A Dream for Two (5 page)

***

Three cocktails later and Elise was certain that she’d never laughed so much in her life. Her cheeks ached from the constant bouts of giggles Dylan sent her into. He was so quick-witted and funny, and worldly. He’d traveled all across Europe and America with only a backpack. He seemed to have had an endless stream of adventures. Elise’s life felt unbearably dull by comparison.

“You must have been somewhere,” Dylan pressed her.

“I’ve been to New York,” Elise shrugged lightly as she sipped the last of her third cocktail. She felt as if she’d just passed tipsy and was heading towards drunk.

“So you’ve never been on vacation?”

“Nope,” Elise shook her head. “My grandmother couldn’t afford it.”

“What about your folks?”

Elise stiffened. She was lucid enough to know it would be a mistake to reveal too much to Dylan too soon. She didn’t want him thinking she was this sad case from the South with nothing but a sob story and a guitar. She wanted to be interesting and well-traveled like him, not just tragic.

“Umm,” Elise spun her straw around in her glass, playing for time. She didn’t want to lie to him but she wasn’t sure that full-on honesty was the right tack either.

“Hey, you don’t have to tell me,” Dylan sounded casual but she saw the hurt look briefly flash across his handsome face. He thought she was deliberating holding back from him, which she was.

“Look, if I tell you, you’re not allowed to see me any differently.”

“Okay?” Dylan eyed her dubiously.

“And I’m only telling you because I’m pretty close to drunk and you’re too cute to not tell.”

“You think I’m cute?” Dylan lit up at this.

“You want to know or not?” The cocktails gave Elise enough bravado to not care that she’d just told him he was cute.

“I want to know,” Dylan told her sincerely. He reached out and placed his hands over hers. He felt so warm.

“My folks died when I was young. They gave me my first guitar. I’ve lived with my grandmother ever since.”

Dylan looked at her intently and squeezed her hands.

“I’m sorry, but I do see you differently now,” he apologized gently. Elise felt her cheeks heating up, tears threatening to come cascading down them. He didn’t like her anymore. She knew she shouldn’t have said anything, it was too soon to dump all her baggage on him.

“Before you seemed like this delicate Southern flower. But now I see I was wrong. You’re not a flower; you’re a diamond. You’re impossibly beautiful and rare but also amazingly strong.”

Elise felt her eyes watering. It was easily the nicest thing anyone had ever said to her. She could feel her heart racing in her chest.

“Let’s get out of here,” Dylan suggested.

They walked hand in hand down the sidewalk towards the subway station. Elise’s guitar case was now strapped to his back. In a gentlemanly gesture he’d insisted on carrying it and the Southern sensibility in Elise liked him for doing so.

Slowly they walked down beneath the city. The subway platform was eerily quiet at such a late hour. A few homeless people had sought shelter down there, bundling themselves up in all they had, hoping that they wouldn’t be moved along and would be able to steal a few hour’s rest.

Elise liked holding Dylan’s hand. It made everything about the city seem more magical. It stopped being this huge, imposing place and became somewhere that needed to be explored.

“You know, you really annoyed me when I first met you,” she declared drunkenly as they stopped on the platform. Dylan shrugged off the guitar case and dropped it by their feet. Soon they would be parting ways.

“Did I win you over though?” he asked, drawing close to her. Their noses were almost touching as Elise whispered in response:

“Yeah, I guess you did.”

Dylan leaned down and touched his lips against hers. He felt surprisingly soft. He lowered his hands down her back and drew her into him. Tenderly the kiss deepened. Elise felt her heart begin to flutter madly as he pressed his tongue against hers. It was the most amazing kiss of her life. Her entire body melted against him as they kissed. She wanted the world to end right then, when she was locked in his embrace, connected with a kiss. She didn’t want to have to walk away from Dylan Cornish, she didn’t want the kiss to have to end. But the sound of the oncoming train made him pull away. Breathless, they looked deep into one another’s eyes.

“I think this is you,” Dylan eventually broke the silence, nodding in the direction of the train.

Elise reached down for her case but kept her eyes locked onto him.

“I don’t want to go,” she admitted.

“Then don’t,” Dylan drew her in for another kiss and Elise’s guitar case dropped to the ground with a dull thud. She missed the next three trains which passed through the station but she was oblivious to their arrival. The kiss was all consuming. The world beyond it had suddenly ceased to exist.

But as midnight approached Elise knew the magic of the kiss was about to wear off.

“I really should get back,” she said regretfully as she picked her case up for the second time. This time she took a step back, creating distance between them so that she wouldn’t feel compelled to enter into another kiss.

“Thanks for a great night,” Dylan told her sincerely.

“You too,” she smiled warmly at him.

“You’re my diamond,” he told her, reaching forward to plant one final, soft kiss upon her lips.

“And I’m no fool. I know that once you find something as precious as a rare diamond, you don’t ever let it go.”

Fueled by his romantic words Elise floated over to the train. He remained standing on the platform, watching her leave. Leaning back in her seat Elise thought her heart might explode from all the happiness pumping through it. She’d never felt that way before. She felt giddy from the cocktails and from the kissing but she knew it was more than that. She’d heard people sing about it. She’d never felt it before, but somehow she knew that she was falling in love.

Elise floated through the following week. Even her shifts at the diner became more bearable as at the end of them she’d get to see Dylan. He quickly integrated himself into her life. He’d meet her after work and walk her back to the apartment. They’d walk hand in hand, lost in their own little world. For Elise, New York had never seemed more beautiful. The streetlights glittered magically like stars and even the putrid smell of car exhausts seemed more comforting.

“Girl, you’re in love,” Gloria noted one morning over breakfast. It was a rare treat for the girls to both have the day off together. Elise had hoped that she’d get to spend the day with Dylan but he’d been called in for a last-minute band practice.

“They never want to practice,” he’d told her over the phone the previous night. “So there must be something important coming up.”

“So you can’t miss it,” Elise had nodded sadly as she sat cross-legged on the sofa.

“No, I can’t miss it, I’m sorry,” Dylan sighed. “But I’ll see you tonight at Eagle’s.”

***

“I’m not in love,” Elise blushed as she stuck her spoon into her bowl of cereal.

“You so are!” Gloria beamed. “It’s written all across your face!”

“No, it’s not!” Elise protested as the red of her cheeks deepened.

Gloria was giggling in delight to herself.

“Oooh, you’re in love! What will your grandmother say?”

Elise paused, her spoonful of sugary cereal half way on its journey to her mouth. What would her grandmother say? She was certain that she wouldn’t approve of Dylan. He was in a band and wore a leather jacket, hardly the poster child for decent boyfriends.

“Hey, don’t go worrying about your Grams just yet,” Gloria reached across the upturned crate they were using for a table and gripped her friend’s hand.

“Just enjoy being with Dylan. New relationships are like the best thing ever. If I could bottle up that feeling and sell it I’d become a billionaire overnight.”

***

And so Elise tried to just focus on her newfound love with Dylan. She found herself humming on the subway when she thought about it. She couldn’t wait to see him at Eagle’s Bar that night. The day had dragged without his presence to break it up. He was all she could think about.

Elise hauled her guitar on her back towards the bar and instinctively looked around for Dylan but he was nowhere to be seen. There were some familiar faces gathered there to listen to that night’s performances but none of them were Dylan’s. Elise began to feel dejected as she lowered herself into a vacant seat. Perhaps his band practice had gone on longer than he’d anticipated?

Dylan still hadn’t showed when Elise’s name was called. She pushed her shoulders back and forced herself to walk confidently towards the stage, promising herself that he’d be there soon, he’d probably arrive as she was singing.

Luckily Elise always lost herself in her music. As soon as she began to strum the familiar notes she was transported back to the South, back to her happy place. She sung the melody and smiled sweetly for the audience. As she concluded to rapturous applause she bowed modestly and clambered off the stage. Sitting back down at her table she nursed a fresh glass of cranberry juice. She no longer needed the hit of vodka to help her get up on stage. She was high on love.

“Hey, that was some performance.”

Elise glanced up expectantly, hoping to see Dylan grinning down at her but she didn’t recognize the smartly dressed man who sat down across from her.

He had short peroxide-blonde hair and wore a suit coupled with Converse shoes. He was unlike anyone else who had gathered at the bar, He had a professional aura which made him strange.

“Um, thanks,” Elise replied politely, hoping that he wasn’t coming on to her. She always found it awkward to rebuff a guy’s advances.

“I mean really, it was exceptional.”

“Thanks.”

“I’m Jake Roberts,” the blonde man extended his hand towards her and she reluctantly shook it.

“I work for Cloud Records.”

Elise blinked at him in shock. Cloud Records was the biggest label around, having people like Claire Parry and Ted Steerman on its books.

“I heard about you through the grapevine as it were,” Jake continued. “I thought I’d come out here and check you out and I certainly wasn’t disappointed.” He reached into his jacket and pulled out a crisp white business card which he slid across to Elise.

“You’re exactly the sort of sound the label has been looking for. You’re young, fresh but also with depth. I’d love it if you could give the office a call and we can arrange a time for you to come in and discuss things in more detail.”

“What would we discuss?” Elise was still struggling to understand what was happening.

“We’d love to make a record with you,” Jake grinned. He was a strange mixture of both genuine emotion and salesmanship and Elise was still unsure if she should trust him.

“Are you…is this…for real?” Elise picked up the business card and frowned at it. The card was extremely stylish with Jake’s name, job title and contact details embossed on it beneath the iconic Cloud Records logo.

“It’s most definitely for real,” Jake reassured her. “Give me a call tomorrow. And whatever sucky job you’re currently spilling your guts out for, quit it.”

Elise’s mouth was still hanging open as Jake stood up and walked away.

The rest of the night went by in a blur. Elise watched the remaining acts but she wasn’t really interested in their performance. She just wanted to get back to the apartment and call Dylan. But he had promised to meet her at Eagle’s Bar so she felt compelled to see out the rest of the night in the hope that he might show up. As the last performer exited the stage her persistence paid off.

The gathered crowd was thinning as Dylan sauntered in. He smiled as soon as he saw Elise and quickly came and sat beside her. He tenderly kissed her on the lips before saying anything.

“I’m sorry I’m so late,” he apologized sincerely. “I got held up at band practice.”

“It’s okay.”

“And I’ve actually got something to tell you.”

“Me too!” Elise gushed. Now that Dylan was there everything immediately felt better and her chest swelled with joyous excitement.

“You first,” Dylan prompted her. Elise showed him Jake’s business card. Dylan observed it with interest and nodded slowly.

“That’s…awesome,” he finally enthused. “Cloud Records is huge, Elise. They’ll make you a star.”

“You think?” Elise asked excitedly.

“Well, I think you’re already a star,” Dylan gently tucked some of her hair back behind her ear. “But Cloud Records will just help the rest of the world see what I see and fall in love with you.”

Elise felt her heart stop in her chest. Was he saying that he loved her? They still had yet to utter those three small words of infinite power to one another. She was about to press him on it when he decided to tell her his news.

“The reason I got called into band practice today was because we’ve actually just been signed.”

“What? Are you serious?” Elise’s dark eyes grew wide with interest.

“As a heart attack,” Dylan nodded. “We are now signed with Epic Albums.”

“Wow, Dylan, that’s amazing!”

“Yeah,” Dylan smiled but he didn’t seem overly enthused by his own amazing news.

“I can’t believe we’ve both basically been signed on the same day!”

“It’s a strange world,” Dylan interlocked Elise’s hand with his own. “But we can’t let this change anything,” he told her sincerely.

“What would it change?” Elise asked, concerned.

“I don’t know,” Dylan admitted. “But we are still so new. I don’t want anything to come along and derail us.”

“It won’t,” Elise promised him, planting a tender kiss upon his lips. “Nothing can come between us.”