Page 83 of Kiss-Fist
She flips her hair and smiles at the crowd.
‘You all look beautiful tonight.’
And that’s when Thom stiffens. He stares at Glimmer Dear, then at me, then back at Glimmer Dear. Then he stares at Fayid, who is pretending like he can’t see Thom.
I sigh. I should put him out of his misery.
He reaches under the table and snatches my hand, givingit a tight squeeze until I look directly at him. ‘That’s not…’ His fingers hover in the air. ‘Is that…’
I nod before he can spell it. I don’t think Glimmer Dear will forgive me if Thom starts signing her non-stage name in the middle of the bar like that. A lot of people know who she is, but it’s not something anyone advertises.
‘Yes,’ I sign for good measure. ‘That is who you think it is. Don’t say anything.’
He looks stunned and signs nothing else, but he continues to hold my hand as he turns his attention back to the stage. Glimmer Dear does her usual warming up the crowd, though everyone is already in an amazing mood.
Then a pulsing beat jumps to life under our feet, and Glimmer Dear begins to sign. I recognize the song immediately—and the dance. Glimmer Dear and her partner are doing “Time After Time” and the dance fromRomy and Michele’s High School Reunion.
I remember watching the dance, and looking at the outfits, and wondering if I would ever be that brave. And it’s nice to see that although it took years, I am. I’m here. And I’m slowly falling for a man who was the last person on Earth I thought would be my forever.
My parents are going tolovehim.
Shit. I actually want them to meet Thom.
I stroke his wrist with my thumb as Glimmer Dear finishes off the dance with a perfect lift. Everyone applauds, and that’s the only time he lets me go. She does her usual goodbyes, then comes to do her round of catching tips.
When she sees me, she smiles.
Then she sees Thom and freezes.
‘Sorry. He knows,’ I sign as subtly as I can.
Glimmer Dear heaves a sigh and bends over at the waist. Thom’s fingers shake as he pushes a twenty into her bra, and she rewards him with a tiny touch against his jaw. ‘Later,’ she signs subtly.
There’s a lot of ‘later’ going around tonight.
Posey closes the show, and I can feel restless energy coming off Thom in waves. Maybe he’s anxious. Maybe it’s just his meds wearing off. I’m terrified the moment the house lights come on, he’s going to jump up and bolt.
I grasp his hand to stop that from happening, and he gives me an odd look right as everything around us goes bright. I wince, then look past Thom at my friends. They’re not talking the way they usually do. They know the whole mood is off, and it sucks because I wanted Thom to experience all of this.
I want him to see what it’s like when we all get together. I want him to suffer the thirty-minute Deaf goodbye, walking around with six childhood stories from Fayid and how long it took Mellie to find a roast for his last week’s dinner.
But that’s not going to happen tonight.
Everyone slinks away toward the bar, leaving me and Thom at the table. It’s a onetime exception so all of this—this thing that has made me surprisingly and wildly happy for the last several weeks—doesn’t fall apart.
‘We need to talk,’ Thom says when we’re alone.
I take a breath. ‘Yeah. I know.’
He glances over his shoulder at where everyone is hovering.Watching. It doesn’t get better gossip material than this. But I’m not ready for Thom to be the talk of the town. Not yet.
‘Thirty minutes, right?’ he signs.
I frown. ‘What?’
‘Deaf goodbye.’ He spells it. ‘Leaf told me.’
Fucking Leaf. I mean, I appreciate it, I guess. I’m glad someone was around to give Thom a tutorial so he wasn’t a total fish out of water. Of course, there was no way that Leaf could have known about Rome and his bullshit.
