Page 27 of Crescendo

“So?” she said. “It’s your turn now, bigshot. You wanna show me what you’ve got, or what?”

“Aw.” I put my hands on my hips. “You’re invested now in seeing me succeed and you want to help out. Aren’t you a sweetheart?”

“Fuck off with that. And don’t go getting used to me helping out.”

“Just figured I’d need some help to keep up with your idol?”

She looked away. “It’s more complex than all that. You wouldn’t get it anyway.”

More of this dynamic Hannah and Eliza had that I couldn’t figure out.

I guess it wasn’t that important. I was just nosy, but I could get nosy another day.

“Well, let’s… let’s start with the cello.

I think I’ve got something in mind. Give me one of your late-Beatles chord progressions and I’m going to go rockstar on this cello. ”

She rolled her eyes with a laugh. “You’re so fucking corny,” she said, but she dropped onto the piano bench and got to it, and I went rockstar on the cello.

Which turned out to be a little bit of a mistake, because playing cello now just made me think of Ella. Although—playing something from the heart inspired by the incredibly hot girl your body was yearning for right that moment, that was rock and roll. And that was new territory for me.

And somehow, it kind of worked—I settled in with the cello almost like Hannah’s bass guitar, channeling a groove that didn’t feel like anything I’d done before in an electric way, and I was riding high on the adrenaline when I got a call I wasn’t expecting.

I saw my phone lighting up with a call, and I would have ignored it if I weren’t already wrapping up a melodic segment, so I rounded it out and set down the bow to pick it up and stopped at the sight.

A video call from Natália. Her face on the screen didn’t look cheerful.

“The woman I handed off the score I was working to,” I explained to Hannah as I picked up the phone.

“The director’s fickle, so if she’s calling on a Sunday, I should make sure she’s not sprawled on a couch half-drunk on cheap scotch considering throwing herself off a balcony with a cello and making it look like an accident. ”

“That’s really bloody specific.”

“I know.” I answered the phone, standing up, starting for the door. “Natália, darling, love. What’s wrong?”

Natália, a five-foot Brazilian woman with dark hair that fell straight down the very short distance to her waist, was squidged up in the corner of Melinda’s couch.

I’d told Melinda to take care of her as she would of me, and I guess she was being a good friend and carrying through, because Natália’s big dark eyes looked like she’d been crying lately and she definitely had a fancy drink on the table next to her that I could only imagine was helping.

Still, she brightened a little when she saw my face. “Oh, you still look the same! I thought you’d be all pale and withery from the cloudy rainy… black cloud gloomy sadness.”

“It’s London, not Siberia.” I opened the door and stepped out into the hall, but I didn’t shut it fast enough before Natália brightened further.

“Oh—is that the girl you’re seeing?”

“What—” I shut the door. “My god, I’m not seeing Hannah. She’s my mortal enemy’s loyal sidekick.”

She scrunched up her face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Lydia.”

“That’s okay. You don’t need to. So what are you calling about? What’s wrong?”

She frowned. “I can’t believe you’re sneaking off with another woman while you’re seeing someone.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “We’re working on music together. I’d invited somebody else, too, but he was busy. Also, did Melinda tell you I was seeing somebody?”

She nodded, brightening. “She said it was a hot girl who liked to straddle you.”

“Melinda did not hold back with the details. I guess maybe I’d neglected to tell her that we’re trying to keep it quiet and perfectly private.”

Natália nodded thoughtfully, miming zipping her lips shut. “I won’t tell anybody about the hot girl in your lap.”

“Uh-huh. Appreciated. So do you want to talk about why you’re calling?”

“Oh yeah. It’s just… a lot. I don’t know what I’m doing. I wish I could go to a music program in London and do all these fun things… I’m just stressed and it’s a lot. What’s London like? What’s your girlfriend’s name?”

“Natália. Darling. Precious baby angel whom I love with all my heart. Have you gotten into an ADHD spiral and forgotten to get your meds refilled?”

She flailed a little in that way that implied she was kicking petulantly at the couch. “They get in the way of my creativity!”

They also kept her from going off on manic spirals and crashing into deep wells of self-doubt.

Natália had been like a daughter to me ever since I started mentoring her fresh out of college—she’d come from S?o Paulo to Berkeley College of Music and had applied to a mentorship program I’d signed up for on a whim, and I’d never been left wanting for her as a mentee.

She was a genius, even if she was a little…

capricious. After the mentorship program had run out, I’d retooled the LLC I ran my work through to hire her as a very loosely-structured employee, just to let her do her work without worrying about her visa status in the US, and at this point, I’d have fought anyone who remotely inconvenienced her.

The only problem was that her biggest inconvenience was herself, and I couldn’t fight her. She was so small. It wouldn’t be a fair fight.

“London’s great,” I said. “And she’s not my girlfriend. It’s just casual. But her name’s Ella.”

She beamed again. “Send me a picture?”

“Absolutely not. You’ll go showing everybody and saying look at Lydia’s girlfriend. ”

She huffed in that way she did when I called her out and she knew I was right. “At least give me a detail to picture.”

“Heterochromia… one green eye and one brown. It’s very striking.”

“That’s so cool.”

She paused in that way she did when something was wrong. I realized my mistake too late. “Oh, for God’s sake, Natália, don’t look her up!”

Natália beamed. “I won’t,” she said, in that way she did when she was full of shit.

“Ugh—just don’t tell anybody about this. Anyway—do you want to tell me what’s wrong with the score? What part of it isn’t going well?”

She scowled. “It’s all been going all right except for this one part… the scene where Hedson takes the throne.”

“You’re struggling with that? That seems like it should be right in your wheelhouse. They’re probably wrong with whatever their criticisms are.”

“I don’t know what their criticisms are. They just keep saying it needs to be stronger, more dramatic. ”

“Seems like a classic setup for a standard 2/4 piece with a strong march character, discordant melodies coming together for a grand minor sequence.”

“That’s basically what I was doing! Over and over and over!”

Melinda’s voice drifted into the room, and I saw her step through a door and into the shot, taking Natália’s empty drink and setting down another one.

I at least knew it wasn’t alcoholic, because if Natália was drinking, well—everyone in the world knew in twenty minutes.

“It’s that grimy Brett Downing guy who has problems with this.

He has a big creative directorial lead on that scene and he’s being a diva about it. ”

“Hm.” I leaned back against the practice room door. “I’ll see if I can pull some strings here and send the RAF after him.”

Natália sighed dramatically. “I wish you would. Just let me know so I can watch.”

“I’ll bring popcorn,” Melinda said before she left the room again, and I waited a second before I asked,

“Melinda’s been taking care of you?”

“She’s really sweet. She found me face-first on my couch after I’d had too much wine, yelling at my computer ah, te dou um cacete, caralho . She’s been looking after me.”

My heart swelled with pride. My music daughter really did take after me.

“I’m glad she’s been helpful. You can send me what you’ve been doing, and I’ll have a look, see if I have any input.

I’m washed-up and useless, so I can’t say I’ll be any help, but I might be good to at least bounce ideas off of. ”

“You’re an angel, Lydia,” she said, big puppy-dog eyes down the phone. “I love you and Melinda loves you and we all… love you. And it sounds like Ella at least loves your body! That’s good too.”

“Uh-huh… I’ll tell her you said hello. Anything else?”

“Have you had fish and chips?”

“I had a version made with halloumi. I’m trying out being vegetarian while I’m here.”

“Because your girlfriend is, too?”

I scowled. “How would you even know that?”

She put her nose up. “Because Natália knows best. And it says on her profile here that she’s vegetarian. She’s so pretty. I’m a little jealous.”

I let out a long sigh, closing my eyes. “Yes… understandably so. She’s very attractive. But she’s also very insightful and clever and I find her intelligence very attractive too. However—she is not my girlfriend.”

“Oh, sure. And I’m… I’m… and I’m a clownfish.” She went wide-eyed. “Ah—I gotta go. I just remembered something. I’ll talk to you later! Thanks for your help. Tell your girlfriend I said hi! Beijinhos!”

She went to end the call, missed, and tossed the phone aside as she stood up, unaware that the call was still going.

I opted to hang up instead of staring at Melinda’s living room ceiling.

I slid the phone into my bag and stepped into the room again, where Hannah was perched at the front of the stool, giving me a scrutinizing look.

“So you are seeing Ella,” she said, and I sighed, waving her off.

“Natália just… says things. She’s a good friend from back in LA. You can ignore her.”

“That door isn’t as soundproof as you think, you twat.”

Ah. One would think I’d have learned. Of course, last time I had a soundproofing failure, the result was fantastic, so maybe I could be excused. “You listen into a lot of conversations that don’t concern you?”

“What, you’re calling me nosy?”

“Okay, point taken.”