Chapter 13: The Rooftop
Mei looked at her watch and let out a sigh; she was definitely going to be late. She had to stay behind to finish up transitioning all the CNR work to her teammates as she will be moving on to the IRS project as Jesse’s technical adviser.
This will be the first team outing in like 5 years. Mindy was not a big fan when it comes to team building activities. She never stopped people from going out to lunch or having small birthday celebrations in office; she just never participated. It wasn’t long until people took the hint and started keeping it purely business around office.
With the awarding of CNR and a few people moving on to a new project, Jesse had offered to buy everyone beer at “The Rooftop”, a small bar tucked away right in the heart of downtown that’s famous for its wings and lousy amateur karaoke singers.
It took her another 10 minutes to finally find parking on the narrow downtown street. As she stepped in the century old looking wood door with intricate metal designs, loud music and smell of alcohol immediately surrounded her like the hot humid air in a sauna.
It was dark and crowded inside. She first noticed Tracy singing her heart out on the little stage area against the back wall. Then slowly as her eyes were adjusted to the dim lighting, she found her co-workers gathered around near a couple of tables to the left of the stage.
“Hey Mei! Over here!” Roy shouted out from the crowd and waved at her with both hands. As she arrived at the table, it was obvious that a few of her co-workers were already drunk.
“I thought you were going to be a no-show tonight, glad you made it.” She was just settling in when Jesse tapped her on the shoulder from behind and handed her a Yuengling lite, “beer?”
“Oh yeah, sure, thanks!” she took the bottle and found her boss smiling at her with a big black folder in hand.
“Come on, here are the song selections; make sure you pick at least 3, we are doing a contest...” He dropped the folder on the table right in front of her, and continued, “Tracy’s our top contender, she’s got more cheers than anybody else so far...” before he could finish, Tracy grabbed his arm and pulled him up on stage: “Jesse, your turn next!”
The music was so loud in the background; Mei could barely hear what Jesse just told her.
She browsed through the song book, seems like most selections are from 80’s rock’N’roll bands that she’s not familiar with. That is a perfectly excuse for her not to go on stage; singing in public was never her thing.
She sat back and enjoyed her beer. If it was up to her, she would have chose a nice café with professional crooners for Happy Hour; but it was a refreshing change and she was quite surprised that some of her colleagues had really great voices.
Jesse was definitely not one of the few that could sing. Though obviously it didn’t stop him from screaming on the top of his lungs at Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing.” His tones are all over the place, with eyes closed shut, a microphone in one hand and a beer in the other, Jesse threw his arms out in between lyrics to wave for more applauses just like a real rock star in concert. Everyone was laughing and cheering him on, Mei thought she would never had the courage to act so silly in front of her co-workers.
That’s when she saw Jesse stopped in mid-song and pointed at her with the beer bottle: “Ladies and Gentleman, let’s give it up for Ms. Li Mei…”
No, No, please, Mei shook her head and tried to signal over the noise that she will not go up there. But it was too late; before she knew it, people had dragged and dropped her on stage right next to Jesse. Someone threw a microphone in her hand and she found herself frozen at the spot light.
Time seemed had stopped, along with everything else that’s around her. Then she felt a hand, gently pressed on her back; she saw Jesse leaned over, so close that his hair touched her right cheek like a feather; and she heard his words so clearly despite the loudness around: “You can do this, come on, nothing’s holding you back.”
Just like that, she was snapped back into reality and saw people’s faces behind the lyrics monitor, smiling and full of friendly anticipation; and suddenly her fear was gone, she started singing like no one’s around. Not knowing the song actually made it easier because they weren’t following the music anyways, her voice cracked several times at the high pitch notes but she couldn’t care less. She had so much fun; if it won’t for Roy trying to get another shot at winning the karaoke king of the night, Mei would have kept on singing.
Back to her seat, as the adrenaline started wearing off and the alcohol finally caught up in her blood streams, Mei felt a little dizzy. She has always been a light weight, that’s why she tried to avoid drinking in public. Now with the neon lighting shining in her eyes and the music and singing stimulating her ear drums, she realized she had 2 beers on an empty stomach; and that was not a good sign.
“Are you OK?” Jesse noticed Mei frowning with her hands on her head.
“I think so… actually I think I am going to get some fresh air.” Mei grabbed her purse and headed towards the door.
“Hey, wait.” Jesse quickly stood up and followed, “you shouldn’t go outside alone at this time of the night. Come with me.” He pulled Mei by the arm and led her over to the opposite side of the bar, where behind a couple of pool tables, Mei saw a metal spiral stairway reaching up through the ceiling like a magic bean stalk.
“What’s this?” Mei was a little confused; there is no sign or anything around to indicate where the stairs is leading to.
“Come, and you will see.”
Following behind Jesse, Mei climbed up the stairs and was immediately welcomed by a breeze of fresh nightly air. She found herself on the rooftop of this little two story brick building, like a little island surrounded by walls of other brick building from all directions. The owner of the restaurant had smartly converted the roof into an outside lounge, with several small tables and a miniature bar in the middle. Blue and yellow colored decorative lights were hanging in big circles all around, which made the place peaceful and magical. Mei felt like she’s in a completely different world.
That’s why it is called The Rooftops. Mei thought to herself, “How did you find out about this place?” the cool, calm atmosphere had already made her feel better.
“Well, this is not far from where I live, and usually I stay up here whenever I come.” Jesse walked over to the mini-bar and brought back a glass of ice water.
“Here, drink this, you will feel better.”
“Thanks!” Mei found an empty table and sat down, and felt though the dizziness was fading away; a strange anxiety had crept up and was slowly taking over.
