Chapter 59

                                    

                                          
The couple had intended to leave the bar right after their slow dance, but then the DJ switched it over to karaoke night.
                          
"Bambina, I don't know any country songs!" Carina protested as Maya yanked her to the small stage in the corner.
                          
The bar had emptied out some, but there were a few off-duty first responders and doctors hanging around. No one they knew extremely well, but just a couple of people they both recognized from work. 
                          
"Carina, I am begging you to sing Jolene with me," Maya cried. She quickly spoke to the DJ and he queued up her request.
                          
"Jolene? Who's she?" Carina asked, seriously. 
                          
The blonde's blue eyes nearly bugged out of her head... "I might not love country music, but I will never disrespect the queen herself."
                          
"Jolene? She's the queen of country music?" Carina asked. 
                          
Maya shoved a microphone at her fiance and yelled, drunkenly, "No! Dolly Parton is!"
                          
"Who?!" Carina screamed over the sound of the banjos.
                          
"Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jooooooo-leeeene," Maya sang, enthusiastically. "I'm begging of you, please don't take my man." The fire captain pointed to the words on the screen and bopped along to the beat. "Come on, babe, just jump in with me!"
                          
Carina leaned over to Maya and whispered to her, "I don't know about this bambina."
                          
Maya yelled into the microphone, "Someone get my fiance another drink!" Within seconds a bartender handed Carina two shots of something strong. 
                          
The blonde continued to sing, "Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jooooooo-leeeene, please don't take him just because you can."
                          
Maya starred in her fiance's eyes as she sang the lyrics, "Your beauty is beyond compare with flaming locks of auburn hair, with ivory skin and eyes of emerald green." 
                          
The two shots helped loosen Carina up and she quietly started to sing the song alongside her love. By the end of the second chorus, the doctor had command of the stage. Maya stood to the side and watched as her fiance owned the stage and song. 
                          
Carina took the microphone stand in her hand and dramatically swayed with it on stage as she cried out the final lyrics, "Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene. Please don't take him even though you can. Jolene, Jolene."
                          
The Italian dropped the microphone and pulled her fiance in for a hot kiss. She had gained a new level of confidence and didn't care that there was a crowd of people surrounding them and  cheering them on.
                          
"Get a room!" someone shouted, jokingly. 
                          
"Oh, we intend to!" Carina snapped back.
                          
"Let's get out of here, yeah?" Maya asked, out of breath. 
                          
"You pay. I'll order the Uber," Carina added, matter of factly. "Meet me outside."
                          
Maya paid their bar tab and wandered out to the street to find her fiance standing under the streetlight where they had crossed paths many months ago. 
                          
"Ya know, as painful as that night was, I am kinda grateful I ran into this light pole," Maya said, laughing. She latched one hand onto the light pole and spun herself around it.
                          
"My little pole dancer," Carina giggled. "I was going to find you one way or another, bella."
                          
"What do you mean?" Maya asked more seriously. She stopped swinging around the pole and sat down on the curb, dizzy from the spin and booze. 
                          
Carina joined her and rested her head on her fiance's shoulder. "I mean, I know we said we fell in love at Joe's that night, but in reality, I felt something the second I saw you in the ambulance bay."