Crooner or Later

"greetings, everyone!" gavin cardigan...um...greeted everyone as he entered the Pub.

"howdy, gavin," danny blake...um...howdied in reply as he poured a Guinness.

"what're we eating tonight, danny boy?" cardigan inquired inquiringly.

"Putain de Pâtes aux Truffes et de Fromage, huh huh huh," danny croaked out froggily in his best french, which was terrible, to be quite frank.

"huh?" cardigan huh'ed with a puzzled look on his face. "and burkie, cut that out!"

"it means the truffle ho's mac & cheese. it has several kinds of cheese and several forms of truffles," danny explained. "except for actual truffles."

"fancy. but i thought you were making chicken enchiladas?"

danny shrugged. "i was going to, but 20 percent of burkie's readership complained about his teasing them with my frito pie last time, so he had me make something a little less inclined to make texans feel homesick."

cardigan nodded knowingly. "gotcha."

he walked over to join his regulars, who were all busy inhaling the truffley fumes of their dinner.

"this stuff smells heavenly," sierra charles cooed.

"i did not coo!" sierra objected.

marian elfman snickered. "they guy who wooed you last night probably cooed."

cardigan grinned. "you go on another date last night, charles? woo-hoo!"

sierra shuddered. "i don't want to talk about it."

Mysterious Lurker chided her. "you have to talk about it. we wouldn't be here otherwise."

"but why is it always me? i don't even want a date!" she fumed. "why can't cardigan go out with somebody? he wants to."

"true," cardigan admitted. "but not if they turn out like yours."

"so who hooked you up this time, sierra?" danny asked as he delivered a plateful of mac & cheese to cardigan.

sierra glared over at linda nulo, who was studying the fantasy football standings with more concentration than they deserved.

"linda and tucker invited me to a concert last night, and tucker's old roommate was there."

"he's a nice guy," tucker said, defensively. "and a great musician. he has a beautiful voice."

"he didn't have to sing to me. every song!"

"sing to you?"

the Lurker grinned. "he apparently sang along to every song at the concert, gazing lovingly into sierra's eyes the whole time."

marian snickered again. "and there were a lot of love songs."

"and he kept telling her that she was super cute between songs," taylor added.

"he's honest with his feelings," tucked protested. "i thought women liked that!"

"we just met, and he crooned all night about how much he loved me. creepy!"

"they were just songs."

"still creepy!"

"he doesn't sound that bad, charles," cardigan put in. "you should give him another chance."

"no! plus, he's only 22 years old. AND he has googly eyes."

"oh. well, i guess that could be a little disconcerting. especially if he's crooning at you."

"he's a cooer and a crooner!" marian pointed out.

"and sierra is a cougar," taylor grinned. "we'll have to compare fangs."

"i am not a cougar! hmph!"

tucker strummed a minor chord on his guitar, causing sierra to bristle.

"just like a cougar," taylor noted.

"i did not bristle! tucker, no cougar songs!"