Serenades

One

It was typical for Toni and Cheryl to cruise in the Blossom '59 Cadillac Coupe Deville red convertible on sunny afternoons. Lately, It was typical for Toni to be the one driving. It was not typical for Toni to change the radio dial. It was also not typical for Toni to change it to a country station. Cheryl's eyebrows raised. She turned the radio down and changed the station as she questioned Toni's choice.

"Getting comfortable, are we?"

"Uh yeah, if I don't start changing radio stations, I might feel like your chauffeur," Tony shot back with a smirk.

"Well, we can't have that, can we?"

"Nope so..." Toni turned the station back to her previous choice.. country. Toni hadn't always been the biggest fan of the genre but something about those songs made it feel like summer when she and the boys would drive around in Sweet Pea's truck and just goof off. It felt natural to recall that feeling when driving Cheryl's vintage convertible top down. Toni very much enjoyed making top down jokes every chance she got.

Cheryl, on the other hand, was not a fan of country at all. Really, who needed to listen to someone sing about trucks, dirt and tractors? All things Cheryl did not like associate with. Obviously. Plus, she thought, everyone who sings that music sounds like, to be quite frank, a country bumpkin. It was a no from her.

"Country? Really?" Cheryl asked with a pout, one that had a 99.99% success rate with Toni.

"Babe, c'mon it's not that bad!" Toni said, with a quick glance over at her girlfriend.

"Nooo, don't pout. Ok, I promise this is gonna get better!"

"Doubtful."

"I'm gonna sweep you off your feet tonight, I wanna love you and hold you tight," Toni starts to sing along to Jon Pardi's 'Head Over Boots', a country classic according to the serpent, "spin you around on some old dance floor. Act like we never met before for fun."

"How do you know all the words to this?"

"You're the one I want, you're the one I need. Baby if I was a king, you'd be my queen."

"I'm already a queen," Cheryl huffed.

"You're the rock in my roll, you're good for my soul. It's true. I'm head over boots for you."

"Toni, you're not wearing boots right now."

"The way you sparkle like a diamond ring. Maybe one day we can make it a thing," Toni sings while shooting a wink at Cheryl. Despite Cheryl's usual composure and intimidating facade, Toni has always been able to fluster her. This line and Toni's actions especially send a blush straight to her cheeks. She could see that Toni notices this by how big her smirk gets.

"So bring it on in for that angel kiss, put that feel good on my lips," Toni looks at the road for a second, decides she has it under control before trying to get a kiss from Cheryl.

"You're driving! Eyes on the road!" But Toni was looking at her so lovingly she couldn't help but feel she really meant the words she was singing, even if they were a little ridiculous. Declarations of love were always sparse in Cheryl's life, starting with her parents and she had never really had a relationship, never really had a person, well other than Jason, but that was different of course. So, this meant a lot to her. As they reached a stop light, the song faded out. Cheryl couldn't stop herself from leaning over and kissing Toni. Hard. Until the light turned green and the impatient car behind them honked their horn.

"Dickhead," Toni murmured but turned back to Cheryl with a big smile,"If that's my reward, we are listening to country all the time."

"I've created a monster." Cheryl threw her head back in fake agony.

"You love it." Cheryl pursed her lips. Toni wasn't wrong, Cheryl found being serenaded to be very romantic and oh so 50s, even if it was to country music. However, before she could think of a clever rebuttal, a new song came on and Toni started "performing" all over again.