Chapter 25
A bby
When Liam Collier— the Liam Collier—hands you the key to your new apartment off Riverside Boulevard on your way to your first live audition for the NY Philharmonic, you don’t question his sanity. Not when you’re so crazy in love with him and you can’t imagine that ever changing.
What you do is, you wave at the doorman, ring your arm through your boyfriend’s arm, smile as he escorts you out on a blustery autumn walk through New York’s Upper West Side, and count your blessings.
That’s what I did, anyway.
At the end of the North American leg of the Feel the Burn tour, the band returned to LA to rest awhile before deciding on revised dates for the rest of the world tour. Insisting he needed to spend some time with me, Liam had put the band’s tour on hold. He returned home for less than a week to visit his friend Garrick Maze and tie up some loose ends before flying here to NYC to pay the rent on the first few months of my apartment. He would have flat-out bought it, or flat-out paid an entire year if I’d let him, but I didn’t want him to. It was my place, and I needed to pay for it myself. Still, a booster first six months wouldn’t hurt. He was spending those months with me, making sure I was settled in, happy, fed, bedded, and generally well-taken care of. When he wasn’t doing those things, he was writing songs, visiting The Tonight Show, The View, Good Morning America , and taking walks with me through Central Park.
Liam loved New York, being with me, putting on a big show for me and my mom with all the flowers he bought, groceries he fetched, cooking he did, and even neighbors’ dogs he walked, just for fun. The best, though, was when he popped open that pricey bottle of wine for us—the one he’d gifted me back in LA. I’d saved it for a special occasion. Well, this was it—the eve of my audition.
What more could a girl ask for?
When we turned left at West 66 th Street on our way to Lincoln Center, it all hit me at once—the pure blessed luckiness of it. I stopped on the sidewalk to take it all in. Liam stopped, too, looking over my cello case perched on his shoulder. “What happened?”
I stared ahead, unblinking. “You gave up your dream to give me mine.”
He blinked a few times, then smiled and slowly shook his head. “Abby, we’ve been over this. Not really. I’ve reached some of my career goals, yeah, but there’s always gonna be new ones. Life is forever changing. For now, my goal is making sure you reach yours. After that, we can figure out a way for our careers to work together, okay? Now, let’s walk. This thing weighs a crap-ton.” He held out his hand for me to take.
“Lightweight.” I slipped my hand into his warm one .
“Oh, lightweight, huh? We’ll see about that. See who gives up first in bed tonight.”
“Won’t be me. You’re going down.”
“I’m going down all right.” He winked at me.
“In flames maybe.”
He chuckled. “Promises, promises.”
This just didn’t happen to anyone. I was acutely aware of that. It wasn’t every day that a girl like me found a man who was not only sexy and sweet, but also talented and understood just how much my music meant to me. A man who made me practice Serenade every night until bedtime and every morning before breakfast. A man who made my coffee for me, tucked me in bed, and put me first above everything else.
No, chances like this were few and far between. I’d already achieved something my mom never got to have, whether or not I ever made Principal Cello. I’d captured the love and dedication of a wonderful man. Ma was thrilled beyond words.
Now I had to capture the love and dedication of the Philharmonic’s Audition Committee.
“You’ve got this.” Liam led me up the steps of Avery Fisher Hall and handed me my cello. He kissed my cheek, patting me lightly on the butt. “Go easy on them, Ab.” He smiled that awesome, wide grin of his.
I captured the moment for my mental scrapbook. “I love you,” I told him.
“I love you more.”
Inside the hall, I followed signs along the tall, palatial windows to the stage door where auditions were taking place. The moment I walked in, I spotted Ibis Mandolin, Peter Curtis Bennett, and Victor Cho, whose online and program bios I’d read a thousand times. They were sitting at a long table in the orchestra pit. A single chair sat onstage with a music stand. I took the music stand and set it aside. I wouldn’t be using it. The piece was perfectly memorized in my head .
“Good morning.” Ibis smiled her elegant, older-woman smile.
“Good morning, Mrs. Mandolin.” I returned her smile with my own, confident one. “My name is Abigail Chan, and I am auditioning today for the part of cello.” My nerves rose into my throat, but I swallowed to make them go away.
Deep breaths, Abby. Deep breaths.
“Wonderful, Miss Chan,” Peter Curtis Bennett said with a nod. “Your résumé and transcripts are quite impressive. A Juilliard graduate student…master of music.” He slid my papers over to Victor Cho, who took one quick glance and apparently saw all he needed to see, judging from his approving nod. “I understand you also played on tour this summer?”
“Yes, as solo cellist with the rock band Point Break.”
All three gave easy, impressed smiles. “Wonderful. We’re delighted to have you here,” Victor Cho said. “What will you be playing for us today?”
“A composition of my own entitled Serenade . I hope you enjoy it.” I bowed.
I set up, positioned my cello, reviewed five seconds of the intro in my head, then took a long, cleansing breath. Whatever happened here today, I had already won. I had my whole life ahead of me to make this dream come true, and it already seemed like they liked me.
Here goes nothing…
I pressed the bow across the strings and pulled out the first note, a burst of rosin cloud rising into the air. As the first measures of the opening allegro melody echoed throughout the hall, I closed my eyes and imagined my first audience already there, my mom in the middle, Liam at her side.
His voice rang in my head. It’s in the bag, love.
And indeed it was .
**Thank you for reading Rock Strong!