“Hey.” Her finger poked my cheek and I cursed the mask for the distance between our skin. “I can’t tell, but I’m pretty sure you’re frowning under there. Don’t worry about them. They won’t say anything. They’re just surprised. They are of that generation that was a little, uh, obsessed with you. Not me. I wasn’t. I definitely didn’t have posters of you all over my room…”
“I’m not worried about it.” I was bothered though.
She shifted from foot to foot, studying the scuffed-up wooden floor. “That was an awesome performance.”
“Thanks.” I studied her, desperate to see any signs of her feelings. “It’s a classic song.”
Her hair was down tonight in a straight, dark style that fell almost all the way down her back. It had been in a tight twist today at rehearsals. Had she come straight here? I imagined her shaking her hair loose. Pulling her fingers through it, back arched … slow motion.
Jesus Christ, I needed another drink.
“Sure. But your singing …” Her cheeks flushed too. She was half a breath from twirling hair around her finger.
And there it was. She looked at me with hearts in her eyes. We had been making such strides with my composition. But all at once, I was a teen pop star again. A crappy one, at that. It was one thing to see my face these last months, but it was different to hear me play this kind of music. I triggered a fangirl crush she’d kept hidden. I wanted to be more than that to her. Would I ever just be Erik to her? I wanted to be more than a Maestro, more than a popstar. The rest of the world be damned, what didshethink of the real me?
“Well, anyway. I promise that they won’t bother you about it. And they won’t say anything, okay?”
I nodded and tucked my hands deep in my pockets.
“I’m going to go back to my, uh, meeting. I’m glad I got to see you here tonight.” She spoke seriously enough that I forced myself to meet her gaze. “It was nice to see you outside of practice or rehearsals. Sometimes, it’s nice to just feel the music and be reminded. You know? Yeah, you know.” She licked her lips.
“Yeah.”
“You could probably come hang out for a drink but I wasn’t technically allowed to invite boys. It’s against the code …”
“Don’t worry about it.” I waved away her offer.
“Okay, well, bye.” She stepped up on her toes to kiss my cheek. The one little sliver of exposed skin between the mask. Her lips were warm and soft. Her head bumped the bill of my hat. She giggled and rubbed her forehead. “Sorry.”
She walked away quickly with fists balled and a little shake of her head.
It was time to leave. Coming here and performing like that had been a lapse in judgement. I went to the bar to square up my bill. I was glaring at the bar top when someone sidled up next to me. I wasn’t in the mood.
“I feel bad.” It was the redhead, Gretchen. “I shouldn’t have spilled your secret identity to the whole bar.”
I shrugged but didn’t face her.
“Nobody heard me,” she said.
“It’s fine,” I grumbled.
“I’m easily excitable and sometimes words just blah,” she said, motioning words coming out of her mouth with her hand. “But it isn’t my jam to spill people’s secrets. I’m usually like a vault.”
I tilted my head to convey my disbelief.
“It’s true.” She blew out a long breath making a show of it. “Like I wouldn’t tell you, an almost total stranger, that Kim was a big fan of you back in the day. She tried to hide it, but your song was always playing. It was her go-to bad mood song. You know the song that makes you get up and shake your tail feather no matter how dark the day is?”
I sighed and turned toward her. “Like a vault, huh?”
“It’s true. I wouldn’t tell you that. Because that was forever ago. She’s hardly the same person now. Definitely not the same person that used to keep a shoebox full of old notes.”
I cleared my throat. Despite the cold dread her other news brought me, this had me taking notice. “Notes?”
“Yeah, from some band camp. I definitely wouldn’t tell you what those meant to her.”
Heat burned down the back of my neck. It took all my strength not to run to Kim ask her about it.
“And I absolutely would not tell you that Roderick Chagny has been taking credit for them her whole life.”
