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No, but I can sing.

Chris:

We HAVE to do karaoke sometime. What’s your go-to song?

Maye:

Eh, I don’t really have one.

Chris:

WHAT. I don’t think I can work with someone who doesn’t have a go-to karaoke song. I have a go-to, a backup, a signature track, a staple, a duet, a crowd-pleaser, and, of course, old reliable. I might have to reconsider our arrangement. Do you mind if I just call you?

Maye:

Sure.

A moment later, Maye’s phone rang.

“Hello?” she answered warmly.

“Hi,” Chris said. “I’m looking for Stacy’s mom?”

“You’re ridiculous,” she said.

“I prefer this to texting whenever I can,” Chris said. “Plus, now I can hear you sing.”

“Not with a mouth full of popcorn, you can’t,” she said, chomping.

“Then what’s the point of being able to sing! I wish I could sing,” he whined.

“You said you do karaoke all the time!” Maye reminded him.

“That doesn’t mean I can sing!” he said.

“Well I kinda didn’t have a choice. I grew up around it.”

“Like a traveling chorus?” he asked.

“Sort of. My dad’s a musician, and when I was young, he was on tour a lot. Rather than leave me and my mom home, he took us, so we spent a lot of years traveling with his band.”

“That’s pretty cool,” Chris said. “My dad traveled a lot for work, too, but he didn’t take us. My mom and I spent a lot of time together watching movies and TV. She used to love these TV movies. She was such a romantic. She’d point out the little things that connected with her, like the first time they’d hold hands, and the long gazes, and the lookbacks—she loved a lookback.

“Is that where you got the acting bug?”

“Maybe?” Chris said. “The seed might have been planted back then, but I didn’t have a real interest in it until, well, until I met a girl.”

“Of course,” Maye said. “He did it for a girl.”

Chris laughed. “I dated a girl for a long time, and she wanted to be an actress. I would run lines with her and take her to auditions, and one day she saw a role for a character in a show she was going for that fit my description and thought I’d do a good job, so I auditioned.”

“Did you get it?” she asked.

“I did,” he said.” She did not.”

“Ouch.”

“Yup,” Chris said. “And that was the beginning of the end for us.”