to work,” I said. “So much time to make up.”
“I hope you’ll call me if you get good news.”
“Oh, if I get good news, I’ll ring up everyone in the city,” I said, and his friends laughed.
“Don’t be discouraged if you don’t,” he warned.
“Discouraged? That word isn’t even in my vocabulary,” I replied. His friends laughed again. When I looked back at the three of them, they were talking and laughing and nodding my way.
“No matter what, you’ll get a good tip there,” Marge said.
“It’s all I want right now,” I insisted.
She looked impressed.
“Hey,” Buck said to me when I came to the counter to pick up food for another table. “If you get a free night or two, I’ve got a friend who says he can get you a tryout at Danny’s Hideaway. They’re looking for a lounge singer for weekends. Some quick money.”
“Oh, thank you. I have Saturday night free. I’m working right after my audition. Is Saturday too late?”
“I don’t think so. I’ll get back to you,” he said. “Might be perfect to sing a few on a Saturday night. They’ll see audience reaction.”
“Thank you, Buck.”
“My pleasure, Emma.” I thought his eyes were twinkling.
“Careful,” Marge whispered. “He’s broken more hearts than eggs for omelets.”
I laughed, but all this sudden male attention was making me very nervous.
When Jon and his friends were done and leaving, he cut away from them to speak to me as I headed back to the counter with a new order for another table.
“Any chance I can take you to dinner tomorrow night?” he asked. “Either to cheer you up or to celebrate.”
“Oh, thank you, but I have to work after the audition.”
“Oh, right. You said that.” His face brightened. “How about Saturday night?”
“I think I’m having another audition.”
“Saturday night?” Skepticism seeped into his smile. Was I brushing him off?
“At a club,” I said. He pulled his head back as if I had revealed I worked as a prostitute or something.
“You wanna do that?”
“Singing is what I do, what I live to do. It’s the most important thing to me right now.”
“Right. Well, good luck. Seems like things are coming your way,” he said, but he didn’t sound overjoyed. “Give me a call when you know something.”
He joined his friends. I watched them leave and thought he surely had bragged to them and was now trying to explain why things weren’t moving rapidly ahead with me. For a moment, I felt guiltier than I had when I told my father my singing was more important than anything he could suggest I do.
That evening after work, I was too tired even to bother straightening up the apartment. I had eaten something at the restaurant before I left. Now I wanted to concentrate only on the song sheet for the callback in the morning. I lay down and sang it to myself.
My concentration was interrupted when I heard voices in the hall, lots of voices. Suddenly, the door was thrown open, and Piper, leading four other people, entered, a bottle of red wine in each of her hands.
“Emma!” she cried. “I want you to meet Jerome and some of my friends, our friends. We’re all here to celebrate your first callback. We have food, more wine, and a luscious dessert.”
I said nothing. I stared blankly at them. Why would I want to celebrate with people I didn’t know?
“Say hello, Jerome,” she commanded a short, heavy, light-brown-curly-haired man who had a rather thick nose and a small mouth with soft, almost feminine lips. There was little doubt in my mind that Piper was the prettiest girl he had even been with long enough to claim as a girlfriend.
“Hey,” he said. When he smiled, his lips seemed to enlarge as if air flowed down and into them from his cheeks. He was carrying two more bottles of wine.
“Hello,” I said, and turned to Piper. “I can’t party. I have to get up early tomorrow for the audition and then go to work to make up the hours.”
“Oh, we’re just having a short get-together,” she replied. “Some of us work, too, and hafta get up in the morning, right, Jerome?”
“I’m afternoon and evening tomorrow,” Jerome said. She gave him a look of reprimand. “I’m just saying,” he added quickly.
“Well, Shirley works in the morning, don’t you, Shirley?” Piper asked a very thin-looking girl with the worst dyed red hair with bluish streaks I had ever seen. It was cheap and artificial. The strands looked like straw. All the coloring