Sweet Harmonies (20 page)

At that moment, Karina's cell phone vibrated
and chimed. She looked puzzled, “Who's texting me? Ninety five
percent of the people that have this number are in the room.”

She pulled out her phone and pressed the
button to view the text messages. Her eyes widened and she
shrieked, “Oh my Gosh! OH MY GOSH!”

Thinking that someone had died, Amanda rushed
to her side, “What happened, Kar? What is it?”

Frantically, Karina held up the phone.
Wild-eyed, she exclaimed, “He wants to go out for ice cream. What
do I do? WHAT DO I DO?”

She looked around the room, and saw a group
of stunned expressions. All of the girls were staring at her like
she had two heads.

Quietly, thoughtfully, Amy asked,
“Well...what would you like to do?”

Karina laughed, “OK, yes, I realize I must
sound like a crazy person.”

Amanda smiled, “You sound like a person in
love.”

Sam quipped, “Or in lust!”

She held up her hand to various people around
the room, trying to get a high five, but no one returned the
gesture except for Amy, who only tapped Sam's palm with her
fingertips softly to be polite.

“
What? That was funny, right?” she
asked, indignant.”

“
If you have to ask that question,”
Lauren said pragmatically, “The answer is 'no' – always 'no,” to
which the room dissolved into laughter and pleasant
conversation.

Amanda went into the kitchen to bring out the
snacks, and Karina made a decision. She was going to take a leap of
faith, and she was going to bet on Ryan. She typed back to him on
her phone, “Two Scoops it is. Pick me up at 4 tomorrow.”

Chapter 13

Karina threw yet another elegant, expensive
top onto the growing pile in the corner of her bedroom.

“
AAAHHH!!!” she screamed in
frustration, “I have nothing to wear!”

Sam looked at her incredulously as she popped
up from Karina's bed, where she had been watching this display, and
began to place blouses and dresses back on their hangers, and to
carefully refold $300 pairs of jeans and put them back into their
places in drawers.

“
You have many things to wear, all of
which you look equally gorgeous in. And all of which you will be
equally overdressed for Two Scoops in, so that's not a deciding
factor. I think that you are just nervous.”

“
Nervous,” Karina scoffed, “I don't get
nervous. I mean, butterflies, yes sometimes. But that's not like
this.”

“
Not even before going onstage? Not
even before performing live on television in front of millions of
people?”

Karina shrugged, “Like I said. Butterflies.
Nothing like this! I feel irritable, stripped of my
confidence...I'm sweating, and I'm about two seconds away from
hurling! I feel completely out of control of this situation! Being
onstage makes me feel IN control, not like this! This is a
nightmare!”

Sam grinned, “This is love!”

Karina's phone trilled and she picked it up
and looked at the face to see who was calling. “It's Amanda,” she
said, pressing the button to answer the call.

“
Ooo, I wanna talk to her,” Sam said,
plucking the phone from Karina's hand and putting it to her ear.
Karina, barely noticing, went back to studying herself in the
mirror as she desperately held up top after hangered top in front
of her, frantically trying to make a decision.

“
Hey, Mand,” Sam chirped into the
phone, “You should be over here! No, it's crazy. She's driving
herself nuts, she can't even decide what to wear. It's like nothing
you've ever seen.”

Without breaking her rhythm of holding shirts
in front of her for the mirror, Karina gave Sam the finger, which
Sam cheerfully waved off with a dismissive gesture.

“
Oh, Amanda? I'll call you later. No,
Karina's getting another call. OK. Talk to you soon,
sweetie.”

She tossed Karina the phone, saying, “It's
Bernie. That's your manager, right?”

Karina grabbed the phone in midair, and
quickly pushed the answer button as she moved it to her ear.

“
Bernie? What's the word? Have you
heard from the label?”

She paused a moment, listening to his
response on the other end of the line.

“
A YouTube video? That's odd. No, I
didn't realize....Did you email me the link? OK, I'll check it
later...Because I have PLANS right now, Bernie....The guy in the
video? His name is Ryan. He's a friend of mine from up here, from
Hope Falls.”

She paused again.

“
Well, Bernie, why WOULD I have told
you about him? I don't understand what you're asking
me...”

Just then the doorbell rang and Karina
stiffened, looking over at Sam in a panic.

“
Bernie? I gotta go....no, I gotta GO!
I'll talk to you later!”

Karina firmly pressed the button to turn the
phone completely off, and tossed it onto her bed as she ran from
the room.

“
KARINA!” yelled Sam after her, and
Karina popped her head back into the room, wild-eyed and very
nearly panicked.

“
Sam... I have to GO...he's HERE....”
she whisper-shrieked, “What in God's name do you want?”

Sam held up a sheer, spangled top in front of
her.

“
May wanna put on a shirt," Sam intoned
dryly.

Karina glanced down at her torso, clad only
in a strapless bra, and looked back at Sam, eyes wide. She
scrambled over to where Sam was standing, and started trying to
fumble into the top as quickly as possible, but was succeeding only
in tangling her arms and head in the sleeves and neck.

“
Calm down,” Sam laughed as she exited
the room, “I'm gonna go answer the door. This is better anyway. You
can make a grand entrance down the staircase.”

“
Perfect!” Karina hissed, taking deep
breaths in an attempt to calm herself down.

“
Try not to hyperventilate while I'm on
my way to the door,” Sam giggled as she skipped down the
stairs.

“
Hey, Ryan,” Sam greeted as she opened
the front door, “Karina will be down in just a...”

She stopped as she noticed Ryan's awestruck
gaze focused above and behind her. She turned around, and as she
had predicted, Karina was gracefully sweeping down the curving
staircase.

“
Guess she'll be down now,” Sam said
cheerfully, stepping aside.

When Karina reached the front door, Ryan
kissed her on the cheek and said, “You look amazing,” the awe he
felt clearly showing through in his voice.

Karina beamed, the compliment clearly finding
its mark. “Oh, thanks,” she said, a slightly dismissive tone in her
voice, as if to indicate that her preparations had been no big
deal, “I just threw something on...”

Sam barked out a laugh and Karina shot her a
look.

“
Sorry,” Sam said, “Anyway, you two
kids have fun! Do anything and everything I wouldn't
do!”

Ryan held out his hand, palm up. “Shall we?”
he said with a smile.

Karina put her hand in his and he led her to
his truck, opening her door for her and getting her settled inside
before going around to his side and climbing in.

He put the key into the ignition, but before
starting the truck, he turned to her, looked her up and down, and
shook his head.

“
You sure don't plan on making this
whole 'going slow' thing easy on me, do you?” he asked wryly to
himself.

Karina gave him a wicked half-smile, her eyes
glinting mischievously. “What whole 'going slow' thing?” she asked
innocently.

--- ~ ---

Ryan pulled up in front of Two Scoops and
turned off the truck. He turned toward Karina. Damn, she was
stunning!

“
Are you OK?” he asked with concern,
“You barely said a word the whole ride here.”

She laughed, and shook her head, and then her
shoulders, as if trying to rid herself of a dark cloud.

“
I'm great!” she said, “I'm
just...well, I hate to admit it, but I'm nervous,” she said,
looking embarrassed, “I've never actually been on a real date
before. You know? I've never had a traditional boyfriend, or a
so-called 'normal' relationship. So, this is, like...my first date.
And I'm just not sure how to act.”

Ryan smiled, and leaned over to give her a
small kiss.

“
There's no particular way to act,” he
assured her, brushing a few strands of hair back behind her ear,
“You just be you, and I'll just be me...we won't even put the
pressure onto this of thinking of it as a 'date.' It's just you and
me, spending some time, and eating some ice cream. Sound
good?”

She smiled back at him, “I like that.”

Ryan jumped out of the truck and came around
to Karina's side, opening her door and helping her out of the
truck.

“
So,” she asked lightly as they
strolled hand in hand down the sidewalk toward the ice cream shop,
“How does your grandmother feel about the fact that we are having
our first let's-not-call-it-a-date at Two Scoops?”

Ryan laughed, “I think we'll be OK as long as
we steer clear of the sandwiches.”

They reached the front door of the ice cream
shop and Ryan pushed the door open, holding it for Karina, and
causing a bell to tinkle as they entered the small
establishment.

As they got in line, Ryan leaned down and
whispered conspiratorially, “I know Sue Ann would kill me for
saying this, but I really like this place. It's really cute in
here, and the ice cream is great!”

Karina laughed, “I agree with you!”

When they reached the front of the line, Ryan
pulled out his wallet and placed his order, a double scoop of
strawberry. He put his hand lightly on the small of Karina's back,
indicating that she should place her order, and she said, “I'll
have a double scoop, with mint chocolate chip and rocky road, but
the rocky road has to be on top.”

The clerk read out the total, but Ryan didn't
hear her. He had turned around and was looking at Karina, a shocked
expression on his face. He looked stunned as he stared at her with
his mouth slightly agape.

The clerk said, “Sir? Sir? That’ll be $4.26,”
and Ryan snapped back to reality, pulling several bills from his
wallet and paying for the ice cream.

As they stepped aside to wait for their cones
to be made and handed to them, Karina started to get irritated.

What was that whole look about, she asked
herself, beginning to get more and more agitated.

What, so since I'm a celebrity, I'm supposed
to order, like, a half-scoop of fat-free vanilla, no cone? I'm
supposed to be freaking anorexic just because I'm a girl, and I'm
in the entertainment industry?

Or, no, maybe that's not even it, she
continued her mental diatribe. Maybe he thinks I'm a super-diva
because I asked for my ice cream a certain way. Well, I'm sorry,
but when the mint chocolate chip is on top of the rocky road, the
mint bleeds down into the rocky road, and since mint is a more
overwhelming flavor than milk chocolate, you can never enjoy the
pure flavor of the rocky road! So I ask for my ice cream the way I
want it, dammit. So sue me!

Besides, she mentally continued to rant, he
doesn't seem to have a problem asking for things exactly the way he
wants them in bed, but he's going to give me grief because I ask
for things the way I like them in the ice cream parlor?

Was it the skinniness thing or the order of
the flavors thing? She shook her head. Doesn’t matter. Either way,
he can shove his ice cream straight up his ASS if he expects me to
be some supermodel who only eats lettuce. I'm a real person, not a
Barbie doll! And if it's about me making one little request about
the order of the flavors, well then, I've got news for him!

They sat down at their table, cones in hand,
and Karina opened her mouth to unleash her diatribe. As it turned
out, she didn't even get one word out, because just as she took a
deep breath to start, Ryan smiled at her and ever-so-gently tucked
that stray lock behind her ear.

She laughed a little self-consciously, “I'm
going to have to make sure I pin that back better next time.”

He smiled and said, “Don't you dare.”

They both licked their ice cream cones in
silence for a moment, and then Ryan said, “When I was little, my
cousin Callie and I used to ride our bikes to the ice cream parlor
every Saturday when she stayed with us during the summer.”

Karina turned, naturally, to look at him as
he spoke, but she saw that Ryan was making a very careful study of
looking straight ahead, seemingly nonchalantly.

“
She would always order the exact same
thing that you just did. Double scoop, mint chocolate chip and
rocky road, rocky road on the top. She would say it had to go in
that order so that the...”

Karina jumped in, and they finished together,
their voices in perfect unison, “...mint doesn't pollute the
chocolate.”

Ryan looked at her then, smiling wonderingly,
“Exactly.”

Karina grinned, “She sounds like my kind of
girl. Is she going to be visiting you here soon? I'd love to meet
my ice cream soul mate.”

Ryan looked away, as he spoke, and although
his voice was a study in forced casualness, she heard the emotion
which tightened his throat as he spoke.

“
I'd love that,” he said, “I mean, I
would
have loved that...so much. But she passed away when we
were kids.”

Karina reached across the table and put her
hand over Ryan's.

“
Oh no, I'm so sorry, Ryan.” she
whispered.

He shrugged, again trying to aim for casual,
but in reality broadcasting his pain with every small move and
gesture.