“I know.” I grinned cockily, as she took the keys out of the ignition.
“And I really thank you for that,” she told me. “With my disinterest with school this past year, I don’t know if I would have done without you.”
“Speaking of that disinterest,” I said, “how do you feel about getting out into the engineering world?”
“Not bad at all!” she said quickly. “I’m not sure how I’m going to love it, only time will tell, but even if I don't adore my job, I think it’s going to be okay. I mean, I’ve got you to keep me company at night, whether my job is good or bad. For now, I think that’s enough for me.”
I kissed her softly, letting my lips linger on hers.
“You know what’s so great about this day?” I asked her.
“No, what?”
“Well, on top of you being a student superstar and getting out into the job market, I never have to deny you date nights again. I never have to say we can’t spend time together, because there’s no more studying! It can just be me and you all the time.”
“Trust me, baby, that’s all I’ve been thinking about this week,” she said, as she kissed me back.
“Come on,” I urged her, “let’s go inside. I’m sure everyone’s waiting for you.”
“Ugh, do I have to? You know how I hate being the center of attention.”
“And you know how Abby loves putting you there! So yes, for her, you have to.”
Abby had insisted on throwing Emily a graduation party. It really wasn’t her style, and honestly, it was going to be mostly her friends and only a few people from her engineering program. But this kind of thing made her happy, and she’d blown off way too many of her events to blow this one off, too. Especially when it was for her!
“Come on, I’m the designated driver tonight. If you absolutely hate it, just get drunk.”
“Can’t argue with that. Alright, let’s go.”
We entered the King’s Tooth and saw Abby had had them put a few tables together to accommodate all the people who had come. There were cupcakes on the table and pitchers of beer waiting for us.
She squealed when he finally came in. “Finally! You took forever! Congratulations, Em!” She gave her a cheek kiss, and she was then bombarded with a series of congratulations.
I took a step back and let her be in the spotlight, though I knew she didn’t want to be. Ah, well, she’d be able to deal with it for just a few hours.
I grabbed two glasses from the bar, one with a straw for me and Emily, though, in order to start drinking, she’d need people to stop talking to her, which they hadn’t yet. So I pulled up a chair at the table and poured a beer for myself, the only beer I’d be having for the night.
“Hey, Kaitlyn,” I heard a familiar voice from behind me.
“Hey, Brianne.”
Over the past year Emily and I had been together, we’d spent a fair amount of time with Abby’s friends, including Brianne. Not only had she become significantly less obnoxious since that day she’d seen me perform, she and I had actually become friends! Like, of all Abby’s friends, she and I became the closest.
And we didn’t just hang out at events with Abby’s group of friends. Brianne came up to me one day and told me how much she’d respected my street performance and how she really wanted to see what it could be like to connect to an audience that was so close to you. So I invited her to perform with me, and to my surprise, she took me up on the offer. We played together twice a week when she didn’t have classes.
Honestly, they were two of my favorite days of the week, too. It was really fun to experiment with different song covers together, and I made double the money when we played together. She wasn't too bad for conversation, either.
“So, since I’m also going to be graduating here pretty soon, I had a proposition for you,” Brianne told me.
“Oh, what’s that?” I asked.
“Well, now that my schedule is going to be free, I was wondering if I could perform with you every day.”
“Yeah!” I said excitedly, eager about the proposition of more money and some company. “Absolutely, that would be awesome.”
“Perfect!” she said, “because there’s a part two to this proposition.”
“Part two?” I questioned.