She was about to explain that her reason for wanting a butterfly tattoo was far less cliché than most strippers' reasons, when he started explaining that he had a bat tattoo on his shoulder. She liked it when he did this… when he opened up and shared stories with her. It wasn't like he was a closed book, it wasn't like it was some miracle to get past his outer shell or whatever, but it was still nice to know that he found her as easy to talk to as she found him. She smiled at the story and tilted her head in amusement. "The bat is your favorite animal, huh?" she asked, logging that away in the part of her mind where the other little things Eli told her went. Not that it was terribly important, but to her it was. "Maybe I will. But if I do you have to hold my hand," she finally decided to say, hoping that she wasn't as pink in the cheeks as she felt like she was.
She laughed at the Moldy Rocks comment and shrugged. "I don't think you have to worry until they're Fuzzy Rocks. Or even worse… Sentient Being Rocks. Then you'll have to catch them, because they'll have all grown legs and started to run around to escape the jaws of your… jaws…" she added with another laugh.
"The only problem with next year is that I don't recycle costumes and damned if I'm going to let you do it either," she mused with a lopsided smirk. "Maybe next year we'll go for a medieval theme. And instead of a gold, bedazzled guitar I can make you a gold, bedazzled lute. Except would that mean that I'd have to dress up like a renaissance chick? Because those bunchy dresses wouldn't look good on me."
And, of course, when he commented on how jealous Bret Michaels would be, she ducked her head and hoped that her wild hair would cover her cheeks. "You're too sweet," was all she said, though she hoped that her tone conveyed more than that. Or maybe that it didn't.
For a second, Rae considered telling him that it didn't matter, that he really didn't have to do the silly solo, keep the silly promise that he'd made her over a year ago and probably in jest. As a matter of fact, she'd been about to open her mouth to say just that, when he raised his arms to play her an air guitar solo.
Rae just smiled. She could feel positive energy waving off of her for the first time in a couple of weeks and though for the first couple of seconds, she giggled, after that? As promised, she started shimmying her hips and doing her very best 1980's backup dance… complete with the swim, the monkey and the mashed potato. If they didn't look absolutely ridiculous, she didn't know what ridiculous was.
She couldn't help but think of how pleased her mother would have been with all of this. Getting at least one person to loosen up for a little bit, the costumes she'd picked up and the whole party itself? Her mother would have loved it. She glanced at Eli for a second. He'd just made himself look completely silly in public just for her. She stopped dancing now… and she stepped forward, putting her hands on his to stop him from his solo. She wrapped her arms around him, leaned her head against his shoulder and hugged him appreciatively.