This Could Have Been Our Song!: A coulda woulda shoulda ballad (5 page)

Noor and Lucia shared a conspiring look.

“Thank you. We’d love to,” Lucia said.

Not exactly what I had planned. On our way to the table I ordered a bottle of champagne.

“Lucia, Noor, meet my good mate John and his girlfriend Nella. It’s Lucia’s birthday,” I said before showing them their seats.

“
Nice to meet you.” Lucia shook both their hands.

“
Happy birthday, Lucia,” Nella said, genuinely smiling back to her then she turned to her sister. “Noor.”

“
Nella,” she said, matching her cold tone. “Long times no see,” she added, sitting next John while Lucia sat next to me. “I see you’re still with John.” She turned to John. “Always a pleasure to see you, John.”

“
Congratulation for the wedding,” he replied then quickly turned to Lucia. “Happy birthday, Lucia, and may I say you look dashing tonight.” He took her hand for a kiss, which made her blush.

Our bottle arrived and we all toasted the birthday girl. Apart from some strange looks from Nella directed at me, things were going well. We all talked and laughed, ordered a second bottle, even started a third one. My hands were never far from Lucia
’s arms and her eyes never left mine.

A familiar guitar solo started in the other room, making L
ucia and Noor get all excited.

“
Oh my God! ‘Head to Toe’!” Lucia shrieked. “I wrote this song for Jonnie Lynch! Her biggest hit to date.” She took my hand. “Just Marcus, let’s go dance.”

Nella whispered to me as I was leaving,
“That’s not right, Marcus.”

Lucia led me to the dance floor downstairs and I spun her around.

“Oh my, Twinkle Toes, you weren’t kidding earlier; you do know how to dance. Let’s do this!” And we did. We danced to the next song, then the next and the next. Lucia was sometimes lip-singing to the words, staring straight into my eyes. Eventually, her hands traveled from my back to the back of my head and she lowered it and kissed me – a soft, sweet, teasing kiss. I couldn’t let her get away with that and deepened that kiss. She tasted like champagne and something else, something addictive and of course, I instantly got hooked on it.

She slowly released my lips.
“Hi, Twinkle Toes.”

“
Hi Luce,” I whispered against hers and took them again. I held her closer and tighter to me. I looked around and noticed that Nella, Noor and even John were also dancing like the professional dancers they were. Show offs! Lucia was very good too. I’ve been blessed with rhythms but five years in The Royal Academy Of Music with John made me much better.

“
I Need to know”
from Marc Anthony started and John came to us, leaving Nella dancing with someone else.

“
May I? I really like what I’ve seen so far.” Not even waiting for a response, he took Lucia away from me with a wink.

“
Of course you can,” she giggled, then announced, “Now dancing the samba, Lucia and her partner, John.” And I watched as they started to execute a perfect samba. Scratch that; it was a professional executed one and John had never been an easy-to-follow partner. I went to Noor and we started dancing.

“
She’s adorable isn’t she?” she said.

My look shifted toward John and Lucia, dancing and laug
hing. “Yes she is,” I answered, smiling to her. “And so are you.”

“
I know,” she smirked back.

“
Is she a professional dancer too?”

“
Until the age of twenty she was the best dancer I’d ever seen,” she answered. “She moved to other passions after that.”

My gaze was always on Lucia and hers on mine. By the time they started to play
“No me Ames”, I went to get her back from John.

“
Missed me, Luce?” I asked her.

She brought her lips to mine for a kiss
– a real, deep, long kiss. “John is a better dancer,” she answered.

“
I bet he does this for a living,” I said before kissing her again. “What’s with the Marc Anthony marathon here?”

Lucia laughed, turning around and pressing her back against my chest. It felt amazing.
“Noor’s doing, I’m sure.” Her hands were caressing my face and I kissed her neck. “It’s her favorite singer.”

She turned around at the end of the song. I couldn
’t speak anymore; my body was in full arousal. I kissed her with all I had and she kissed me back matching the same passion.

“
Luce, you are so beautiful,” I hoarsely said.

“
You’re not so bad yourself, Just Marcus.” Her fingers were under my shirt now; she kissed me some more then whispered “Do you want to get out of here?”

How could I say no? There was at least one good reason, but all I could think about was her lips, her smell, her touch, her smile.
“Noor?” I whispered back.

“
Like a cat always, she falls on her feet,” she laughed. “Andrew is waiting for her outside; we’ve all been drinking way too much.”

“
Lead the way then.” 

She took my hand and led to the exit. I took my jacket and after a quick, awkward farewell to John and Nella. Lucia hugged them both then we headed outside. Noor was already there kissing somebody I presumed to be her fiancé. She waived us goodbye and got into his car. Now it was just Lucia and me. I hailed a taxi and kissed her. I looked at her sweet, trusting face and felt a
like real dick. She kissed my neck, giggling, and for some reason I giggled back. At that moment I was sure we would be able to talk about the whole Second Coming situation in the morning. But we never did. So now I’m going to have to confront her tomorrow.

I really should have rung her.

Where did the time go? It’s already Wednesday morning. The past two days went by like a flash. Sunday night was dinner with the entire clan: Axelle, Paul, baby Mitch and my little Annie, commonly known as the Andersons. Oh… Noor and Andrew were there too. It was a typical fun night at the Andersons. Annie showed her latest dance moves; she’s really coming along this one, a real Riddell through and through. With her big, grey eyes so identical to ours and her light-brown hair, my now almost-seven-year-old niece is the spitting image of her mother; meaning she looks like Noor and me as well; meaning she looks like our mom. Ah…and Mitch is now fully potty trained and that was all the three-years-old was talking about.

I had to cook dinner, being afraid of food poisoning and all (Axelle is the best Riddell dancer of our generation, but prob
ably the worst cook). I kept it simple with a beef and salmon wellington. I even made dessert: carrot cupcakes with cream cheese and cognac icing, cognac-free for the kids.

“
I can’t believe you made dessert.” Axelle was plating my birthday cupcakes. “I bought you a cake, Luce, and it wasn’t cheap.”

I gave her a big hug.
“Keep it. My cupcakes are better. Thank you.”

At this moment, Annie, closely trailed by her baby brother, arrived back in the living room.

“Beleeda?” Mitch said. He’s just the cutest boy with deep-green eyes and light-reddish hair, just like Paul.

“
Okay, but just one song before going to bed,” I told him and sat him on the sofa. I didn’t bring Belinda. My girl never leaves home unless she has to. But I have a total of three guitars. “Which one do you want to hear? Grandpa and grandma’s song?”

“
Yay!” everyone said together. Here goes a
Brady Bunch
moment with “The Love Song” by Accaba.

             
I started to play and sing the song:

             
It was my heart, it was my heart, it was my heart she took.

             
I never saw her coming,

             
I never saw her approaching.

             
It was my heart she took.

              I was my kiss, I was my kiss, it was my kiss he stole.

              I never saw him coming,

             
Didn’t see him approaching

             
But it was my kiss he stole.

             
It was (it was) my smile (my smile). It was (it was) my smile (my smile). It was (it was) my smile (my smile) she brought (she brought my smile).

             
Could I have even stopped it,

             
oh oh oh, if I knew it was coming?

              Yes it was (yes it was) my smile (my smile) she brought.

              Ooh ooh ooh, la la la. Ooh ooh ooh, la la la. Ooh ooh ooh, la la la.

             
It was (it was) my heart (my heart) you took (ooh yeah).

              It was (it was) my kiss (my kiss) he stole (ooh yeah).

             
Yes it was (yes it was) my smile (my smile) she brought (ooh yeah).

             
I never saw her coming (I never saw her coming).

             
Didn’t see him approaching (didn’t see him approaching),

             
but she took (he stole) my love (my heart).

             
Yes she took (he stole) my love (my heart).

             
Oh she took (he stole) my love (my heart).

             
Yes she took (he stole) my love (my heart).

             
Ooh ooh ooh, la la la. Ooh ooh ooh, la la la. Ooh ooh ooh, la la la.

“
Now time for bed,” Axelle said to the kids. I could see her wiping her tears. “Kiss your aunties,” she added before they all disappeared to the second floor.

Their home was, once upon a time, my home. I
’d lived with Axelle and Paul for six years, my first six in Toronto, and for five of them it was just the three of us in the house. They were both great to me but moving out at twenty-two to move in with Noor and embrace her bohemian lifestyle was overdue and necessary at that point.

On Monday, I treated myself to a spa day, thanks to Paul, and brought Noor along, thanks to Andrew. A yoga class (I needed to stretch).
An organic lunch (sure, why not). A seaweed body wrap (we’re not part of the next
organic
lunch?) And to finish, a massage and facial. I was exhausted by the time we got out of there – five hours later!

“
Let’s get a drink,” Noor said.

“
After all that detox?” I replied. “Definitely.” We made happy hour, turned to early dinner. Not organic this time.

“
Thanks for letting me tag along,” She told me when we were waiting for our food. “I needed a day away from the school.”

“
You’re leaving for London in five months and for two whole ones. A lot to do, I’m sure.” I stared at my empty wine glass feeling sad. “I need a refill.”

“
How are you holding up?” she asked then took my hand. “Should we make it a double this time?” she added before laughing.

“
Hey!”
unbelievable,
I took my hands away. “I’m going to miss you Crazy.”

“
Will miss you too, Luce, but I can’t drink to that just yet. I’m still recovering from Friday.” She smiled. “A bit of Saturday.” then winked. “And Sunday.” She looked at her empty glass. “Do you think we have a problem?”

“
I don’t know about you, but
I
don’t,” I said just before the waitress came with our food. “Could I get another glass of merlot?” I asked her.

“
Sure, coming right up.”

“
Rubbish!” Noor said.

“
Please, you attacked that poor girl on Friday. Marcus’s friend…um, Nella?”

She shivered and fessed up,
“
Ornella
Horne. The Southern Belle and I have history. We both wanted Andrew.” she took a bite of her dish. “Guess who won?”

“
John is not a bad consolation price,” I said then he waitress came back with my drink. “Thank you.”

“
Nope, he’s adorable,” Noor said. She took my glass of wine and went for a taste. “I want one too; a big one, please,” she told the waitress. “I know, I’m the one with the problem,” she confessed after the waitress’ departure. “Talking about adorable British man, any news on the Marcus’s front?”

“
No!” I swallowed of my wine slowly. “And it’s fine, really. We had an awesome time. Why can’t it just be enough for now?” I started to eat my food; it was delicious. “I did give him my business card,” I finally added. Uh-ho! I walked right in to this one.

“
Business card? That’s what the kids are calling
it
these days?” Noor teased. “Some
credentials
too maybe?” She took her glass of wine. “References?”