Sweet Melody | Warren Rojas

[ track 17 ] i will survive

She has the audacity to turn the other way and start speaking more quietly so Rory can't hear. Rory's cheeks burn. She hadn't expected Karen to call someone straight away, but then again, she should know her by now. Karen is a go-getter. She makes things happen.

After a few more minutes, Karen hangs up. Rory straightens. "Well?"

But she still doesn't bother to respond. Instead, Karen rifles through the contents of their junk drawer until she locates a pen and a yellow legal pad. She plops the paper onto the table and slides back into her seat across from Rory, scribbling furiously. Then she slides the pad around so Rory can read it.

Tomás "Tommy" Lopez. 22. Pianist. Scandia, Tuesday, 6 o'clock.

Rory looks up at her in shock. "You scheduled a date?"

"Figured you might chicken out otherwise."

"I don't even know him!"

"That's what dates are for, sweetheart," Karen says with a too-bright smile for how horrified Rory is looking at her. Realizing that she's only going to make Rory's anxiety worse, she softens her expression and says reassuringly, "Tommy is one of the nicest, most genuine people I know. He's a lovely guy, really. Very handsome. He actually got scouted and has been in a few magazine shoots, but I don't have any of them to show you. You'll like him, I promise. And if you don't, you can... clobber me over the head. I won't mind."

Rory sighs. She'd wanted to start looking past her feelings for Warren, and this is how she starts. A blind date hadn't been on the top of her list, but Karen is right— it's better that she'd taken the initiative to set plans in stone. This way, Rory can't run away. She doesn't have Tommy's number to call and cancel on him.

When Tuesday arrives, Rory is dressed in a yellow blouse, an orange and white patterned skirt, and white clogs, clutching her purse so hard her knuckles turn white. Karen has a smile on her face the entire drive to the Sunset Strip. It makes her look like a maniac, especially when Rory's stomach is in knots about going on her first date ever with a guy she's never even seen. Karen had described him as handsome, but what if she doesn't find him physically attractive? What if he chews with his mouth open? Karen is picking her back up at eight, so how would she escape? Or would she have to endure a terrible date for the full two hours, waiting in agony as the seconds tick by?

Karen parks too soon. They walk down Sunset Boulevard, which is crowded even on a weeknight, with the blonde still beaming and Rory trying in vain to shake off her nerves. She inhales deep through her nose and exhales from her mouth. Hopefully her anxiety will pass and she'll be able to eat something, because right now, her stomach is so tight that even swallowing water might be impossible.

"Chill out, Rory," Karen says, slinging her arm around the girl's shoulders. "I promise you'll have a good time."

Rory mutters a quiet prayer to Santa María that she doesn't vomit on the tablecloth or something.

Despite all the time they've spent on the boulevard while playing at Filthy McNasty's, Rory has never seen Scandia. It's on the nicer part of the street, not flanked by sketchy dive bars like their former go-to venue. The building stands out because it's shaped like a house. It has a pointed roof that slopes downward on either side, with the upstairs dining area flooding light onto the street due to the floor-to-ceiling windows providing a glimpse into it. This is the kind of restaurant they wouldn't have been able to afford when they first moved to Los Angeles.

Rory is so distracted by the beautiful building that she jumps when Karen says, "Look, he's coming up the opposite way. With the brown jacket."

It's the mid-seventies, so almost every man on the face of the earth owns a brown jacket, and Rory is about to explain this to Karen when she looks forward and almost stops in the middle of the sidewalk. There are indeed multiple men wearing brown, but only one of them could possibly be Tommy.