moonshadows

Dinner is amazing. It's not just that the steaks and tiger shrimp are delicious, although Audrey falling all over herself to praise the shrimp and apologizing for standing him up the last time he made them is also delicious. It's not that the slow sunset on the beach is gorgeous, although it is, or that the cold beers compliment the sizzling beef perfectly. Duke's concession to modesty is a pair of swimming trunks, which improves the landscape as far as I'm concerned, and careful shots of whiskey have me feeling floaty enough that I shouldn't be walking even if I weren't injured. It's not even that Duke is being so attentive to his tiny injured girlfriend. No, it's the combination of everything, and I can only think of two times that were better: the afternoon we learned that our unrequited feelings were mutual and very requited, and the evening he carried me out of the Gull to cheering and applause.

Nathan shakes his head as Duke comes back from the grill and cooler with a skewer of shrimp and a cup of cold Gatorade for me. "Look at you," he calls over the small fire. "You're practically fawning over her like a whipped husband."

Unconcerned, Duke hands me the skewer and leans down for a kiss, somehow managing to seat himself on the sand without breaking it or spilling the cup. "No, Nathan. For your information, I'm simply taking care of my favorite employee. Julia does a lot of work that I would otherwise have to get up way too early in the morning and do myself." He hands me the cup and grins at Nathan. "I'm just taking the investment of time and effort now to keep her off that foot and speed her recovery so that when Monday comes, she's the one getting up at dawn to do kitchen prep instead of me."

Audrey laughs and nudges Nathan's arm. "He's got you." She shakes her head. "I'm impressed, Duke. You found a way to make waiting on your girlfriend hand and foot sound selfish."

"I'm very selfish," he agrees, smiling. I hide my expression behind the cup. "I'm just smart about it. You reap what you sow, right? Well, I treat Julia like the amazing and precious treasure she is, and in turn she treats me..." He pauses for effect and smirks. "Very well."

The other two groan, clearly trying and failing to scrub mental images away.

"Sometimes twice a day," I add in a cheerfully oblivious voice, evoking renewed groans and protests. Magnanimously, I don’t clarify that usually, it’s more than twice.

"Tell me there's no clause in your employment contract for that," Audrey begs.

Duke grins and points his beer at her. "Now, Audrey, that would be prostitution. And while I have done many illegal and unsavory things in my life, paying Julia for sex is too despicable, even for me."

I wait until the point has been conceded, sipping my Gatorade to hide my mischievous smile. "There'd be no point," I start innocently. "I'd be giving the money right back anyway. It would be like borrowing money from someone who owes you money."

"Okay!" Audrey claps her hands. "I would suggest playing poker but that would be weird on sand and I don't trust that Duke won't throw the game in Julia's favor."

Nathan snorts. Apparently he agrees.

"Fair enough," Duke says cheerfully. "How about another type of game? One that doesn't require props or moving."

He's got us all intrigued, but it's Audrey who asks warily, "What do you have in mind?"

The rules are simple. Name a song and artist, and everyone who can prove they know the song by singing at least two lines doesn't take a sip - including the person whose turn it is, and no singing the same lines as someone else. If none of the others can sing a part of the song, the person who named it has to sing the whole thing to prove it's a real song, and everyone else has to finish their drinks. By common consensus I'm exempted from my drinks needing to be alcoholic. Something about weighing next to nothing and having half a dozen shots of really good whiskey inside me already. As a compromise, I'll be stealing sips from Duke's beer but chasing them with Gatorade. But first, we need to get situated.

My shorts and t-shirt are carefully discarded in favor of a sun dress I haven't worn much since I left Texas. It's backless, the straps tied behind my head in a bow, gathering just below my bust and falling in an A-line almost to my ankles. The material is a soft cotton, light and airy, with a pattern of little sunbursts and clouds against a turquoise background. I think it makes me look like a little girl, but Duke has a higher opinion of my breasts than I do and it is really comfortable.

When Duke carries me back to the fire, Nathan and Audrey are holding hands and talking quietly. She gives us a look that wishes it could be disbelieving as Duke sits without releasing me, leaving me sprawled across his lap quite comfortably.

“Nate,” he says in a tone just a hair too smug to be cheerful, “would you be so kind as to fetch me a beer and a cup of Gatorade for my lady? My hands are full.”

“Get me one too, while you’re up?”

Oh, he’s whipped. He gives Audrey a brief kiss and stands, fetching our drinks before returning to their side of the fire with two fresh beers and sitting at his girlfriend’s right. There’s a brief discussion of who goes first, and what direction things should go, before we settle on Nathan (for getting the drinks) and counter-clockwise – Nathan, Duke, me, Audrey. After a few rounds, a pattern emerges. Nathan and Duke are waging a little war with oldies and girly songs, respectively – Nathan to get Duke to drink, Duke to get Nathan to sing - and I'm barely missing any of either because Eleanor listened to those songs, too, and I live with Duke. Audrey is trying to find a song that all of us know but is being stymied by hers and Nathan's lack of mutually-known songs, and me? I’m shooting for the moon: looking for a song no one else knows. The problem is that Duke lives with me.

“Bangles,” Audrey says speculatively, looking at Nathan. “Walk Like An Egyptian.”

For a second it looks like Nathan’s going to drink and pass to Duke, but then he clears his throat. “All the old paintings on the tomb, they do the sand dance don’cha know. If they move too quick…” He pauses, and the rest of us chime in Oh-way-oh. “They’re fallin’ down like a domino. All the bazaar men by the Nile, they got their money on a bet. Gold crocodiles…” Oh-way oh! “They snap their teeth on your cigarette. Foreign types with the hookah pipes say…”

“Way-oh-way-oh, oh-way-oh-way-oh,” we chorus.

Nathan looks smugly at Duke. “Walk like an Egyptian.”

Duke grins back, rising to the challenge. “The blonde waitresses take their trays, they spin around and they cross the floor. They’ve got the moves-” Oh-way oh! “-you drop your drink, then they bring you more. All the schoolkids so sick of books, they like the punk and the metal band. When the buzzer rings-” Oh-way oh! “-they’re walkin’ like an Egyptian. All the kids in the marketplace say…” Way-oh-way-oh, oh-way-oh-way-oh! “Walk like an Egyptian,” he throws back at Nathan, but then he looks at me, worried.

I lick my lips and start to do the whistle part.

“That doesn’t count,” Audrey calls, but I hold up one finger and finish.

“Slidey’r feet up th’street, bendy’r back, y’shifty’r arm theny’ pullitback. Life’shard y’know-” The chorus of Oh-way-oh is a little ragged with surprise. “S’strike a pose on a Cadillac!” Triumphantly, I point at Audrey.

"If you wanna find all the cops," she picks up without missing the beat, "they're hangin' out in the donut shop. They sing and dance-" Oh-way oh! "-they spin their clubs, cruise down the block. All the Japanese with their yen, the party boys call the Kremlin. And the chinese know-" Oh-way oh! "-they walk the line like Egyptian. All the cops in the donut shop say?"

“Way-oh-way-oh, oh-way-oh-way-oh!” We all look at each other for a beat, then chorus, "Walk like an Egyptian!"

Audrey is beyond pleased with herself, and even the boys are smiling at the way we just communally nailed that song. "Your turn," she tells Nathan.

He thinks about it for a minute. "The Doors," he says, and Duke groans. "Hello, I Love You."

Duke takes a drink and looks at me expectantly.

"She's walkin' down the streeeeet, blind to every eye she meets! Do you think you'll be the guuuuuy to make the queen of the angels sigh!"

Surprisingly, Audrey jumps in with the chorus, and then it's back to Nathan who sings awkwardly, "She holds her head so high, like a statue in the sky. Her arms are wicked and her legs are long, when she moves my brain screams out this song."

"Okay, Duke, your turn."

He looks indignantly at Audrey. "I can't possibly concentrate enough to take my turn until I know what song Nathan's brain is screaming."

Nathan groans and covers his face while Audrey laughs, but I've thought of a song Duke can't possibly know and I'm eager to get through his turn to mine.

"Sidewalk crouches at her feet, like a dog that begs for something sweet. Do you hope to make her see you, fool? Do you hope to pluck this dusky jewel? HELLO!"

Duke laughs like he's just been handed a booby prize more valuable than the actual prize. "Okay, then...Avril Lavigne. Girlfriend."

He's cheating again, using a song he learned from me to try to stump Nathan. Oh well - it's not like I don't know the lyrics, even if they are...more emphatic with our current positions. "You're so fine I want you mine you're so ~delicious~." It's way dirtier than the song, the way I sing it, and the fact that I go for his neck at the end doesn't help anything. Whoops, tiny drunk girlfriend with loosened inhibitions.

Audrey and Nathan laugh, groan, and sip their beers.

"I think about you all the time, you're so addictive," Duke sings. "Don't you know what I can do to make you feel alright?"

"Don't pretend," I chant at him, not quite deadpanning but short of actually singing, "I think you know I'm damn precious, and hell yeah, I'm the motherfucking princess."

"I can tell you like me too," he counters, "and you know I'm right."

"Damn straight."

Whether it's from approval or averting her eyes, Audrey lets us get about thirty seconds into a very heated kiss before calling my name sharply. "Your turn," she reminds me, and I remember my brilliant plan.

Silly as it might be, I still listen to mix tapes. Some of the songs are nearly impossible to find anywhere anymore, and others I haven't had time to try to identify by their lyrics, but mostly I still listen to them. There's one tape, though, that I haven't listened to very much because it got eaten and I had to splice it back together with tape and I don't want to lose it entirely.

"Lori Yates," I announce, and even Duke doesn't recognize the name even though he overheard me singing Can't Stop The Girl in the shower once. "Scene Of The Crime."

Audrey shakes her head in disavowal and takes a sip. Nathan's already sipping. Duke grimaces, but then he also lifts his beer to his lips and I am victorious!

"You got me," Duke admits. "But now, my wicked little wench, you have to sing it."

I shift in his lap until I can sway in time to the music in my head, snapping my fingers on the off-beats. If I close my eyes, which I do, I'm almost back in Texas. "Oooh, you held me in the dark." Duke's arms tighten around me; the sun's been down for a bit now. "Oooh, you said that you'd be mine." I grin in anticipation of the next lines. "Oooh, and then you stole my heart! ...and left me at the scene of the crime."

Audrey chuckles; Duke nuzzles the back of my neck. It's easier to sing when I can't see anyone watching me, and I let the brassiness I learned in Texas take control of my voice.

"Oooh, I did not know you long. Oooh, I did not see the signs. Oooh, 'til after you had gone...and left me at the scene of the crime." The song is a bronco that I'm riding. I'm probably giving him a shitty lap dance with my improvised grooving, but he's not objecting. "I will not be the victim, and I will not take the fall. If they come 'round asking questions, honey, I'll deny it alllll! Oooh, tonight the fire burns. Leaving only ashes behind. Oooh, if and when you should return, you won't find me at the scene of the crime." I open my eyes and smile at the other two, across the fire. "Oooh, if and when you should return...you won't find me at the scene of the crime."

They're applauding. I wasn't expecting that. I'm probably blushing, but it could just be the heat of the fire.

"She got us," Duke says. "Bottoms up."

Three beers are raised to me and drained.

"On that fitting note," Audrey says, "I think we should all call it a night. Good night, you two."

She and Nathan retire to their tent, leaving Duke cuddling me before the dying fire.

"I'd apologize for that theft," he says quietly, "but I don't regret it."

Turning on his lap, I chuckle and grin at him. "Please, I slipped it into one of the Cape's hiding spots back when we were teenagers."

"I've been falsely accused? I'm innocent?"

"I wouldn't go that far."

"Oh?" he says softly, hands moving over my back. "And how far would you go?"

I look him in the eyes, calmly, soberly despite my inebriation. "How far do you want me to?"

The answer to that isn't in words.