Page 111 of Always Us

“Is there a problem over there?” Garret takes a drink of water.

“I think they pump laughing gas into this place. I swear they do. There’s something about this place that—” I stop as the familiar voice rings out from the side of the room. He’s back. And still off tune.

“Jade, look who’s here,” Garret says.

My laughter bursts out again. There’s no stopping it now.

“He’s coming over.” Garret’s smiling. He’s loving every minute of this.

“Make him go away.” My stomach hurts I’m laughing so hard. “I’m begging you, Garret. Wave him away.”

Instead, he waves the guy over to us. The singer nods and smiles. When he gets to the table, I clamp my mouth shut and try to smile. About a minute later, his song ends, but he remains there, looking at us.

“I know you two.” He points at Garret and me. “You come here last year. I sing at your wedding.”

“Actually, we already got married,” Garret says. “But the wedding was in California. We didn’t think you’d want to travel that far.”

“Si.” He nods. “You have babies?”

“No,” Garret says. “No babies.”

“I sing for you. Very romantic.” He grins. “You have babies. Lots of babies.”

Garret just smiles but, of course, I’m laughing. I try to suppress it, but once the guy starts singing, I lose it. He’s so loud and so off key. I cover my mouth, pretending to cough. Garret holds my hand and gazes at me, like he did last year when this guy sang to us. The song ends just as four people are seated at the table across from ours. Thankfully, the singer goes over to them.

“He needs to come back,” Garret says. “I have to give him a tip.”

“No. Please don’t tell him to come back.”

“The guy is giving us babies, Jade. He deserves a tip for that.”

“Yeah, I don’t think so.” My laughter goes away as I think about the baby comment. I’ve finally come to a decision about that and I need to talk to Garret about it when we get back.

Garret squeezes my hand. “What happened?”

“What do you mean?”

“You stopped laughing and the guy’s still singing.”

“I must be getting used to it now.”

More customers arrive and the mariachi band greets them as they’re seated. The singer doesn’t come over to our table again, but he’s so loud his voice fills the entire restaurant.

Our food arrives and Garret’s right. The nacho platter is huge.

“Dig in,” he says, eyeing the platter.

Ten minutes later I’m stuffed, but half a platter of nachos remains.

“You done?” A smug smile crosses Garret’s face.

I don’t answer. I just push the platter away.

“Looks like I’ll be having sex with a cheerleader when I get home.”

“I said I’d wear the costume. Sex wasn’t part of the deal.”

“It’s implied.” He gets some money out and sets it on the check.

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