“So is that it? Is our evening done?” someone called out.

“Not by a long shot!” Thad answered.

He turned to look at Jim, calling out, “What do you think, Jimbo? Should we take them to that place you introduced us to last week? Where we had that throw-back Thursday thing?”

Jim clapped his hands together loudly, “Oh, yeah! Great idea! We can make it a competition of sorts!”

Everyone else looked at him and Thad with perplexed looks.

“You’re all going to love it! Especially Harley!” Jim exclaimed, clapping his hands together in glee.

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The place was just ten minutes away, and we’d all decided to only take a few cars, because Thad had said parking had been difficult when he and Annie had gone there the previous week with Jim and his date. Harley and I rode with Katy and Michael. Rachel joined us in the spacious backseat of Michael’s spacious SUV.

In the dark, I took advantage of the opportunity to grab hold of Harley’s hand again, during the brief ride over. When I took her hand, she’d given me the sort of smile that made me feel gooey inside.

“Isn’t this some kind of jazz bar or something?” someone asked later as we all stood in a big circle outside of the doors to the bar.

Jim nodded, “normally, but on Thursdays starting at around 11, they turn one of the two rooms inside into anything the audience wants to do. They poll regulars online all week long, and get things ready for whatever. Last week it was karaoke. Tonight I was told it was a lip-synch battle thing.”

“Wha-a-a-tt?” many of the girls asked, skeptically.

“C’mon! It’ll be fun!” Annie said excitedly. “My wedding next week, remember? So we get to do what I want?”

A few people around the circle groaned good-naturedly.

“Something you can tell your peeps about when you go back to Kansas, Carol,” Annie said in a teasing manner to one of the shyer girls. She and her husband Marc had been one of the quieter ones in the restaurant, I remembered.

With a whoop, Jim cajoled everyone into the bar, holding the door open for everyone to file past.

Thad led the way to the room Jim had described, which turned out to be an open space in the far end of the bar, set apart from the rest of the bar by a red-brick wall that partially covered it from the rest of the bar. There was a rowdy group that had started things up already.