---------- Two Weeks Later ----------
Two weeks went by at the pace of a snail. I ended up going home for Thanksgiving to spend it with my family. I have a small family so Thanksgiving is not a huge thing, but it was the gesture that I made an effort to come home to see my family. When I got back, I made a couple more covers for my channel so I had a backlog for a while. I could even take a break from editing the videos when I wanted to. As I said, it went by slow. When I moved to LA, I thought every day would be exciting, but it just ended up being like home. Which in many ways, I liked.
The day of the party rolled around. I didn't need to prepare myself as much this time because I had one mission; confront Joe. Whatever happened at the party after that was none of my concern, I just needed to talk to him. I went to my closet about an hour and a half before I was supposed to be there and chose a blue floral print dress. It was mid-length and had short sleeves. I put on some slip-on black shoes and did some minimal makeup. I debated going for a party look but opted out because if Joe were to see me without makeup, I wouldn't want him to be surprised by what I really look like. Not that I think I look a lot different, but you never know what other people think. As I was about to leave a thought popped into my head, He had my number, but he didn't text or call. Was that something I should worry about? I chalked that up to the fact that he didn't know me very well and didn't want to seem awkward saying something first.
I grabbed everything I needed and got into my car. I didn't play my cd this time. Instead, I listened to the radio. Christmas songs were beginning to play as it was now after Thanksgiving. But, the holiday was super early this year leaving practically a full week of November before December rolled around. I was still getting used to the fact that there were palm trees and sun instead of snow and cold weather. It was a change I needed to get used to quickly I guess. No better time to adjust than the present.
As I pulled into Gio's street, there weren't as many cars as last time. I guess I had forgotten to ask how many people were coming to the party this time. I only saw about half as many cars. I parked and locked the car behind me as I once again made the trek up to Gio's apartment. I brought a bottle of wine with me this time as an offering to Gio. I guess it was to thank him for holding a party that I didn't hate. I knocked on his door with my free hand. Gio opened the door and once again excitedly hugged me. The wine was awkwardly crushed between us until he let go. I stuck my hands out to offer the wine.
"Oh, you didn't need to do that." He swatted his hands at the wine. "But, ok, I accept." He then took the wine and pretended like he was winning an Oscar. "Thank you, Thank you, ladies and Gentleman. I'm so surprised." As I walked past him, I hit him on the shoulder, jokingly telling him to stop. He called after me, "What? Do you think it needs some work?" I surveyed the room as I made my way to the kitchen once again. There were only about half as many people at this party; only 6-7 people. I stood and counted everyone that was there in my head very quickly. There were seven including Gio and myself. I started to think about how this party might be very personal with these many people. But, if I did have to mingle with everyone, then at least I knew half of the people. I saw Joe sitting with the only group of people at Gio's table just off the kitchen. There were place settings set up at just enough seats for all of us. Gio walked into the kitchen a couple steps behind me and I saw that he opened his mouth to speak. I grabbed his arm and pulled him into the living room, as far away from the table as I could.
"Is this a dinner party?" I ask. I was calm, I just hated all of these new surprises that keep happening. Plus, it didn't go with my plan. My original plan was that I was going to walk up to Joe, get him away from whatever group he was talking to, and quietly yell, 'You were the little boy in Jurassic Park?' But, it looked like I couldn't do that now.
"Yeah, it is." He replied. "But there's a reason why I did this." Oh, this I had to hear. "I know you were freaking out about," He looked around to make sure no one was listening or even close enough to hear us, "Joe, so I did this to kind of make it seem like a bit more personal. Almost like a date. And I've thought more into it than that." Uh, oh. What did he mean by that? I could feel myself on the edge of freaking out, but I took a deep breath and it calmed me down enough to be back to normal. "I intentionally invited people that he didn't know. People who are close friends of mine, but don't really know Joe."
"Wait, so, shouldn't he be questioning why he's here? I mean, if everyone else is a close friend of yours, wouldn't he be asking himself why he was put in the same category as these people?" I didn't think that Gio and Joe were that close.
"No, he won't be. I've invited him to things like this before. So not only does he belong, but you do too. This way, I'll sit you too across from each other and he'll have no choice but to talk to the one person he knows a little better; you or me. And I'll be sitting on the other end of the table. So, he'll have to talk to you." I couldn't believe he had thought this much into it. I couldn't speak again. I found myself doing that a lot when it comes to Joe.
"You know," I keep finding myself in various states of shock recently, but I still got to talk to Joe, so I was happy. After a short pause, I continued, "You really are the best wingman." Gio nodded and gestured his hand toward the kitchen. Gio's table sat 8 people which is a relatively big table for anyone who lives in an apartment by themselves. But, if you hold parties like this a lot, it makes sense to have a huge table. Joe had his back toward the kitchen and the seat across from him was empty. We were at the end of the table with no one seated the head of it at our side, leaving one empty chair. Gio's seat was at the other end at the head of the table because he was the host. He stayed in the kitchen to get the food ready to serve. I walked around the table to my seat and I watched Joe's face as nonchalantly as I could. He was listening to the other people talk, smiling and nodding along to what they were saying. He didn't contribute anything, he just enjoyed being there and listening. I pulled my chair out from under the table, and the movement must have caught Joe's attention. His head swiveled towards me as he smiled widely.
"Hi, Julie. I didn't know you were going to be here." I sat down and smiled at him as I did. He shifted his body to face me now, seemingly so he could talk to me better.
"Well, I didn't know this was going to be a dinner party, so we are both surprised by tonight." He softly chuckled at my joke. He was more dressed up this time with a white button-down shirt and a black tie. From the kitchen, I could see that he had on gray pants and black shoes. If he had on a full suit, I would have melted. I have always been a sucker for a man in a good suit. Just then, Gio came out of the kitchen with some food.
"Could someone help me bring some food out?" Gio asked with his hands full of a couple of plates.
"Sure. I'll help." Joe responded getting up from his seat, giving me a small smile, and disappearing into the kitchen. I turned to look at the other people at the table.
"So, how do you know Brian?" One person asked me. I had forgotten that not everyone knew at this point.
"Oh, I've known him since high school." I heard and saw a couple of surprised reactions and a couple of reassuring nods. "Yeah, we met back in Chicago when I was a freshman and he was a senior." Joe and Gio came out of the kitchen with a couple more plates and then disappeared back inside. Over the partition in the kitchen, I could see Joe setting up another plate to bring out. I decided to keep talking. "He lived pretty close to me and once we met, it was like we were always supposed to meet. We were peas and carrots as Forrest Gump would say." I smiled and softly laughed at my reference. I heard a laugh coming from the kitchen as the door opened. Gio came to the table with only one plate and moved over to his side of the table.
"I am flattered that you would use a Forrest Gump quote to describe our friendship. And if I weren't gay, you would be my Jenny." He used Forrest's southern accent when he said 'Jenny' and I laughed. We were so close that our lives could have mimicked the movie. Gio waved his hand toward me and said, "Tell them about how we first met!" I looked to see Joe, now leaning over the partition listening to our conversation. Seemingly not wanting to miss a second of it.
"Ok," I said. Being around people who knew Gio so well made it easy to tell this story. To anyone who didn't know him, it could have been interesting, to say the least. "Well, we were in theater together and on one of our first days, near the start of the school year, we did an exercise in breathing. Our director told us to all stand and take in as much air as possible. We all did, and then he told us to hold it for a second, and then blow out the air continuously without taking a breath. Whenever someone ran out of air, they were told to sit down. So, we all start and people are sitting down one by one pretty quickly, Brian included, but I stay up. I played clarinet for 4 years before this, so I had good breath control. And I kept pushing and pushing more air out and people kept sitting down until there was just me and one other girl left. The other girl sat down and I kept going. Brian, here, being a champion human, starts screaming, "Yeah, Yeah, you go girl!' and almost made me crack up laughing. And because Brian's cheering me on, everyone starts quietly clapping and laughing along with Brian's remarks. Eventually, I run out of air and sit down and I hear Brian go, 'Amazing'. When we had a break after that, he came up to me and we started talking about musicals and music in general and from there we just became the best of friends. He helped me become a bit more extroverted in front of people I didn't know and I... well, I really don't know why you kept me around." I tilt my head toward Gio who is now sitting, head in hands, listening to my story. I smile at him, we were practically an old married couple at this point.
"You were always good for music recommendations." I laughed and so did he. "Plus, you were genuinely kind to me and one of the funniest people I had met once you got going. But she's right, it did feel like we were always supposed to be friends." We smile at each other one more time and the silence is broken by Joe finally emerging from the kitchen, food in hand.
"Alright everyone, let's eat!" He exclaims as he places the last plate of food.