Chapter 14
Nina nervously tapped her toe, resting the bow and her viola against her thigh as I settled onto the grand piano bench.
Tugging the headset over my ears, I pressed a few keys to test the volume.
She pushed her blonde ponytail behind her shoulder, raised the viola, and pulled the bow across a few strings.
I adjusted the sound on my headset and then patiently waited.
The speaker clicked on from outside the sound booth, and Carl’s voice filled the box.
“Everything is set on our end. The rest of the parts will be from a previously recorded backing track. Once the video is live, we’ll signal when it is time to play.
Nina, you have one take, one chance with this being live. ”
She nodded but said nothing.
“Cosette, are you set?” Carl continued.
I gave him a thumbs up, adjusted the music sheets that I didn’t really need, and placed my hands on the first chords I needed to play.
“Nina, are you ready?” Carl asked.
She nodded and glanced toward me. Nerves laced her gaze, so I motioned for her to take a deep breath. Her chest rose, and she closed her eyes for a brief moment.
Everything around us became still. The soundproofed walls blocked even the most minuscule of noises.
With my hands poised in starting position, I stared at the familiar black and white keys.
Ivory that my fingers had spent more time dancing across than I’d spent doing anything else, waited with bated breath.
Then, Carl’s signal came, and we were off.
(4) My fingers flew across the keyboard, in perfect timing and in tune with the composition.
I didn’t have to think as I was transported away.
The energy and passion that drummed through me melded in perfect sync with Nina.
Each pull of her bow, each note that whispered and shrilled from her strings melded in exactness with the notes from my fingers.
It’d been a while since I’d played this piece live like this.
What had once been in my head, now sounded in tune aloud.
What had once filled that chasm within my mind, was a piece being brought to life like a storm as beautiful as lightning crackling through a purple sky.
Chills spilled across my skin, emotions long since dead pooled within my heart.
Wounds bandaged off with some measly tape reopened.
Everything shut out, locked behind bars of such a well-kept secret was, for but a moment, center stage.
Her bow crackled across the notes again, and slowly, the final measure was at hand. My last stroke of a key played long and loud as the dissonance from hers eventually rose to meet mine.
Falling into an almost tranquil peace.
Then there was silence.
I stared at the keyboard momentarily, before slowly raising my heavy gaze to Nina. Her mouth was hanging open in excited disbelief.
“Thank you, Cosette,” Carl said through the microphone. “Nina, if you’ll come out here, there’s a few people waiting to speak with you about the audition.”
Grinning, I rose from the piano and turned to follow Nina out to meet Carl and her mom when an unexpected figure standing in front of the door caught my eye. As Nina’s hand grabbed the handle, she too halted in place.
Both of us focused our attention through the glass panes, and my jaw dropped open. Asher was standing in the studio, his arms crossed, and glaring directly at me. I slunk back down to the piano bench, trying to hide from his gaze.
The microphone crackled, and Carl spoke again. “Uh, Cosette. Someone’s here for you. I am told you weren’t supposed to leave the couch.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I know.”
Nina glanced between Asher and me, curiosity filling her face.
Asher stood menacingly in the corner, quiet and unwavering in his piercing gaze through the glass. Directly at me. I knew there was no hiding, and I needed to make my exit so Nina could finish her audition.
Sighing, I cracked my neck and stood up from the piano. Nina stepped away from the door and walked directly toward me as I pushed the bench under the piano. I lifted my brows as she paused in front of me.
“Why is Asher Stone here for you? As in, the Asher Stone?” she whispered.
“It’s a long story. And please don’t say anything. To anyone,” I replied, gritting my teeth. “Technically, I’m not really here.”
“But you are,” she hissed.
“Nina, please. I made a deal with my students, and this is how I can keep my end of the bargain,” I briefly explained. Not a total lie.
“Students? You’re a teacher.”
I nodded. But didn’t explain that it wasn’t for music but for English. That wasn’t a detail she really needed to know.
“Oh, that makes sense. Okay, I won’t say a word. My lips are sealed.” She smiled. “Oh, and thank you! You’re an incredible pianist.”
“No problem. I hope things work out for you,” I replied, and walked around her. Passing the microphone and a few instruments, I opened the door and stepped out of the sound box and into the booth.
“Thank you!” Carl and Margaret gushed over and over. “Thank you!”
I quickly bid my farewells and followed a frustrated Asher out of the studio. The moment we were in the waiting area again, his hand clamped around my wrist, and he dragged me halfway across the floor, shoving me inside studio three without care.
The door snapped shut behind us, and we were alone. The lights were off, the plush couch along the wall hidden in shadows until he flicked the switch and the yellow blare illuminated the space.
“I told you to stay put,” he snarled, taking a threatening step toward me.
I crossed my arms, not backing down. “They needed help, and I could provide it.”
“By playing one of the most difficult Concertos of the twenty-first century? Hell, ever written?” His gaze narrowed, and I shrugged my shoulders.
“Did you forget that I can play the piano because all you care about is getting in my pants?”
“I care about more than that, and no, I didn’t forget. I just didn’t think that’s what Sydney meant when she said you could play the piano.”
“What’d you think she meant? That I play something like ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ and that’s it?” I was angry, frustrated. Why was he so upset at me?
“No.”
“Then what the fuck did you think she meant?”
He stepped into my body and wrapped his hand around my throat. Not tight, but enough that he could tip my chin up to meet his face that was an inch from mine. “Why would you not tell me that you could play like that? A Duvaldi piece? And you barely looked at the sheet music?”
“Because I don’t tell anyone I can play Duvaldi,” I hissed.
“Why not?”
“Why are you so pissed?”
“Because it was fucking incredible, and I thought I meant enough to you for you to have at least casually mentioned something like that.”
“When? When would I have had time to just casually slip in there that I can play that piece? Or that I was able to play the third movement of Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight Sonata’ at the age of eight? Before or after we got done fucking each other?”
He clenched his jaw and released my throat. “I don’t know,” he mumbled, looking away from me.
And the realization of what was going on snapped through me like a crack of thunder.
He wasn’t pissed at me; he was hurt. Hurt that he didn’t know me as well as he’d thought.
“Asher,” I whispered, and his broken gaze slowly slid to mine. “Even Sydney doesn’t know that. She knows I play the piano, but that’s it. I stick with pieces like ‘River Flows In You’ and ‘Für Elise’ around her.”
He furrowed his brows. “But why? I mean, those pieces are beautiful, but if you can play something like Duvaldi’s music, why would you just stick with those?”
Should I tell him? He’d be the first to know other than my parents. He’d be the first to know the one secret I’d carried my entire life.
“Because, believe it or not, there’s a life I lived before I met Sydney that I don’t want anyone knowing about.
I like being the supporting character in her life.
There’s no pressure to be anything I don’t want to be at any given moment because the attention isn’t focused on me,” I quietly replied, and Asher stepped back into my space.
Though, as the words settled on my tongue, something tinged like poison nipping at the tip. Another lie. One I’d told myself for so long, I actually believed it. At least I had until now…
He cupped my cheek, brushing his thumb back and forth. “You’re not just scared Sydney will find out about us, are you?”
I shook my head softly and pulled my lip between my teeth.
Relief washed through me. All this constant reiteration of “being with Asher could hurt Sydney” was all truly a cover.
While yes, it played into things, something I’d held onto as a child had subconsciously fueled everything.
And for whatever reason, I finally wanted someone else to know.
It was as if I needed someone else to know before I exploded and lost all the control and peace in my life.
“Did you do something illegal?”
I giggled. “No, nothing like that.”
“Okay, good.” He smiled.
“Guess again,” I whispered, and he raised his other hand, pressing his palm against my lower back.
“Hmmmm.” He looked over my head for a moment. “Does it have to do with why you haven’t even told Sydney you know Duvaldi?”
“Yep,” I quietly said.
He pulled me against his body and rested his chin on top of my head. But didn’t speak, not for a while. I hoped he’d figure it out on his own, then it wouldn’t be my fault. I hadn’t told him directly, so it would merely be coincidental. All of this was so confusing.
“Duvaldi’s Concerto you played is kind of sad,” he muttered, breaking the silence with something I definitely hadn’t expected him to say.
“Not sad,” I replied, burying my face against his chest.
“No? Then what is it to you?”