I drive home excitedly and Rawlins, my trusty Butler, looks quite impressed by the fact that I carry a guitar into the house.
“Good heavens sir, have you decided to become a musician now?” he asks with an incredulous expression of his on his face.
“Why not my good man?!” I exclaim, “we only live once and I have decided that it would be nice to be able to serenade the woman of my dreams!”
“What a splendid idea Sir!” Rawlins says and takes the Harley’s keys from me to go and park it in the garage. I rush inside, sit down on the couch and start practicing the chords which the guy at the music school has taught me. I suddenly realize that I never asked Stacy exactly what kind of music Jenny likes, but decide that me being able to play the guitar will be enough of a way to impress her without necessarily playing a song she specifically knows. I start practicing the song which my music teacher has taught me how to play, a little ditty from the seventies called ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane’. It’s not long before I can play the chords and sing the tune at the same time.
I look up and see old Rawlins standing in the doorway, looking at me with great admiration.
“That actually sounds very good sir,” he says and his compliment spurs me on to practice even harder.
Chapter 11: Jenny
I’m sitting at my desk and I’m busy with a very important article about a new restaurant that’s just opened up on the platinum mile, right on the beach. It specializes in Mexican food and I’m trying my best to look up all the correct spellings for the various Mexican dishes which they offer. It would do me no good to write a wonderful article and get some of the names of the dishes misspelled along the way.
While I’m busy, I hear the sounds of guitar music coming from outside in the street, but I pay no real attention to it. I figure it’s just a street musician plying his craft and I expect the sounds to die away soon as the musician continues walking down to the town square where most of these people play for whatever coins the locals and visitors care to cast their way. I’m so engrossed in my article that I don’t realize there’s a familiar voice singing along with the guitar music. After about ten minutes, when am finally done looking up all the correct spellings for the Mexican dishes, I still hear the music coming from outside and I decide to go and take a look. I figure I might as well give the musician a couple of dollars just to encourage him to keep playing. When I get outside I see Stacy already standing there and from the look on her face you would have thought she was at a rock concert, watching her favorite rock star performing.
“Looks like I’ve been missing out on the show,” I say and smile at Stacy. But she doesn’t even look at me and continues to stare at the musician. I finally decide to take a closer look at the guy who’s been playing the music and for just a second my mind refuses to accept the signals which my eyes sent its way. Surely this is impossible…
It’s Brad!
I looked over at Stacy and she stands there with a huge grin on her face, almost as if she wants to say, “I told you so.”
I look over at Brad and he just stands there grinning like a schoolboy while he keeps playing his guitar and singing.
“I guess there’s a bit more to your male admirer than you first thought,” Stacy says with that same grin on her face as we both stand there listening to the song Brad sings. It just happens to be one of the songs my dad always used to play to me… ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane’. As I stand there listening to Brad playing guitar and singing it takes me back the days when my dad used to sing to me when I was just a little girl. For the very first time in my life I find myself drawing a favorable comparison between my late father and a guy who is interested in me.
When Brad is finished with his song he takes a little bow and Stacy and I applaud him wildly.
“That was beautiful! I’m so sorry I didn’t come out earlier to hear the other songs you were playing,” I say.
“Don’t worry, I’ve been playing that same song for fifteen minutes now… was kind of wondering whether you were ever going to come out and listen to it,” Brad says and we all burst out laughing.
“But you never told me you were a musician… I mean, you were so secretive about what you do for a living and I never knew that you could sing and play guitar like that!” I say and don’t even try to hide my delightful surprise.
“Well, I wouldn’t call myself a professional musician or anything, but I do enjoy playing the guitar… especially for two beautiful girls like you,” Brad says with a beautiful smile on his gorgeous face and I feel my resistance melting away inside me. This was the very last thing I was expecting from him and I find myself thinking that I’ve been far too hard on Brad… that I’ve seriously misjudged the man he is. By now there’s quite a crowd of people gathered around us and they ask Brad to play them a song. Not surprisingly, he starts playing the same song which had gone done so well with Stacy and myself and everyone starts singing along… “Leaving on a Jet Plane, don’t know when I’ll be back again!”
This time Brad gets a thunderous round of applause from everyone listening and I can tell that he is a bit blown away by the enthusiasm of everyone standing around. Stacy and I rescue Brad from the new admirers and he follows us inside the office to sit down and take a rest.
“Be honest Brad… That’s the only son you know, isn’t it?” Stacy asks and Brad nodded his head in such a funny way that I can’t resist laughing.
“I’m going to be perfectly honest with you,” Brad says, “I heard a little birdie tweet that you like guitar music and I decided to take guitar lessons and learn how to play that song just to impress you!”
I look over at Stacy and she just stands there with a wicked grin on her face. “It was you who told him, wasn’t it?” I say with a note of mock anger in my voice.
“Yes it was me who told him and you can thank me later for helping this gorgeous hunk break through your ridiculous defenses!” Stacy says.
I look at Brad and he sits there like a naughty schoolboy waiting for his test results. “Okay, I have to admit… That was really special and the fact that you went and took guitar lessons just to play me that song makes it even better,” I say, “If you still want to, I will go out with you.”
Brad looks at me incredulously for a moment and then jumps to his feet excitedly.
“Fantastic! I will pick you up after work and we can go wherever you want and do whatever you want to,” he says and before I can say anything else, or change my mind, he waves us goodbye and rushes out of the office with his guitar under his arm. A moment later I hear his Harley starting up and I turn to Stacy, who’s still standing there with an enormous grin on her face.
“I was going to act all angry, but I guess it won’t do me any good… You know me so well that you can probably tell I’m extremely grateful for what you did. Thank you so much!” I say and give Stacy a big hug.
“Don’t mention it! Just you go and have a good time with Brad tonight and always remember that you owe me big time!” Stacy says and I nod my head.
“I do owe you… I owe you for being the best friend a girl can ever hope to have!” I say and dance away to my office excitedly to go and do some work. But I can’t get my mind off of what has just happened and the words of the song which Brad played for me keep ringing through my mind. Eventually I give up trying to write the rest of the article on the Mexican restaurant and just sit around impatiently, waiting for the time to pass and Brad to come and pick me up for our date. I realize that I never arranged a specific time to meet Brad and I’m wondering whether he will be coming around before the end of the business day. I find myself hoping that he will come early so I don’t have to spend any more agonizing moments waiting for him.