Chapter Thirteen #2
Her eyes drifted to the second floor stairwell. Wasn’t that what she’d tried to do with Tom? Lock him away in a place inside her that she never wanted to visit?
Charlie pressed her hand to her stomach. Get it together. It was only a house.
Her phone buzzed, and she grabbed it off the coffee table, eager for a distraction.
“Hey!” she said, wincing as Alicia squealed on the other end of the phone.
“Where are you? Are you sitting down?”
Charlie pursed her lips. “Um, should I be?”
“Yes, sit down. Right now!”
“Oh no,” Charlie muttered. “What’s happening?”
“Okay, so I’ve gotten a call from the New York Philharmonic.
They saw your viral video with the choir, and they need a singer to fill a spot for a New Year’s performance they’re putting together.
Well, I mean, they’ve been putting it together for a while, but the part we care about is that they’ve had someone drop out last minute, and they’ve invited you to take their place! ”
“They’ve invited me to sing?” Charlie said, dumbfounded. “With the orchestra?”
“Yes,” Alicia said.
“Holy shit.”
“I know!”
“That’s like…that’s huge!”
“I know!”
The New York Philharmonic was one of the leading orchestras in the country. Tom would have drooled at the thought of being able to work with them.
“There’s a bunch of well-known Broadway performers on the program,” Alicia continued. “This could be an amazing way for you to return to the community.”
“They asked for me?” Charlie said, still a little stunned by the news.
“Yes, you. Someone down at the Lincoln Center saw your little video and loved it. They inquired about your availability with me, and I said you’re looking to get back into performing again.
I think they’re trying to embrace the social media thing.
You know, attract new fans to the symphony, and as far as viral videos go, you’re kinda famous. ”
“Ha!” Charlie said. She’d had exactly thirty seconds of viral fame with the community center video. Then again, there was a reason they called it the power of social media.
“So?” Alicia said. “What do you think?”
“I think Tom would have gone absolutely wild over this news.”
“He would have,” Alicia agreed softly.
“Performing with an orchestra of this caliber was always his dream.”
“Is that a yes?” Alicia asked.
“I think… .” How could she possibly turn down this kind of offer? “I’d like to give it some serious consideration.”
“Okay, great!” Alicia said, launching into the details. “You’ll have to be in Manhattan for rehearsals by next week at the latest.”
“Next week?” she said.
Alicia laughed. “Yes. It’s a New Year’s performance. Christmas is next week. The clock is sort of ticking on this.”
“Right, of course.” Charlie rubbed the space between her eyes.
The choir! If she was in New York City over the holidays, she’d definitely miss the competition.
But this could also be her chance to honor Tom and everything he’d hoped to accomplish in his life.
She’d be a fool to say no. She couldn’t say no.
Besides, hadn’t she just told Julian she wasn’t sure she could do this? Maybe this was a sign from the universe or, at the very least, a buoy to keep her afloat. “Okay. Send me everything.”
“Are you sure?” Alicia said. “I don’t want to pressure you, but I’ve got the contract sitting in my inbox already.”
Charlie bit her lip. “Send it my way.”
“On the way to your email now.” Charlie could hear her typing away. “This is very cool, Charlie. And a big deal that they asked for you personally.”
“I know.”
“Call me back when you’ve had a chance to look at it. We should really aim to get it back to them by tomorrow morning if you’re committed.”
“I will.”
“Talk to you later.”
Charlie hung up and clutched her forehead.
What the hell just happened? What horrible timing!
Could she do both things—the performance at the Lincoln Center and the choir competition?
No. But was one of those things significantly better for her career?
Yes. Would Gram understand that? And Julian?
And the rest of the choir? She thought so.
If they ultimately wanted what was best for her, they’d tell her to get to NYC tomorrow.
Sure she was going to feel like garbage for ditching the choir this close to the competition, but they could squeeze in a couple more rehearsals before she left.
And she would prepare Gram and Julian to be her stand-ins.
They’d probably be ecstatic for her.
And this was what she wanted—a new place to run where she could stop tripping over her memories every time she turned a damn corner.
Or did she want to stay?
She drummed her fingers against her lips. Her hand trembled. She didn’t know the right answer. But maybe she was getting ahead of herself. She hadn’t even had a chance to review the contract yet. There was still the possibility she wouldn’t be able to commit.
The doorbell rang. Charlie glanced down the hall, frowning. She wasn’t expecting anyone. She hurried to answer it, finding Julian standing on the porch, shivering in his coat.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hi.” Her eyes darted down to the takeout bag in his hand. Mackey’s Diner.
“I thought…” He shrugged. “Have you eaten?”
“I actually haven’t.” The contract could wait, she supposed. She pulled the door open wider, feeling stress and desire and confusion swirl through her.
Julian passed her, slipping out of his coat. “How are you doing?”
“I’m…” Where the hell did she start? She was still upset about Frank, but now she was also worried about possibly leaving the choir before the competition. Charlie licked her lips. She shouldn’t tell him that yet. Not until the contract was actually signed.
“I just wanted to make sure you were okay after the way rehearsal went,” Julian said. “And the way our conversation went. Sorta feel like I dropped the ball.”
“You didn’t drop anything,” she assured him. Warmth spread through her at his concern. She was touched that he’d cared enough to come and check on her. “I’m managing,” she said finally. “What did you get for dinner?”
“Figured I couldn’t go wrong with burgers. Hope you still like the double cheeseburger. That’s what you were eating the day I asked you out.”
She laughed. “Even I didn’t remember that.”
He gave her a cheeky smile. “There was also a vanilla shake on the order, but Mackey’s stopped doing shakes.”
“No! Why?”
He shrugged. “New management.”
“Those shakes were amazing. So thick you had to eat them with a spoon until they melted a little.”
He followed her into the kitchen, and they dished out burgers and chunky fries.
“They were amazing.” Julian popped a fry into his mouth. “But they have a new line of smoothies now. Sometimes things change for the better.”
Charlie coated her fries in malt vinegar and ketchup.
Julian eyeballed the concoction warily. “And sometimes they change for the worse. But I’ll have to take you for a smoothie sometime.”
Charlie’s heart skipped. Sometime. “I’d like that,” she said without knowing when sometime might be.
Julian grinned down at her. They ate standing in the kitchen, leaning up against the counter, dripping ketchup down their fingers.
“So, Doris kept the choir rehearsing for another hour after you left,” Julian said. “And Warren brought some of the other nurses by the music room to have a listen.”
“What’d they think?” Charlie asked.
“Standing ovation. Obviously. I really do think that adding ‘Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer’ into the mashup was the right call.”
A smile tugged at her mouth. The choir had had a long debate about that one.
“You might even call it inspired,” Julian continued.
Charlie rolled her eyes. “I wouldn’t go that far.”
Julian scoffed. “Don’t knock my epic contribution.”
“I do think there is something inherently funny about a choir of septuagenarians performing that song,” Charlie admitted.
“Right! Sometimes I’m brilliant.”
“Mm-hmm.” Charlie ate the last few bites of her burger. “This was really good. Thank you. And thank you for coming to check on me.”
“You’re really okay? I know you said you weren’t sure if you could do this choir thing but—”
“It was just such a shock earlier,” she said.
“Right.” He released a long breath like he’d been holding it since that moment. “As long as you’re not making any rash decisions.”
Rash decisions? No. Though there were decisions to make.
Later, she told herself. When he wasn’t bringing her dinner and looking at her with that dimpled smile.
When the thought of his embrace wasn’t so intoxicating.
“I don’t think it dawned on me how much the residents were starting to mean to me,” she said.
“So the news about Frank hit harder than I expected.”
“You light up when you look at them,” Julian said. “That’s not a bad thing.”
“You haven’t heard anything else about Frank?” Charlie asked, trying not to dwell on his words.
“No updates yet. But sometimes no news is good news.”
“Sometimes it is,” she said, trying not to think about Tom. Because sometimes no news just meant the bad news had yet to break.
Julian cleaned up his plate and cleared his throat. “I should get going.”
“You don’t have to go,” she said, catching his hand.
With Julian here, she could ignore her inbox for a little while longer.
She didn’t need to read any contracts or make decisions about staying or going.
Not right now. She could simply stand here while he smiled at her in a way that made her heart beat out of her chest. “You could stay,” she offered, stroking her hand around the back of his neck.
“I could,” he whispered.
She put gentle pressure on his neck, dragging him down into a kiss. “Then stay with me.”