Chapter 2: Chapter 2
AJ included.
Not all of the show was canned. Tyrone was a pro at reading the crowd, and after their set beginning, they simply played it by ear, no pun intended. AJ had learned to pick up his cues with only a glance, while Tyrone always anticipated when AJ would launch into a new direction. It had been like that ever since they’d showed up three years earlier for the audition. Heat Wave’s owner put them on stage together, and everything had just clicked. Sometimes it just happened that way. In the movies, they called it chemistry. AJ called it good luck.
Tonight’s show was no different. The crowd was younger, and Tyrone kept swinging into Barry Manilow to wind them up, leaving AJ to drag him back to the twenty-first century. By the time midnight rolled around, AJ felt half-drunk on the adrenaline, smiling at Tyrone over the pianos.
“Got your glass slipper?” he said.
Tyrone scowled and swore under his breath. “You have got to be kidding me. It’s not midnight already.”
“I’m telling you. Watches. Next big thing.”
Tyrone winked. “You say that only because you’ve never agreed to that threesome with me.”
The joke was an old one, but it never failed to bring a blush to AJ’s cheeks. “Considering how many notches you’ve got on your bed, I just might be the only person in Reno who cansay that.”
“You just might,” Tyrone agreed. “Which makes you one of a kind, my friend. One of a kind.”
“I’ll remember that the next time we’re in contract negotiations.” He turned to address the audience, slipping into “Auld Lang Syne” without missing a beat. “That’s the show, folks. Hope you enjoyed it.”
“Of course, they enjoyed it.” Tyrone smiled. “Who wouldn’t want to sit here and watch two fine men like us make fools of ourselves?”
“Or at least one of us,” AJ pretended to mutter. He lifted a hand and waved. “Good night!”
The audience erupted into thunderous applause, the lights that had been dimmed during the act coming back up to full strength. AJ rose and stretched, watching Tyrone as he already started working the crowd. He knew for a fact Tyrone did it for the tips, but seeing him bestow that charm on anybody with a wallet always managed to sting a little.
More than one person stopped him for an autograph on his way to the bar. AJ stopped and did what he had to, but he knew the smile he wore wasn’t nearly as genuine as Tyrone’s. Without the pianos, without Tyrone on the other side, he just wasn’t the same kind of showman. He was okay with that most of the time. It was only in these moments between walking away from the set and getting out of the crowd that he wished it might be a little different.
Janie slid his usual in front of him as soon as he stopped at the corner of the bar. He smiled and downed the beer in long swallows, grateful to quench his dry throat. His hands never gave him problems during a show, but all the talking and the occasional singing Tyrone managed to seduce out of him wreaked havoc on his vocal cords.
“Looks like Ty’s got a hot one tonight.”
Janie’s declaration drew AJ’s head up, and he glanced in the direction she nodded. Tyrone had stopped at a small table near the platform, and now he had his arm around a tall, willowy woman who looked like an ex-beauty queen. She matched his five-nine, and the flash of her smile against her dark skin made the two of them look like they belonged on the cover of Jettogether.
AJ turned away, though the image was already burned onto his brain. “Does Freeman need me for anything tonight? ‘Cause if not, I’m taking off.”
“Not that he said.”
She regarded him through her lashes as she dried the glasses she’d been washing out. Janie wasn’t a pretty girl, but what she lacked in looks, she more than made up for in kindness. At thirty-four, she was the oldest of Heat Wave’s bartenders, and in many ways, the heart and soul of the bar. It hadn’t surprised anyone when she and Freeman, the owner, had gotten engaged earlier that year. It just seemed to fit. The only problem now, Janie was on a kick to see everybody as happy as she was, even if they didn’t want her to butt into their business.
Like now.
“Go tell Tyrone you two need to work on the show,” she suggested kindly. “You know if you ask, he’ll drop the arm candy.”
“I’m not asking.” He caught the light in her eye. “And you’re not either.”
“But you want to.”
“I also want to not look like a desperate fool, so let it go.”
She sighed. “You should tell him how you feel. You’re not doing yourself any favors keeping this all bottled up.”
Only Janie knew about AJ’s feelings for his partner. He had never confessed them to her. He had never confessed them to anybody. Terror welled in his throat every time he even considered the possibility of sharing them with Tyrone. The one time AJ had come close to spilling the truth, he’d ended up hunched over the toilet, puking his guts out because Tyrone had made a comment about how lucky he was he found a guy he could actually be friends with on the job.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone