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It started, as so many things do, with a bet. Tim should have known by now not to bet Lucy, but he always fought his better judgment when it came to her. Tim remembered the moment distinctly, that his life began to change. It was a Tuesday morning, after roll call, while Lucy was checking out the equipment for the shop. She turned to him, pasted on a dazzling smile and said,
“Whatcha doing Thursday after work?”
Tim shrugged noncommittally,
“No plans, really. A night in I suppose, why?”
“A group of us from the station were going to go to karaoke night at-”
“Absolutely not” Tim barked, not even letting her finish.
“Tiiiiiiiiiiim,” Lucy whined, her lip jutting out in indignation, “I didn’t even get to ask yet.”
Tim sighed, a very put upon sound, and waved one of his crossed arms as if to say, “fine, proceed”
“Tim, will you come to karaoke with me and Nyla, Angela, Nolan, and Celina?” She placed her hands as if praying and widened her eyes.
“Absolutely not,” Tim repeated, rolling his eyes at her puppy dog ones.
“Ugh, you’re no fun,” she sighed, and turned back to retrieve the war bags.
Tim grabbed one and hoisted it over his shoulder,
“Thanks,” Lucy smiled, “but I’m still mad at you,” she warned.
Tim only nodded. He expected nothing less from her. Tim was pretty sure he was in for a long day of her trying her best to wear him down. As much as he had come to enjoy riding with Lucy, he was not looking forward to 12 hours of “please, please, please, please, please?”
And of course, he was right. By the time they were pulling out of the station Lucy was arguing why it would be a good experience for Tim to go.
It took about three minutes before Tim said,
“What will it take to make you stop asking?”
Her eyes lit up with excitement. He should have known then, from that glint in her eyes, that he never stood a chance, but he didn’t catch it, because he didn’t look. Looking into Lucy’s eyes was as dangerous a game as making a bet with her.
“Let’s play for it,” she suggested, “You win, no karaoke. I win, you have to come along.”
“Do I have to sing?”
“Of course you have to sing! That’s the whole point!”
“No” Tim said, shaking his head, “I won’t sing,”
Lucy considered this for a moment.
“Fine. No singing, BUT under protest, because I think you’re secretly an amazing singer,”
Tim was, in fact, not an amazing singer, which was his main reason for not wanting to go to karaoke. He knew, of course, that Lucy was. He had heard her sing in the shop and hum little tunes as she worked, and of course, he would always remember the haunted sound of her voice as she sung herself to sleep in the barrel. Tim closed his eyes for half a second and breathed in deeply, attempting to shake the memory. He pulled himself back into the present and to the bet they were now making.
“So, what’s the game? Roshambo?” He offered.
“Oh please, what are we, middle schoolers?” Lucy scoffed.
“Okay not that then,” he sighed, already exhausted with this conversation. It was quite for a moment before Lucy said,
“What about challenge coins?”
If Tim had hazarded a look at Lucy in that moment, it would have been clear, but he didn’t. He only smiled. He was the challenge coin king, and aside from Nyla, no one had ever beat him, and that had been a fluke.
“Okay, fine. After shift, we’ll play. But get ready to lose, Luce. I’m bringing my A game.”
Lucy beamed, not just at the nickname, which she secretly found adorable, but at how well she was already playing him.
At the end of shift, Lucy waited until Tim was in view before she made her way out of the bullpen and towards the parking lot. She made to leave and Tim, being Tim, immediately spotted her.
“Ummm, excuse me, did you forget our bet or are you just scared?”
Lucy darted her head towards Tim and grimaced. She glanced towards the door, hiked her purse up on her shoulder, then turned to face Tim, breathed in, and with a shaky smile said,
“I’m not scared,”
But Tim watched her fingers drum anxiously against the strap of her purse, and he was sure she was putting on a brave face.
“Sure you aren’t,” he teased, a little smirk pulling at the side of his mouth. He walked over to one of the tables that stood in the glass roll call room, and set his coin down with a soft click. Lucy likewise reached into her pocket and produced her coin, but before she could set it down on the table, she dropped it.
“Oh, dang it” She said, surprised and fell haplessly onto her knees to retrieve the fallen coin. Tim tried not to smile.
“Aha! There it is,” Lucy said with satisfaction. She retrieved her coin, and lifted herself back up to a standing position.
“Okay. I’m ready now,” she chirped, “Tim, you go first.”
He did. His coin lightly dragged across the table and landed with less than a foot of space until the edge.
Lucy’s jaw dropped. Then she flashed her eyes over at Tim, and seeing him watching her, she quickly washed the expression off her face. She took a deep breath in and set her coin on the table. She lowered herself so that her eyes were even with the edge of the table and she closed one eye, lightly sticking out her tongue and then placing her hand back and forth as if trying to sense the right amount of pressure.
“Oh just go Chen. Come on!” Tim said, exasperated at her antics, "I don't have all night,”
Finally she stood back up fully, repositioned her coin into her hand, pulled back once and then let it fly. The coin sailed quickly right up towards Tim’s and then just beyond before stopping a few inches past his. At first it was quiet and then,
“No way!” Lucy said, in a loud, excited voice. She jumped up and down while lightly clapping her hands.
“I can’t believe I won!” She turned to Tim.
“You have to go to karaoke with me now!” She sang out. She was beaming, too. Tim blinked hard a few times and then crossed his arms. His taciturn look caused Lucy to stop jumping up and down.
“Oh come on, Tim. It won’t be that bad. Besides, you won’t even sing.” She signed, then said, “I really should have been stricter on the terms of this bet. I just never expected I’d win. I thought some chance was better than none.”
Tim, genius that he was, fell for it.
“What about double or nothing?” He offered.
“What like two karaoke nights?” She cocked her head sideways in mock confusion.
“No,” Tim shook his head, “I mean, we play again. If you win, I have to sing, but if I win, I don’t have to go to karaoke night at all,”
Lucy put on a good show of pretending to debate, but inwardly, she was thrilling at his words. She had played Tim like a piano.
“Umm, okay, yeah, sure. I mean I beat you once, right? How hard could it be?”
“That was a fluke,” Tim said with ease, and retrieved both their coins. He handed Lucy hers, and set his back on the table. This time, when he let go of his coin, it made it a little closer to the edge, maybe 6 inches away from the edge. He smiled then turned to Lucy with pride.
The pride died the moment he looked at her. All hesitation on her face was gone. She strode to the table and didn’t even bother to look more than a second before letting her coin fly. And fly it did, all the way to the very edge of the table. She didn’t even turn around before she asked,
“So, what song are you gonna sing?”
It was Tim’s turn to drop his jaw.
“What the hell, Luce!” He cried. Lucy laughed,
“It’s called a hustle, Tim, and I got you GOOD.”
Tim was stunned silent for a minute before quietly asking,
“How?”
“I’ve been practicing with Nyla for months,” Lucy beamed with pride. Tim, for his part, was well chastened.
Lucy giggled again, no longer able to contain her glee.
“Can’t wait for karaoke night. This is going to be so much fun! Wear something colorful. Oh! That blue Henley of yours! Blue is such a nice color on you,” she said in a teasing tone, but as she said it, she meant the words. She did think the blue Henley looked wonderful on Tim, and she was hoping he would wear it. She swiveled away before she began to truly gloat, beaming as she went.
******
Karaoke night came, and with it, the mounting dread of having to sing. Lucy, still giddy from her win, and happy to be out with friends, was first up to sing.
It was a pop song, cute, bubbly, and exactly Lucy in every way. Tim didn’t know the tune but he found himself smiling as he watched her perform. She hopped around, dancing a bit, hitting every note perfectly, and generally hamming it up. When the song ended, Lucy hopped off stage to a round of genuinely earned applause. She took her seat next to Tim and everyone at the table cheered for her.
“Way to start things off,” Angela said, taking a sip of her drink.
“Who’s next?” Lucy asked.
“I am going to need WAY more alcohol before I get up on that stage,” Nyla laughed, and took a pointed sip from her glass.
Nolan too tipped up his glass and said, “I think I’m with you. I’m going to need to be way more drunk before you get up on that stage as well.” Celina, and Angela, both already half in the bottle, let out boisterous gaffaws, and Tim hid his smile behind his beer.
“Okay, rude. Can I retroactively wash you out?” Nyla shot back.
“No, but if it makes you feel any better, you can laugh when I get up there,”
“I was already going to do that,” she said, and took another swig of her drink.
A few people from other groups sang before the next of their group went up. Celina sang a song in Spanish that Tim had never heard, but didn’t mind. Next was Nolan, who sang a song Tim definitely did mind. Angela and Nyla did a duet which was, objectively terrible, not because they couldn’t sing, but because they were drunk and couldn’t manage to stay on beat with each other. Eventually Tim was the only person left at the table who hadn’t sung.
“You know you have to sing, Tim. A bets a bet,” Lucy prodded, but Tim shook his head,
“I will, I’m just waiting until everyone is too hammered to remember it tomorrow,” Tim deflected and Lucy pouted. He noticed that he and she were the least drunk at this table. Even if everyone else forgot, it was a pretty sure bet Lucy would not. She’d been nursing the same drink for well over 2 hours.
“Fine, Nolan come do a duet with me,” Lucy suggested.
Nolan agreed easily, and they sang “I Got You Babe”. They played it off jokingly, but even so, Tim didn’t like the idea of Nolan singing this song with Lucy. He was married for heaven's sake. Tim slumped down in his seat, annoyed all of a sudden that he was here. He no longer wanted to indulge Lucy and her stupid hustling ways. The bet had lost all its appeal. When Lucy and Nolan got back after their song, she took her spot next to Tim, laughing, smiling, and Tim didn’t say anything.
“Tim’s turn!” Lucy proclaimed happily.
“Lucy, come on, you’re not actually going to make me sing, are you?” He grumbled.
Lucy turned to him confused,
“But, that was the terms of the bet,” she argued.
“I know, but, public humiliation? Really?”
“It’s not supposed to be humiliating Tim; its supposed to be fun,”
“Well it’s not fun for me,” Tim spat out, more forcefully than he meant to.
He saw the second it hit Lucy. He watched her deflate. The rest of the table seemed to miss their little conversation, all making plans for more duets and songs they might sing, but Lucy’s smile was forced. It made Tim even more upset. After a few minutes Tim couldn’t take it anymore,
“Hey, Luce, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to ruin your fun. I'm just really not good at singing. I haven’t done it in years.”
Lucy shrugged and said,
“You don't have to sing if you really don’t want to. It’s okay,” but Tim could tell she was still sad that he wasn’t.
“I don’t even know what I would possibly sing,” he said
Lucy thought for a minute before saying,
“When’s the last time you remember enjoying music?”
Tim looked down and lifted his bottle to his lips to buy time.
“I don’t know. Maybe when I was a kid?”
“So, maybe sing a song from then,” Lucy suggested, “did you have a favorite band?”
Tim did have a favorite band, but he felt embarrassed to tell her, so he just shrugged. They lapsed into silence for a few minutes again.
“It’s really okay, Tim, if you don’t sing. I’m sorry I pushed you.” Tim looked in her eyes then, and his heart thudded erratically in his chest. Something about the kind forgiving look on her face bolstered him. He downed the rest of his drink, and looked back at Lucy.
“A deal's a deal, Chen,”
With that and a plastered on smile, he stood up and walked to the line up coordinator to get his name on the list.
A few songs later, Tim’s name was called.
He stepped on the stage, thrumming with nerves.
“What would you like to sing?” Asked the man running the system.
“Do you have anything by Tears for Fears?” Tim asked, somewhat embarrassed. It was the only band from his childhood he really remembered. When he was 9 or 10, he and Genny had gotten a radio, and they fought all the time about what station to play. The only station they could agree on happened to play a lot of Tear for Fears, and Tim had quickly learned the lyrics to many songs.
The man running the machine typed for a moment and then replied,
“We only have one, Head Over Heels. Does that work?” Tim nodded, and took his place on stage.
The music began and a cheer went up from his table. Angela whistled loudly, and Celina clapped, even though he hadn’t even sung yet. Tim looked over at the table and saw everyone smiling at him. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, he thought, as the lyrics popped onto the screen.
He sang out the first verse, not exactly enthusiastically, but not fake either. As the second verse began, Nolan called out,
“You can do better, Bradford,” and Tim rolled his eyes. They landed on Lucy, who, once she noticed his gaze on her, gave a smile and a supportive thumbs up. Tim sang with a little more gusto. He was, true to his word, not a great singer, but it didn’t seem like Lucy minded. And seeing her smile made him smile a little too.
Then the chorus came, and he sang that too.
“Something happens and I’m head over heels
I never find out until I’m head over heels
Something happens and I’m head over heels
Don’t take my heart, don’t break my heart,
Don’t, don’t, don’t throw it away,”
He remembered this part best, had remembered singing it when he was young, liking the tune but not really caring about the lyrics. It wasn’t like people actually fell in love without realizing it. That would be ridiculous.
The next verse was a bit harder to remember, so he focused on the screen, not glancing up to the table until the chorus. When it began he turned his eyes towards the group intending to play it up a little, like Lucy had, to prove he could be fun. But then he saw Lucy, looking right at him and he didn’t play it up, couldn’t, he just looked at her as he sang the lyrics,
“Something happens and I’m head over heels
I never find out until I’m head over heels
Something happens and I’m head over heels
Oh, Don’t take my heart, don’t break my heart
Don’t, don’t, don’t throw it away,”
And as he sang it dawned on him that maybe the lyrics were not as ridiculous as he originally believed, because in the span of a few seconds it all clicked together. Why he never said no to her bets, why watching Nolan and her perform made him so angry, why one look at her kind eyes was enough to convince him to do something he never would have done without her. Something had happened, and Tim was head over heels in love with Lucy.
He didn’t mean to sing to Lucy, but it was hard to call it anything else when he couldn’t look away from her the whole rest of the song. He watched her blush deepen, and she cast her eyes down, and still he couldn’t look away. When the song was over she clapped, she cheered with the rest of the table, but she couldn’t look him in the eyes, and Tim’s heart began thudding erratically again.
He walked back to the table with trepidation. No one seemed to be any wiser to the new tension in the room, all too drunk now to notice. Angela said,
“Good job, Timothy!”
And Tim tried to force a smile. Inside his brain was running a mile a minute. Did he just ruin his friendship with Lucy who still couldn’t seem to look at him? He took his seat next to her, but further away than he had been before. He tried to shrug it off.
“So, that’s the bet paid in full I guess,” he said hesitantly.
“Yeah… I guess so,” she replied. She rubbed her hands down her thighs rhythmically. Then she stood up.
“I need to… I’m going to… I think I’m going to sign up for one more song,” she told Tim. But he knew what she was doing; Lucy was running away. Tim felt even worse than he had before singing, but this time instead of taciturn and grumpy, he just felt gutted. Why did he have to stumble upon that exact revelation at that exact moment and ruin everything?
He looked towards Angela’s seat, spied her half finished beer, and stole it from her.
“Hey! You owe me a fresh drink,” she cried out.
“You’re drunk enough, Ange. I’m doing you a favor,”
She wisely didn’t respond.
Another song began to play and Tim tuned it out. Lucy didn’t come back from wherever she was hiding. Two more songs played, and Tim wondered when it would be acceptable for him to leave. Then the announcer called out a name Tim recognised. He looked up to the stage and saw Lucy, staring right at him.
As the first words of the song rang out, Tim knew things would never be the same.
“Don’t know much about history
Don’t know much biology
Don’t know much about a science book
Don’t know much about the French I took
But I do know that I love you
And I know that if you love me too
What a wonderful world this would be”
As the words washed over Tim, and Lucy’s eyes washed over Tim, in his blue Henley, the very one Lucy had only half joked he should wear, he felt for the first time that night, his heart lift.
“Don’t know much about geography,
Don’t know much trigonometry,
Don’t know much about algebra,
Don’t know what a slide rule is for
But I do know one and one is two
And if this one could be with you
What a wonderful world this would be”
Lucy’s eyes never wavered from Tim’s as the song went on and she sang, her beautiful voice lighting parts of Tim’s heart that he had long since believed to be shut down for good.
The song ended, but the trance didn’t. Lucy stepped off the stage, and walked straight towards Tim, her eyes still never wavering from his. Without saying a word she sat down next to him, closer now than ever before.
He smiled down at her and her up at him.
“You have a beautiful voice, Lucy,” Tim said.
“You picked a really good song, Tim,” she responded.
“Maybe I could sing it for you again sometime,” he joked and she laughed, not a mean laugh, but a sweet one.
“I think I’d like that,” Lucy replied, and Tim said,
“Okay, let’s plan it. How about,” he paused for a second putting his finger on his chin in a ridiculously fake thinking gesture, “Saturday night. That sound good to you, Chen?”
Lucy giggled
“It’s a date, Bradford.” She replied.