Page 58 of Naz & Roz

NINETEEN

“Roz, could you come down here for a minute, please?”

Roz heard her mother’s request, but she didn’t really want to move. Maybe … God, maybe… if she stared at this damn piano long enough, her muse would come back. Her desire to make beautiful music would rush back, and consume her again.

So far, nothing.

“Roz!”

“Yeah,” she called back, “I’m coming.”

Roz checked her phone to find a couple of missed texts from Naz. Short texts that didn’t tell her very much, honestly. He’d been so busy for a couple of weeks that she only got to see him for maybe an hour, and then he was gone again. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing.

She supposed …

“Last ditch effort,” she heard a familiar voice say. “We’ll see if this can push her that last mile, right?”

Roz’s brow knotted together as she headed toward that voice downstairs. There was no fucking way her mentor—

Sure enough, there Kyle stood in her parents’ kitchen. Seemed he’d discarded his usual three-piece suits for khaki shorts, and a white T-shirt. She didn’t think she had ever seen her mentor dress down before, but here he was doing exactly that.

Roz blinked. “Kyle.”

The man smiled easily. “Roz.”

In that moment, Roz wasn’t sure whether to feel extremely pissed off that her parents had invited her mentor to their home without telling her, or grateful that they had done so. She was kind of pissed more than she was happy.

Hadn’t she made herself clear?

“I’m not ready for the Australia audition,” Roz said quietly. “And you being here isn’t going to change that fact.”

Kyle nodded, and passed her mother and father a look as he leaned against the island counter. “That’s what I was told, yep. And you’ve said it more than enough times for me to hear it, Roz.”

“Then, why are you—”

“Audition is in two weeks, and you’re still on the docket.”

Roz stiffened.

Kyle smiled like he didn’t need her—or hell, maybe he didn’t want her—to say anything in that moment. “You know you have to be the one who calls to request your spot be removed and filled with someone else. I couldn’t do that for you. It had to be you. And here we are, two weeks out from the audition, and despite the fact you’ve said repeatedly that you’re not going to go, you’re still on the docket.”

Fuck him for knowing that.

For having connections to get that information.

“So, I’ll call tonight,” Roz snapped. “What difference does it make?”

“Because you’re not going to call, are you? You left your name on the docket because even though you don’t feel ready, Roz, a part of you still wants to try. So, I’m here to make sure you at least give it your best shot.”

Oh, that was rich.

Really.

“And what,” Roz asked, “I get on that stage, and make a fool of myself because I’m not ready for it. I fail and then I don’t get invited back when the next audition comes up? I lose my chance. I would rather not go at all.”

Kyle tipped his head sideways a bit, and studied her. “You kept something from me, didn’t you?”

Roz’s gaze darted to her parents, and then back to her mentor. “No, I—”