you a song," he said, smiling.
"What?," she exclaimed, laughing. "You get to pick a song for me? Do I get to pick one for you?"
"Sure," he said, still smiling. "I'll sing whatever the hell you want me to sing."
"Oh, wait now. That's not fair. You sing in public all the time. The closest I've been to singing in public was when Mikayla's maid caught me singing in the shower one day!" she said, laughing harder.
The mention of Mikayla's name wiped the smile off AJ's face, as he took a long draw off his cigarette and looked back down at the book.
"Who's Mikayla?" Kendra asked, looking at Karina.
"Um, she's.... my best friend," Karina said, pouring a shot of tequila. "And she's AJ's fiance."
"Oh yeah, I heard about that," Kendra said, turning to AJ. "Don't you two have a baby or something?"
AJ didn't answer. He just kept thumbing thru the book of songs. Nobody spoke for several seconds.
"WELL..." Nick said, breaking the silence. "How bout those Braves?"
They all burst into laughter, and AJ poured tequila for all of them. He turned to Kendra and gave her a serious look.
"OK, you're first," he said, writing her song on a piece of paper and folding it up. "Give this to the DJ, but don't look at before you do."
Kendra laughed nervously as she took the paper from his hand.
"But what if I don't know the song?" she said, her voice a plaintive wail.
"Oh, you'll know the song," he said, smiling. He gave her a little nudge off the chair and she walked over to the DJ to give him the paper. She then took her place on the stage and waited for the song to come up on the screen. As the song title came up, she looked at AJ and smiled. The music started, and she began to sing "Fever" in a sultry voice...
"Never knew how much I loved you. Never knew how much I cared. When you put your arms around me, I get a feeling that's so hard to bear. You give me fever. In the mornin', fever all thru the night. Fever, when you kiss me, fever when you hold me tight..."
AJ smiled and sat back in his chair as he watched. Karina watched his eyes as he stared at Kendra on the stage. She could see something in his face that just bothered her. Something about the way he was looking at this girl... but she couldn't figure out what it was. It was like he was... longing for something. Not sex. Something else.
When Kendra's song was over, the crowd erupted into thunderous applause, and she made her way back to the table, laughing and embarassed.
"OK, I did it!" she yelled, taking a big shot of tequila. "I think... ummmm... I think NICK needs to go next!" She grabbed the book away from AJ and started looking for something for Nick to sing. "Come here, Karina! Let's find something very embarassing for dear sweet Nick!"
Karina hopped off the chair and ran around behind Kendra. They whispered back and forth, discussing the songs. Nick laughed and covered his face with one hand. He knew he was about to be very embarassed indeed. Karina and Kendra both pointed to the same song, looked at each other, and burst into loud, raucus laughter.
"Ok, Nicky," Karina said. "Here's your song, baby!" She wrote it down on a piece of paper and handed it to him.
"Oh God, I'm going to die of embarassment, arent' I?" he said, blushing.
"Probably," she said, giving him a little kiss and pushing him off the chair.
He slowly walked over to the DJ and gave him the request. The DJ laughed out loud, as Nick made his way onto the stage. When the crowd realized who was up there, everyone on the entire place stopped what they were doing and turned to watch. As the music to David Allen Coe's "You Don't Even Know My Name" started, Nick looked over at Karina and his eyes grew huge. He mouthed the words I'm going to kill you, then turned back to face the crowd with a big smile.
He sang the song perfectly, and it was obvious to Karina and Kendra that this was not the first time he sang it. Every time he got to the chorus... "You don't have to call me darlin', darlin'. You never even called me by my name" the entire crowd joined in. By the end of the song, he was really enjoying himself. Maybe it was the tequila...
At the end of the song, everyone in the place went crazy as Nick made his way back to the table, a look of triumph on his face.
"HA! You didn't kill me with embarassment," he said, taking Karina's face in his hands and planting a big kiss on her mouth. "Now it's YOUR turn, smartass."
He didn't even need the book as he wrote down the song of his choice and handed it to her. Karina made her way over to the DJ, a nervous feeling in the pit of her stomach. She took her place on the stage and looked at the monitor to see how Nick was going to get her back... "There's Your Trouble" by the Dixie Chicks. Well, damn. Kendra got "Fever" and I get The Dixie Chicks, she thought. She looked over at Nick and stuck out her tongue. As she began to sing, the crowd started to react. The actually LIKED her. The more they responded, the more she got into her song...
"There's your trouble, there's your trouble. You keep seeing double with the wrong one. You can see I love you, you can see she doesn't but you just keep holdin' on. There's your trouble."
By the end of the song, she was actually loving this singing thing! As she left the stage, the applause rang in her ears. She made her way back to the table, her legs weak and her hands shaking. Nick looked at her with a huge smile on his face.
"See? Isn't it FUN to sing in front of people?" he asked, grabbing her hand and pulling her into his lap. She laughed and kissed him.
AJ was still sitting across the table with a smirk on his face. He was so sexy, he practically smouldered. Karina glanced over at him and had an idea. She leaned across the table and whispered to Kendra. They high-fived and Kendra wrote the song they had agreed on down on the paper. She grabbed AJ's hand and pulled him over to the stage, where she handed the request to the DJ.
"You know, there's nothing you can make me do that's going to embarass me," AJ said, smirking, as he walked up onto the stage.
"We'll see about that..." Kendra called back, as she made her way back to the table. She watched the look on AJ's face as his song came up on the screen... "Burning Love" by Elvis... AJ turned to her and gave her a look that would have stopped a train.
No way, he mouthed. She just smiled and nodded her head slowly. He sighed and shook his head as the song began. As soon as the crowd realized what he was going to be singing, they went crazy. Being the ham that AJ was, he quickly loosened up and began to sing with all his heart, playing to the women in front of the stage. Pelvic thrusts. Gyrations. He gave them a show. When the song was over, the crowd didn't want him to leave the stage. He thanked them, but said that was enough for one night. He walked back over to the table and sat down, covering his face in his hands.
"I can't believe I just did that," he said, laughing. He poured more tequila in his glass and took a long drink. Kendra climbed up on his lap and straddled his hips. She started kissing him deeply, as he ran his hands up and down her back. Karina looked around at all the people in the bar, and thought to herself that this probably wasn't the BEST place in the world for AJ to be making out with a girl, especially when the world knew he was engaged to someone else...
"Um, AJ, don't you think you should take this back to the room?" she asked. He didn't even break the kiss with Kendra as he flipped Karina off.
"Well, ok then..." Karina said, shaking her head. "Do whatever the hell you want. Like I give a shit."
************************
Mikayla's phone rang sometime after midnight. She fumbled for the light switch, then found the phone.
"Hello?" she answered in a sleepy voice.
"Miss Mikayla, this is Robert... the general manager of your resort. I apologize for the timing of my call. I know it's after midnight. I know you wanted me to call you if I noticed any improprieties regarding your fiance, and I'm afraid I have some rather distressing news..."
Mikayla felt the rage building inside her as Robert reported on AJ's activities. When he finished, she hung up the phone without saying goodbye. She threw the covers off of her bed and opened her closet, then grabbed her suitcase. She was throwing clothes into it when Manigo, her manservant, entered the room.
"Are you going somewhere, Miss?" he asked.
"Yes. We're going to Jamaica. Tonight. I want you to call the airport and get the plane ready. We'll be leaving within the hour."
He left the room, wondering to himself what the tattooed freak had done now to upset his mistress.
Two and a half hours later, Mikayla found herself in AJ's empty bungalow in Jamaica. She placed 9 month old Lyric in the guest bedroom, where she slept soundly. Mikayla wandered around the house and inspected each and every room... She found empty liquor bottles... condoms (unopened, of course)... pot... a torn woman's t-shirt... She shook her head in disgust. How could he do this to her? She had given up her entire lifestyle to be with him, and this was how he was going to repay her. She heard loud laughter coming up the walk, and she sat down on the couch, crossing her legs and her arms.
AJ entered the room with Kendra on his back, then Karina and Nick entered. They were all laughing and singing the David Allen Coe song... As soon as AJ saw Mikayla, his heart dropped. She was sitting there... with the angriest, most hurt look on her face that he could ever imagine. He dropped Kendra off his back and looked down at the floor.
Mikayla stood and walked to Kendra, then stuck out her hand and said "Hi, I'm Mikayla. AJ's fiance and the mother of his child. And who might you be?"
"I'm... uh.. I'm Kendra," she said, taking Mikayla hand in her own.
"Well, it's nice to meet you, Kendra. Listen, if I were you, I might want to leave right about now, because things are about to get really ugly, really fast. I know you don't want to be caught up in the middle of all this, do you?" Mikayla's tone was controlled, but Kendra could feel the anger.
Kendra nodded her head and left quickly. Mikayla looked over at Nick and shook her head.
"Damn, Nick. You were supposed to help me keep him OUT of trouble, not help him get INTO it," she said.
"And YOU..." she said, pointing at Karina. "You... I am disgusted with you, Karina. I don't even want to look at you right now. Get out of my sight."
Karina and Nick left the house quietly, leaving only AJ and Mikayla. She walked across the room and grabbed his hand, pulling him to the guest room. She turned on the bedside lamp, revealing a beautiful, sleeping Lyric. The baby opened her green eyes slowly. When she saw AJ, she smiled brightly and crawled toward him saying "dada!". AJ smiled and started to pick her up, but Mikayla grabbed her from him.
"You're not touching this baby with... that other woman all over you. I just wanted you to see what you just lost, AJ."