Nikki stood and stared in disbelief as Luke talked to his boss. Nikki saw the boss hold up a cell phone and gave it to Luke. Luke read a text message on it, and quickly said something to his boss before handing him his apron and rushing out of the event hall.
Nikki couldn’t believe it. This was all happening again. She now drew closer to believing in fate. And it would appear that fate did not want them to actually talk. Nikki looked around shaking her head. When her glance returned to the table that she’d sat at, the elderly woman had seen the entire event unfold. She just shrugged her old shoulders and returned to talking to the rest of her table.
Nikki exhaled in disbelief that her luck was so unfortunate. When she finally returned to the kitchen, Sara was there waiting as eager as Cupcake normally would be waiting for Nikki back at her apartment.
“Well?” Sara asked.
“What? …” Nikki genuinely had no idea what Sara was asking about.
“Did you call him?”
“Who?”
“Ryan!”
Nikki’s attention perked up. Her hopes were again returned. She had already decided to give that confident, handsome man another chance. She’d forgotten all about it due to the surprise of seeing Luke. But now, she was ready to again focus on her new dream. And Ryan was dreamy, so that was a dream definitely worth focusing on again.
“I’ll do it right now,” Nikki said with a smile to her friend. So, she picked up her phone.
Chapter 11
Nikki was ecstatic to see Ryan as she met him in the lobby of Second Chance Theatre. Any memory of her prior run-in with Luke was now long gone. She had turned the page and was now focused solely on the incredibly handsome man who approached her inside the theater.
Nikki didn’t recall all of the specifics of their initial date, but one of the things that definitely stood out in her mind was just how strongly she was attracted to the man’s dark, muscular looks. It was easy to be attracted to him. He was built – not in a bodybuilder way, just in the way that someone who’d been active in a construction-type job would naturally be built. Nikki recalled Ryan saying he’d been a hunter in Wyoming before moving to New York, and she could easily see his manly, muscular build being just that. She also remembered Ryan saying that he was a candlemaker, and she’d found that unusual tidbit about him extremely intriguing. But it was his wavy black hair and long, dark eyelashes which immediately stood out to Nikki as Ryan walked toward her. She was glad to have given him another chance. The way things ended last time could easily have been misinterpreted – at least, this is what she hoped in the moment where she saw him approach.
Nikki’s hopes fluttered as Ryan walked confidently up to her, put his arm around to the small of her back, and kissed her on the cheek.
“Good to see you again, Nikki.” Ryan said to her while smiling. “Thanks so much for giving me another date.”
Nikki was relieved. She had been a bit concerned that he’d hold a grudge against her for how she took off at the last date. She wanted to tackle that elephant in the room before focusing on other things. “You’re not mad?” She asked.
“Nikki, if I’d been mad, I wouldn’t have agreed to see you again.” The calmness in his voice said it all.
“I’m sorry about the … last time. It’s just that…” Nikki stammered for a second as she wrestled with whether to tell a second date already about how she had a guard up due to her prior abusive relationship.
But Ryan could tell she was having difficulties explaining herself, and helped out: “I get it, don’t worry.” He shrugged, signaling he wasn’t giving it another thought.
This reassurance made Nikki’s nerves instantly calm. To show her appreciation, she reached out and grabbed Ryan’s hand as they turned to walk into the theater.
“So, how many times have you been here?” Ryan asked, to Nikki’s surprise.
“What do you mean?”
“Oh, c’mon. I could tell you’d been to that other restaurant many times before on dates. How many times have you been here before? … be honest…”
“Actually, none.” The number for the restaurant would have been around one hundred, but Ryan hadn’t asked that number. And Nikki was happy he didn’t ask.
They rounded the interior doors into the theater and took their seats up on the balcony. Even though they were in the first row, the balcony seats were still pretty far away. Ryan looked down over the balcony, squinting to try and see the stage many feet below.
“Yeah, I can tell this is your first time here,” Ryan said with a joking smile about how far away they were seated. Since she’d asked Ryan out, Nikki had been the one to buy the tickets.
Ryan’s comment made Nikki chuckle out loud. She joined in on the fun: “Yeah, I hope you like stories about…” Nikki stammered as she flipped open the program to see what the play was about. She hadn’t even looked at what the play was before buying the tickets. “… a celebrity gorilla which learns to play the saxophone to prove that its species is not that far off from the human species….”
Nikki’s disbelief at what she’d just read was suspended in the air. Her shock at that being the real plot of the play just made Ryan burst out loud laughing back at her.
“Give me that. You can’t be serious. You’re making that up,” he said as he playfully snatched the program from her fingers. But then Ryan’s jaw dropped as he continued reading the play’s description aloud: “Bobo the Gorilla was raised from a young age as a human in the fishing town of Anacortes, Washington. His human parents dressed him in human clothes, taught him to eat at a table and sleep in a bed, and groomed him to live among people. While others would use the term ‘pet’ when talking about Bobo, his parents never did. Now, Bobo is off on an adventure to convince the world, one saxophone song at a time, that he truly belongs in the company of humans. Enjoy this compelling new off-Broadway play focused on the real story of Bobo the Gorilla.”
Ryan’s look of disbelief mirrored Nikki’s as he turned wide-eyed and looked right back at her. When their thoughts shifted from being shocked at what they were about to witness, to realizing that they were now staring right at each other in mutual disbelief, the couple instantly burst into laughter together.
“Shh!” Came a voice from behind them as the lights dimmed on the audience.
But neither of them was able to contain their laughter. Nikki’s sense of humor definitely wasn’t helping the situation, either.
“I can’t believe this place is almost sold out,” she said between giggles. “They must have Bobo here himself to explain his story.”
Ryan couldn’t stop laughing. But this only resulted in more people around them giving them mean glares at their noise in the dark New York City theater.
The situation quickly escalated even more when the gorilla character stepped out onto the stage. Far down below them, alone under the bright light of the stage’s spotlight, stood a man in a very poorly constructed gorilla costume.
“Geez, am I at a professional play in a theater, or a kid’s birthday party?” Nikki cracked to Ryan.
This sent Ryan laughing hysterically out loud. And in return, even more comments were shouted at them from the New York audience to either shut up or get out.