Props

“Faith, you’ve got to come down here!”

Sean was yelling at me through his phone. He was at a really loud place and full of joy. I was so confused.

“Sean I’m still at work. I’ll leave in like an hour. Where are you?”

“I’m at a bar a few blocks from your building.”

“What are you doing? And why is it so loud.”

I heard Sean stumbling around and then suddenly it was quiet, “Faith?”

“Yeah?”

“Sorry, I couldn’t hear you. When you get off work you need to come down here and celebrate with me and my buddies.”

“What are we celebrating?”

“How do you not know what happened today? You work at a newspaper.”

“I’ve been working in my office, alone with the door closed.”

I got up and walked out of my office to an equally jubilant gaggle of co-workers. I told Sean I’d meet him when I left work and hung up the phone. Steve ran up to me and handed me what I assumed was a vegan cupcake.

“What’s going on Steve?”

“Prop 8 was deemed unconstitutional! Gay marriage is headed to the Supreme Court!”

I spent the rest of my time at work partying it up with the news staff and watching five different news stations at once. The only person who wasn’t celebrating was Veronica, she was in her office on the phone deep in conversation; probably about the evening news and the commentary on Prop 8.

When I finally left and met up with Sean he was pretty buzzed.

“Faith I want you to finally meet my friends they’re all inside. C’mon.”

He grabbed my hand like a little kid and dragged me inside what was clearly a gay bar with a giant television screen blasting the news broadcast about Prop 8. He walked me over to a bright neon green see-through table where his four bandmates and tour manager were sitting.

“Guys, this is Faith, my girlfriend.” Sean said, “That’s Guy, Gerry, Jake, Lou, and Eddie.” Sean said pointing out each person at the table. We all shook hands and exchanged pleasantries.

“I’m going to go grab you a drink,” Sean said giving me a kiss on the forehead before disappearing into the crowd.

Guy is the lead singer and plays back up guitar to Sean while Lou is the drummer, Eddie is the bassist, and Jake plays the keyboard. I’d never seen Gerry before but he was by far more serious than the rest of them, although still cheerful. He looked like a guy that just gets things done and the stress was etched on his face. I wasn’t sure how old he was but the rest of them were in their late 20’s like Sean.

“So, Faith,” Jake turned to me, “You know Sean just adores you, right?”

I smiled shyly, “Yes. I’m really lucky that he puts up with me.”

Jake and I made more small talk with the others injecting funny stories about Sean. Eventually Sean came back with a strawberry daiquiri and a beer. I grabbed the beer from his hand so he was stuck with the ostentatious daiquiri.

“Aww, come on.” He said looking at his drink.

I giggled, “Too bad.”

“Oh I like her, Sean. Keep her. You’re going to get so many phone numbers tonight.” Jake winked at him.

Sean grumbled something and shrunk into his seat.

“Sean, honey, you’re almost as red as that ridiculous drink,” I said laughing.

“Did you guys tell her?” He asked.

“Tell me what?” I asked.

“Eddie and I just got engaged.” Jake said sticking his left hand out to show me his ring.

“Oh, congratulations! Are you moving to California?”

“No,” Eddie said shrugging and putting his arm around Jake, “But it’s bound to go to the Supreme Court and become federal law. So we’ll just use the interim to plan the wedding so we can be ready when it does happen.”

I liked Eddie, he was really laid back compared to Jake and they were so cute together. Just then a thin attractive man came up to Sean, whispered something in his ear, and handed him a napkin with his phone number on it. Sean turned bright red and mumbled that he was taken. He put his arm around me and moved closer into the center of the booth. We spent the night talking with Sean’s friends and dancing. Sean got four more numbers that night before we decided to leave.

“You know, I'm shocked that you didn't defend my honor in there.” He said holding my hand as we walked.

“I’m not threatened. Anyone who wears that much glitter is trying too hard anyway. Are you going to call all of them, I'm sure they'd LOVE that?” I joked.

Sean invited me to his place but it was really late and I had to work the next day so I declined. It was nice to meet Sean’s friends, finally. I hope I made a good impression.